Margo Lovith

This is a picture of my wife Margo Lovith, nee Breuer. You can see from her looks that she is an independent, working lady. This photo was taken in Budapest, just before her deportation, on 11th April 1944. She was a seamstress at a men's underwear shop at the time the photo was taken. Only people who had money could wear a hat like that one. 'For the memories, from Margit with lots of love' - this it what is says on the back of the photo. Back then she still called herself Margit, later I called her Margo. Margo was ten to twelve and Evi, her sister, was five to six years old when they were put by their mother into the orphanage which was actually more like a boarding school . Wealthy Jewish women ran the Jewish boarding school for girls and they gave everything to the girls. It was like a Swiss boarding school except that the girls received vocational education. The girls all had to dress up nicely and had high heels. There was a dressmaking shop where the girls had their own sewing machines. That's where Margo learned to sew. She completed the apprentice school [she learned to become a seamstress] and became an apprentice at an elite men's underwear store in Budapest. If they had their own income the girls could still stay in the boarding school if they were only apprentices. After the age of 14 there were only two girls to a room. Margo lived there spending her apprentice years there until she was 16 when she moved in with one of her wealthy aunts. Her aunt came from Margo's mother's side and she used to be poor, too, but she was lucky to get married to a rich man, who was the director of a company. So, Margo moved into a tiled four-bedroom apartment with central heating. But she definitely had to help out.

Photos from this interviewee