Prewar leisure activities in Szeged

György Pető (Dec 20, 1906-1971) was a talented violin player, photographer, and class lottery businessman in the southern Hungarian city of Szeged. He began making 8mm films in 1938. Pető was first in a Jewish forced labor company in Kiszombor in 1940. After returning home, Pető married Eva Lengyel (d. 1970) on September 8, 1941. They had a son, András, on October 3, 1943. Pető was again transported to the Ukraine with another forced labor batallion, where he was captured, and imprisoned in a Soviet POW camp near Zaporozje. He escaped somehow and returned to Szeged. The Jews from Szeged, including Eva, baby András, and many Lengyel family members, were deported during the summer of 1944. They were transported to Strasshof and later to Neunkirchen (Austria) where baby András and Eva's mother and father died. Pető’s mother Zseni was killed at Auschwitz. His brother László died. Eva returned to Szeged in 1945; Pető followed one month later. In 1946, Eva and György had a second child, Katalin Pető. When all of Pető’s property was confiscated by the communist regime in Hungary in 1949, he escaped with his family to the city of Budapest where he established himself as viola player in the Budapest Operetta Theater. Kodak Safety Film logo. Title card: “Most Ugrik A Majom A Vizbe - és más bohóságok”. More titles in Hungarian throughout the reel, some humorous, some identifying individual people, presumably appearing in the following sequences. Man plays tennis. He sits in a dimly lit room, speaking. Large sports field, spectators gather in the stands. Man dives in water. 01:55 Pető checks the water temperature. Reverse shots. Filming from behind the steering wheel in a moving vehicle. Nice close shots of seated spectators. Soccer team. Men boating and fishing. Farmers moving bales of hay with horse-drawn carriages. CU, Endre Kardos, good friend of Pető, drives motorboat. 04:54 Kardos and other men arrive in Szeged city and get out of a vehicle, they drink coffee, read newspapers. Sign: “Pető Sorsjegy” shop and storefront with advertisements. INTs, class lottery business, customers. Marika, the niece of Pető, and János, the nephew of Pető, exit their apartment in Szeged, with their nanny. Toddler János pushes a carriage. Marika walks along the streets with her aunt Rózsa Pető (older sister of Gyorgy), they pass in front of the lottery shop. More street scenes with the children. János relieves himself outdoors. Boy poses with Aunt Rose for camera. Film ends 08:26