Ilona Seifert in a school performance for collecting charity

We performed in elementary school to collect money for charity. I am the little girl in a white rococo dress, fourth from the left.

I attended an elementary school on Mester Street. That was a 'prole' (working class) neighborhood, where children of workers went, and we, who came from wealthier homes, were told to bring double portions of elevenses so the children who didn't get any from home could also have a share. It was assigned who should bring two of what, and we gave it all to the schoolmistress in the morning, so that no one actually saw who got whose elevenses, but the children from the poorer households got the same things as the children from the richer households. I didn't have many friends among my classmates at the elementary school, because when we came out of school, our Fräulein was always always there ready and waiting to take us to play in Ferenc Square, where we had friends who were also Jewish.

Photos from this interviewee