The Kallos Family Book 2022

12 • THE KALLOS FAMILY
Barbara (Biri) Kallos
Barbara (Biri) Kallos describes her childhood in
Ťačovo before the war as one in which she was
surrounded by a loving family and privilege.
She attended Czech junior public school
in the south of Ťačovo near the Tisa River; her
younger brother Laci and her first cousins Babi
and Ernst Tabak attended a different Czech
junior public school on Hustska ulica, Ťačovo.
Their grandparents Samuel and Sarah lived on
Hustska ulica, almost opposite the school.
As well as Czech school Ernst and Laci also
attended cheder, the Hebrew word for ‘one room’,
a Jewish day school for boys. This cheder was a
private primary school where Jewish boys who
went to non-Jewish day school, learnt the basics
of Jewish religion and traditions before and after
junior school hours. When the boys complained
that their teacher, Mr Basch, employed corporal
punishment, Zoltan withdrew them. He did not
want any of his children to be subjected to
corporal punishment.
By that time the boys had sufficient knowledge
to enable them to soon start to prepare
for their Bar Mitzvahs, and Biri and Babi were
receiving private lessons at home in the Hebrew
alphabet and prayers. Two young boys from a
nearby village, who were learning tailoring in
Ťačovo with Abraham Ickovic, were employed
by Zoltan to teach the girls.
Although Biri’s maths was poor, she was
good at languages and so, from when she was
11 until she was 13, after passing the entrance
exam, Biri attended a gymnasium, a high standard
secondary school that prepared students
for university, on Krásná Street in Chust, now
Khust, in Ukraine. The gymnasium was part of
one of the grandest public buildings erected in
Czechoslovakia during the 1920s.
In her first year Biri travelled daily the 27 kilometres
by train to Chust, northwest of Ťačovo.
She left at 7am for the 7.45am school start, but
because her parents did not want her to get up
so early, they arranged for her to board in Chust
with two Hungarian nationalist Jewish families,
the Nemes and Krausses, for the duration of her
studies. Under Czech rule, neither of the male
breadwinners were permitted to practise his
Barbara (Biri) Kallos in 1934,
aged 8, dressed as a butterfly
for her Czech junior school
theatrical performance. Due
to her perfect Czech and good
memory, Biri always had the
lead role.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BARBARA
KALLOS.
The Masaryk colony and
gymnasium in Chust, a Czech
state housing complex designed
by architect Jindich Friewald,
was built between 1923 and
1926. Barbara Kallos attended
gymnasium there.
PHOTO FROM WITH THEIR BACKS TO THE
MOUNTAINS, USED WITH PERMISSION OF
THE AUTHOR, PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI.