The FISCHMANN Family Genealogy Page

Cila's Story: The Death of My Mother

"In September 1914, my parents took my two brothers, my sister and myself to a town very close to the Russian border* to visit my grandparents during Jewish high holidays, Sukus, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippor. We went to temple and prayed for 10 days and the last day we fasted for 24 hours and prayed for our sins of the past year. Then we celebrated the New Year or Yom Kippor, the highest holy day. While we were visiting relatives, my mother became very sick and she died. She was 38 years old. As a 7 year old girl, I saw my mother dying and heard her loud crying. My brother cried very loudly. Later we went back to Grandpa’s house and I saw them open the casket. According to the Jewish religion she had to be buried before sundown. I did not understand it all but I cried and cried. This was during World War I and this city near the Russian border was almost empty, people were packing their possessions and they were moving because the Russians were coming. My uncle still lived in his house because he provided for the military and they protected him, but he had everything packed and ready to move."

* Munkacs^[8]; they were visiting the SALZBERGER parents.

Historic Context

An irony of Viktoria's death is that this personal tragedy coincided precisely with larger tragedy that engulfed the entire world: the Great War. On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Ferdinand, the heir-apparent to the Hapsburg dynasty was assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalists. The Austrians felt compelled to punish the Serbians. The Russians were obliged to defend their Serbian allies, the Germans were obliged to defend the Austrians and so on and so forth. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia and the Great War.

Religious Life

It was under this backdrop that the FISCHMANN family with their four children went to Munkacs, right on the crack between the Austrian and Russian Empires, to visit the grandparents for the high holidays. On September 21, 1914, they were no doubt in the Synagogue celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Did they eat the traditional honey-dipped apples to symbolize the wish for a sweet new year? One can only imagine that the apples had a strange bitter taste that year. They prayed for 10 days through Yom Kipper (Sept. 30th) to atone for their sins. Perhaps on the afternoon of the first day, Viktoria took little Cila down to the river Lotorcza for the customary Tashlikh, the empting of the pockets into the river to symbolize the "casting off" of sins. Its hard to imagine what sins little Cilka could possibly have had that could in any way explain the tragedies that were soon to occur. At 8AM on the morning of October 4th, Viktoria died of tuberculosis. With the streets of Munkacs rapidly emptying in preparation for the war, the harvest feast of Sukkot, on October 5th, must have seemed a dark, foreboding omen of things to come to little Cila.

Russian Attack

GM Peter von Hofmann was a brave and confident officer of the Austrian Emperor's Army. He had recently been promoted to Lieutenant General and just last October he was placed in command of his own Corps. He looked handsome in his imperial uniform was no doubt admired by fellow officers and charming to the ladies. That winter of 1914/1915, he had just been appointed military commander in Munkacs. He was put in charge of the newly formed, independent Gruppe Hoffman, a combined Austro-German Corps. His mission was to drive the Russians form the pass at the Carpathian mountains. It was a stupid war that nobody wanted. Perhaps he like others thought it would be over quickly and had no idea how the war would spread like wildfire. Nonetheless, Von Hofmman served the Emperor bravely and was to drive the Russians from the pass in February 1915 at the Battles for the Carpathians. For this, he was awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa for saving Hungary from invasion, and received the noble rank of 'Freiherr." ^[9]

Eve of Madness

Viktoria expired just before the first battle in Munkacs between the Austrians & Russians which occurred in December 1914^[8][9]. The war soon swept through Europe pulling in England, France and Turkey a dozen other countries in a war that would soon end with the destruction of the Austrian, German, Ottoman and Russian Empires radically changing the map of the world.

That was Munkacs in the winter of 1914 on the eve of madness, the precipice of war. The Great War was to cause 15 million casualties. Yet I find it impossible to fathom the impact the tragedy of this single death had on this little girl. This riddle and this photograph are the only wisps of remembrance of Viktoria SALZBERGER nearly a century after her death.

SALZBERGER Viktoria Vitye

Historic Context

Religious Life

Russian Attack

Eve of Madness