Betty Gerendasy

My mother, Szeren Frischman from Cigand, Hungary, met and married my father, Izso Klein from Dombrad, in Hungary in 1935. My mother was already a US citizen and my father accompanied her back to the States. My good fortune ironically was that my mother came from a very poor religious family and had no ‘prospects.’ She emigrated to the US and joined her married sister Sarah Miller in New York. My father had 3 brothers, all of whom survived the Shoah in labor camps.but lost their families, and 2 sisters, Szeren, who came to the US in 1937, and Bozsi (far left in the picture) who with her mother Ida Klein perished. My mother’s brothers remained in Hungary but survived and eventually emigrated to Israel. Her oldest sister Teresz Volvert and her mother Hannah Frischman perished. Teresz’ two teen-age daughters, Ilonka and Sari, survived the camps, eventually married and emigrated to Israel. All the men had second families. My parents visited Israel in 1967 where they were reunited with family they hadn’t seen in 32 years. I first visited Israel in August 1973 and met my ‘family.’