This is the story of Karoly, a man whose family tried to save Jewish refugees from the clutches of German troops advancing from the west and the advancing Russians Red Army and their Romanian allies to the east. Karoly was used as human-shield by Romanian 'liberators' in Hungary. When, after the war, Hungary was under Russian communist control, he was arrested for being part of the Smallholder's Youth Party, a farmer's union. He was transferred to Marianosztra where he was given the option of starvation rations or working as a miner in a forced labour camp. Karoly worked in a coalmine until he escaped the regime in 1956. This is the story of a man who cheated death and suffered unimaginable privations before escaping to England to start again from nothing, a broken enfeebled refugee who rebuilt his life through hard work and determination.

This is the story of Karoly, a man whose family protected Jewish refugees trying to escape the advance of Nazi Germany, from the west, and the advancing of the Russian, Red Army, and their Romanian allies, to the east. Karoly was forced to be a human-shield by the Romanian army liberators. When, after the war, Hungary was under Communist control, he was sent to prison. Karoly was committed, as a political prisoner, for being a member of the Independent Small-holders Party, the communist party's only serious political rival. Under the communist regime anyone who held authority in the community was a threat and Karoly was arrested under a trumped up charge. He was imprisoned in Márianosztra where he was given the option of starvation or working as a miner in a forced-labour-camp. Karoly worked in a coalmine until he escaped the cruel communist regime in 1956. This is the story of a man who cheated death and suffered terrible privations before escaping to England to start again from nothing.

This is the story of Karoly, a man whose family protected Jewish refugees who were trying to escape the advance of Nazi Germany and the advancing Russians. Karoly was used as human-shield by Romanian 'liberators' in Hungary. He was sent to prison for being the leader of the youth section of the Smallholder's Party under the post-war Communist Regime. Given the option of starvation or working as a miner in a forced labour camp, he worked in a coalmine until he escaped the regime in 1956. This is the story of a man who cheated death and moved to England to start again from nothing, a broken man and a former political prisoner for whom there was no care or comfort.

How do museums and cinema shape the image of the Communist past in today’s Central and Eastern Europe? This volume is the first systematic analysis of how visual techniques are used to understand and put into context the former regimes. After history “ended” in the Eastern Bloc in 1989, museums and other memorials mushroomed all over the region. These efforts tried both to explain the meaning of this lost history, as well as to shape public opinion on their society’s shared post-war heritage. Museums and films made political use of recollections of the recent past, and employed selected museum, memorial, and media tools and tactics to make its political intent historically credible. Thirteen essays from scholars around the region take a fresh look at the subject as they address the strategies of fashioning popular perceptions of the recent past.