Bozsi Spiegel and Piri Deri

This photo was taken at a fair in Eger in 1928. You can see my sisters Bozsi Spiegel, nee Friedmann (on the right) and Piri Deri, nee Friedmann (on the left). All my sisters finished the four classes of middle school. My oldest sister Piri also finished two years of commercial school. This was a commercial high school, where nuns taught. And it was very expensive. If someone wanted to work in an office then she, like my sister, finished two years of commercial school and then she could become an employee [in an office]. There was a car dealer in Eger - there was only one at that time, there were hardly any cars; we went everywhere on foot, it was a small town, we could walk from one end to the other in two minutes - and Piri worked for this car dealer before her marriage. Bozsi worked for a family, acquaintances of ours - people often learned a trade through acquaintances. It was very good that we didn't go to an unknown person to learn the trade, everybody new Dad and everybody liked him. So, these were really the good old times. All my sisters knew how to sew except for Piri, who worked in an office. She couldn't even sew a button on, she struggled with everything to do with sewing. Bozsi sewed for sale before she got married. Piri's husband was Gyula Krausz, he was a merchant. They got married in 1926. We had a cousin, Bela Korosi. He was somewhat of an eccentric but he was a lawyer by profession. He courted Piri. And Piri was about to marry Bela, the wedding was to take place within a week. But nothing came of it because in the meantime Gyula Krausz also proposed marriage to her. Mom went to Reb Shayele, who was a rabbi, who told her not to marry her off to America and that there was this decent fellow here and she should marry her to him. We children were eavesdropping, of course, and heard Mom tell what the rabbi had said. Piri lived in the 7th district in Pest, where I also lived later when it became a yellow-star house. Bozsi married someone from Pest. She had a great love in Eger, a boy called Pista Deutsch, but his mom didn't allow him to court Bozsi because she was a rather poor girl. They used to meet but you couldn't really oppose your parents at that time. We had to follow the traditions in everything. Pal Spiegel was recommended -matchmaking was common in those days. Spiegel had a pickle-producing workshop, they made pickles. It was a family business. Bozsi didn't work. In those days not everybody worked. Her husband provided for her.

Photos from this interviewee