Ilona Gardonyi, Judit Kinszki’s mother

My mother. My mother is Ilona Gardonyi. Her name was magyarised from Grunberger, possibly by my grandfather. My mother was born in 1899. 

[My mother's family was] completely different, I can say that they were proles. My grandfather was a tailor. They had eleven children, all of whom were born in Budapest [nine of them lived].  My mother's family lived in a very poor neighbourhood in Bethlen Square. My mother told me that in spite of this fact, my grandmother and grandfather used to go to the Kiraly Theatre to see an operetta or something, and when my grandmother came home, she sang to the children what she had heard in the theatre. But it happened for example that my mother didn't want to do gymnastics in PT class because she had no panties, and she was afraid that if she had to do a somersault, her behind would be visible, and they failed her for this reason. She went home crying, and grandmother made her panties. She had no time for sewing for the children, because she had to work for a living. She sewed for other people. 

[My mother] graduated from middle school, then completed a one-year commercial course, and she became an official: a stenography correspondent. 

Photos from this interviewee