Tom GRUNSTEIN on his neighbor Kalman FISCHMANN^[6]

Tom Grunstein whose father was the president of the Shul in Nyirbator remembers Kalman FISCHMANN well.  Kalman lived on the same street as the Grunsteins.  It was called Sally Imre St (but has probably since reverted to its pre-war name: Dezso St.)

Tom remembers Kalman as a funny man, always happy and joking around.  He was clean cut, good looking and always elegant.  He walked with a cane, more for style than necessity.*

Kalman worked for the same company as Tom's mother.  The company was a produce and grain wholesaler.  Kalman would buy grain from the farms.  At the company, Kalman was always joking.  He would keep Tom's mother in stitches by saying one thing in Hungarian and then the opposite, under his breath, in Yiddish which only Tom's mother would understand.

Kalman's second wife was Catholic.  It was an unusual marriage for the time.  They would walk down the street arm in arm and then he would go off in one direction to the temple and she in another to the church.

Tom remembers that Kalman's son moved to Australia, but came back once for a visit and even came over to the Grunstein home.

The Jewish community in Nyirbator was very small after the war. They would need just about everyone to have enough people for a service.  Tom has the minutes of the last meeting of the synagogue in 1965 where Kalman signed the meeting minutes as a witness.

Tom's sister remembers that before he died Kalman got sick and was in the hospital at Debrecen.  The Grunstein mother was sick at the same time, so the Grunsteins and Fischmanns would travel together to Debrecen to visit the hospital.  They remember that Kalman died around the same time as some other event (perhaps the marriage of his son).  Tom's father and brother buried him the Nyirbator Jewish cemetery (which is still preserved in good condition).  

Tom is currently collecting material for a possible Nyirbator Yitzkor book.