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Bob Ratonyi

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When his father was taken for forced labor by the Nazis, Bob Ratonyi's mother managed to support herself and the boy by working in a factory. The overwhelming poverty kindled a desire in the young Hungarian Jew to never be poor again. (7:01)

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His father was already in a concentration camp and when his mother was taken, Bob Ratonyi was cared for by his grandparents, who also took in other relatives. One uncle managed to get most of them Schutz-Passes which gave them some protection them from deportation. (6:15)

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It is difficult for Bob Ratonyi to talk about seeing his mother taken away at gunpoint when he was six. The Hungarian Holocaust had taken his father when he was four and now they were getting around to the women. He was very fortunate that a neighbor knew where his grandparents lived and took him there. (7:08)

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When Bob Ratonyi was a child in the Budapest Jewish ghetto, he had an older cousin who had a dangerous job. He went out without his yellow star to scavenge for something that could be traded for food. Decades later, that cousin would recollect some of those dire circumstances when Bob was writing his book. (4:18)

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As soon as Bob Ratonyi came into the care of his grandparents, they began a series of moves trying to stay ahead of the Hungarian fascists who were rounding up Jews. First they moved into the Jewish ghetto, then, after getting some coveted Schutz-Passes, they moved through several so-called protected houses. The final move was back into the ghetto because it was actually safer there. (9:06)

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His family was not very religious, but they followed all the Jewish traditions and holy days. Bob Ratonyi had barely survived the Holocaust and then he was faced with more oppression of religion when Hungary became a Communist satellite of the USSR. (5:27)

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It was near anarchy in Budapest following the fall of the Nazis. Many were starving surrounded by rubble. Bob Ratonyi was overjoyed when his mother returned from a labor camp but then he watched as communists turned Hungary into a Stalinist dictatorship. (8:38)

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It was all propaganda, everything on the radio and in the newspapers. That was life in communist Hungary as Bob Ratonyi was coming of age. He urged his mother to take an offered post as the party representative at her factory so she could take advantage of it. (6:00)

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For Bob Ratonyi, living in communist Hungary meant only one inevitable outcome, moral decay. When you have to lie, cheat and steal, just to have a decent life, it begins to affect your soul. Still, there were true believers in the utopian fantasy. (10:45)

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It began as a simple student march in Budapest permitted by the communist government. Overnight, it became a bloody uprising. Bob Ratonyi was an eighteen year old freshman who was swept up in the moment. It began a course of events that would lead to a brutal crackdown and to his eventual escape to the West. Part 1 of 4. (8:11)