Leopoldina’s sisters and brothers all left for Austria soon after the First World War, where they built middle‑class lives and families. The only photograph of them together in the family archive was taken in the mid‑1960s somewhere in the foothills of the Alps, where both brothers and Leopoldina’s son Hansi lived. Seated from left to right are Josef/Pepi, Maria/Mitzi, Theodora/Dora, and Hermann.
As grandchildren, we came to know only Leopoldina’s eldest sister, tante Mitzi, who regularly visited Maribor. She rarely attempted to speak Slovene, but she was always cheerful and could even make her niece Poldika laugh. She never spoke about her sister Leopoldina in front of the grandchildren.
