In Captivity of the Western Allies. From Upper Hungary to American, British and French Captivity
Nyugati fogságban. Felvidékiek amerikai, brit és francia fogságban
Keywords: oral history;world war II;detention camps;captivity;
The second book of Zoltán Kőrös is actually a continuation of his previous volume Muszkaföldön on prisoners of war in Russia. This time he presents interviews with soldiers and leventes (members of paramilitary youth organizations) from Upper Hungary forced during the last winter of World War II to the Third Reich where they were captured by the Western powers. Although not to such extent as war captives of the Soviets (not speaking about the dreadful fate of the Soviet soldiers in German captivity), the recallers were exposed to hunger, adverse weather conditions, diseases, and death also in the American, British, and especially in the French detention camps. In his large-volume introduction based on recalls, the author vivifies this world slowly passing into oblivion, and the roads leading to captivity. Both the captives and the captors are also touched on in the book, as well as the often burdensome, hindered return of the Hungarian captives to their homeland, to the towns and villages of the present South Slovakia. The main part of this publication is constituted of eight individual stories considered by the author as the most special, which describe to us the more or less forced journey of the captives to the Third Reich, until their return home.
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