Family album

Photo album containing approximately 450 photographs of the Hungarian-Jewish Sarkadi family, and their extended family members. The earliest photo dates to 1890, and the latest to 1945.

Laszlo Sarkadi (formerly Spitzer; the name was Hungarianised after the war) was born in 1907 in the village of Kunszentmiklos, south of Budapest. He married Ilona Reisz in 1934. Laszlo and Ilona both came from families of farmland-owning businesspeople in Kunszentmiklos. The couple had three children; Joseph (b. 1934) Stephen (b. 1938), and Emily (b. 1947).

Laszlo was conscripted into the Hungarian army prior to World War II. During the war, he was drafted into the Jewish Labour Service. He spent the majority of the war years separated from his family, who were hiding in and around Budapest. Laszlo managed to escape from forced labour, deportation and almost-certain death as the war drew to a close. He was reunited with his wife and children in Budapest in early 1945.

This album contains pre-war family and individual portraits, photos of Ilona and Laszlo's wedding, extended family photos, village celebrations in Kunszentmiklos (possibly including Purim), family trips and swimming expeditions. Portraits show some male family members in military dress. Wartime photographs chart the family's movement and separation from one another, and some possibly relate to Laszlo's forced labour experience.