Surviving the Holocaust and Stalin

- Blurb -

The horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and labour camps were just the beginning of the struggle to survive for the Seiler family. As Hungarian Jews, they faced persecution of the very worst kind both from their own government and Nazi Germany. After liberation by the Soviets at the end of WWII they endured further punishment from the Stalinist regime concealed behind the Iron Curtain. This memoir is drawn from a recently re-discovered cache of precious family letters and exclusive interviews with Marta Seiler, who translated those letters for the first time. Marta has supplemented the account with childhood memories and original photos. The narrative is told through the voices of Marta, her mother Izabella and her father Lajos on a journey that takes us from 1935 to the present day. The reader is able to piece together the family' s personal challenges set against the backdrop of international political conflict. Exploring themes of resilience, identity and inherited trauma, by the end of the book we learn how Marta rediscovered her forbidden Jewish identity, found her place within the community and has moved toward a place of tolerance. In the tradition of oral history, Marta told her remarkable family story exclusively to journalist Vanessa Holburn. For Marta it' s important we learn the lessons of the past before they are lost for good. AUTHOR: This is the fourth book by journalist and author Vanessa Holburn. Her titles cover historical and modern day political topics and she was recently part of a law-changing campaign that took her to Number 10. Vanessa' s written work has appeared in national newspapers including The Telegraph, The Daily Express, The Mirror and The Sun, and magazines such as Private Eye, Fabulous, Bella and Woman' s Own. She has appeared on radio and television, and spoken on podcasts and at literary festivals, libraries, universities and museums. 32 b/w illustrations