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This picture was taken during our civil wedding in Karlovy Vary, in 1948. From left to right it shows Ondrej Brodsky, who was our witness, my father, Heinrich Galik, my wife Irena Goldbergerova, me, Alexander Goldberger, and another witness, Mr. Kleinman. Because my wife was from Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which at that time already no longer belonged to Czechoslovakia, but to the Soviet Union, and she didn't have Czechoslovak citizenship, she had to request sponsorship, Mr. Kleinman sponsored her, and then we could have an official wedding.
was born in 1926 in the town of Kajdanove in Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kajdanove belonged to the Mukacevo district. She was from a devout family, but after the war she wasn't that devout any more. After the war she returned to Subcarpathian Ruthenia. She found out that all of her girlfriends that had survived the war had dispersed all over the world. One of her mother's brothers lived in Karlovy Vary. As luck would have it, it was Mr. Kleinman that my future wife came to stay with. I met her at my father's friend's, Mrs. Katzova's. I came to her place for supper, and my future wife was there, too. Mrs. Katzova and Mrs. Kleinmannova were friends. So we met 'by chance.' We had a Jewish wedding, under the chuppah, in Karlovy Vary, in 1946. But the officials there didn't count that as an official wedding. We had a civil wedding in the fall of 1948. We celebrated our wedding, the Jewish one, at the Kleinmans'. About 20 people gathered there.
