Read For Free Made In Hungary: A Life Forged By History Imagined By Maria Krenz Issued As Hardbound

is a memoir by a dear family friend, I thought I would enjoy it because it is her story, but I was really impressed by how wellwritten it is, and what a truly beautiful, heartbreaking story it is.
It is the story of her early childhood, from her birth inin Budapest through the Soviet invasion, the Hungarian revolution, and finally leaving Hungary at the age of.
The Goodreads description is pretty accurate, The author came and answered questions last night at my book club, How great is that! Everyone thought she wrote well and that she conveyed to the reader the fear of being Jewish in Hungary in the's's, Also the hunger, deprivation, overcrowding, scarcity of goods and services under communism for ordinary citizens, I think we all learned a lot from reading the book, as she did a lot of historical research to partly explain how it all came about, I also found it useful to have already read Ken Follett's Fall of Giants, which provided a lot of background to Hungary's WWI situation, leading up to WWII.
In Made in Hungary, Maria Krenz tells her own story in a manner that captures the turmoil of Hungary'sthcentury history, Though she left Hungary as a child after theHungarian Revolution, moved to Venezuela, and eventually settled in the United States, Krenz feels that she was "made in Hungary.
" And, as the Made in Hungary's subtitle indicates, Krenz truly lived "a life forged by history, " Born during an Allied bombing raid on World War II Budapest, just a short time before all hospitals were closed to Jewish patients, Krenz survived the Holocaust, as did many members of her family, but her descriptions of that horrible time from history make for harrowing reading nonetheless.
Comparably compelling are those passages in which Krenz describes how Hungarian communists and their Soviet overlords gradually seized power in Hungary after the war, bringing to Hungary the same kind of terror that existed in the Soviet Union during Stalin's time.
The focus on Krenz's family gives the book an intimate, personal quality that I like, Krenz also provides accounts of the general history of the time in a manner that is likely to be helpful to readers who are not familiar with Hungary's often tragic history.
Well illustrated with photographs, both contemporary e, g. , the haunting "shoes" memorial along the Danube River in Budapest, showing where victims of the Holocaust were shot and dumped into the river and historical showing Krenz and members of her family at different points in time.
Recommended for readers with an interest in autobiography, Holocaust studies, Cold War studies, and Hungarian history, I love the richness of the descriptions of the everyday life of Maria as a young girl the street life, appearance of buildings, friendships with other girls, contrasted with the reality of Hungary during the Holocaust and the following years.
Beautifully written. All the more special as Maria is my neighbor! fascinating,

i love hungary, i love memoirs. it was guaranteed to be a win, and it was. The madness of different tyrants held the nation of Hungary in its grip at various times throughout theth century and Maria Krenz was there to witness that madness, and was fortunate to survive it.


In hermemoir Made in Hungary, Maria Krenz tells her own life story in a manner that captures the turmoil of Hungary'sthcentury history.
Though she left Hungary as a child after theHungarian Revolution, and eventually settled in the United States of America, Krenz feels that she was “made in Hungary.
” And, as the Made in Hungary's subtitle indicates, Krenz truly lived “a life forged by history, ”

Krenz was born during an Allied bombing raid on World War II Budapest, just a short time before all hospitals were closed to Jewish patients, She survived the Holocaust, as did some members of her family, but her descriptions of that horrible time from history

make for harrowing reading nonetheless,

Krenz, of course, was too young to remember the dreadful specifics of the Second World War but while she was growing up, her mother told her about life in Nazioccupied Hungary in vivid terms.
“Mother continued to relive the horrors of the Holocaust, Again and again she would describe hiding on the top floor, kneeling over the laundry basket that held me while the bombs were falling, being afraid to walk on the street with the yellow star” p.
.

With the Allied victory in, the genocidal machinery of the Nazi Holocaust was permanently shut down but antiSemitism was still a fact of life in postWorld War II Hungary.
Krenz recalls how “InFather changed our family name from the German/Jewish Fleischl to the impeccably Hungarian sounding Felhös, meaning cloudy, I was too little yet to understand what the secrecy meant, but nevertheless could sense that we werent quite right, quite like others, quite acceptable” p,.

Comparably compelling are those passages in which Krenz describes how Hungarian communists and their Soviet overlords gradually seized power in Hungary after the war, bringing to Hungary the same kind of terror that existed in the Soviet Union during Stalin's time.
When Mátyás Rákosi, handpicked by Stalin, took over as leader of the Hungarian Communist Party and de facto ruler of the country in, he immediately established a political system that “copied Soviet paranoia and terror.
Rákosilaunched a campaign with the slogan Increase Vigilance! inciting people everywhere to look everywhere for enemies of the state, enemies of the workers, to watch out for the smallest hostile actions or words.
People were encouraged to report on their fellow workers, friends, and family” p,. Krenz conveys well the challenges and difficulties of life in an Iron Curtain dictatorship,

The focus on Krenz's family gives the book an intimate, personal quality that I like, And yet, even when talking about school and books, teachers and childhood friends, Krenz conveys the pressures of living in a hyperpoliticized and unfree society, as when she describes one of the neighbour families in her part of Budapest “the Toth familywith two kids.
Mr. Toth worked for the AVO State Security Police, and so they kept to themselves and we were wary of them” p,. That was how it was in those days, as Krenz makes clear, If the local secret police agent lives across the street with his wife and kids, you remain aware of their presence, and keep your distance,

Another highlight of the book is the way Krenz emphasises the atmosphere of hope that prevailed throughout Hungary after Stalins death in, when the brutal and dictatorial Rákosi was summoned to Moscow and replaced as Hungarian prime minister by the reformist Imre Nagy.
Nagys promises delighted the Hungarian people: “to slow the speed of industrialization, to make agricultural cooperatives voluntary, to close internment camps, and to grant amnesty to political prisoners.
There would be more tolerance toward religion and more esteem of intellectuals” p,.

Nagy is still remembered with affection in Hungary for his attempts to undo Rákosis tyranny to make life better and more free for the average Hungarian, even within the constraints of a communist system.
Yet, as Krenz recounts, the hope and promise embodied by Nagy was ultimately undone by the Soviets crushing of theHungarian Revolution, and Nagy himself was executed,

A year after the thwarted revolution, Krenz and her family were able to leave Hungary though it wasnt an easy or pleasant departure and after a few uncomfortable years as “stateless people” in Venezuela, Krenz and her family were able to begin a new life in the United States of America.


Krenz closes her memoir by reflecting on her difficult, conflicted relationship with her native country: “I am not cured of Hungary, no matter how much Id like to be.
My unrequited love affair still continues, I close my eyes and I am in Csévi Street or Pasaréti Square, at the Chain Bridge, or some other forever magical place” p,.

Having lived for a time in Hungary, and having seen many of the places of which Krenz writes in her book, I can testify to the truth of what she writes in these concluding passages of her book.
Hungary, and Budapest in particular, possesses a magical quality unlike what I have seen in any of theother countries that I have visited, For all the difficulties of Hungarys history, and for all of the pain that she endured during her early life there, I can understand why she still misses Hungary.


Made in Hungary is well illustrated with photographs, Some are contemporary, such as the haunting "shoes" memorial along the east bank of the Danube River in Budapest, showing where victims of the Holocaust were shot and dumped into the river.
Others are historical, showing Krenz and members of her family at different points in time, Krenzs Made in Hungary takes readers back to a singularly beautiful country during some of the most difficult times in history,
.