(Johnny writes) There’s a terrific set of photographs of Rudolf, Helene and Fritzi Markovits on holiday in the coastal resort of Abbazia in 1909 (so just a year before my granny Sylvia was born and became the fourth member of the family). They must have been taken by a professional photographer because they are high quality and have the location printed on, and the date marked on in white ink. The photos are in the brown photograph album that was apparently given to Helene on her 80th birthday, so a lovely reminder of happy times.
Back in those days Abbazia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so a handy holiday destination for people living in Vienna. Now it’s the Croatian town of Opatija. According to Wikipedia, the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I used to spend several months there during the winter.
Anyway take a look at the pictures: that’s them on the front row in the first picture- Rudolf in a black vest and hat, with his trademark moustache and Helene to his right. There’s a huge amount of energy in the pictures – more than you usually see in photos from this era. People are having a great time, it’s warm, they are relaxed. You can almost feel the holiday atmosphere and I can imagine the scene coming to life, with jokes and laughter. It makes me sad to see Rudolf and Helene having such a great time knowing that they would have to flee for their lives a few years in the future, and would have to leave behind their friends, and their Viennese culture. I can’t help wondering if any of the people in the picture ended up complicit in the Nazi regime.
Greenwood family history 