Archive / Pictorial documents

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120 pictorial documents about immigration and internal migration in Switzerland

A 8 new: Object/ coat hanger

A 8 new: Object/ coat hanger

Actually, I don't have any things that remind me of my place of origin. I was just a child when we emigrated. My memories are far more of feelings than of things. Feelings which are connected with the experiences of my childhood, for instance with the first day at school, first communion, confirmation, or with playacting, which I particularly loved.

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G 6: Object/ recipe book

G 6: Object/ recipe book

My sisters put this recipe book together for me before I moved to Switzerland.

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C 5: Object/ mother's brooch

C 5: Object/ mother's brooch

I inherited this brooch from my mother. My mother, who had stayed behind in Hungary, took her own life in 1960, after my brother had been sentenced to death in the Imre Nagy trial and had been executed in 1958, and the Kàdàr regime had made it impossible for her to see those of her family who had fled abroad, even though she had become very ill.

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C 2: Object/ unfinished embroidery

C 2: Object/ unfinished embroidery

When we fled from Hungary, my mother gave me this piece of embroidery so that I would have something to do if I got bored.

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C 1: Object/ cuddly tiger

C 1: Object/ cuddly tiger

Aunt Ali, with whom we stayed directly after our flight, one day came with two cuddly tigers from home: one was for me and one for my sister. I was really happy with this present, because I had had to leave Bruno, my teddy bear, behind in Hungary.

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B 22: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ parents

B 22: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ parents

My parents in March 1995, while they were on a visit to us in Switzerland: my father proudly holds his granddaughter on his arm.

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B 21: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ upholsterer

B 21: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ upholsterer

I quickly found good work in Switzerland. I was lucky, because I could practice my trade as an upholsterer, which I'd learned in Ankara, here too.

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B 20: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ Armenian church

B 20: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ Armenian church

In this little village in eastern Anatolia, where I spent the first nine years of my life, stand the remains of an old Armenian church. I can recall that the farmers often used it as a storehouse.

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B 19: Object/ pipe

B 19: Object/ pipe

This pipe was given to me as a present from a friend in 1968, while we were taking part in a political demonstration together.

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B 17: photo/ 9 x 9 cm/ colour/ with a friend

B 17: photo/ 9 x 9 cm/ colour/ with a friend

This photo is from the period when I had decided to emigrate and was preparing for my journey to Europe. I was convinced that there was no future for me in my country, because I'd seen that social structures were lacking and that, politically, chaos prevailed.

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B 16: Object: dish with lid

B 16: Object: dish with lid

My mother had this dish - filled with halva - from her mother. In this way my grandmother expressed the wish that her daughter's mouth should always be sweet and kept free of bitterness. Since my mother died young, this dish came to me empty.

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B 15: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ first day in Switzerland

B 15: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ first day in Switzerland

After a long journey I finally arrived in Switzerland. I'd chosen to travel by bus rather than fly. That way I had more time, because the thought of arriving in a foreign country and meeting my intended husband, whom I'd only known through letters, telephone calls and photos, made me pretty nervous.

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B 14: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/colour/a walk

B 14: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/colour/a walk

In my first year I got to know my neighbourhood through many walks. I would often stop in the park nearby and watch the birds. It saddened me at that time that I couldn't speak with people while I was out. Older people especially would speak to me now and then, but my German was too poor at that time for me to understand them properly.

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B 3: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ my best friend

B 3: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ my best friend

My best friend and I. We're wearing the compulsory Turkish school uniform.

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A 21 new: Photo/ A5/ /landscape /black and white/ family portrait

A 21 new: Photo/ A5/ /landscape /black and white/ family portrait

My parents and my nine siblings, four brothers and five sisters. At that time we were the only family in Mollens who spoke German. So they'd always call after us "sales boches".

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G 15: Document/ passport with photo

G 15: Document/ passport with photo

Everyone tells me I should get myself naturalised. But look at me: do I look like a Swiss? My roots are in Calabria, I was born and grew up in Milan, and I'm proud of my origins. I'm a guest in Switzerland.

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G 14: Document/ postal receipts

G 14: Document/ postal receipts

I learned German in evening classes at the vocational school. I couldn't afford expensive German courses, not least because I was supporting my family in Italy financially.

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G 5: Postcard/ landscape/colour / Trapani

G 5: Postcard/ landscape/colour / Trapani

It took me twenty years to integrate, because I always lived with my husband's idea that we would one day go back to Sicily. After he died I actually tried it. I moved to the house we'd built in Trapani. Soon I came back here, because I felt like a fish out of water there.

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G 4: Document/ A4/ 'Quaderni Emigrazione'

G 4: Document/ A4/ 'Quaderni Emigrazione'

"the seasonal workers: who they are, where they work, how they live and what they experience."

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G 8: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour / Grassano (home village)

G 8: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour / Grassano (home village)

I want to go back to Italy, and soon. My friend, who's from Friaul, and I want to spend some time in the south, some time in the north, and some time in Switzerland. I've always wanted to go back to my village. Now it looks as though this long-held wish of mine will come to pass.

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G 10: Object/ Oregano

G 10: Object/ Oregano

The scent of oregano reminds me of my grandfather's house, where I grew up. We didn't have a stove, but a very large open fireplace and an oven in which bread was often baked and potatoes, seasoned with garlic, oregano and a little olive oil, were baked.

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F 22: Object/ folk costume, various items of clothing

F 22: Object/ folk costume, various items of clothing

These items of clothing are part of the old Serbian folk costume. In my husband's family they are guarded as a kind of family treasure. They are passed on from generation to generation, from grandfather to father to son.

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F 20: Object/ gusla

F 20: Object/ gusla

The guzla is a traditional instrument, on which my ancestors also played. While playing the guzla the musicians would often tell stories of the old days: stories of heroes' fates, famous battles, the struggle for freedom, and lots of other things.

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F 19: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour /at the entrance to the place where I was born

F 19: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour /at the entrance to the place where I was born

I particularly love this photo. It shows me at the entrance to the place where I was born, Mojkovac. The photo was taken many years after I'd left the place. At that time I was showing my husband where I had spent my childhood and early youth.

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G 1: Objekt/ horseshoe

G 1: Objekt/ horseshoe

Every time when I - back from Italy - emptied my suitcase, I'd find a horseshoe in there. My mother always packed one secretly for me. Now I've got I don't know how many!

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F 18: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ poetry department

F 18: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ poetry department

In the secondary school the emphasis of my education was on mathematics. However, I also loved reading poems, and so I became a member of a group called the 'poetry department'. Together with our teacher we travelled on invitation to places in the district and recited our poems.

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G 2: Object/ coffee grinder

G 2: Object/ coffee grinder

In Calabria this coffee grinder always stood on the kitchen table. Since I left home, it's at my place in the kitchen.

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G 13: Postcard/ portrait/ colour/ San Marco dei Cavoti

G 13: Postcard/ portrait/ colour/ San Marco dei Cavoti

It was only after I'd been in Switzerland for a good eight years that I was sure I didn't want to go back to Italy directly. This decision was a heavy blow to my parents, who were living as before in San Marco dei Cavoti.

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G 12: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ my father

G 12: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ my father

My father was very authoritarian. He used to say: "the command is beautiful, obedience is sacrosanct, and you must simply obey. Don't ask why, just do it, that's all".

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G 11: Object/ fossilised mussel

G 11: Object/ fossilised mussel

In the holidays I'd always go back to Campania with my wife and two sons. On one of our walks around my home village we discovered this fossilised mussel in an open field.

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B 6: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/grandparents

B 6: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/grandparents

I spent the first seven years of my life with my granparents in a village in the region of Kastamonu. I spent the next ten years in Istanbul, then I travelled to Switzerland. My father met me at the airport. I knew him only from the summer holidays. He looked exactly as my grandmother had always described him: a powerful man with strong hands.

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B 5: Object/shoes (folklore)

B 5: Object/shoes (folklore)

I performed as a folk dancer in these shoes for many years. I wore them first in Ankara, and then in Zurich.

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B 4: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ first school class

B 4: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ first school class

This photo was taken when I joined the first school class. I had never been photographed before.

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A 20: Object/ bicycle clip

A 20: Object/ bicycle clip

My father worked as a shift worker in the Lonza. He used the bicycle clips on his way to work because, whether it was summer or winter, whether it was day or night, he'd always take the way from Ausserberg via Baltshieder to Visp and back on foot and by bike.

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A 32: Object/ piton

A 32: Object/ piton

Natrually, I didn't stay in Zurich on Saturdays and Sundays. At the weekends I'd go to the mountains, I used to be a pretty keen climber: at home in Toggenburg, but also in other places in Switzerland, in Wallis, on the Matterhorn - I did it all.

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A 27: Photo/ 9 x 9 cm/ portrait/ colour/ L. with mother

A 27: Photo/ 9 x 9 cm/ portrait/ colour/ L. with mother

I left home when I was sixteen and a half. I took a special basket with a lock. Not only I, but also my mother at home, had a key to this lock, so I could send my washing home to her.

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A 6: photo/ A5/ portrait/black and white/ Annelis at school in Brig

A 6: photo/ A5/ portrait/black and white/ Annelis at school in Brig

When we emigrated on 25 September 1958, I was eleven and a half years old. That's a day I'll never forget; when a great long removals lorry carries everything you own over the Grimsel pass, it's an experience you never forget. You think at that moment: if something happens now, we'll be left with nothing.

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D 8: Object/ travelling iron

D 8: Object/ travelling iron

I was well kitted out for my journey, with leather suitcase, writing case, leather cover for passport and driver's license, travelling iron, etc. I didn't want to appear to be from post-war Germany.

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D 7: Document/ letter of application

D 7: Document/ letter of application

I came to Switzerland to learn more about banking. Together with a friend I produced a letter of application, which I sent to five banks.

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D 6: Object/child's clothing

D 6: Object/child's clothing

I brought only a few clothes with me to Switzerland. From one of these, the red and white woollen dress with matching headscarf, I later made clothes for my daughter.

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D 5: Objet/ folding rule

D 5: Objet/ folding rule

My father was a civil engineer. As a child I was often allowed to go with him on visits to building sites. I was fascinated by his work, and so I wanted to become a civil engineer. However, I never got to fulfil my long-standing wish. My parents thought it wasn't a job for a woman.

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D 3: Object/ a school satchel made of Igelit

D 3: Object/ a school satchel made of Igelit

This is my old school satchel. It has a penetrating smell. And that is how my bag smelled, it smelled in the train in the east - that's how the train smelled. The smell came from this material: it's called Igelit, this indestructible stuff.

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D 2: Object/ coursebook and botany book

D 2: Object/ coursebook and botany book

Before I left Germany I sold or gave away almost everything I owned. I didn't want to always have my old life around me. I wanted to be open to new experience and impressions. But I kept just two books, coursebook no.17 from 1969, 'Woman and Society', and my botany book from school, a wooden footstool and my cat.

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C 15: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ son on a tricycle (10 Apri1 1977)

C 15: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ son on a tricycle (10 Apri1 1977)

Before we came to Switzerland, my son and I lived for a long time in a refugee camp in Traiskirchen, Austria. In general, that was a very bad place. But we also had happy moments; one day my son won first prize in a painting competition - a tricycle.

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A 19: Object/ headscarf (Religion)

A 19: Object/ headscarf (Religion)

When the cows were back from the alp, we had to get up in th mornings at four o'clock, because early mass started at five. That was dreadful: quickly getting up and hurrying out from the warm into the cold. That was religion, you had to go to church.

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C 14: Object/ document / Edelfix

C 14: Object/ document / Edelfix

My father invented the adhesive 'Edelfix'. In the early days he hawked it to various jewellers. However, the goldsmith C.Schlatter took over the glue business.

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C 13: Object/ photo album / Leporello with a shoe

C 13: Object/ photo album / Leporello with a shoe

I made the photo album in handicraft classes, and also took the snaps. They were taken in 1975, when I for the first time visited Budapest, a city my parents had left in 1956, with my mother and brother.

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F 11: photo/ bare A5/ landscape/ black and white/ 'beard club'

F 11: photo/ bare A5/ landscape/ black and white/ 'beard club'

At the beginning of the 1980s we founded an informal debating club in Cacak. We called it the 'beard club'.

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F 10: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ parents

F 10: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ parents

This photo of my parents is my favourite. Since I left home, I've always had it in mind; one night I even dreamed of it. So when I was spending some time in Cacak I brought it with me back to Switzerland.

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F 9: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/farewell

F 9: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/farewell

My husband and I are already in the sleeper heading for Zurich. Outside on the platform stand our friends and relations. This is another leavetaking from Yugoslavia.

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G 3: Document/ A4/ mother's letter

G 3: Document/ A4/ mother's letter

A letter from my mother from October 1966: she thanks me for the money she's received and asks me to send more soon. . . .

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A 28: Object/walnut pencil case (schooldays)

A 28: Object/walnut pencil case (schooldays)

My teacher often didn't have it easy with us boys. We simply had trouble sitting quietly for so long in the schoolroom, because we were used to freedom and to playing outdoors.

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A 10 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ 'my reason for staying in Zurich'

A 10 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ 'my reason for staying in Zurich'

One evening, as I was visiting a motorbike club event in the Sonne Restaurant at Helvetiaplatz with an other tessiner and my room-mates, she was there too. She was seventeen at the time. She was very young and also very shy.

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B 8: Object/money

B 8: Object/money

Beofre my journey to Switzerland, I had to save money, of course. That wasn't so easy at all. I've kept six US dollars from those savings to the present day.

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B 7: objet / Petite veste tricotée

B 7: objet / Petite veste tricotée

On m'avait raconté qu'en Suisse, il faisait souvent terriblement froid, alors je me suis mise à tricoter avec application avant de partir.

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C 11: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ kindergarten

C 11: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ kindergarten

I have lived since childhood in two worlds: the Swiss and the Hungarian. At kindergarten and at school I spoke German, but in my free time, in the Hungarian scouts and with my parents, Hungarian.

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C 10: Object (Document/reproduction)/ A4/ mother's letter to my grandmother

C 10: Object (Document/reproduction)/ A4/ mother's letter to my grandmother

Arriving in Austria, my mother gave this letter to my grandmother to a refugee returning to Hungary. In it she said that she had a chance to go to Switzerland and would take note of it. The young man never put it in an envelope, but nonetheless delivered it.

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C 12: Document/ photo album/ A4/ landscape / pictures of Dora as a child

C 12: Document/ photo album/ A4/ landscape / pictures of Dora as a child

The photos come from my grandmother. My parents, often sent pictures of my brother Bandi and me to her; she had stayed in Budapest

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A 33 new: Photo/ bare A 5/ landscape/ black and white/ Bally

A 33 new: Photo/ bare A 5/ landscape/ black and white/ Bally

This happened one time at work: I was there to decorate a shop window, and the boss came over to me and said: 'Mr G, you don't speak very good German'. So I answered him: 'listen, should I learn German or do my work well?'

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B 13: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ sw/ secondary school days

B 13: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/black and white/ sw/ secondary school days

My schoolfriend and I from our days at the secondary school. Neither of us had any inkling then that I would one day marry her brother.

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B 12: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/wedding without a bridegroom

B 12: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/wedding without a bridegroom

I came to know my husband as a penfriend. Since he lived in Switzerland and it wasn't possible for him to enter Turkey, we decided long-distance to become engaged and get married. Before I travelled to my bridegroom in Switzerland, I celebrated the wedding to come with my family in Turkey.

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B 11: Object/ Handicraft

B 11: Object/ Handicraft

I always had great fun doing handicraft in the kindergarten, and I've kept my first 'artwork' until today.

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B 10: photo/ bare A5/ lanscape/ black and white/ first school class

B 10: photo/ bare A5/ lanscape/ black and white/ first school class

My first school year in Zurich: there were just thirteen boys and girls in my class, and I was one of the few foreign children.

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A 11: Object/ copper kettle with lid and stand

A 11: Object/ copper kettle with lid and stand

At home we had about a hundred and fifty pieces of copper tableware. We had the right container for everything, from coffee to polenta and minestrone. And before any big party al of these copper pots had to be polished with Sigolin until they shined. There was no playing football then.

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A 17 new: Photo/postcard size/landscape /black and white/ family photo

A 17 new: Photo/postcard size/landscape /black and white/ family photo

There nine of us children, five girls and four boys. I first had to go away from home when I was eight or nine years old. That was really bad. In the summer we led our cows over the Simplon, and on the way there I was taken to a woman who needed a little herder.

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A 22 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ marriage

A 22 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ marriage

In Döttingen it was the custom on 1 May that there was a dance in the big room at the Bahnhof Hotel. I went there with to or three friends and was the only one who didn't have the heart to ask a woman to dance. When it came to the ladies' choice she asked me - and then in the end we married.

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A 12: Object/ painted box

A 12: Object/ painted box

When I went to Zurich, I took a suitcase - one of those brown ones made of cardboard. In it I had packed a few clothes as well as books, my work reference, a small salami and this box, on which I'd painted my village. In the box I put the cyclamen, the photos from home, and the Cologne that I'd been given by my first flame.

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A 30: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ policeman

A 30: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ policeman

At the beginning of October 1954 I took up my post in Zurich. I had to report to public office no. 1 at the headquarters. On that day about fifty men, all between twenty-five and thirty years old, coming from all different regions of Switzerland, took up service.

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F 5: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ colour/ at the Rheinfall

F 5: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ colour/ at the Rheinfall

In the first months I spent in Switzerland I travelled around a great deal at the weekends and visited the sights: here I am with a friend gazing at the Rheinfall.

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F 4: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ older daughter's birthday in Licki Osik (Croatia)

F 4: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ older daughter's birthday in Licki Osik (Croatia)

At the end of the 1950s I applied successfully for work with a military enterprise in the Lika region of Croatia. I only brought my wife and children over when I had passed the probationary period. We celebrated the first birthday of my eldest daughter in our new home particularly lavishly.

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F 3: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ M. with friend, 1947

F 3: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ M. with friend, 1947

This photo comes from the time I was in Novi Sad looking for work. I was eighteen at the time.

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F 1: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ parents' wedding photo

F 1: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ parents' wedding photo

My parents married in 1927. Two years later I was born in Bela Crkva. I spent my first three years in a city flat with my father Gvozden and my mother Jovanka, grandmother Milica, brother Miodrag and sister Radmila.

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F 2: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ school class

F 2: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ school class

I attended the fourth class of the primary school in Novi Zednik with more than forty other children.

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E 5: Object/ woollen socks

E 5: Object/ woollen socks

In my imagination, Switzerland with its Alps was a cold country with long icy winters. So I packed warm clothes before my departure, including these woollen socks.

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E 3: Object/a pair of black shoes

E 3: Object/a pair of black shoes

I'd intended to visit my brother in Kosovo. I wanted to give him these shoes. The war delayed my visit - and sent my brother on the run barefoot.

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A 25: Object/ cheese ring

A 25: Object/ cheese ring

When I was a child, there was no family income supplement, no assistance for farmers or other people in the mountains, no social security. We relied on being able to look after ourselves.

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A 1 new: photo/postcard size/landscape/black and white/ 19 years old with grandfather

A 1 new: photo/postcard size/landscape/black and white/ 19 years old with grandfather

My grandfather, like both my great-grandfathers, was a train driver. It was his belief that someone in the family should study. So he paid for my studies, and also chose the subject. It wasn't my favourite subject, as I came to realise in the course of time. Nonetheless, I completed my studies at the ETH (Federal Technical University) in Zurich as an elecrtical engineer, although I never worked in this profession.

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A 4: Object/ a group of photos of Locarno

A 4: Object/ a group of photos of Locarno

Before the afternoon of 14 July 1956, when I arrived at the main station on the train from Locarno, I had never been in Zurich. I hadn't taken any great farewells at home, because I'd envisaged going home every two or three weeks.

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A 14 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Edda with her brother in Poschiavo

A 14 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Edda with her brother in Poschiavo

I first left home at sixteen. At that time I attended the women's school in Chur. I was always terribly homesick, especially for my family.

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D 1: Document/ advertisement

D 1: Document/ advertisement

In the Mitteldeutschen Zeitung, which had formerly been called Die Freiheit and was the party paper, I read this advert, and was completely fascinated. I applied. I just thought I'd try it once. It worked, and so I came to Switzerland as a nurse, though not to Luzern but to Aarau.

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D 4: Object/ leather pouch with fountain pen

D 4: Object/ leather pouch with fountain pen

My brother sent me this pouch as a birthday present when he was in the war in Russia. That was during my schooldays. He made the pouch himself from the leather bag where his identity disc was kept, cut it up and then sewed the parts together.

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A 23: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Isenthal

A 23: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Isenthal

After the school I worked the winter of 1944-45 at an altitude of 1600 metres as a farm labourer. My wages: thirty francs a month. I sent the money home. Because I couldn't find any work in Isenthal, I went in the autumn of 1945 to Altdorf. I worked there as an assistant in a bakery. My wages: eighty francs a month.

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G 7: Postcard/ landscape/ colour/ house

G 7: Postcard/ landscape/ colour/ house

This picture postcard shows the house I lived in until I was twenty. You can see the window of the flat of the two tailoresses who lived in the same house. I spent many hours with them, playing with buttons, trimmings and coloured threads.

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F 7: photo/ 8 x 8 cm/ portrait/ colour/ father with horses

F 7: photo/ 8 x 8 cm/ portrait/ colour/ father with horses

I've never lost contact with my home and my relations. My family lived on the land and had everything except money. I'd help them out from time to time. I did more for my old father - I sent him pocket money every month.

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F 6: photo/ 8 x 6 cm / landscape/ black and white/childhood photo

F 6: photo/ 8 x 6 cm / landscape/ black and white/childhood photo

As a child I was a restive and curious creature. I was always dreaming of seeing and discovering the wide world. As soon as the chance came to leave, I took it. I went more from curiosity than from need.

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F 8: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/Sarajevo

F 8: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/Sarajevo

Returning is out of the question for me, even after I finish working. So many things have changed in my homeland, and it's no longer the place that meant so much to me.

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E 2: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/ in front of the barracks

E 2: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/ in front of the barracks

The first photo of me in my life was taken after I was discharged from military service in Sarajevo. I'd hardly left the barracks when a man said 'stop! I want to tae a picture of you'. I was worried because I thought the photographer was a provocateur who wanted to do something with my picture.

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E 1: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/ family

E 1: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ colour/ family

There are only a few photos showing me with my wife and two children. I've lived here in Switzerland for over twenty years, but my family live in Kosovo.

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C 9: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ mother

C 9: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/ mother

My mother, a school-leaver, fled Hungary in 1956 at the age of eighteen through Austria to Switzerland. Because of her middle-class background -her father was an officer, and her grandfather a judge - she wasn't allowed to study. When her cousin and his parents came by to take their leave, she decided on the spur of the moment to go with them.

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C 7: Object (Document/reproduction)/ mother's diary

C 7: Object (Document/reproduction)/ mother's diary

My mother's diary entry of Wednesday, 24 October 1956: 'In the morning I was on my way to the swimming baths, but ... REVOLUTION! A mad noise of gunfire and tanks. All the trams and buses are at a standstill, the businesses are shut . . .'

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A 7: Object/ photo of Ernen ( Annelis's mother and grandmother's place of origin), with frame

A 7: Object/ photo of Ernen ( Annelis's mother and grandmother's place of origin), with frame

One day they said, 'okay, we're emigrating!' Canada was mentioned. Mama was happy that the destination in the end was Thurgau, even though Thurgau has always remained a foreign place to her. We never went back to Brig. Now and then we'd go to Ernen where my Grandmother lived and my mother had grown up.

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A 9: Document/ A4/ portrait/ apprentice's certificate

A 9: Document/ A4/ portrait/ apprentice's certificate

I completed my banking apprenticeship when I was eighteen. My father said: 'you're the oldest, the others also want to learn something'. After the apprenticeship I went to Zurich to learn the language.

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A 15 new: Document/ 5.5 x 7 cm/ portrait/ advertisement

A 15 new: Document/ 5.5 x 7 cm/ portrait/ advertisement

I worked ten years in a restaurant in Schwamendingen, often up to sixteen hours a day. And at home I had three children to look after. I had a very difficult time then. When I was forty-five years old, I went to a specialist school for publicans and then took over the Letzi Restaurant in District 6. By that time luckily the twins were already out of the woods. So at last I could breathe easy.

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A 13: Object/ photo with frame/bare A4/ Meride in 1909

A 13: Object/ photo with frame/bare A4/ Meride in 1909

That's our little store. You can see my father and grandfather in the picture - I hadn't been born at that time. The square in front of the store looks exactly the same today.

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A 16 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Portrait, 1950, 'young Luise'

A 16 new: Photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ Portrait, 1950, 'young Luise'

The first time I really left Ausserberg was when I went from Visp to Neuchatel. A job had been arranged for me there through an acquaintance. She said: 'I've got something good for you. The family has a brasserie, we'll go there and present ourselves'. The landlady was about sixty years old and lived in a stately house. At the end she asked me: 'can you cook?' I answered cheekily: 'yes', even though of course I hadn't the first idea about it.

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B 9: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/colour/school uniform

B 9: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/colour/school uniform

When I was eleven years old, my parents returned to Turkey with us children. I felt very strange there at first. I could hardly speak Turkish, and I had to wear a uniform to school.

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A 24: Photo/postcard size/landscape /black and white/ 7 brothers and father in uniform

A 24: Photo/postcard size/landscape /black and white/ 7 brothers and father in uniform

I had seven brothers and two sisters. We boys slept two or three to a bed. There wasn't a mattress, but a sack full of dried beech leaves.

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A 2: photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ first communion (Religion)

A 2: photo/postcard size/portrait /black and white/ first communion (Religion)

The catholic church had a strong influence on me from childhood on. I am still active in the church today.

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G 9: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/black and white / mother with four children

G 9: Photo/ postcard size/ portrait/black and white / mother with four children

My mother, my siblings, and I. My father isn't in the photo, he lived and worked in Switzerland.

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A 3: photo/postcard size/landscape/black and white/ husband, Diadem, Ballo Dolder, 7 December 1959

A 3: photo/postcard size/landscape/black and white/ husband, Diadem, Ballo Dolder, 7 December 1959

The train had just set off towards the Tessin when a young man took a seat in our compartment. While my friend started chatting with him straight away, I hardly took any notice of him. I preferred to look out of the window. All I heard was that he was a Tessiner and was about to finish his ETH studies. Arriving in Bellinzona, he promised to reserve seats for us on the journey back to Zurich on Sunday night. That's how quietly a love story, a story of life, began.

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A 5: Object/ name tag

A 5: Object/ name tag

I already spoke German when I first came to Zurich. In fact, I'd learned German before my commercial apprenticeship as a school boarder at the Institut St. Ursula in Brig.

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A 31: Photo/ bare A 5/ portrait/ black and white/ conductor

A 31: Photo/ bare A 5/ portrait/ black and white/ conductor

When I was working at the post office in Basel I said to myself: 'this can't be it forever'. So I joined the railways and trained as a conductor. When I met my wife, I realised that this job wasn't ideal either: I didn't want to have to stay in different places day after day. Then I heard that they were looking for policemen in Zurich.

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A 26: Picture postcard/landscape/colour/ Stabio

A 26: Picture postcard/landscape/colour/ Stabio

I grew up in Stabio in a poor family. My father was a farmer. My three brothers and I all had to emigrate. At sixteen and a half I came to Zurich, did an apprenticeship here - and am still here today. For me there was no other choice but to go to Zurich.

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E 4: Object/ three white felt caps

E 4: Object/ three white felt caps

The white felt cap, 'plisi', is a part of the Albanian national costume. However, the men wear these every day. In my family this headdress is given from generation to generation: from my grandfather to my father and on to me.

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B 18: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ with friends

B 18: Photo/ postcard size/ landscape/colour/ with friends

At the beginning, of course, I couldn't speak German, so it was difficult for me to make contact. Over time, though, I've been able to develop friendly relations with many Swiss people.

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B 2: Postcard/postcard size/landscape/colour/ Nazilli

B 2: Postcard/postcard size/landscape/colour/ Nazilli

Nazilli is the main town of the region I come from. I left this region in 1996, because I didn't want to go into the army. I want to live in peace, not be killed, and not be forced to kill my fellow countrymen and women.

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B 1: Photo/postcard size/landscape/colour/the forecourt of my parents' house

B 1: Photo/postcard size/landscape/colour/the forecourt of my parents' house

The forecourt of my parents' house, where I played as a child with my brothers and friends.

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A 29 new: Object/ a piece of wood for tying things together with a rope

A 29 new: Object/ a piece of wood for tying things together with a rope

You can use this piece of wood when you want to bind something together with a rope. I brought it with me from Wallis because, for one thing, it can always come in handy: for instance, to carry hay - and for much more, too.

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F 17: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/S. in Belgrade, 1970

F 17: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/S. in Belgrade, 1970

When I ws nine years old I visited Belgrade for the first time - thanks to my uncle, who always took me on his travels whenever possible. This shows me on the Avala, Belgrade's local mountain and place for excursions.

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F 16: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ car

F 16: photo/ postcard size/ landscape/ black and white/ car

I bought my first car, a VW 1600 coupé, when I was eighteen.

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A 18: Object/ box ('Tesselschachtel'), 17th century

A 18: Object/ box ('Tesselschachtel'), 17th century

These boxes ('Tesselschachteln') were used earlier in our village to determine who was allowed to take water, as well as when, and how much, for irrigation. The water was piped to our village from far away, from the Baltschiedertal, and distributed to various families on particular days. So every family had a 'Tesselschachtel': on this was carved how much water one was entitled to, and on which days.

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F 15: photo/9 x 7 cm/ landscape/ black and white/ street

F 15: photo/9 x 7 cm/ landscape/ black and white/ street

My street in Cacak, which is called Dr Misevic Street. My family's house is that one on the right-hand edge of the picture.

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F 14: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/parents with Z.

F 14: photo/ postcard size/ portrait/ black and white/parents with Z.

Since I am an only child and my mother died young, it was very important for me to know what my father thought of my ideas about going away. But he wouldn't express his feelings on the matter - even though I insisted. He gave me to understand that I had to make such a decision myself.

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F 13: photo/ 13 x 9 cm/ landscape/ black and white/ grandparents

F 13: photo/ 13 x 9 cm/ landscape/ black and white/ grandparents

My grandparents on my mother's side, grandfather Radic and grandmother Marta. My grandfather was a prominent village landlord. He was a wonderful Gusla player, he played and sang Serbian folk songs too.

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C 6: Object/ place mat

C 6: Object/ place mat

In the Swiss schools children knitted things for us Hungarian refugees. I was given this mat in 1956. It was a much-loved and much-used item in our household.

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C 8: Object (Document/reproduction)/ father's escape plan

C 8: Object (Document/reproduction)/ father's escape plan

This was the route by which my father and two of his friends escaped to neighbouring Yugoslavia in January 1957.

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