In the Footsteps of Orpheus The Life and Times of Miklós Radnóti Zsuzsanna Ozsváth
A powerful account of the life, art, and tragic death of a 20th-century Hungarian Jewish poet.
"Zsuzsanna Ozsváth bring[s] forth Radnóti’s life, his thought, and his passion with a depth of insight that is rare in a scholar. Brilliant, penetrating, and passionate, Ozsváth’s book sets a new standard of excellence in Holocaust studies. It is a must for anyone who would approach the dark flame that burns at the core of the Event." ―David Patterson, University of Memphis Miklós Radnóti, a young Hungarian Jewish poet, was shot by Hungarian soldiers guarding him while on a forced march from Yugoslavia back to Hungary during the final days of World War II. When his body was discovered and exhumed nearly two years later, a small book of poems was found in his coat pocket. These poems, together with the rest of Radnóti’s work, solidified his reputation as one of Hungary’s greatest poets. Radnóti shared the experience of many Jewish artists and intellectuals in Central Europe during the early part of the 20th century, but his poetry brings out a particular and personal view of the Holocaust in Hungary. His work plays a unique role in the history of Central European culture as some of the most beautiful poems ever written in Hungarian, as a voice against the rise of totalitarianism, and as testimony to the destruction of Europe’s Jews. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth places Radnóti within the context of the political and intellectual history of interwar Hungary, situating him as an artist who is both a Jew and a Hungarian patriot. Her sensitive translations from the Hungarian lend poignancy to this tragic and forcefully told story. This account of Radnóti’s life and work explores the sources of the poet’s inspiration and imagery and restores it to its extreme times and places.
Zsuzsanna Ozsváth is Professor of Literature and the History of Ideas at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she is also Director of the Holocaust Studies Program. She is coeditor and cotranslator (with Frederick Turner) of Foamy Sky: The Major Poems of Miklós Radnóti and Attila Jozsef’s The Iron-Blue Vault: Selected Poetry.
Jewish Literature and Culture―Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor
Contents Myth and Consciousness Poetic Images: Socialist Art and Political Commitment The Pull of Contraries: Making of the Past Visions of Destruction, Lyrics of Resistance In Extremis: 1944

In the Footsteps of Orpheus: The Life and Times of Miklós Radnóti (Jewish Literature and Culture)

Biographies & Memoirs

Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna

Arts & Literature

Indiana University Press

Foamy Sky: the Major Poems of Miklos Radnoti (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation)

One of Hungary's leading poetic voices of the twentieth century, Miklcs Radncti (1909-1944) wrote some of his country's most cherished love poems and political verse even as he anticipated death under the Nazis. This English-only edition presents many of the poems that appear in his Foamy Sky volume and a selection of others dating back to 1929. A good portion of the poems were written during World War II, when Radncti, of Jewish descent, was forced into a slave-labor squad and sent to work building roads in the Balkans. On the final march through Hungary toward Austria near the end of the war, the guards murdered the disabled prisoners who had not already died en route and buried the bodies in a mass grave. Radncti's last poems were found in the pocket of his coat when his body was exhumed. The poems are characterized by a strong prosodic form, which Radncti believed was important to the sense. Unlike previous English translations, this one captures the poet's use of classical meter and lyrical rhyme as well as his visionary imagery and heroic voice.

Foamy Sky: The Major Poems of Miklos Radnoti (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation)

Literature & Fiction

Radnóti, Miklós

Poetry

Princeton Univ Pr

Opening with the ominous scene of one young school girl whispering an urgent account of Nazi horror to another over birthday cake, Ozsváth’s extraordinary and chilling memoir tells the story of her childhood in Hungary, living under the threat of the Holocaust. The setting is the summer of 1944 in Budapest during the time of the German occupation, when the Jews were confined to ghettos but not transported to Auschwitz in boxcars, as were the Hungarian Jewry living in the countryside. Provided with food and support by their former nanny, Erzsi, Ozsváth’s family stays in a ghetto house where a group of children play theater, tell stories to one another, invent games to pass time, and wait for liberation. In the fall of that year, however, things take a turn for the worse. Rounded up under horrific circumstances, and shot on the banks of the Danube by the thousands, the Jews of Budapest are threatened with immediate destruction. Ozsváth and her family survive because of Erzsi’s courage and humanity. Cheating the watching eyes of the munderers, she brings them food and runs with them from house to house under heavy bombardment in the streets. As a scholar, critic, and translator, Ozsváth has written extensively about Holocaust literature and the Holocaust in Hungary. Now, for the first time, she records her own history in this clear-eyed, moving account. When the Danube Ran Red combines an exceptional grounding in Hungarian history with the pathos of a survivor, and the eloquence of a poet to present a truly singular work.

When the Danube Ran Red (Religion, Theology and the Holocaust)

Community & Culture

Syracuse University Press

My Journey Home: Life After the Holocaust

In the spring of 1944, nearly 500,000 Jews were deported from the Hungarian countryside and killed in Auschwitz. In Budapest, only 150,000 Jews survived both the German occupation and dictatorship of the Hungarian National Socialists, who took power in October 1944. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth’s family belonged among the survivors. This memoir begins with the the author’s childhood during the Holocaust in Hungary. It captures life after the war’s end in Communist-ruled Hungary and continues with her and her husband’s flight to Germany and eventually the United States. Ozsváth’s poignant story of survival, friendship, and love provides readers with a rare glimpse of an extraordinary journey.

Cherry Orchard Books

In the spring of 1944, nearly 500,000 Jews were deported from the Hungarian countryside and killed in Auschwitz. In Budapest, only 150,000 Jews survived both the German occupation and dictatorship of the Hungarian National Socialists, who took power in October 1944. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth’s family belonged among the survivors. This memoir begins with the the author’s childhood during the Holocaust in Hungary. It captures life after the war’s end in Communist-ruled Hungary and continues with her and her husband’s flight to Germany and eventually the United States. Ozsváth’s poignant story of survival, friendship, and love provides readers with a rare glimpse of an extraordinary journey.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In the Footsteps of Orpheus: The Life and Times of Miklós Radnóti (Jewish Literature and Culture)

Foamy Sky: The Major Poems of Miklos Radnoti (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation)

When the Danube Ran Red (Religion, Theology and the Holocaust)

My Journey Home: Life After the Holocaust

My Journey Home: Life After the Holocaust