Robert Ratonyi's New Book 'From Darkness Into Light' is a Riveting Memoir of Journeys Through the Holocaust, WWII, Communism, an Uprising, and Escape to the Free World



ATLANTA - November 25, 2020 - (Newswire.com)

​Robert Ratonyi has completed his book “From Darkness into Light – My Journey Through Nazism, Fascism, and Communism to Freedom”: a gripping memoir and historic narrative of the author’s exodus from oppression and bigotry to freedom and purpose.

Robert Ratonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, in January 1938, a critical year in world history. In March of that year, Nazi Germany annexed Austria into the Third Reich, signaling Hitler’s intent to start WWII by invading Poland in 1939. In November 1938, organized pogroms were carried out throughout Germany and Austria in what is called the Kristallnacht, or the Nights of the Broken Glass. This was the start of “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” the Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews during World War II. Ratonyi’s parents saw what was coming to Jews in Hungary and decided not to have any more children. As a result, he grew up as a single child, which he always regretted.

Robert Ratonyi’s early childhood was scarred by fear, upheaval, and loss. He was six-years old when forced to wear a yellow star and face the terrors of war and ghetto life without his parents, both of whom were deported. He was saved by a friend of his mother, his grandparents, other family members, and a Swedish diplomat named Raoul Wallenberg. The Red Army of the Soviet Union liberated him from the Budapest Ghetto in January 1945 a week after his seventh birthday.

 The adolescent years of the author were spent under the hard-core Stalinist Communist puppet regime in Hungary without his father who perished in the Nazi killing fields. The story is one of living in poverty surrounded by a loving family and some mentors in the author’s life who guided him to shape his character.

He was a freshman at the Technical University of Budapest when he was caught up in the bloody revolution against the regime in October 1956. After the Russians crushed the uprising, in a daring escape with his best friend, he managed to cross the border into Austria in early December 1956. He eventually ended up as an immigrant in Canada in February 1957.

Once in Montreal, Canada, Robert restarted his life, learned English, worked during the day, and continued his education in an evening engineering program. In 1961 he transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. While in graduate school, he married his wife, Eva, also a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, and became an American immigrant in 1964. His journeys end in June 1964, at the age of 26, when he received his master’s degree in engineering and embarked on living the “American Dream.”

After leaving MIT, Ratonyi continued his education in the evening to receive a master’s degree in management from Drexel University. The combination of his engineering and business education catapulted Ratonyi into a successful business career.

Published by Fulton Books, Robert Ratonyi’s book unveils the author’s path toward success and healing from a past of great turmoil brought about by war, oppression, and strife.

His first “virtual” Book Launch From Darkness into Light was held at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies of The University of Texas at Dallas on September 30, 2020. When asked what message he wanted to convey to his readers this is what he said:

"Let me mention the objective I had in mind to write my five "journeys" that cover twenty-six years of my life. These journeys are eye-witness accounts of historic events in the 20th century in the middle of Europe. I am today, more than half a century later, the product of those experiences. I learned some important lessons and drew some conclusions. I learned lessons about the human capacity for love, kindness, and self-sacrifice, as well as hate and cruelty during the Holocaust. I learned the importance of family and having a role model to provide guidance on what is important to grow up and be a responsible, sensible, and sensitive person. I learned that pain and suffering in childhood, or how poor you are growing up, need not have a negative impact on your self-esteem. I learned that socialism and communism are failed utopian ideologies, and history has proven that they always result in misery, not to mention the moral corruption that inevitably results from a totalitarian system.

I   learned the importance of setting goals, taking risks, working hard, and delaying gratification to achieve those goals.  Being an immigrant in Canada, and then in the US, I learned how to start out with no material possessions, not even speaking  English, and end up as a highly educated, productive member of society in a few years.”

This book unveils the resilience, determination, and faith of a man in the face of life’s diversities.

Readers who wish to experience this page-turning work can purchase “From Darkness into Light” online at Amazon, the Apple iTunes store, or Google Play.

Please direct all media inquiries to Gregory Reeves via email at gregory@fultonbooks.com or via telephone at 877-210-0816.


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Original Source: Robert Ratonyi's New Book 'From Darkness Into Light' is a Riveting Memoir of Journeys Through the Holocaust, WWII, Communism, an Uprising, and Escape to the Free World
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