My Only Choice 1942-1956 Hungary
"Helen Szablya's story will shed light on dramatic era in European history, one which Americans hardly know and will find fascinating to discover."
--Anne Applebaum
“The author is one of the unfortunate people who grew up in Hungary during WWII and the following years. During that time Hungary was invaded by two totalitarian countries: Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union. Partly through her and her family’s experiences Helen Szablya vividly illustrates the inhumane treatment of people during fascist and communist rule; similar in many respects: military aggression, elimination of opponents, and hatred for selected, groups of people. The author escaped to freedom after the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, when the brutal Soviet forces defeated the uprising. In the United States she found the freedom and democracy that she yearned for so much while living under totalitarian rules.”
Csaba Téglás
Famous architect, Author, Budapest Exit, A Memoire of Fascism, Communism and Freedom
”Helen Szablya’s new book, The Flame of a Dream, is part of her autobiography, covering Hungary’s tragic years between 1942 and 1956. As a seven-year-old girl, she survives the traumas of World War II that many of her fellow Hungarians tried to avoid entering, only to witness her mother’s arrest by the communist secret police in 1949. Her cast of characters is taken from life; her descriptions of the psychological and physical landscapes are as truthful as they are memorable. She is a congenital democrat who dislikes with equal fervor the extremes of the political right and left.”
Charles Fenyvesi
Staff writer(retired) Washington Post
Columnist, US News and World Report
Author of several books in English and Hungarian, including When the World Was Whole: Three Centuries of Memories and When Angels Fooled the World: Rescuers of Jews in Wartime Hungary
"A teenager's memories of the days in Stalin's red paradise describing her family's experiences during Hungary's holocaust after WW2".
Béla Lipták
Professor Emeritus, Yale, author of 22 books, including Testament of Revolution.
“Hungary’s Honorary Consul brings back two lost worlds: Hungary before Communism was imposed upon the nation, and the darkest days of the Stalinist dictatorship. A fascinating and illuminating story.”
Géza Jeszenszky
Foreign Minister of Hungary (1990-94), Hungarian Ambassador to the United States (1998-2002), Professor of History, author of several books, and innumerable articles in English and Hungarian.