Artur Radvansky with his mother

This photograph of me and my mother, Anna Thüebergerova, nee Rauchbergerova, was taken when I was one year old. My father and mother were cousins. My father's mother, Sali Tüebergerova, was the sister of my mother's father, Jindrich Rauchberger. My father liked my mother, and likewise she him, but she was afraid due to the fact that they were related, because of the children, because she had heard that it causes problems. At the end of World War I my father was at an infirmary in Vienna. My mother went to see him, and for fourteen days took care of him and visited him. There they also decided that they'd get married. Which they then did in 1920, when they had a clerical wedding, because in those days you didn't have to go a government office yet. When I look back at my grandfather's standing in the family, it's clear that they had to have had his permission for the marriage, and so most likely the marriage was also agreed to by the rabbi. If not, my grandpa would never have allowed it. My mother was educated as a seamstress, but when my father opened his store, she stopped sewing and helped him in the store. She and my father were the same as far as religious inclinations went. My mother was very culturally-minded. She loved the theater, and especially opera. She and Father used to go to the German theater in Ostrava or to amateur performances by members of a group of spiritualists. These were people who believed in telepathy and spirits, and gathered at seances. There were no Jews in these circles. My parents bought a gramophone and records of compositions from operettas like 'Zeme Usmevu' ['The Land of Smiles'] or 'Cardasova Princezna' ['The Czardas Princess']. At our home the radio was also mainly tuned to music.