© Eszter Kerék

Name: Mária W., née St.
Mother tongue: Hungarian
Occupation: teacher
My objects: two volumes of poetry by Valéria Koch – Zuversicht/Bizalom (Confidence) and Stiefkind der Sprache(Stepchild of Language)
My story about:

A life-long friendship has connected us since 1936, four years spent in the German Leőwey Grammar School in Pécs, then the decades following until her death in 1998. I got to know many of her poems already at the time of their conception, we used to discuss them; her poetic and personal greatness follows me in my life, and her books of course, which I still have with me at all times: her words, images, our common mother tongue, the witnesses of our childhood and youth have stayed with me throughout many lonely evenings.
These books too, like the photos of the teacher from Vémend, preserve the memories of Germans from Baranya, from Vémend, Babarc, Szederkény, Görcsönydobok.