By Dawn We'll Be Free

by Georgette Hadvina

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Army pushed the Nazi's out of Eastern Europe and began to occupy it. It was 1945 when they invaded Hungary and made it a Communist state, one of the most repressed in the world. Georgette Hadvina's family quickly went from a comfortable middle class life in Budapest, Hungary to being prisoners of one of the most horrific systems in modern times. Thousands of Hungarians had been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. Many had died of starvation and of foul conditions after being forced from their homes and made to live in camps. Some were executed. Georgette and her family knew they had to escape, or they would be joining their unfortunate neighbors. Hadvina was captured by Russian soldiers, hunted by a Communist spy in Austria and suffered the consequences of a failed attempt to escape through the infamous Iron Curtain, all before she was seventeen years old. By Dawn, We'll Be Free is the narrative of a brave child and teenager, who lived through the tyranny of Stalinist Communism and ultimately triumphed in the free United States of America.

306 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2015

Reviews

[Caitlin Lopez Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading books that detail how truly privileged a lot of people are to live in the time we do and in the US. Thousands and thousands of immigrants have dealt with the harsh reality of how difficult it is to flee war torn, politically distraught, and broken countries. My heart is with these people who have experienced this in the most dire times in recent modernity and also who continue to struggle with escaping towards freedom today.