Vincent Szabo: Journey of a Hungarian Revolutionary

By: Laszlo Szremac

Narrated by: Dennis St. John

The Hungarian Revolution forever changed the West's perspective on Communism. The intensely interesting story of Vincent Szabo shows why the Hungarians eventually revolted against their government. Many made their way to America - and lead successful lives.

©2013 Laszlo B. Szremac (P)2016 Bettie Youngs / Bettie Youngs Book Publishers

Absorbing

This book brings to mind that refugees fleeing war is not new. In 1956 the flood of refugees was from Hungry. I remember the town I lived in (in Canada) received hundreds of Hungarian refugees; most did not speak English but they rapidly learned, got jobs and became Canadians. I remember we all pitched in to help them adjust to a new country. There was none of the hate of someone being different that we have today in the United States. Canada had taken in an enormous number of all types of refugees from World War II.

This book provides a brief history of Hungary and of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and how it changed the world’s view of the Soviet Union. The book tells the story of one man Vincent Szabo’s role in the revolution. The author tells the story from Szabo’s birth to fleeing Hungry after the revolution failed. Szabo stole food to feed the starving people. The author states hunger was a major cause of the revolt. He fought against the Soviet tanks in the streets.

The revolution began on 23 October 1956. On 4 November, 4000 Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest, with accompanying infantry and on 10 November 1956 it was all over. The Soviets responded with overwhelming force. They bombed the city, and tanks with infantry occupied the city, the Hungarians had no chance at all faced with so much Soviet power. The author had strong words against the Hungarian government and Imre Nagy in particular. As the Soviets regained power, over 200,000 Hungarians fled across the dangerous Austrian-Hungarian border in the first few days alone. The Soviets had mined all the borders with the West. I found the story that Szremac told about Cardinal Jozset Mindszenly most interesting.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Szremac interviewed Szabo and his friends and family as well as researched the archives, government records, newspapers and news film. The author is a first generation Hungarian-American and has his doctorate degree from Drew university.

Dennis St. John did a good job narrating the book.

Awful...

Over the top... not at all thoughtful ...foul language ... and to top it off tries to pronounce Hungarian names and places English which is hard to listen to if you speak Hungarian

I couldn't get through it .... maybe the end improved. Good luck.