Will to Freedom
A Perilous Journey Through Fascism and Communism

Paper $24.95    |    978-0-8156-0930-8    |    2008

Reviews
"Deeply moving, rich with information and insight."
—Elie Wiesel

Chosen for the prestigious New York City publication, Mann About Town’s Books to Read this Month

Description
Will to Freedom is an eyewitness account of the social and political upheaval that shook Eastern Europe from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s. As an underground resistance fighter, political prisoner, fugitive, and Communist Party official, Egon Balas charts his journey from idealistic young Communist to disenchanted dissident.

Attracted by its anti-Nazi stance, Balas joined the Hungarian Communist Party in 1942, after Hungary had entered the war on Hitler’s side. He helped organize work stoppages and distributed antiwar leaflets. In his memoir, he offers a compelling account first of his eventual imprisonment and ordeal under torture and then of his escape and life in hiding.

View other books on Modern Jewish History

Author
Egon Balas, a renowned mathematician, is professor of industrial administration and applied mathematics at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.

6 x 9, 488 pages, 16 illustrations, index