[Unicum] Fwd: INVITATION: Book Launch and Cocktail Reception - Helen M. Szablya - My Only Choice: Hungary - 1942 - 1956

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Share this:     The Embassy of Hungary cordially invites you to a    Book Launch and Cocktail Reception to Celebrate Helen M. Szablya   On the Publication of My Only Choice: 1942-1956 Hungary - An Autobiography of a Generation in World War 2 and Post-War Hungary Thursday, December 5 2013 From 7:00 PM  Embassy of Hungary, 2950 Spring of Freedom Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20008 Autobiography of a generation in World War 2 and Post-War Hungary, the darkest days of Stalinism. The stories of Victims of Communism are equally as important as the stories of Victims of Nazism. Reading Helen M. Szablya's new book "My Only Choice" will change your life – or at the very least make you appreciate the life you have. How do you choose between youth, and survival? Follow the life of a young girl as she becomes a woman and mother in this true story that reads like a novel for all time. This book is a real page-turner – an adventure story and a love story -- it's the autobiography of her life during both the Nazi and Communist occupations in Budapest, Hungary, 1942 --1956. You will bite your nails, cry and laugh throughout this colorful and well written chronicle. This book demonstrates through her own experience why totalitarian governments of the extreme left and the extreme right are equally intolerant and horrific. "My Only Choice" is also available electronically on Kindle, ipad, iphone. "Helen Szablya's story will shed light on dramatic era in European history, one which Americans hardly know and will find fascinating to discover." Anne Applebaum, columnist for the Washington Post  "Hungary's Honorary Consul brings back two lost worlds: Hungary before Communism was imposed upon the nation, and the darkest days of the Stalinist dictatorship. A fascinating and illuminating story." Géza Jeszenszky (former Foreign Minister of Hungary (1990-94)   "Helen Szablya's new book, "My Only Choice," is part of her autobiography, covering Hungary's tragic years between 1942 and 1956. As a seven-year-old girl, she survives the traumas of World War II that many of her fellow Hungarians tried to avoid entering, only to witness her mother's arrest by the communist secret police in 1949. Her cast of characters is taken from life; her descriptions of the psychological and physical landscapes are as truthful as they are memorable. She is a congenital democrat who dislikes with equal fervor the extremes of the political right and left."  Charles Fenyvesi, former staff writer for the Washington Post   "A teenager's memories of the days in Stalin's red paradise describing her family's experiences during Hungary's holocaust after WWII." Béla Lipták (Professor Emeritus, Yale University) "From the eyes and mind of an innocent but precocious young teen, Helen Szablya, paints a picture of how theinconceivable became reality. Hungary as the playground of tyrants in the 1940's, is depicted in its inability to withstand fascism or communism. A personal account, as engrossing as fiction but true, this book serves the lessons of history irresistibly on a silver tray." Annette Lantos-Tilleman-Dick, Daughter of the late Congressman Tom Lantos   Helen M. Szablya, Honorary Consul General of Hungary for WA, OR, and ID, based in Seattle, and Past President of the Washington Press Association, is an award-winning author, columnist, translator, and lecturer.  She has two university degrees, speaks six languages, and many of her more than 700 publications have won awards. Helen co-authored  "Hungary Remembered", an award-winning, oral history drama/lecture series for the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, and "The Fall Of The Red Star," an award-wining novel based on true stories of an illegal scout troop during the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, published for its 40th anniversary.  Her newest book "My Only Choice 1942-1956 Hungary" is the story of her life and through that the story of her native land, as seen by a 7-year old growing up and becoming a mother of three. Szablya recently received the Presidential Order of Merit of Hungary for her consular and cultural work and the Spirit of Liberty award from the Ethnic Heritage Council. Szablya and her late husband, John, escaped Hungary and Communism in 1956 with two toddlers and a newborn. They have seven children, 16 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, with a third one on the way. She currently lives in Seattle, WA and is active in her community, including the Hungarian-American Coalition, the Hungarian ­American Association of Washington and the Seattle-Pécs Sister City Association. . For more information: Mr. Péter Hlinka - Embassy of Hungary peter.hlinka@mfa.gov.hu; Tel.: (202) 364 9506 3910 Shoemaker Street | Washington , DC 20008 US