But he is alive and free. This is no small feat for a man born in 1922, right after an awful war, in the heart of Europe. Things were hard. His father, an active participant in the1919 Communist revolution, was being hounded by the Fascists then ruling. By the time my father reached his teens the depression hit hard, followed by the second part of the thirty years' war.
World wars are unpleasant for small countries surrounded by large and ambitious ones.
Hungary was no exception. They were forced to take a side. Not much choice, given the options. My father was placed in the air artillery. He liked it there because they could pretend to try to shoot down American planes, all the while knowing that the B-17s were flying too high for their guns.