Listen to a segment of a video interview with Péter Winkler and Magdolna Völgyesi. They recall their memories of their school and schoolmates.
Péter Winkler was born in 1930, in Sopronban, in a neologue Jewish family. His father, László Winkler was a doctor, her mother, Sarolat Remete was a housewife. His sister's name was Marianna Winkler. Péter went to a Jewish elementary school in Sopron and later to the local high school. The conditions of his family started to deteriorate with the beginning of World War II. According to the Jewish Laws, his father could not pursue his profession and after the establishment of the Sopron Ghetto, the family was relocated there. They were all deported to Auschwitz-Birkenauba where they were separeted. Apart from his aunt, no one in his immediate family survived the Holocaust. Péter was transferred from Auschwitz to several concentration camps in Germany and he was eventually liberated in Dachau by Americal soldiers. He returned to Sopron to find that his old family home was now occupied by strangers. He moved to Budapest, where he graduated from high school in 1949, then went to the University of Economics, and started working for MÁV, the railway company. He married twice and had two children. The interview was conducted in 1998, in the state of New York.
Magdolna Völgyesi (née Magdolna Steiner) was born in 1923 in Sopron. Her father Emil Steiner ran a brick factory, while her mother Gabriella Rosenberger was a housewife. Her sister Edit was two years older than her. They went to a Jewish elementary school and to a state school in Sopron, and were later educated by Catholic nuns. With the beginning of World War II, the living conditions of the family deteriorated, and after the Nazi German occupation they were forced to the ghetto in Sopron. She and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in July 1944. Her father was separated from the rest of the family and was murdered in Auschwitz. Together with her mother and sister, they were held in several concentration camps in Germany, and were eventually liberated by American troops. They returned home after the war. Their family brickworks was nationalised. Magdolna then worked as an accountant and married in 1947. After the death of her husband and sister, she moved to the United States and remarried. The interview was recorded in Toronto, Canada in 1996.