The Tragedy of Karoly - a Story from Hungary

Book excerpt: This is the story of Karoly, a man whose family protected Jewish refugees who were trying to escape the advance of Nazi Germany and the advancing Russians. Karoly was used as human-shield by Romanian 'liberators' in Hungary. He was sent to prison for being the leader of the youth section of the Smallholder's Party under the post-war Communist Regime. Given the option of starvation or working as a miner in a forced labour camp, he worked in a coalmine until he escaped the regime in 1956. This is the story of a man who cheated death and moved to England to start again from nothing, a broken man and a former political prisoner for whom there was no care or comfort.