This is one of the most moving autobiographies that speaks for our time. Its timeless theme, focusing on the loss of family and the deep desire to regain belonging, might well be made into a movie. The book, drawing on oral histories from Cold War Hungary, defines loss not just from the Holocaust, but also from the horrors of Stalin's "velvet" prison, Hungary. In face of such imponderable loss, the novel speaks timelessly for our time in its successful reclaiming of a family lost to history.

This is a perfect book for anyone who has already been to this gorgeous city or those who are interested in it. The book is full of photographs taken of the people, buildings, and everyday situations in the 19th century. What makes it unique is the many advertisements from the time, and the personal photographs that really give you a feel of that era. It is a perfect gift that offers you hours of a delightful journey back in time, and back to Europe. (I'm a local of Budapest, and i recommend it to all my friends abroad who would like to know about the city i live in.)

Culling over forty lengthy interviews, historians Zsuzsanna Kõrösi and Adrienne Molnár show us in detail how the lives of the children of those repressed after the 1956 Hungarian revolution were wrested from them, figuratively speaking, over several years. Thrust into poverty and degrading manual labor, barred from secondary school, stigmatized by friends and society, these children arguably suffered more than their executed fathers. Kõrösi and Molnár are both research fellows of the Oral History Archive at the Budapest-based Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. They explain how this research grew out of the Oral History Archive's brave efforts in 1981 (when still illegal) to gather oral testimonies from over one thousand "witnesses of twentieth-century Hungarian history" (p. 2). Given the campaign orchestrated by communist authorities thoroughly to expunge the memory of the revolution and stigmatize it as a "counterrevolution," the Oral History Archive's work has proved invaluable in preserving Hungary's historical heritage. Carrying a Secret in My Heart consists of nine short chapters, a bibliography, biographies of the forty-two interviewees, and their poems and sketches produced as children. This highly readable memoir is apt to educe latent childhood memories in readers, especially those who have themselves lost parents or siblings, as they "bond" with the increasingly familiar interviewees.
The chapters trace - through the words of the interviewees - the several stages of the childrens' experience, from the revolution and their memories of it, the sudden poverty and heavy responsibilities during the father's imprisonment, patterns of communication within the family, and social stigmatization; to the adjustment after the fathers' release from prison (those who did survive), the public exoneration of the victims and their families in 1989, and the adult childrens' present-day reconciliation with their pasts.The age of the interviewees varied at the time the revolution first broke out (the student demonstration of October 23, 1956). Four of the children were over ten years of age, sixteen were between seven and ten, eight were between four and six, and fifteen were below four years of age (p. 6). While the younger ones retain only vague visual memories of red stars and statues being desecrated, the older ones recall participating in marches and standing in long queues for hours - often at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. - to buy bread and milk. One respondent remembers accompanying his mother to the hospital (one hopes because she lacked a babysitter) and saw bodies writhing in pain, missing legs and arms. One man's intestines were hanging out (p. 14). The children intuited the revolution's end by the shift in mood at home. Some recall their mother's pleas that the father emigrate to save his life. Most cannot remember their fathers' actual arrest because they were either not present or too young to remember (p. 21). A few can still hear their fathers' last words as they were taken away. "You are the man of the family now; you must help your mother!" one interviewee, Tibor Molnár, was told - a heavy responsibility for a ten-year-old (p. 22).
_Carrying a Secret in My Heart_ is well worth reading and will interest not only historians, but political scientists, sociologists, and psychologists as well. ---Johanna Granville, Stanford University

The title of the book I read for my multicultural book report is Children of Bach by Eilis Dillon. The book was very interesting it was about a group of kids during the holocaust and how they had to hide from the Nazi soldiers. The book takes place during the 1940's in Germany. One day Peter, Pilo, Suzy and Jack are walking home from school when they see a large group of people walking down the street. They wonder to themselves who all the people were and what they were doing. But they do not ask questions. Once they get home they discover that the door is unlocked and that the house is completely trapped. When they call but no one is home they know immediately what has happened. They had heard their father talking about Nazi soldiers coming in to the city and that they were going to take all the Jews to a camp where they would be treated very well. They are very afraid and decide that they should stay out of school for the next few days and that they should keep to themselves. One evening their next door neighbor, Miss. Naggy, comes to visit. They let her in and tell her how they are all alone in the house and that they needed supplies. She tells them that she will get them supplies and try to find a way out of the city for them. They thank her many times and let her out. The next day Miss. Naggy comes over and tells them of a van that is leaving in a few days to smuggle Jewish children across the border into Hungary. They accept her invitation and the next day they leave in the van. At around the fourth day the van driver decides to betray them and he turns them over to the Nazi soldiers. The Nazi soldiers take them back to camp where they escape by taking a brick and throwing it at the chain-link fence that surrounded the brickyard/concentration camp. Once they are free they run for the border where a man picks them up and takes them to Hungary. Then they are free. Later on in the year their parents come for them after the Holocaust is over.

I am psychiatrist, not an analyst. Dr Virag is a psychoanalyst. Even so I enjoyed her book and recommend to read it to professionals of various schools. She has an unusual large number of cases of children of Holocaust survivors .Her anamnestic writeups are examplary, her work strictly professional,still infectious with empathy. One may not agree with her interpretations always, still I have a deep respect for her expertise, eruditeness and her therapeutic successes.. Her writing is precise and same time poetic. Outstanding chapters are the historical ones and her self analysis. She gives a clear understanding where Hungarian psychoanalytical thinking stands today.

The author, a Hungarian Jew who survived the holocaust, provides a well written and well documented account of Christian anti-Semitism in Hungary, focusing on the years from 1880 to 1944. He traces the roots of modern Hungarian anti-Semitism to a widely believed accusation of Jewish ritual murder made in 1882. The anti-Semitic sentiment which crystallized around this incident soon became a powerful force in politics and an explicit organizing theme for Hungarian Christians. The book goes on to show how religious arguments played a crucial role in the passing of increasingly harsh anti-Semitic legislation in the years leading up to the war. Herczl builds his case using extensive quotes from church members from all of the major Christian denominations involved in this debate and provides evidence showing that their actions were sanctioned by those at the highest levels of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. These quotes amply support the author's contention that for the Hungarian churches, anti-Semitism remained "a matter of principle, not opportunism." The most extreme result of this racist-Christian milieu before the German takeover was the formation of the clero-fascist Arrow Cross party. The final chapter of the book is devoted to the year 1944 and deals with the Nazi's takeover of the government and the final deportation of the Jewish population, events for which Christianity had paved the way.

The Hungarian analyst Ferenczi was a Freudian, a member of Freud's early circle, and a renegade of sorts. He was Freud's analysand and, relatively quickly, moved into intellectually uncharted psychological waters. He gained a reputation as a passionate, unorthodox, and even flakey analyst. This "clinical diary" charts with candor, disarming simplicity, and stunning lucidity the thought process of Ferenczi as he discusses his patients, Freud, his own interesting experiences of countertransference, and his highly original and ( especially for their time) unconventional notions regarding the psychoanalyst's rightful and appropriate levels and types of engagement with patients. He was a caring and humane doctor. The writing is complex and layered at times. A very, very worthwhile read.

Laszlo Solyom was one of the founding fathers of the third Hungarian Republic in 1989. After the making of the constitution he left the politics, and became the first president of the hungarian Constitutional Court. As president he built up again the hungarian constitutional tradition that he mixed with the development of the last 50 years. Today, Hungary as a republic has a solid constitutional base. It was mainly the work of Laszlo Solyom, we can say "exegit monumentum aere perennius"

I found an old copy in a library book sale. It is full of old recipes for authentic Hungarian food. In other words, it's a pretty rare bird in the US; no one cooks like this any more with the advent of fast food, takeout, and three-career families.

I have so far used two of the dessert recipes. They aren't difficult, just time consuming. One cake took me close to three hours, clean-up time included. A big stand mixer is almost required for several of the cakes in here; I would NOT recommend trying some of these by hand unless you have very strong arms and a copper egg bowl.

OTOH, the results are delicious, and vanish rapidly.

hello,
i need the book of HORNOCK about 'Processing and cultivation of medicinal plants'.
please guide me to shop this book.
yours sincerely
reza Gholizadeh