SIMON Ida
Hebrew Name: Jitti^[5]

Uncle Geza's Diary: My Younger Sister Ida

She was born in March 4, 1869 in Nagyvárad where she finished her schooling; she even obtained a Teacher’s Credential.  After teaching in Érd, in Buda Bicske and at a few locations tutoring aristocrat families, she was appointed as a teacher in the year 1906 to a small village, Kövesd, in Transylvania.

In August, 1896 a bookbinder tradesman from Budapest, Adolf Hertzfeld, asked her for [hand in] marriage.  Abandoning her job, she moved up to Budapest where she also had her wedding.

From this marriage, their son Imre was born on June 28, 1897.  Her contented married life was [seriously] disturbed by the onset of her husband’s sickness in November 10, 1898 which became so intense in the month of September of 1899 that his mother was forced to put him in the Mental Health Institute in Lipótmező, where he is presently residing in a condition of unstable health.  This sad situation necessitated the revalidation of the Teacher’s Credential of my sister Ida and, after tremendous effort and struggle, she was able to gain an appointment to become a public school teacher in Alsórákos, Transylvania; in the month of December of 1899, by a decree of the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Religions and Public Education, she took this job without delay and is there presently while being anxious with broken spirit about the sad fate of her beloved husband.

Her husband Adolf Hertzfeld (Hajós) was born in 1868 in Nagyvárad from his tradesman parent, József Hertzfeld, [and] was the oldest among his siblings whose names are Dezső and Jenny.  Losing his father at an early age, he moved with his widowed mother to Budapest where she sent her son Adolf to the first class shop of  K. Lajos Posner to learn the art of book binding, where he was working until his marriage.  After his wedding, he went into his own business and in the year 1889 he changed his name to Hajós. 

On February 25, 1902, the Almighty ended his terrible suffering.  His funeral was in the graveyard of the Jewish Mortuary of Buda on the 27th of February.  Ida and I took the train up for his funeral to say good-bye to the best husband, father, brother-in-law and friend.  May he rest in peace.

On November 14, 1910, she got married again to a retired railroad engineer, Lipót Gyulai.  Her son, Imre, who was completing the 8th grade of the Miko Kollegium of St. Győrgy at Sepes, voluteered to become a soldier, together with all of his classmates.  The Minister of Defense accepted their volunteering with pleasure, and he, together with the Minister of Public Education, ordered their [Imre’s and of his classmates’]  graduation be moved up to the month of December of that year, and he [the Minister of Defense] was going to take care of the enlistments, when ready.

He went to enlist on August 25, 1915 in Prague in the 2nd Royal Army Regiment of Brasso.  After the officer training he went to the front with the rank of [cadet] corporal and died as a hero on July 3, 1916, leaving eternal mourning and sorrow for his much tried parents and relations.

This unforgettable tragedy was followed by the escape [of Ida and her family] from the Rumanian herd on August 20, 1916, and they arrived in Nagylak in a topless cattle wagon after 15 days of rough treatment with the greatest agony and suffering.

Nevertheless, the Almighty still did not stop punishing them with a series of misfortunes, since as soon, as they overcame the tiredness of the painful journey, her husband, Lipót Gyulai on September 14, 1916 suddenly died of a stroke.  During the entire escape I received no information about their whereabouts; only at the occasion of the death could my little sister Ida, with the approval of the szolgabiró [local authority], send me a telegram of notification.  I got on the train without delay, but I arrived only after the funeral because of the many late trains.  They burried him at the local cemetery.

After two weeks, my sister Ida came to Budapest with Aranka and her [Aranka’s] family; at the beginning, she stayed with me for 2 weeks and afterward she moved in with my sister Aranka to a house prepared for the refugees from Transylvania.  She was dwelling there in her mourning and sorrow until December 30, 1916 when, due to a higher order, she travelled back to her position in Alsórákos. 

While she was there, due to my suggestion to divert her mind from her mourning, she got herself assigned to an elementary school in Ujpest; she was even teaching there for a month, but her mental condition prevented her from performing properly, so she resigned.

Subsequently, she returned to Rákos to resume her position.  She found her family hearth [entire home] desolated and robbed, but this was not comparable to the devastation of her soul [and the mourning] that she felt for the loss of her son.  She lays down with this sorrow, she wakes up with this sorrow, she carries her cross all day long for the rest of her life.

Since November 1919, her neighborhood again turned into a war zone and, ever since, I have heard no information about them; I learned only through messages that her situation had become endurable, that she had to take the Rumanian citizenship vow and, in this way, they let her stay in her job.  For a long time we received no information about her, until at the beginning of 1921 we learnt that she is well [and] she had married for the third time to a top machinist, Jakab Urai from Kissebes.  I was there between December 24, 1921 and January 15 of 1922, where I received the most cordial welcome.  I got to know my brother-in-law who just reached his 60th year of age as a robust, jovial, kind and sympathetic man.  My new brother-in-law, my sister’s third husband had a teacher as his previous wife, and their [my new brother-in-law and his previous wife’s] children are now already out of the nest [they are adults on their own].   Their wish to relocate my sister Ida to Kissebes until (March 1) was unsuccessful, so then my sister taught at Alsórákos; while she sent her furniture to Kissebes, she lived in the office of the school principal and later she was able to get her own apartment and rule her own household.