Will to freedom : a perilous journey through fascism and communism / Egon Balas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Balas, Egon, author.

Series:

Irish studies

Standardized Title:

J.B. Yeats letters to his son W.B. Yeats and others, 1869-1922

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Romania--Biography.

Jews.

Jews--Hungary--Biography.

Balas, Egon.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (488 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse : Syracuse University Press, [2000]

Summary:

Will to Freedom is an eyewitness account of the social and political upheaval that shook Eastern Europe from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s. As an underground resistance fighter, political prisoner, fugitive, and Communist Party official, Egon Balas charts his journey from idealistic young Communist to disenchanted dissident. Attracted by its anti-Nazi stance, Balas joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1942, after Hungary had entered the war on Hitler's side. He helped organize work stoppages and distributed antiwar leaflets. In his memoir, he offers a compelling account first of his eventual imprisonment and ordeal under torture and then of his escape and life in hiding.Later, Balas rose to high positions in postwar Romania. Arrested again, this time by the Communist authorities, he spent two years in solitary confinement. Unbroken, he was released after Stalin's death but was never forgiven for his refusal co cooperate in the staging of a show trial. Disenchanted with the regime, Balas started a new life as a self-educated applied mathematician and, after several unsuccessful attempts, was finally able to leave Romania as a Jewish emigrant in the mid-sixties.

Contents:

9780815609308_cover

9780815609308_bookblock.

Notes:

Includes index.

Originally published: J.B. Yeats letters to his son, W.B. Yeats, and others, 1869-1922. London : Faber and Faber, 1944.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Balas, Egon Will to Freedom

ISBN:

9780815606253

0815606257

OCLC:

1350572446