This is a picture of my mother, Eugenie Pardo. It was taken around 1925 at a photo shop in Thessalonica. She sent it to her brother Gastone Beraha in Germany.
My mother's brother Gastone had left for Germany when he was eighteen to work and support his mother and sisters.
He was the one that supported the family financially, he was sending money to his mother to live and get the girls married and so on.
He moved from Germany to Paris in 1933 as things started getting hard for Jews.
My mum, like her mum, went to a nuns' school, a 'l'ecole des soeurs' as they used to say, so she spoke French and Spanish and some Greek. Her Greek wasn't very good, but she managed.
My mother got married in 1928. My parents' clothes were very European and contemporary for their times.
They were no different than other people of that time. My mother was very elegant and chic.
