Laszlo and Marta Schoenwald met in Budapest, Hungary and were married in October 1939. Laszlo was divorced and had a daughter from his first wife, named Judith. Both Laszlo and Marta experienced anti-Semitism in Hungary. In 1940, Laszlo was put into a Hungarian Jewish slave labor camp, while Marta tried to keep his whole sale fruit business going. Laszlo was able to visit home occasionally, and Julianna was born December 14, 1941. Laszlo wrote postcards almost every day and sometimes addressed them to fictitious names for safety reasons. His last visit was August 1944, then he disappeared while on a train headed toward Austria. From August 1944 to April 1945 Marta and Julianna were forced to move into an all-Jewish building. They retrieved some valuables that Laszlo had buried in his mother’s grave.
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