Poco prima dello scoppio della seconda guerra mondiale, Béla Zsolt e sua moglie lasciarono l'Ungheria alla volta di Parigi con tutti i loro averi racchiusi in nove valigie. (fonte: Google Books)

This account was suppressed by the Communists for forty years. . It was originally published in installments in Hungary starting in 1946. I did find it interesting in the fact that it was Hungary and the Ukraine which I have not read about before. Mr. Zsolt's story is very compelling and his strength is most definitely unbelievable. His endurance and will to survive is amazing. The atrocities this gentleman faced are beyond comprehension. I loved the references to the Nine Suitcases and what they represented. This is the first time this account has been translated into English. ( )

The bravery of this man. It's near impossible to comprehend how he was able to devote his life to the betterment of his beloved country and suffer such horrors as compensation. He didn't even make it to the camps, you know. He didn't need to in order to endure the worst of the atrocities that WWII had to offer to mankind. And then he was able to recount it in the most minute detail, but wasn't able to finish writing it. The irony of it all is sickening. People should be grateful that he went through such trials with his mind intact, as it is hard to think of a person more fitting for the task of descending into hell and coming out of it to tell the tale.

It never stopped, either. Months home from grave-digging in Ukraine, he's then thrust into prison, gets out and leaves the country, and then is barely recovered from his experiences when he makes the decision to go back to Hungary, and subsequently its ghettos. To put it simply, the guy could never catch a break. And yet he kept going, despite the failure of his country, despite the failure of his people, despite the failure of mankind to give him the life that his efforts should have brought him. And in the process he brought us this memoir that exemplifies the fact that reality is stranger than fiction, and even the most fantastical story pales in comparison to the truths of what humans are really capable of. Horrifically evil, infuriatingly neutral, altruistically beautiful. All are showcased in the author's recounting of the fate he suffered during one of the worst times of the history of the world. ( )

I don't know if I'd call this one of the greatest Holocaust memoirs like it says on the cover blurb, but it is good, and it is significant because it's definitely one of the earliest memoirs. It was originally published in serial form in 1946, only a year after the war ended, but it was suppressed by the Communists and languished in obscurity after that. It wasn't translated into English until recently.

The author, Bela Zsolt, was the stepfather of the famous teen Holocaust diarist Eva Heyman, who was killed at Auschwitz. Bela was a famous journalist and novelist before the war, and he used his wealth and connections to escape the ghetto with his wife at the eleventh hour. Both of their entire families perished. Bela returned to Hungary after the war and was elected to Parliament. His wife, Eva Heyman's mother, committed suicide shortly after Eva's diary was published. Bela died in 1949, not long after his wife. He was only in his fifties. Maybe it was a broken heart.

I quite enjoyed Zsolt's frank, sardonic writing style. It made me want to read his other works, but I don't think any have been translated into English, and I don't want to read them QUITE badly enough to learn Hungarian.

This memoir was about Zsolt's time in the ghetto in 1944, and also his experiences serving as a forced laborer in Ukraine earlier in the war. He has a way of capturing the personalities of minor characters in just a few lines. The book did end very abruptly though. In fact, there was really no ending at all. Perhaps this was due to the serial format it was originally written in; maybe he was contracted for a certain number of issues and no more, so he couldn't wrap things up properly. One wonders how he would have improved upon things if he had lived to edit his serial before it was published in book form.

I would recommend this book, particularly to those interested in the Holocaust in Hungary. ( )

M.1.1