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Author: Irene Korponay Publisher: ISBN: 9781512396003 Category : Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
Against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion, the Soviet occupation, and the Hungarian Revolution, this memoir poignantly recounts a young girl's experience of the events that shattered an idyllic childhood and an elegant era of Hungarian history. SUMMARY: Nine-year-old Kinga is cossetted in the cocoon of an idyllic childhood along the banks of the Danube. Then come the Germans. Suddenly the streets and squares of the historic city of Esztergom are bulging with blonde, square-faced soldiers; shrieking sirens, announcing Allied air raids, paralyze the city with fear. In October of 1944, as the Nazis take over the medieval metropolis, Kinga watches her friend Rebecca, along with hundreds of other Jews, being herded into wagons for deportation. The child feels as if an enormous bird has blacked out the light, bringing death and destruction on its wings. This evocative personal narrative recounts the author's life from just prior to World World II to the 1950's, when Hungarian freedom stormed Budapest's Stalin Square, toppling dictator's monumental statue and demanding Soviet withdrawal from Hungary. This richly-textured, gripping account of catastrophic world events nonetheless manages to achieve an intimacy between author and reader with the immediacy of its first-person narrative style. Haunting vignettes of the people and places of war-torn, defiant Hungary not only portray the cataclysms of a nation under siege, but also describe a girl's coming of age in circumstances that heighten her need to find both a sense of self and intimate connections to others. Kinga moves from feeling that "Life tastes like drops of honey because I am too young to dwell on suffering" to being riddled by despair when a Soviet soldier puts a bullet through the head of her china doll. Richly woven into Kinga's eyewitness account of the Nazi invasion, the Soviet occupation, the Revolution, her escape to a refugee camp in Austria, barracks life at yet another camp in Vienna, and her eventual emigration to the United States are the stories of friends, relatives, and lovers. There are cousin Ester and her husband Sandor, a formal political prisoner abused in Siberia. The two broken lovers live in a single room where they play "Bolero" together on the piano, over and over and over again. There is Peter, Kinga's first love, shot to death by the Soviets as he is taking a warm bath in Kinga's house. There is cousin Eva, who fell in love with a member of the Soviet secret police, lived with him, tried to escape, and finally hanged herself when she was caught at the border. There is Tibor, Kinga's true love, who dies of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Vienna. There is Ria, the almond-eyed, high-class call girl who becomes Kinga's friend at the barracks; and there is Maca, who gets Kinga a part-time job with a businessman in Vienna who rapes her. Most of all, Kinga is a lyrical testimony to the courage, resilience, and invincibility of the human spirit. On her journey from pampered Hungarian aristocrat to impoverished Austrian refugee to "ordinary" American citizen, Irene Kinga Korponay learned to survive incredible ordeals- and to feel compassion for those who did not. Today when daughter Rita finds her mother in the garden daydreaming, Irene is remembering the friends and lovers who never got to taste life in a country where "freedom... is taller than the tallest trees."
Author: Irene Korponay Publisher: ISBN: 9781512396003 Category : Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
Against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion, the Soviet occupation, and the Hungarian Revolution, this memoir poignantly recounts a young girl's experience of the events that shattered an idyllic childhood and an elegant era of Hungarian history. SUMMARY: Nine-year-old Kinga is cossetted in the cocoon of an idyllic childhood along the banks of the Danube. Then come the Germans. Suddenly the streets and squares of the historic city of Esztergom are bulging with blonde, square-faced soldiers; shrieking sirens, announcing Allied air raids, paralyze the city with fear. In October of 1944, as the Nazis take over the medieval metropolis, Kinga watches her friend Rebecca, along with hundreds of other Jews, being herded into wagons for deportation. The child feels as if an enormous bird has blacked out the light, bringing death and destruction on its wings. This evocative personal narrative recounts the author's life from just prior to World World II to the 1950's, when Hungarian freedom stormed Budapest's Stalin Square, toppling dictator's monumental statue and demanding Soviet withdrawal from Hungary. This richly-textured, gripping account of catastrophic world events nonetheless manages to achieve an intimacy between author and reader with the immediacy of its first-person narrative style. Haunting vignettes of the people and places of war-torn, defiant Hungary not only portray the cataclysms of a nation under siege, but also describe a girl's coming of age in circumstances that heighten her need to find both a sense of self and intimate connections to others. Kinga moves from feeling that "Life tastes like drops of honey because I am too young to dwell on suffering" to being riddled by despair when a Soviet soldier puts a bullet through the head of her china doll. Richly woven into Kinga's eyewitness account of the Nazi invasion, the Soviet occupation, the Revolution, her escape to a refugee camp in Austria, barracks life at yet another camp in Vienna, and her eventual emigration to the United States are the stories of friends, relatives, and lovers. There are cousin Ester and her husband Sandor, a formal political prisoner abused in Siberia. The two broken lovers live in a single room where they play "Bolero" together on the piano, over and over and over again. There is Peter, Kinga's first love, shot to death by the Soviets as he is taking a warm bath in Kinga's house. There is cousin Eva, who fell in love with a member of the Soviet secret police, lived with him, tried to escape, and finally hanged herself when she was caught at the border. There is Tibor, Kinga's true love, who dies of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Vienna. There is Ria, the almond-eyed, high-class call girl who becomes Kinga's friend at the barracks; and there is Maca, who gets Kinga a part-time job with a businessman in Vienna who rapes her. Most of all, Kinga is a lyrical testimony to the courage, resilience, and invincibility of the human spirit. On her journey from pampered Hungarian aristocrat to impoverished Austrian refugee to "ordinary" American citizen, Irene Kinga Korponay learned to survive incredible ordeals- and to feel compassion for those who did not. Today when daughter Rita finds her mother in the garden daydreaming, Irene is remembering the friends and lovers who never got to taste life in a country where "freedom... is taller than the tallest trees."
Author: Christopher Adam Publisher: University of Ottawa Press ISBN: 0776607057 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
Based on papers presented at the conference: The 1956 Hungarian Revolution 50 Years Later -- Canadian and International Perspectives, held at the University of Ottawa, Oct. 12-14, 2006.
Author: Csaba Teglas Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 9781585446407 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 180
Book Description
When Csaba Teglas was confronted with the Nazi invasion of Hungary during World War II, the Soviet occupation following the Allied victory, and finally with the opportunity to escape the oppressive regime during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he responded not with fear, indecision, or submission, but with courage, ingenuity, and hope. In Budapest Exit: A Memoir of Fascism, Communism, and Freedom, Teglas begins with the story of his childhood in Hungary. During the war, the dramatic changes that took place in his country intensified with the invasion of the Nazis. The Nazis' defeat after the terrifying siege of Budapest should have led to freedom, but for Hungary it meant occupation by the Soviets, who were often little better than the fascists. A twelve-year-old friend of Teglas was forced to watch the brutal gang rape of a Jewish family member by the same Soviet soldiers who liberated her from the Nazis. Despite the difficulties of life in Budapest, Teglas met the challenge when sustenance of the family fell on his young shoulders. One of the innovative ways he earned money was to employ his playments to extract ball bearings from wrecked tanks and other military vehicles that he then sold to factories. He also sold rubber rings cut from bicycle tubes to use as canning seals. Before the communists solidified their rule, Teglas obtained admission to the Technical University of Budapest, where he earned a degree despite constant interference in the University by the communists. The following years under the Stalinist dictatorship were the harshest, and Teglas and his family and friends lived in constant fear; some were even subjected to the communist jails and torture chambers. But rather than standing idly by, Teglas protested, sometimes quietly, sometimes more vocally, against the Soviet and communist presence in Hungary. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Teglas became more involved in the opposition to the communists. When it became clear that the revolutionaries were not going to succeed, he knew he had to leave Hungary to avoid retaliation for his involvement. Teglas recounts his dramatic escape through the heavily guarded Iron Curtain and his subsequent emigration to North America, where life an an immigrant presented new challenges. Teglas compares the genocide and tragedies of Nazi order in World War II and of communist rule to recent international events and ethnic cleansing in Central and Eastern Europe, including the former Yugoslavia. He also highlights the failure of the West to stop the war in Bosnia expediently and the possible far-reaching consequences of a "peace" treaty that aims to satisfy the demands of the aggressors while ignoring the rights of others in the Balkans. Even more, though, this memoir is Csaba Teglas's personal story of his youth, told from the point of view of a man with sons of his own. He found in America the freedom for which he had been searching, but he has raised his American sons to remain proud of their Hungarian heritage.
Author: Beverly A. Mile Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc. ISBN: 1098059220 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 136
Book Description
The Escape provides a true account of a young Hungarian college student's escape from Hungary following the suppression of the country's 1956 October revolution. The author describes how, after the end of the war in 1946, the Communists systematically took control of the country by 1949, with the help of the Soviet Red Army and how under the Stalinist influence, the intimidation, property confiscations, unjust incarcerations, and often physical eliminations took root.By the early 1950s, the resistance against the Communist parties of Eastern Europe started to erupt: East Berlin, 1953; Warsaw, 1956; and in October 1956, Budapest. The demonstrations and demands in Hungary were spearheaded by students and the workers (the very workers whom the party considered to be the mainstay of Communism). The protagonist of the story himself is a university student with many friends and schoolmates. He is a self-reliant, take-charge type, who does not easily submit to others. Once he makes up his mind, he carries through. His love for his girlfriend and his determination that his future and life is not to be controlled by a totalitarian system is the driving force behind his actions. Following the suppression of the revolution by the Communists with the help of the Red Army, he realizes that there is no future for him in the country and decides to leave. His original plan is to take his girlfriend, whom he loves very much, with him. However, due to the danger she would be facing, her parents are against her leaving. He reluctantly agrees with the caveat that when he establishes himself wherever he settles down, she will follow him.Not to be alone on his dangerous quest, he recruits his close friend, who sees his future just as bleak under the Communist system. After some careful planning, the two men, with some unexpected luck and many tense hours later, successfully cross into Austria. Being in a refugee camp awaiting to be issued travel documents, then transported to the country of your destination, gave him plenty of time for deep reflection about his future. When Christmas arrived, he realized that if he does not take his girlfriend with him now, he will probably never see her again. At that moment, he decides to go back for her.The final chapters of the book describe his perilous journey back to his hometown and the even more dangerous journey out of the country again, with his girlfriend and some friends in tow, involving crossing the Iron Curtain for the third time.
Author: Victor Sebestyen Publisher: Hachette UK ISBN: 0297865439 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
The defining moment of the Cold War: 'The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.' (Richard Nixon) The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world's superpowers. The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades. The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa's Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom.
Author: Zsuzsanna Bozzay Publisher: ISBN: 9781782999683 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 148
Book Description
After the Second World War Hungary became a communist country under the rule of the Soviet Union. It was not possible to have a passport and to leave the country. People lived in constant fear of the Secret Police, the AVO and there was no religious freedom. The only way to escape was illegally crossing the border which could result in imprisonment.This is a true story of my attempted escape in 1949 when I contracted polio and eventual success in 1956 when I arrived in England with my mother to stay with my uncle in London. It took six years before my father was able to join us.
Author: Charles Gati Publisher: Stanford University Press ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
A riveting new look at a key event of the Cold War, Failed Illusions fundamentally modifies our picture of what happened during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Now, fifty years later, Charles Gati challenges the simplicity of this David and Goliath story in his new history of the revolt.
Author: Sandy Watson Publisher: Lacuna ISBN: 9780646901282 Category : Australian fiction Languages : en Pages : 231
Book Description
One Perfect Day is the profoundly moving story of Veronika Csosz, her experiences during the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and her traumatic escape. Veronika’s story is also about young people with an unshakeable desire to be free of the fear, violence and oppression of Communist rule which, on a beautiful autumn day, led to the tragic events of 1956. Despite calls for help to the leaders of the free world, Hungary’s !ght for freedom was overshadowed by the international stando" over the Suez Canal. Help never came, and the desperate !ght for democracy was crushed by the Soviet Army just days after freedom seemed to be won…
Author: Eva Miklos Mitchell Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781542735056 Category : Languages : en Pages : 136
Book Description
Turmoil following the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, compelled a nine-year old girl's family to abruptly flee their native country, hurling them into an unknown future. This account of the family's escape and the girl's memories of it, and her life in Hungary lead to an emotionally charged true story. The family successfully reached Austria on their second harrowing attempt, and lived there in refugee camps for the next five months. Mesmerized by the freedom and adventures she found there, the young girl was unprepared for the challenges and responsibilities awaiting in her adopted country, Canada. She recounts her personal experiences as a young refugee, and how her difficulties adjusting to her new life were compounded by her parents' rigid grip on old world values, which they strictly imposed on their children.
Author: Irene Korponay
Author: Irene Korponay
Author: Christopher Adam
Author: Csaba Teglas
Author: Beverly A. Mile
Author: Victor Sebestyen
Author: Zsuzsanna Bozzay
Author: Charles Gati
Author: Sandy Watson
Author: Eva Miklos Mitchell
Author: J. E. Laufer