My father was born in 1887. In 1904 he moved to Pest, and became a merchant's apprentice, and then he was sent to school from there, and he completed some kind of commercial course.
He began with textiles; he was in Kiraly Street at some sort of a textile merchant's, then he went elsewhere. At that time, at the beginning of the 1900s, working hours were from 7 in the morning until half past ten; he was exploited.
His life in the prewar times was not a characteristically Jewish life, but rather a worker's life. He joined the Social Democratic Party.
Then, in the end, when he had been fired from everywhere because of his activities in the working class movement and in the trade union, he found employment at the 'Hangya' General Consumer's Co-operative. There he dealt with spices and such.
In 1915 he was drafted and fought in Romania but I don't know which front he was at. He was even injured. Although the injury, according to one of his old letters, was like this:
Once he came home for a furlough, and back then they came in wagons which were heated with stoves, and when the train stopped, he fell against it and burnt himself.
So that was where his injury was from, but he got some sort of war injury medal.
