Washington – Hand Written Notes Make Hungarian WWII Cookbook A Unique Find

Washington – A Washington, D.C. area woman got an added bonus when she bought a World War II era Hungarian cookbook online, which, in addition to containing a large collection of decades old recipes, featured several hand written inscriptions.

As originally reported by the JTA, 29 year old Tara Lotstein is a collector of Hungarian Judaica and owns several items including a pre-war Hungarian siddur from the town of Szeged, a 1942 OMZSA hagadah and a machzor. Ms. Lotstein purchased the cookbook, titled “A Zsido No Szakacskonyve”, which translates to “A Jewish Woman’s Cookbook”, from an Israeli seller on eBay in the fall of 2012 for $145.

“I was just looking for Hungarian Judaica books on Ebay and Etsy that were available for purchase in my price range,” Ms. Lotstein told VIN News. “I was looking for anything related to Hungarian Judaica or Budapest and this popped up. The listing didn’t have pictures of the opening page with the hand written inscriptions but it had photos of the recipes and I thought it would be fantastic to get it and to make the recipes.”

Ms. Lotstein holds dual international Masters degrees in Russian, Central and East European Studies and in Political Science, jointly awarded by the University of Glasgow and the Institute of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest. She speaks Hungarian, Russian, Romanian and German.

Upon receipt of the book, Ms. Lotstein was surprised to see several hand-written notations.

“ I saw the various writings and was stunned that someone would put it on eBay for the price that I got instead of contacting Yad Vashem or the Holocaust museum in D.C.,” said Ms. Lotstein.

The reverse side of the title page bears the script inscription “In memory of a really good friend” and is signed with the name Irene. Lower down on the page are the words “Admont, 1946 X.Y.”, which according to Ms. Lotstein, likely references the Admont displaced persons camp in Austria. Another hand written notation that appears to have been written by a child has the name “Roth Izsak” followed by “Kolozsvar”, which is located in present day Romania. A recipe for dinner rolls is written at the back of the cookbook.

“If one of the descendants could be located, if that is even possible, I would give the book over to them,” said Ms. Lotstein.

Finding the descendants of those who wrote in the cookbook, based on the inscription, will likely be difficult, according to Ms. Lotstein.

“There are only two names in the book, one of which is only a first name, the other very possibly belonging to a child,” said Ms. Lotstein, who said that once she became aware of the JTA’s “Seeking Kin” column, which tries to reunite long-lost friends and relatives, she decided to go public with her story.

“I hope the article will start a dialogue; as a result someone may reach out with pertinent information,” said Ms. Lotstein.

Should her efforts to find family members of those who wrote in the cookbook prove to be unsuccessful, Ms. Lotstein will decide if she will keep the book for her own collection or will donate it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Lotstein estimates that the cookbook, which also has recipes for Pesach, contains well over one hundred recipes.

“There may even be three times that amount,” remarked Ms. Lotstein. “I would love to make so many of them but there are things missing in the recipe, like the oven temperature and the size pan to cook the items in.”