Eva Klein-Racz was born on _______, 1929 in ___________ Hungary and passed away on May 18, 2011 in Montreal, Canada. She married Hermann in 1949 in Vienna and in 1950, immigrated to Canada.
At the age of 61, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Concordia University. She lost her mother Tereza and brother Gabor in the Holocaust.
From her obituary-Eva was the sister in law of Teddy and Hadassah, Kati and the late Steven Berger, Edith Kertesz-Biro, the late Joe Kertesz, the late Jeno Biro, the late Alice and the late Leopold Wald. She was the aunt of Roni and Rachel, Danny and Audry, Wendy and David Ward, Andrew and Jeanie Berger, Vivian and Alan Swartz, Barbara and Elliot Godenberg, Lawrence and Marilyn Weiss, , Cousin of Magda and Steven Beck, Leslie Beck, Tom and Pat Kramer.
Eva was buried in the Temple Emanuel-El Beth Sholom Section of Mt. Royal Cemetery, 1297 chem de la Foret.
In her own words …
My mother and father met when uncle Miklos, my mother’s brother, met Aunt Boriska, my father’s sister. On my uncle and auntie’s wedding, my parents announced their engagement. The wedding became a double family celebration.
In Europe, either to fourteen years was the standard difference between bride and groom. My father was twelve years older than my mother.
My mother, Teresa Barna, had long black hair, big blue eyes and a light complexion. She was five foot one, not too slim, just right. According to all sources, she was beautiful. She was born in Nagy Kalo and had one sister, Piroska, and five brothers, Miklos, Jeno, Leslie, Frank and Sandor.
My father, Joszef Racz, had light brown hair, green eyes and a light brown complexion. He had three sisters, Boriska, Zsenike and Regina, and two brothers, Endre and Jeno.
I had one brother, four years my senior. Gabor had my mother’s blue eyes and my father’s light brown complexion. He was very handsome. I inherited my father’s complexion and my mother’s height.
My father’s family were landowners, which I traced back to a number of generations, and they always lived in the country. There were few Jewish landowners and Jewish government officials were rare and this was the segment of society with which my father’s family was socially associated. He was raised in a family that was socially assimilated and firstly as a Hungarian.
My mother’s family were city dwellers and they were more observant. We had kosher household but my mother had no problem associating with gentiles as long as she liked the individual as a person. My parents had many good friends from the district. They loved my mother’s kosher dinners which were always served beautifully.
I was aware of my father’s health problem at an early age, but it was not a disturbing factor afar as I was concerned. My mother was busy preparing for my father special light meals. He had to eat little portions but often. I loved his food and at 10:00 a.m., when he had his second meal, I was always around to keep him company. I sat with him at the table and he shared his meal with me. Gabor and I grew up in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. Our mother was a happy person and not at all strict with us. She looked after us with her special ways.
We were told that my father’s stomach problem started during the first world war. He was an officer in the army. For his bravery, he was honored with gold and silver medals. Often during the war, his unit had no food supply for days. They had to eat whatever they found on the fields, from raw cabbage to rotten fruit and, as a consequence, he had life long problem.
He was very proud of his family’s history, tracing it back over 300 years in Hungary. at one point, one of his ancestors acquired three thousand acres of land. Of course, as time on and the family grew, the land shrank. According to social customs, the girls got dowries and the boys inherited the family’s business, in this case, the land. Endre, the oldest, was a lawyer in Budapest. My father and his younger brother Jeno followed the family tradition and each inherited three hundred and sixty acres of land.
My father loved every bit of his land and worked hard to make his farm a success. He did not want to depend only on conventional farming. He wanted to be versatile. He planted ten acres of all kinds of fruit trees. Between these orchards we had road leading into our farm. Springtime, when the trees were covered with flowers, was a beautiful sight. We also had ten acres of wine grapes. When the grapes were ripe and the wine preparation began, we had a special celebration with all our friends. A man was hired from Bulgaria. His expertise was to grow vegetables, watermelons and cantaloupes. We also had another expert. He cultivated bees for honey. Of course we had all sorts of farm animals: pigs, lambs and the cows used malignly for milk which was sent to the nearest city every morning. Horses were used work the land designated for conventional farming. At harvest time, the merchants were lined up for the produce. My father’s farm became an example in the district. Uncle Jeno’s farm was next to ours. His character and nature were the opposite of my father’s. HE was not a diligent person nor was he responsible. His inheritance was only a tool to live a high-styled merry life and he was constantly entertaining but he did not have ordinary dinner parties. He hired a band of musicians and his parties went on for three or four days. When he needed a change, he traveled and when he could not pay the interest on his bank loan. After a while, with the help of Uncle Miklos who was an accountant, my father sold his brother’s land, paid the bank and signed a lease for a large rented farm for my uncle. The family was hoping had learned his lesson and would settle down. But he continued his merry lifestyle. The financial and psychological damages to the family could not be tolerated further. This time the decision was Toby him a one-way ticket to South America, since he had friends in Buenos Aires. Jeno dies in South America before the Second World War. He left one son, Tomas.
Meanwhile, my father was responsible for the rented farm. For the sake of his convenience, since the farm had to be organized, we moved to the rented place. I was too young to understand or feel the effects of this ongoing drama but I am certain my brother was affected emotionally. We never discussed it.
My father’s responsibilities doubled. He had to look after his own place and reorganize the new farm. But he was terrific. He chose his people well and delegated the work. Fortunately, our mother was ready to make new friends which was easy for her with her good nature. Soon our usual lifestyle continued.
To give you a bit of knowledge of the lifestyle in rural areas, all the water supply came from wells. When darkness approached, oil lamps were used for light and wood was used fort he purpose pf cooking and heating. Electricity and plumbing existed only in big cities. We had some lakes nearby. When the water froze, large ice blocks were cut and they were stored in a special cellar. During the warm summer months, this is where we kept our food. When the fruit was ripe at summertime, it was cooked and placed in tightly covered jars. Some of the vegetables were also preserved in the Safeway. In Hungary, one could buy some tropical fruits in wintertime in Budapest. But I can only recall bananas, oranges and lemons. Therefore, to preserve food or fruits for wintertime was most important. It was a tremendous amount of work to a run a household efficiently under the existing primitive circumstances, but it was not appreciated, only taken for granted.
When Gabor became six years old, he moved to Nyirbator. It was a small city just eighteen kilometers away from us. In this city lived two of my mother’s three brothers: Uncle Miklos whose wife was Auntie Boriska, my father’s sister, and Uncle Jeno. Uncle Miklos, as a chartered accountant, had a government position. Uncle Jeno was a doctor. Sandor emigrated to the United States before I was born. My mother’s youngest brother Leslie, a businessman, and her only sister, Piroska lived further away and in Kisvarda. Gabor moved into the home of Auntie Boriska. He went to a Jewish elementary school but when he finished fourth grade he moved to Kisvarda into the home of Auntie Piroska to continue junior high school. I followed in his footsteps and when I became six years old, I moved into the same home and went to the same elementary school.
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