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• Apu’s Mother
• Daughter of Sàndor Bienenstock and Malvina Bienenstock
• Wife of Adalbert Fritz
• She was an only child
• Apu remembers having holidays in Kőrösbökény, where his mother was born.
• Half the village belonged to them.
• She went to school in Arad.
• She finished with an intermediate school certificate.
• She was an excellent pianist with a beautiful voice.
• Buried in the Jewish cemetery in Arad.

• Son of Adalbert Fritz and Irma Bienenstock
• Husband of Katharina Éles and Jutka Szebényi
• Father of Peter Fritz and Anne Fritz
• His grandmother was the head of the family (Bienenstock). Apu got to know her
  when they moved to Zám.
• The house in Zám included a big shop, warehouses, bakery, distillery and orchard,
  forests and many other things.14
  -Zám was on the river Maros. It was the trading centre for 11 villages and the
  surrounding forests. The main produce was walnuts, apples, plums, firewood.
  These were taken to Arad on rafts.
  -Their residence was behind the shop.
  -When he moved there with his brother (Sandor) and mother (Irma ne Bienenstock)
  his grandparents (Bienenstock) built a separate house for them.
  -Apu’s brother went to school in Déva, so he was left with his mother. Her brother
  was home during the summer.
  -In those days the shop counted as a very big concern. The peasants shopped on
  credit until the harvest was in, when they sold the wheat and pálinka.
  -Apu’s life was wonderful.
  -Apu’s mother was very ill after he was born, and was not able to nurse him properly.
  -He was a very sickly child, so was rather spoilt.
  T-here was also a copper mine in the area, where Italian prisoners of war worked.
  The mine was managed by Apu’s grandmother’s cousin. The mine’s engineer lived
  next door. He had a son called Pubi, because his wife was German. He was about
  2-3 years older than Apu. They were friends.
  -Apu’s grandmother had something wrong with her stomach, so they killed a small
  chicken every day and Apu got one leg for himself.
  -They were well to do and lived well. For example they imported oranges from Italy,
  not to sell, but just for the family. His grandmother took him with her to Visonta for a health cure.
  -When the revolution broke out on 4 November 1918, they took refuge in Arad. They
  took a furnished room in an old house. His father was not back from the war yet. His
  grandparents lived somewhere else.
  -Apu said they had not a care in the world and their life was beautiful, they had a
  great social life.
  -Apu learned to play the piano, he started when he was 9, when he was 13 he got a
  middle ear infection. He loved music, in school was the second best accompanist
  on the piano – the one who was best later became a famous pianist and went to live
  in Sweden. Apu also learnt to play the flute and played in the orchestra. He played
  four handed on the piano with a friend who was 2 years older. Many young people
  came to know the symphonies at their home. Apu’s school friends came over on
  Sundays. Young teenagers, and they played music. They learned about Beethoven
  symphonies.
  -They were not very rich, but they always had enough to live comfortably. They had
  dances, costume balls,
  -Apu can still remember his grandmother dressed in a black dress with a white hand
  embroidered shawl.
  -The dining room and the sitting room was one big room.
  -They had two servants in the house, and when Apu’s mother went to the market
  one of them accompanied her to carry the basket.
  -Apu went with his mother to the dressmaker, who made their suits and dresses, and
  while his father was in his club, the two of them went to concerts.
  -This comfortable life ended when Apu’s brother went to Reichenberg to the textile
  institute. The value of the lei dropped against the Czech crown. They had to sell
  -Apu’s mother’s really big earrings and the Bösendorfer piano.
  -Apu was 21 years old when he noticed that the manager of the timber yard put
  sizable amounts of money in his pocket, (from contractors). When he started
  compulsory military service in 1933, the manager handed me 3,000.00 lei. At the 15 time my monthly salary was 200 lei. With this money I was able to bribe the military doctor, so I spent my military service in comfort.
  When Apu’s father retired, his salary was enough to pay the rent on a four room
  house, and there were only the three of them.
  -He married his best friend George Eles’s sister Kato.
  -As the second war broke out he was called into labour camp. His stay there was a
  day and a half long. It would have been shorter, just the colonel commanding the
  camp did not obey the Prime Ministers’ order to release Apu on the first telephone
  call.
  -He spent the war building his company.
  -Before the Russian army liberated Arad the Hungarian army occupied the town.
  -Within days the crematorium was erected. They fled towards the front. Eventually
  they met the Russians.
  -After the war business was very good until 1948 when the King was exiled and
  everything was taken from them.
  -In 1947 Ferry Imre’s (Apu’s cousin’s) was the one who arranged through his friend
  -Dr. Emerick Barch (who worked as the editor of the Telegraph) and Sir Frank
  Packer their entry permit to Australia.
  -He migrated to Australia, arriving on the 5 th of February 1962.
  -A visionary he built a reputation of great integrity and professionalism. With a strong
  sense of who he was and ego that needed no externalities to validate his self. He
  pioneered the Southern Highlands Wine growing industry first providing knowledge
  and money to establish Joajia Vinery and then a much bigger operation at his farm
  at Eling Forrest. Over a long life he quietly built the family’s reputation helping his
  son in establishing many companies, some of global proportions.
  -He was a happy man!!

Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

Apu’s mother in law.
Daughter of Jozsef Montagh and Olga Montagh.
Married Géza Éles.
Mother of György Éles and Katharina Éles.
The bankruptcy meant the loss of the Eles fortune but Lilly Montagh’s assets werenot touched. In fact 600 hectares in Mako (see above) were recognised by theHungarian state as still owned by the family after 1990 (her grandson Peter andgrand daughter Anne were the inheritors).
Eventually the Montagh family bought the original Eles grocery and delicatessenstore from the bankrupt estate and right up to the time it was confiscated by thecommunist regime after WW2 it provided the livelihood for Apu’s parents in law.
The Montagh’s were an influential Family, the 8 th richest in Budapest.
Lilly Montagh hated Bogszeg, she had always lived in Budapest. This was a smallRomanian village that she had to move to.
In 1918, when the Rumanian peasants robbed the mansion, they moved to Aradpermanently.
She was a beautiful woman and was the favourite of the Wellisch family. When theÉles family went bankrupt, Wellisch Gyula sent 1,000,000 lei so they could buy thegrocery store. This was to be part of Kató’s (Apu’s wife) dowry when she married.
Lilly got Gisella Schweiger’s furs, but the estate disappeared.
When the communist regime came into power she was taken to the rice fields.
Eventually allowed to return totally destitute. Could not take the indignity of herfinancial situation and being a burden to her children. She committed suicide withGeza her husband, but was revived and later threw herself of the second floor of abuilding and died.
Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

• Apu’s Uncle (Apu’s father’s brother).
• Father of Imre Ferry (Fritz).
• Worked at the Post Office.

Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

Armin Eles (1834 – 1918)

• Hungarianised the family name from Elias to Eles
• Married Nina Herz
• They had two sons, Béla and Géza.
• In 1913 the Eles family was discussing the family’s elevation to Barons with the name of Baro Bokszeggi es Kaszaperi Eles The request from the crown was the building of a hospital. Eventually the plans were dropped.
• Trained as a soap maker. Eventually becoming the head of the Soap Maker’s Guild,
  Member of the Free Imperial City Parliament etc.
• With his brother in law he bought Prince Karadordevics estates in Transylvania
  when the Prince was shot at on his estate. They were able to subdivide the estate
  and sold part of the land. A big part remained in their hands. Eles Armin later
  bought his brother-in-law’s share.
• Armin Eles was vice-president of the Arad Chamber of Commerce, deputy
  president of the Arad O.M.K.E. and member of the Arad free city legislature. He and
  his wife Nina, were founders of the Arad synagogue. Family crypt in Jewish
  cemetery, Arad.

Endnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

• Married to József Montágh, lived in Maria Valéria utca 1.
• She had three sister, Stefanie Schweiger (Wellisch Gyuláné), Hortense Schweiger
  (Zombori Stein), Gisella Schweiger (Gizi néni) and Irma Schweiger. None of them
  had any children.
• Mother of Tibor Montagh, Pal Montagh, Lilly Montagh and Ada "Dolly" Montagh
• During the war the German Army Headquarters moved into the building on Maria
  Valéria utca. When the German Army moved out the Russian Army moved in, there
  was a fire and the whole building burnt down to the ground.
• In this house, on the first floor, also lived Stefanie Schweiger (Wellisch Gyuláné)
  and Forrai Dezső and his family. On the other floors all the family members had
  their own apartments to live in when they came to Budapest.
• Olga Schweiger (Montágh Józsefné) had some beautiful jewellery. For example a
  pair of 4 carat diamond earrings. One was left to Kato the other one was left to Éva
  Forrai, who was killed by the Nazi’s.
• Apu saw Olga Schweiger last in 1936, when she came down to Arad. She was a
  beautiful elderly lady. The László Fülöp painting of Olga Schweiger which Apu
  bought from the relatives when visiting Budapest is now in Sydney.

Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

• Son of Jozsef Montagh and Olga Montagh.
• He did not marry, and never worked.

Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history

• Béla Éles’ wife.
• From a well known Hungarian very wealthy family.
• Guaranteed her husband’s IOUs up to 800,000.00 lei. When the debt
  reached this amount she divorced him and moved up to Budapest with their
  two daughters.

Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history