Margit Erdos on holiday in Siofok, near Lake Balaton

On holiday at lake Balaton. We went through the Hungarian Post. I can see my mother. She is sitting on the left on black swimming suit next to a lady with a kerchief on her head. My father was the deputy chief cashier in the control cash-desk of a large post office. This was a position of trust and great responsibility, because they dealt with very large amounts of money. As a worker at the post office, he was a government official with every benefit which that entailed. He got a photo identity card, we could travel gratis by train, we could receive something like twenty parcels a year, gratis. In those times the postal service had a private health-fund with private surgery, and it had a private hospital with very good doctors. And there was another interesting thing. Siofok started to be a health-resort at the time when I was ten years old, so this would have been in '28. Only in the summer was there life in Siofok, so they decided to place a post office there during the summer, and three or life four reliable post-officers were sent there to manage this post office. It included free hotel accommodation, free meals, free beach ticket, plus their salary.

Photos from this interviewee