(Wywiady dostępne są w językach angielskim i ukraińskim. Prosimy o wyrozumiałość.)
Uzhgorod, Ukraine
Interview conducted in 2003 by Ella Levitskaya
Ignac Neubauer’s mother, Fanni Neubauer and his stepfather Gedale Fixler.
This is me, Ignaz Neubauer (sitting from the left). Sitting on my right, a little behind, is my brother Dezso, standing behind him is our brother Marton with his head bandaged. Sitting beside me in the center is my cousin Marius Preise, my mother brother Pinchas’ son. Beside us are our friends – Jewish boys. Sitting from the right is Moricz Gross, standing is Gersh Lebovich. We were photographed for the memory. This photo was taken in Malaya Dobron in 1940, my mother managed to preserve it during WWII, which was a miracle.
This is me, Ignaz Neubauer, photographed by a friend of mine whom I bumped into. He had just bought a camera and photographed all indiscriminately. We met in Uzhgorod on the embankment of the Uzh River in 1939. My acquaintance, who photographed us, kept this photo, and he gave it to me after WWII in 1946.
This is me, Ignaz Neubauer, on the left, with my friend Moishe Schenberger near the synagogue in Uzhgorod. We were photographed by our friend in spring 1940.
This is me, Ignaz Neubauer, on the left, beside me on a bicycle – a plumber from Uzhgorod, a Jew, whose surname was Preis. I stopped to talk with him in one of the streets in summer, when my colleague passing by photographed us.
This is our wedding photograph. This is me and my wife Lubov Neubauer. This photo was taken in a photo shop in Uzhgorod in 1957.
My wife Lubov Neubauer at the River Uzh embankment, near the school where she worked. We were having a stroll and I took this photograph. This photo was taken in Uzhgorod in 1970.
This is our family at the wedding of my niece Rita (my wife older sister Anna’s daughter). This is me, Ignaz Neubauer, and my wife Lubov Neubauer in the upper row. The lower row from left to right: my son Alik Neubauer, my wife’s sister Donia Kerzhner holding my daughter Marina Neubauer, the bride Rita and the bridegroom Alexandr Bertalon, my wife’s sister Anna Kerzhner. 1972. Uzhgorod, the Palace of nuptials.
This is me. This photograph was taken for my passport in Uzhgorod, 1974.
This is me with my niece Erika (my sister Hermina Spiegel’s daughter and her husband Grisha Goldman photographed in a photo shop in commemoration of my visit to Israel in 1985.
This is me at work in the garment shop in 1980, Uzhgorod. My colleague who had just bought a camera, photographed me as a surprise.
This is me. This photograph was taken for my passport, Uzhgorod, 2003.
My sister Hermina Spiegel (nee Neubauer) during our reunion in Budapest in 1985.
This is me, Ignaz Neubauer, my wife Lubov Neubauer and our grandson Robert. 1995. Uzhgorod, it is Robert’s birthday party at our home, he turned 6, my wife made a birthday cake, we are waiting for the guests; our daughter Marina photographed us.
This is my family: from left to right: my wife Lubov Neubauer, my grandson Robert, my daughter Marina, my niece Yudita, my sister Hermina’s daughter. This photograph was taken during my niece’s visiting us, when she arrived in Uzhgorod from Israel in 1996.
Mr. Neubauer’s story is largely set in Subcarpathia and he gives us great insight into his homeland during different rules (Czech, Hungarian, Soviet; following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the region became an administrative region under the name of Transcarpathia). Growing up in a very religious family, he vividly recalls the celebration of Jewish holidays, and how he teased his younger siblings, who fell asleep during seder, saying that he saw the prophet Elijah come in while they were asleep. After finishing school in 1938, he began to sell products and became the only breadwinner in the family, as his father was sick and his siblings were still at school. During the Second World War the family was taken to the ghetto in Uzhgorod, then Auschwitz. His grandfather, father, sister and three brothers perished there, while he survived the Gleiwitz camp. Considering emigration to the USA or Palestine at the end of the war, he changed his mind when learning that his mother and sister had survived and returned to Uzhgorod, where he worked as a tailor and founded a family. 15 pictures illustrate his rich account.
