Margo Lovith with her sister Evi

These are the Breuer sisters in the Jewish Girl's Orphanage in Budapest. Margo, on the left, is 16-17 and her little sister Evi is about ten years old. The photo was taken in 1941 in the garden of the orphanage. Margo Breuer, my future wife 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. They had to wear cloaks like these in the photo at the boarding school. The smaller girls got pinafore dresses that could be tied in the back. The orphanage was a very nice building. In the dining hall my jaw dropped when I saw that they were not sitting on benches like birds but there were tables with four chairs at each. I know that blessing the food was mandatory before the meals. The girls set the table and also collected the plates and took them back to the kitchen. Otherwise the boarding school had personnel who did the laundry and the ironing but the girls still had to learn these tasks. There was a dressmaking shop where the girls had their own sewing machines. That's where Margo learned to sew. I also saw a room with a stage and a piano and they also learned to sing. They had a choir that performed, they even had a little synagogue and performed there. Margo was a soloist in the choir. There was also a gym. In the boarding school they observed the Jewish holidays but they were, after all, a progressive institution. They didn't work on Saturdays. The girls must have also walked around because there was a beautiful garden and there was even a gardener. They could also take books out of the library. The institution had a bank account and girls received tram and opera passes. I believe that they got allowances until they left the boarding school. Evi had a dynamic personality and became an ardent Zionist and emigrated to Israel after World War II. She got married in a kibbutz, but she didn't get along with her husband. She had a child as well.