Ignac Altman

This is my grandfather Ignac Altman. The photo must have been taken in the 1920s but I?m not a hundred per cent certain if it was taken in Budapest. You can see that he had a huge moustache. If you didn't know that he was Jewish, you could never tell from this photo. My grandfather was born in Szent Domonkos in 1879. He started as a railroad braker but worked his way up and died as a chief ticket-inspector. I believe he finished four years of middle school but had no further education. But he wanted his eldest daughter to become a doctor. And she did, too. His wife was called Roza Glatter, she was from Gyongyos. They lived in several places in Hungary, as railroad workers they were sent here and there. They were in Dunaszerdahely, then in Zsolna, but most of all in Pest at the MAV [Hungarian State Railroad] colony in Rakospalota. I have one souvenir of my grandmother, a photograph. Her face is smiley and round. As far as I know they weren't very religious. They wore middle class clothes, observed Yom Kippur and seder, and they lit candles at Chanukkah. They didn't observe much else. Ignac Altman died in 1926 and his wife in 1936.

Photos from this interviewee