Hungary at War: Civilians and Soldiers in World War II FROM THE PUBLISHER
Hungary's place in World War II has been woefully documented, because until recently any histories of the war years had to conform to the Communist Party line. Originally allied with Germany to defend itself against Bolshevism, Hungary saw its army decimated in 1943 and was subsequently invaded - and occupied - by the Soviets. Now fifty years after the closing of the Iron Curtain, the memories of those who endured those years can finally be shared. Cecil Eby has compiled a historical chronicle of Hungary's wartime experiences based on interviews with nearly a hundred people who lived through those years. Here are officers and common soldiers, Jewish survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, pilots of the Royal Hungarian Air Force, Hungarian prisoners of war in Russian labor camps, and a host of others. We meet the apologists for the Horthy regime installed by Hitler and the activists who sought to overthrow it, and we relive the Red Army's siege of Budapest during the harsh winter of 1944-45 through the memories of ordinary citizens trapped there.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Hungary's war history has been neglectedsquelched for many years by the Soviet regime, and less investigated also because its language is disconnected from other Western languages. Between 1988 and 1990, and 1993 and 1995, the author conducted nearly 100 interviews with people who participated in or simply endured the war in Hungary. He interweaves their stories with historical narrative, presenting an account of the final years of the war as seen from a domestic point of view rather a military one. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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