Burning Horses: A Hungarian Life Turned Upside Down (The Holocaust) - Hardcover

Hoff, Agatha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0979098718 ISBN 13: 9780979098710

Publisher: Sweet Earth Flying Press, 2010

Synopsis

This fictionalized account of real-life occurrences chronicles one woman s amazing survival of the Hungarian Holocaust. Through the author s creative first-person telling of her mother s lifebased on her mother s written and oral observations as well as the author s own childhood memoriesa portrait of the remarkable Eva Leopold emerges. After spending an idyllic childhood on a pastoral estate in rural Hungary, Eva settled in Budapest wheredespite having been raised Catholic by parents who'd converted from Judaism and being married to a gentile, Eva was considered Jewish by the Nazi regime. Beginning in 1944when exemptions for Jewish women married to gentiles were liftedher daily life was dominated by desperate attempts to stay alive, avoid deportation to a death camp, and protect her family. Initially saved by taking shelter in the Papal Legation, Eva also hid in the air raid shelter in the basement of the family s apartment building, which disappeared when the building went up in flames, consuming the horses stabled on the first floor. Having been widowed, Eva remarried, and she and her new husband made a death-defying escape to Austria. At risk of losing their U.S. visas, Eva and her husband enrolled their daughters in a Catholic boarding school, and boarded a ship to New York where they awaited their daughters' arrival six months later. A touchingepilogue, written by the daughter-author, is also included."

About this title

Review:

"In this powerful imagining of her mother's autobiography, Agatha Hoff explores how the carefree world of pre-World War II Hungary was made to face the most awful realities of Nazi occupation and war." Clifford Chanin, president, the Legacy Project"

"Writing in a style and language faithful to her mother's voice, Agatha has achieved a powerful piece, a testament to her mother's indomitable will to survive, and a lasting legacy to her Jewish-Catholic roots. This is a must read for all." Sister Nancy Morris, RSJC, president emerita, San Diego College for Women"

About the Author:

Agatha Hoff is a former attorney and a court commissioner whose column, "Tales from the Bench," appears in the "San Francisco Attorney." She lives in San Francisco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sweet Earth Flying Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0979098718
• ISBN 13: 9780979098710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200