GÉZA KORNIS, Graduate Economist
   Was born on the 20th of January 1917 in Budapest, the son of merchant Karl Kornis and poet and author Else Kornis. From the age of two, he grew up in Temesvar in the Banat region where he attended primary and secondary school. His father passed away in 1933. He was responsible for the maintenance of his family at the early age of 17. Together with his cousin, Franz Mann, he managed his father’s paint and chemical shop and secured a middle-class living standard for both the Kornis and the Mann families.
   In autumn 1939, he joined the army and, as a member of a minority group, he served mainly in military labour camps. In 1940, 1941 and 1942 he was forced to perform hard labour in Jewish labour camps. In autumn 1942, he was arrested and deported to Transnistria, where he spent almost two years in the Vapniarka Concentration Camp and in the Olgopol Ghetto. As soon as he returned home in January 1944, he was once again taken to a labour camp for Jews and was finally liberated in September 1944.
   For this reason, he could only return to his merchant job at the end of 1944. His company was liquidated in 1948. In the same year, he moved to Bucharest, where he was employed by the government in the area of foreign trade. In his 25 years in the foreign trade sector, he was employed in different positions and became director of all regional branches of the “Fructexport” company. He was in charge of their organisation and continued his work at the head office in Bucharest as head of department. He often went abroad on business trips and founded “Fleurop” in Romania. He continued his professional education as a private student and, in June 1960, he acquired a foreign trade diploma which was recognised in Germany as an economics degree. He has been married to Susanne, born Schönberger, since April 1954. He adopted his wife’s daughter, who was born in 1950, and, with his wife, has another daughter, who was born in 1955.
   Geza Kornis and his family have been living in Germany since 1974 where he worked as a certified Romanian interpreter and translator for Hessian courts and notaries.
Books of  Memoires
-   Überlebt durch Solidarität
-   SURVIVAL THROUGH SOLIDARITY
-   Din viata mea si vremurile mele
* First Time in English