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• Apu’s grandmother.
• Daughter of David Bienenstock and Julia Fischer
• Wife of Sàndor Bienenstock who was her 1 st cousin (second marriage to Tassi)
• Mother of Irma Bienenstock
• Tall and calm and a beautiful woman when she was 80 years old. Tall and straight,
  she was a very imposing lady.
• She had a sister who was 3 years younger.
• She had two daughters.
• They spent a lot of time in Zám.
• The financial side of the village was in the hands of the Bienenstock’s (Apu’s
  maternal grandparents).
• In autumn the shoppers overran the village and the two-storey hotel.
• The peasants loved her, but not her second husband.
• Her ménage consisted of two Hungarian families and various Romanian servants.
• 1918 she contracted the Spanish flu, but she survived.

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

• Father of three sons: Mor Montag, Vilmons Montag and Wilhelm Montag.
• One of the leaders of the Hungarian Uprising.
• Died at the Battle of Zenta on the 1st of February 1849. The town was overrun by
  Serbs who killed everyone they caught. It was a horrific slaughter.

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

• Apu’s Father.
• Son of Moricz Fritz and Rozalia Wertheimer
• Husband of Irma Bienenstock
• Father of Laszló Fritz and Sàndor Fritz
• He was a Major in WW1, decorated Imperial Order of Leopold (Austria)
• He was born in Demend (now Demendice in Slovakia). In fact the name was
  spelled for generations Fricz (Slovak spelling) and was germanised to Fritz. They
  were landowners.
• He had an elder sister (Rozalia Fritz) and elder brother (Zsigmond Fritz).
• When a child the family migrated to USA, but later returned to Hungary.
• When still in America he followed the socialists.
• He was taken out of college (because he failed his exams) and he became a
  printer’s apprentice.
• Since he had not matriculated he was only able to be a lower level clerk. He
  matriculated when he was 28 years old and in 1918 before the Romanian
  occupation he was the second highest officer in the Arad County Postal Service. He
  was chief accountant.
• His uncle was the district medical superintendant. The whole family except them
  were very well off. Apu did not know them.
• Was a major in the war and was the Postmaster General of the Montenegro Central
  Postal Services. Decorated with the Knight of the Order of Lipot
• Commander of Montenegro during World War I. Post-master general during the
  French occupation of Arad and surrounding region, after WWI.
• With double pay he was accommodated in the Montenegro Royal Palace.
• He sent beautiful miniature gold pieces such as a fully furnished doll’s house home.
  A Thora roll in gold casing etc.
• When Apu’s parents married his father got the dowry in gold. It was so much that
  they needed a carriage to take it to the bank. As part of the dowry there was also a
  forest in Keszend in Apu’s mother’s name.
• When Apu’s parents got married they moved to Zám.
• It was probably an arranged marriage with Apu’s mother.
• He was an excellent father, a good friend, who knew how to live. Both the family
  and the social lives were lived on a high level.
• He was an avid stamp collector. In 1919 when we were under French occupation,
  he was the one who with two friends issued the reprinted Hungarian stamps with
  the French Occupation overprint. There were about 400-500 series. Since they
  were rare people bought them for investment until somebody started counterfeiting
  them and their value dropped.
• The stamp collection was used to cover Ferry Imre’s (Apu’s cousin’s) studies in
  Germany.
• In the afternoon he went to the club after he left the office. He knew everybody and
  everybody liked him.
• When he came back from the war, he bought an old house in the Aulich Lajos
  Street and he made it into a castle. In the end it cost double, the garden was laid
  out by the chief gardener of the city. The renovation was carried out by the best
  architect.
• He died during an operation despite two of the best doctors (Profs Popp and Gara)
  being in attendance.
• Buried in Jewish cemetery, Arad.

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

• 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

• Daughter of Geza Eles and Lilly Montagh
• Wife of Laszló Fritz (Apu)
• Mother of Peter Fritz and Anne Fritz
• Sister of Dr György Éles
• Married Apu in 1940, most of the trousseau came from Budapest. The silverware
  and the other valuables were lost in a fire as they were not able to be brought down
  to Arad during the war.
• In 1945 when Apu went up to Budapest to take some food all the jewels were still
  with the family in Budapest. In the end all the buildings were nationalised and
  became State owned property.
• Apu and Katò emigrated in December 1961 and met the Forrai family at the train
  station in Budapest.

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

• The father of Lilly Montagh (Apu’s mother in law), Tibor Montagh, Pal Montagh andAda "Dolly" Montagh.
• He was an accountant.
• Jozsef Montagh and his family lived at 20 Andrassy ut. Their estate was Kaszaperpuszta, a 450 kataszter hold property, and Mako puszta, another 200 kataszter holdestate.
• The only gas field in Hungary was on this property.
• After Jozsef Montágh died the children inherited the assets and the widow held alife interest. The two daughters (Lilly and Ada “Dolly”) inherited part of the estate(the buildings and infrastructure) but the largest part of the assets (the land) was6inherited by his two sons (Tibor and Pali). The trust was set up so that the estatehad to remain together.
Footnote: https://fritzfamilyarchive.com/index.php/apus-family-history