We arrived in Budapest in 1937 with very little belongings. We rented a place on Heart Street (Sziv utca). The front had a store window; there was a very large room, behind it a good size kitchen and bathroom. We divided the front room in half, the front part became the working and selling area, and behind it was our living quarter.

My father started to buy used shoes; he repaired them very nicely, and sold them. In addition, he repaired some shoes for customers. It was a new beginning, though not very luxurious, with very little income in the first few months. It was summer, no heating needed, prices were low and we were able to survive. We all did our work to help father to produce as much as possible.

The business started to grow. In September, my sister went to school and I enrolled in the 4th grade of a nearby Gymnasium. It was very difficult financially, because we had to pay some school fees, even though they put me in the lowest income category. Without 4th grade and graduation, it was impossible to find a better paying job.

No playmates, and nobody to help me, but against all odds I was working hard to have good grades. Beside my studies, I had to help my father at evenings and on weekends. The school supplies, mostly books cost a lot of money. I was always behind the payment of tuition and other fees.

On May 1938 the principal called my mother to his office and told her straight: Your son is a good student, but he can not finish the grade. One of the reasons is the unpaid dues. More importantly - he said- only six Jewish students are allowed to graduate and Leslie did not start the school in this institute. So his advice was, do not waste money and time. The next day I stopped going to school, three weeks before the end of the year. This was my first taste of organized

anti-Semitism.

One day a nice, well-dressed man came into the store to have some repairs made. He started talking to my father about going into partnership with him and to produce new women footwear. He will be a silent partner. He will finance the setup, my father to do the work, organize production, and the sale. He had his own big export company: buying, packaging and shipping large-size goose livers to England. The less expensive parts he sold in the local market.

It was a good opportunity, and TATRA SHOE FACTORY was born. He rented a large apartment on the main floor in Klauzal Square (tŽr), and within one month, we moved there. Inside construction had begun and machinery, upper and bottom material started to roll in. My father took a 'section' partner, Mr. Trattner, for designing sample models, hire workers and supervise the production of the upper section of the shoes.

In the front of the apartment was a double size kitchen with a window. The front part of it became the finishing department; mostly my mother took care of it, sometimes with a helper. The hall became the packing and shipping room. The extra large room with six windows served as the manufacturing main section. They built a mezzanine (the ceiling was very high), and this became the shoe-upper department with sewing and other machines. On the main floor, the sole cutting and preparing machinery and working tables were located.

Next to this place was our living quarter, a very long room with windows to the street. The front part was the children's room with beds, bookcase, writing table and a small radio, which we received later. The alcove part became the parents' room without a door, or dividing wall and a full bathroom with a boiler to make hot water.

It was a very crammed type of living, without much privacy. I witnessed many pleasant and many not so pleasant events and arguments.

The business took off very rapidly by getting lot of orders. There was a time, when it employed 25 people. Our income improved and showed profit even after paying the partner and all the expenses.

For me, it was time to learn a good trade. Because I was art oriented, good in drawing, somebody suggested to become a printer, and arranged for me to see the owner of a small print shop outside Budapest, in Pest County.

Before I took the job in the printing shop, my father asked me to work in his shop, but I refused to be under his dictatorship for 24 hours a day. I tried other shoe factories, but nobody wanted to hire a competitor's son.

The owner of the printing shop was a middle aged good Jewish man. He was happy to take me in and teach me everything. He had four machines. I learned fast. Within a few days, I was able to pick and set the letters by hand and place them in the frame and with the leg-operated machine to print and cut it.

A few weeks later he left me alone most of the time, to take orders from customers and print small jobs, flyers, cards etc. Later he started teaching me the litho-machine and how to do posters or large business forms. My weekly pay was $5 plus streetcar ticket, and milk.

Three months later, we were ready to sign the apprentice contract for three years with increased pay for each year. All the papers were ready and sent to the Hungarian Printer Union office - in vain.

In Pest County, the Governor was Laszlo Endre, one of the most notorious anti-Semites in the whole country.

Because of his laws Jews were not allowed to buy land, open a new store, a factory, become a teacher, or government employee. No Jews were admitted to the so- called high quality trades: like printing, driving a taxi, or bus. ---The next day I was out of my job.

Having no other choice, I made a contract with Mr. Trattner, the section partner of my father for 2 1/2 years. My pay started with $5.- a week in the first year, double next year, piecework the last half year. Every second day I went to a trade school before noon, the rest of the time working in the Upper Department.

Mr. Trattner was very helpful; he paid my salary, sometimes a few cents more. I was progressing rapidly, being in the footwear "business" all my life, not only on the manufacturing side, but in the school as well. I studied every single material: leather, or synthetic, metal, textile, or glue; also, the components' chemistry and cost calculation. My main interest concerned the anatomy of the foot. We visited many footwear related factories and also hospitals to study foot injuries.

My father was happy with my progress, so happy, that he took away $2.- every week for my boarding.

Across our kitchen on the 2nd floor lived Mr. Herman with his twenty-year-old lovely, petit wife, Sara, and their year old daughter. I became very friendly with them. My seventeen-year-old heart and body was attracted to her very fast. It did not take long to become her lover, and her good student.

The husband was a selfish man, he had only one interest: to play cards day and night. He was happy that his young wife Sara had company. +132.0I0 was happy too. He even gave me money to take her and his three-year-old Rebecca to movies and to the Palatinus swimming complex with private cabin. In 1942, the husband was drafted into a forced labour camp, and then to Russia, never to return. Then Sara went into hiding with the baby in a large farm. The farmer's son fell in love with her, they married, and she gave birth to another baby. When I came back from Russia in 1947, I went to see them. I was happy to see that they survived and lived happily.

In 1940, my father was taken to a forced labour camp for three months. My mother and I were running the factory very well. He was spending money there with loose fingers, playing cards, ordering extra food, and lots of alcohol. He did not pay for this, just gave I.O.U. papers to one of the camp guards who came to us to collect the money and a little more. Feeding their appetite, paying the cost of overhead and the partner's share put us into a tight squeeze. When he came back from the labor camp, he was not satisfied with our financial situation, putting the blame on us.

The financial partner did not do anything in the factory, came only to pick up his share of the profit and the agreed part of his investment. He was a very nice man. He always brought a big box of goose heart and a few broken cans of goose liver, which could not be shipped to England. He did not survive the war. Either he escaped to England where he died, or perished somewhere else.

I had a friend, Andrew Klein, of the same age as me, and his sister, of the same age as my sister, Barbara. His father owned a large leather store on Kirly (King) street. My father was one of his costumers. Above the store, they had a very richly furnished big apartment. So big, that besides a dining room my friend had his own room as well!

We were good friends, almost every weekend we went hiking, skiing. Sometimes our sisters came with us. During long weekends, we were sleeping in the guesthouses, owned by the trade unions. We loved the mountains very much.

One day Andrew bought lots of wood and other material. He wanted to build a boat in his room. We cut, we sanded, we drilled, hammered, glued and we worked like paid workers do. The boat became so huge, that it filled the room, corner to corner, up to the ceiling. Than we started to stain it, many times over and over again.

Andrew slept in my room, too, because the smell of the stain was so bad. Then we topped it off with three coats of paint. It gave us lots of work and took a long time to finish.

While the parents were away, we decided to take the boat out of the room and store it close to the river in a warehouse, owned also by his father. We called more friends to help us to take it out. Of course, there was no way the boat would go through the doors. So, we put lots of rope around the front part and began pulling it through the open window. Slowly, the boat was halfway out, and the guys on the street were ready to receive it. We pushed it again and again. By then, the balance of weight fell over the window and the boat came crushing down onto the sidewalk, almost killing our friends.

The remaining parts were so broken, that they became unusable. Nevertheless, everybody had a big pile of firewood. That was the end of our naval enterprise.