George A. Sarosi was born in Budapest, Hungary in January 1938. His father was born in 1900 in Pozsony. Pozsony was previously known as Pressburg. Today, that city is known as Bratislava. When the city became part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia, all Hungarian speakers were evicted. As a result, Sarosi's father brought his family to Budapest. With Hungarian restrictions for limited acceptance of Jews in the universities, Sarosi's father attended medical school in Germany. During the days of the Weimar Republic, Germany was a true republic. While working at the Jewish hospital, Sarosi's father met his future wife. She had received her PhD in chemistry in 1934. She worked in the hospital laboratory. They were married in 1936. She gave birth to Sarosi in 1938. Following graduation from medical school, Sarosi's father returned to Budapest in 1926 or 1927. The six room apartment they lived in after Sarosi was born in Budapest was a combination family home and workplace for his father's gynecological practice. There was also a room for a maid. With the legislation against the Jews, the family had to leave and others moved into the apartment. In 1948, Sarosi's mother wanted to return to Budapest from Szeged. Since the Communists had taken over, Sarosi and his mother managed to return to the apartment but kept only two of the six rooms. The rooms they occupied were the old examining room and the consultation room. The examining room had water supplied to it, but no bathroom facilities. The bathroom down the hall was shared by three families. It was a crowded situation. There was no access to personal cleaning so the choice was to bathe at a public bath or become an athlete and shower after workouts. Neither was a good option. Baths were sparse as a result. Sarosi's mother was originally from Szeged which was the second city of Hungary. That was where her family and the factory were located. The war had spared the city since fighting had not occurred there. Sarosi and his mother went there and found that food was available. His mother ran the factory until 1948 when the Communists took it over since it employed more than 20 workers. Consequently, they moved back to Budapest for her to follow a career in her field of training.

George A. Sarosi lived in Hungary which had lost a large part of its territory after the end of World War 1. The ruling class of the population never accepted the situation. A constant agitation on the topic ensued. As a result, the country aligned itself with Hitler's Germany with the promise of regaining much of the area that was lost. In 1941, Hungary assisted Germany in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Doctors were needed to replace those that were drafted into the service. Jewish doctors from the cities were relocated to practices in the countryside. Sarosi's father was assigned to a far away location. He went to Transylvania. Sarosi never saw his father after that. He has no recollection of him and only has one picture left of him. Sarosi's mother went to visit her husband several times, but she found the location to be unacceptable. She decided to move back with her parents. Sarosi lived with his grandparents for three years. He grew up knowing them very well. They lived in Szeged until 1944. Following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Sarosi and his mother moved back to Budapest. As the situation became more restrictive for the Jews, Sarosi's mother moved them into a Swedish protected house with a large blue and yellow flag flying out front. They shared one room in an apartment with many other people. Sarosi was not allowed to leave the house. In late November or early December, the International Ghetto where Sarosi lived was closed. They were forced to move into the large Ghetto. They were assigned to a room in an apartment there. He was not allowed to leave the building. When his mother left the building, she had to wear the Star of David. She could be outside for two hours a day. They had money so they could buy things. Those things had to be hidden from others. Most of the population was women, children and the elderly. Men had been drafted into the labor battalions working for the army. It was a crowded and smelly environment. Bathrooms were crowded. Fortunately, the waterworks continued to operate. When the siege began in late 1944, most of the time was spent in the wood cellar. There was bombing in the day and shelling at night. Sarosi became accustomed to the situation. Fear was not an overwhelming feeling. The people merely reacted to air raid warnings in a systematic fashion. He really became frightened with liberation on January 17 which was two days after his birthday. He remembered Russian soldiers breaking into the cellar to look for Germans. They proceeded to confiscate everyone's wristwatch. They had a real interest in collecting watches. Most of those soldiers were from Central Asia. Sarosi and his mother decided to depart Budapest in February. They headed south in an open gondola hospital car. They were strafed by German airplanes. The train stopped and Sarosi was thrown off the train by his mother into a snow bank. She jumped in after him to protect him. That was Sarosi's last experience with war until 1956 [Annotator's Note: the year of the Hungarian uprising against Russian rule].

George A. Sarosi and his mother lived in Szeged from 1945 to 1948. They returned to Budapest after that. No battles for the defense of Szeged occurred. The Russians merely occupied the city. There were no outward appearances of wartime destruction. Life was returning to normal with food being available. It was similar to life before the war. His grandparents had been taken somewhere in Austria because the Polish concentration camps were no longer available. They were killed, but Sarosi never determined where or when. His father was observed at Auschwitz by a pharmacist who knew him. His father was in the wrong line. [Annotator's Note: The selection process at the Auschwitz death camp resulted in rapid separation of individuals into groups who would survive for work versus others to be sent for immediate execution. The latter group was in the "wrong line."] There was no official proof of this until much later. The German government contacted Sarosi about paying him compensation for his father's death. Sarosi sarcastically replied that he was not interested in their money. Israel was also paid by the German government in consideration of the deeds done during the war. Sarosi's mother wanted to move to Budapest because there were no positions in Szeged for people with her training [Annotator's Note: she had a PhD in chemistry and had worked in laboratory research before the war]. Additionally, Sarosi's youngest uncle returned after six years as a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] and took over her position as manager of the factory. On 20 August 1948, the Communists took over the factory. Many of the family possessions in Budapest survived the war. For example, the instruments and text books belonging to his father survived. Sarosi missed school in 1944 but started a year later. His mother sent him to the Lutheran school. He owned a bicycle to get to school. As a Jew, there was always some tension that he experienced. He would be called a lousy Jew or worse. He grew up angry with the insults. He got in many fights. There were not many Jews in the Lutheran school. He grew accustomed to being considered different early in life. After a few fights, he was left alone. His mother was a scientist. He had little religious education. He attended Hebrew school, but he asked too many questions. He was sent home and told he could not return until his mother came and apologized. When he went home crying, his mother said that he did not have to go back to that school. When Sarosi was in Boy Scouts, many of his friends were studying for Bar Mitzvah. His mother told him there was no point in him studying because they had no relatives so he would not get any gifts anyway [Annotator's Note: Sarosi chuckles]. He thought it was a logical way to think since he did not particularly find the studies interesting. Those in their social circle were not particularly religious. His grandparents had contributed heavily to the synagogue in Szeged. They were cultural rather than religious Jews. His grandfather was proud of his cavalry service in World War 1. He had his saber hung in his library. He was proud of his grand cavalry mustache. His grandparents attempted to be assimilated in the population. They had even adopted a truly Hungarian name. They changed Cohn to be Kardos which means "saber man." At 16 years of age, Sarosi changed from his father's name which was Salzer. The new name is, coincidentally, that of a famous soccer player. Sarosi changed his name to avoid being associated with "rich and exploiting capitalists." That would have prevented him from entering university. A person was classified by his parents' background. Being considered a peasant, worker or revolutionary intelligentsia depended on the parents. He was never considered as coming from an affluent family. During the uprising in 1956, he liberated and read his dossier. The authorities had no idea who he was. It was as if he was born at age 16. It was difficult to track people before computers. Before the revolution, Sarosi felt oppressed but it was not severe until he learned to dance. He loved American big band music which was prohibited. He and friends attended clubs where the music was played. They craved the music. One of his good friends was a champion figure skater. As he traveled Europe, he brought back items that were not allowed in Hungary. Things like Coca-Cola and chewing gun were not acceptable, but the young people loved them. Music played by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman was much sought after. The young people in Hungary knew they were missing something with all the prohibitions. They knew that people during the years of Stalin's [Annotator's Note: Russian Premier Joseph Stalin] rule would go missing. Stalin's death in March 1953 ended this. Sarosi knew never to complain about the Communists. His mother made sure he was aware that anyone could be an informer. After the apparent success of the revolution in 1956, many of the informers were discovered. There were retributions for their past deeds.

George A. Sarosi grew up hating the Russians. He did not hate the Germans as much because they were more remote. The killing of the Hungarian Jews was just as much a Hungarian effort as it was a German pogrom. The in-person killing in the Budapest Ghetto was largely performed by Hungarians. That has not really changed. The Russians in later years had a more direct negative influence on Sarosi's life. Compulsory education ended at 14 years of age. When a student went to the gymnasium or high school, graduation was not assured. A level of performance was mandated in the strict educational system. The system was actually pretty good. Entry into university was difficult. The official position was that students from less affluent situations would be given a fair opportunity for higher education. Like many other initiatives, that official position was subverted. Communist leaders often had their offspring accepted before other candidates. Sarosi had to be very careful because of his incorrect background [Annotator's Note: both sets of grandparents were affluent and would thus have been termed "rich and exploiting capitalists" by the authorities]. Sarosi and his friends desired to enter university. They all read Brave New World and 1984 [Annotator's Note: fictional novels about totalitarianism authored by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, respectively] and believed all of it. The students like Sarosi saw what was happening. The position on Tito [Annotator's Note: Yugoslavian President Josip Broz tito], when he broke with Stalin, changed. When he reconciled with Khrushchev [Annotator's Note: Soviet politician Nikita Sergeyevich Krushchev], the official position reversed again. The students had to take out their history textbooks and extract 100 pages and replace them with new sheets. History was changed. The whole thing was a house of cards. The attempts to picture the Americans as evil never succeeded. The young people never bought into it. They would listen to the Voice of America, Music USA, and the American station in Berlin. They played swing music that delighted the Hungarian youth. The first riot that Sarosi witnessed occurred when a Czech orchestra dedicated their music to Glenn Miller. They would not let them off the stage. The young Hungarians were starved for anything American. When the authorities tried to close the next performance, they had a real riot on their hands. The riots were not particularly physical at that time. The Russians were so universally hated that they could do no right. If the Hungarians lost to the Russians, everyone knew it was a fix. Sarosi thought constantly about leaving, but passports were not available. Additionally, borders adjacent to Austria were mined. Late in 1955, the Austrian Neutrality Treaty was signed. The mines were extracted which enabled people to flee in that direction. Until then, people were killed while trying to escape. To fail and survive in the attempt to leave would result in prison and property confiscation. Sarosi's big goal was to get a car. It was impossible with his position in Hungary. He just wanted to become an American. His mother's greatest accolade was that a person was a true European. Everyone thought the Russians were not. Students in Hungary were taught that their neighboring nations were all inferior to them. It was wrong. Hungarians do not like any of their bordering neighbors. The book Balkan Ghosts by Kaplan [Annotator's Note: Robert Kaplan] tells how all the Eastern Europeans dislike one another [Annotator's Note: Sarosi chuckles].

George A. Sarosi's parents were fully aware of what was happening in Germany prior to the war. His father had been offered a job in Palestine shortly before Sarosi was born. His grandmother objected so his father did not take the opportunity. Sarosi's mother blamed the old lady for his father's death [Annotator's Note: Sarosi's father was executed at Auschwitz]. Sarosi learned early not to talk about certain things for fear of Nazi retribution. The same was true during the Russian occupation. Everyone was afraid. That bothered Sarosi. The fact that his father lived away from him seemed logical. Many men were away in the military. His mother went away occasionally to visit her husband and then return. Sarosi did not understand what was going on with the men who went away. There was no news to inform them. Any information was by word of mouth. The 20th Congress of the Communist Party in February 1956 blew the lid off the tightly controlled boiling pot. Criticisms of the regime became abundant. Greater chances were taken. There were free movies at the British Embassy. Sarosi attended them even though he knew he was being photographed when he attended. The first movie he saw was The Wizard of Oz. He loved the tune Somewhere over the Rainbow. He was emboldened because he was 17 years old and fearless. He left when he was 18. He never thought anything would happen to him. Soldiers at 18 are not as concerned about their safety or at least Sarosi was not at that age. He got into trouble for whistling the show tune while returning from lunch. He was headed to his twice a week class on Marxism and Leninism when his instructor overheard him whistle the American tune. The instructor put the incident in Sarosi's dossier three weeks later. Sarosi has more bad memories about the Communists than Nazis. It should be the other way around, but the majority of his negative memories are those that affected him more personally.

George A. Sarosi was a freshman in medical school at the commencement of the Hungarian Revolution [Annotator's Note: the Hungarian Revolution or Uprising of 1956 began in October and lasted until November]. He had an anatomy test scheduled for that Tuesday. Trouble began in Poland when the government there resisted Russian authority. The students in Hungary showed their sympathy to the resistance in Poland. Demonstrations were organized by the Hungarians to show solidarity with the Soviet controlled country. Initially, the Hungarian government gave permission for the marches. Sarosi was not interested in attending at that point. When his government withdrew its permit for the demonstrations, Sarosi decided to participate. His fellow students joined him. There is a scene in the movie Sunshine that depicts the crowd of demonstrators surrounding a status of a Polish general [Annotator's Note: Bem József] who fought for Hungarian freedom in 1848 and 1849. There were half a million people in that square. The experience was incredibly elevating. The demonstrators felt that people wanted the change so nothing bad would happen. They learned otherwise [Annotator's Note: the Russians fiercely defeated any attempts for political change in their sphere of influence in Eastern Europe]. Sarosi's memories of the uprising and the Holocaust have been scrambled because he has read so much on both events. The subsequent information has somewhat overlaid his first-hand recollections or what he thought his mother told him of the events. She was very apprehensive about getting into any trouble which in retrospect was a wise attitude. During the start of the uprising in 1956, there was a strong feeling that the world was about to change. An estimate of the crowd in front of the Parliament that night was one million people. It was widely felt that all the things that were hateful were going to disappear. The feeling was magic. The crowd was not informed enough to know that no army would be sent to help them against the Russians. Sarosi's mother was very upset. He joined the University Battalion to maintain order. He carried a rifle, but he never fired at anyone. He would have had it been necessary. He was guarding the university clinics on the night of 4 November when the Russians came back in force. The students were told to get lost. They were afraid because there was retribution. That was the start of the exodus from Hungary. Sarosi asked his mother to come with him. A gigantic argument ensued. She said that she would not leave the graves of her parents. That excuse angered Sarosi. His retort was that she did not even know where they were buried [Annotator's Note: her parents had been taken by the Germans toward Austria in 1944 as the Russians overran the death camps in Poland so no record existed of when or where they were executed]. He departed in the midst of the argument and would not see her for 8 years. It was only after Sarosi's first son was born that they reunited. She perhaps regretted her reactions afterward. As a scientist, she could have done very well in her career had she departed Hungary. Although many of his friends experienced similar reactions in discussions with their relatives, there were some cases where whole families departed together. There was a concern about getting into trouble and the repercussions that could be anticipated as a result. As an indication of the exodus, Sarosi's high school reunions take place in Montreal. Seven members of his class evacuated at the same time that he did. The smart ones went to Canada where there was no draft [Annotator's Note: he chuckles]. The government did not seriously attempt to stop those leaving the country. They must have decided to let the troublemakers depart. There was a radio station on the opposite side of the border that broadcasted reassuring messages letting relatives know that their loved ones were safely over the boundary. Sarosi packed a bag, dressed warmly and left on 6 December by train. The train headed west toward Austria. As it neared the border station, the conductor passed through the train telling people that Austria was the light showing out the window. Passengers seeking to go there should follow the light and keep walking. The mines had been removed from the border minefield [Annotator's Note: by decree of the Austrian Neutrality Treaty of 1955]. The Hungarian government could have stopped the passage of the refugees but it did not. It was similar to the Cuban Boat Lift [Annotator's Note: about 125,000 Cubans reached Florida between April and October 1980]. About 200,000 Hungarians left. They were mostly adventurous, young people. Sarosi's main plan was to continue his education but little beyond that. The official positions in the West were supportive but the real help came from individuals. At the University of Vienna, a desk was set up to collect all the offers to aid in continuing education for the refugees. A person needed to register with them and occasionally check out the opportunities. Sarosi would obtain a scholarship to attend the University of North Dakota. The government took care of his transportation [Annotator's Note: Sarosi does not state which government].

George A. Sarosi felt he was on an adventure when he reached America [Annotator's Note: he fled Hungary in December 1956 after participating in the Hungarian Uprising]. He knew things would be better in the United States. Things would be great. He had no negative thoughts concerning his new home. He felt he was bullet proof at 18 and 19 years of age when he left Hungary and traveled to the United States via Vienna. He found people to be very helpful on his magic carpet ride to his charmed existence in North Dakota [Annotator's Note: he had obtained a scholarship to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks]. He was disappointed with the reality in Grand Forks with its population of 35,000. He discovered that people did not populate night clubs every night. He wanted to be an American so bad that he had no problems acclimating himself to his new environment. He learned English while he took math courses. After he mastered English, he took the courses requiring language skills. He finished college in three semesters and then entered medical school. He received scholarships all the way through medical school. He worked, but people went out of their way to help make him successful. It was a fairy tale. He learned that there was so much more intellectual freedom in the States than he found in Hungary. A person did not necessarily have to read the right books to be accepted. Few of the rules of his youth applied to his new lifestyle. He had to adjust to living in a small town, as well as, the harsh cold in his new home. His university is referred to as Igloo U. He found people to be people. His was the last year of the Korean War veterans coming back to school using the GI Bill. His friends were older and more experienced. Those relationships benefited his adjustment to the new culture. He learned to smoke and swear. He learned English in the fraternity house. People in the United States generally understood the global implications of the war against the mean Russians, but there was an astonishing lack of understanding of the circumstances in Hungary. It was so alien to most people he met. Sarosi represented his country. He was a bit of a museum piece. He talked funny and had different experiences from his fellow students. Nevertheless, his friends could not comprehend how neighbors could disappear in the middle of the night, as they did in the Eastern bloc countries. That just did not happen in the United States. Television attempted to explain it. There was a general dislike of communism although people did not really understand it. Sarosi's real pleasure in living in the States was his feeling of total freedom. A person could say anything. There might be trouble for saying something, but the secret police would not come after them. Sarosi was never personally incarcerated in Hungary, but he knew the threat existed. A person had to be very circumspect in Hungary about what they said. That was not the case in the United States.

George A. Sarosi, like everyone else in Hungary, had a dossier that contained general information such as his birthplace. There was also a location in the dossier to note anything provided to the authorities by an informer about perceived subversive acts by the individual. After the dossiers became available during the revolution [Annotator's Note: the Hungarian Uprising of October to November 1956], there was retribution against the informers. Some committed suicide for fear of the consequences. Things were discovered about people; some of which was not good to know. Everyone had to have an internal passport to obtain a job. Prior to acceptance in the university, a student had to join the Young Communist League. When it came time for Sarosi to go to the VA as a resident, he had to fill out a Loyalty Oath stating whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party. He acknowledged that he had joined the League, but it was understood that he was not really a Communist. He was forced to join the League in order to attend Hungarian university. Everyone understood the great, big, nasty Russians, but they did not understand the details. People could not picture his Hungarian living arrangement where he did not have a bathroom. During the Cold War, Sarosi was rooting for the Free World. He was opposed to anything the Russians were doing or saying. He did not believe anything they said. He could not believe the Cuban Revolution was condoned. When the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, he anticipated the United States would go in and finish the situation. He believed strongly in facing up to the Russians. He became more rational later in life and discovered that things were not as simple as he thought. During the beginning of the Vietnam War, Sarosi believed in the Communist conspiracy and the Domino Theory. [Annotator's Note: The Domino Theory was a geopolitical concept that the Communist takeover of one country would lead directly to the takeover of adjacent countries. As a consequence, opposition was required for any Communist takeover of any country such as South Vietnam.] It was clear to Sarosi, at the time, that the whole thing had been fabricated by the Russians for their own advantage. He quickly became disillusioned about Vietnam. He was draft eligible, but as a doctor working in the Center for Disease Control, he was in a branch of the service where no one shot at him. He worked in a laboratory in Kansas City, Kansas. He had fun and learned a great deal there. He cannot claim any hardship. It was part of his good luck. Sarosi had a college friend who participated in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. His friend then served in Vietnam. Upon his friend's return in 1964 or 1965, Sarosi was an intern. He told Sarosi that anything published about the war was a lie. The friend became very active in the anti-war movement. Sarosi began to read the related literature against the war. He had the urge to believe in the fight, but the shooting at Kent State resulted in his loss of confidence. [Annotator's Note: National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of dissident students at the university and several young people were killed. It was a touchstone moment in the anti-war movement.] During the night of the revolution on 23 October, the Russian tanks were old clunkers, T-34s for the most part. When the Russians returned in November, the tanks were the modern KV-55s. The tanks were parked strategically at intersections. As the white coat clad students left the university clinic to retrieve wounded, someone fired a bazooka at a tank. Sarosi was rattled. The explosion threw him into a building. That resulted in some anatomical dislocations that still cause him pain [Annotator's Note: he chuckles and shifts his body]. After seeing what happened at Kent State, he was concerned that all the details were not being told to the public. Nonetheless, he was not willing to accuse the authorities of creating the problems. He became less certain of what we were fighting for as time passed. He still believes in the Communist conspiracy. He wanted to believe at the time that we were justified in the fight. He later learned that the Tonkin Gulf attack was bogus. [Annotator's Note: In August 1964, the United States military reported a North Vietnamese attack on one of its destroyers on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin. The resulting Congressional Resolution provided powers to President Lyndon Johnson to wage conventional war against the North Vietnamese. The Resolution was later repealed after scrutiny about the facts of the attack.] Sarosi understood there was a fight between evil and good. He had nothing good to say about the Communists. He still believes in that fight, but he is not as bloody minded as he was before.

When George A. Sarosi worked at a VA Hospital, he always felt it was an extension of the university. He has enjoyed working with young people. He is good in that role, and it is fun for him. Working with young doctors is exciting. Consequently, he continues to do so. He started working with the VA as a representative of the University of Minnesota. He learned a lot on the way and liked the circumstances. It was an agreeable situation in not having to ask his patient if they could afford his treatment. He long believed in the single payer system of healthcare [Annotator's Note: essential health costs funded by taxes]. It clearly works. It was all part of the university. He performed university work while taking care of veterans. The veterans were much easier to care for than any other class of patients. Staff and patients were afraid of the head nurses. They were tough World War 2 veterans and took no nonsense. The atmosphere was good because nothing got in the way of properly doing medicine. There were no nasty calls from Coding that something was not coded right. If a patient had something wrong with him, the doctors tried to fix it. The recovered individual did not end up with a crippling bill as a result. Sarosi was in and out of the VA most of his life [Annotator's Note: Dr. Sarosi has been awarded recognition for his teaching, research and treatment skills]. Veterans are easy to take care of because they state what is wrong with them, and understand when told what will be done to fix the problem. Sarosi has never been in a private hospital with its healthcare payment system. He has taken care of poor people either in city or VA hospitals. His patients understand the situation better. As a resident in 1966, Sarosi had Spanish-American, World War 1, World War 2 and Vietnam veterans. It was a different spread of patients than today. Most of the patients from World War 2 are gone. Everyone who served in Vietnam is 90 unless they lied to get in. Korean veterans were a small group. Most of the patients today are from Vietnam, the Gulf War and Afghanistan. Doctors now better understand the affects of war trauma. Early on, the definition of shell-shock was not codified. PTSD [Annotator's Note: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] is better understood today and recognized more. The role of addiction along with PTSD and what was happening "in country" in Vietnam was different than what happened in World War 2. The stressors were much greater. There are different hypotheses but no proof. The lack of identifiable enemies in Vietnam and Afghanistan added to the stress levels of war. In World War 2, the uniforms were different for the opposition. That was not always the case in Vietnam or Afghanistan. That uncertainty added to the stress. In talking with veterans, it becomes clear that they did not know friend from foe. Early in his residency, PTSD was not thought about too much. The ages of veterans of varying wars made it difficult to communicate with them to ascertain their feelings about personal experiences. The Spanish-American veterans hardly spoke. The World War 1 veterans were a different class made up of true volunteers with some draftees. Most were rural in background and came from a different segment of society. They were much more stoic. Medicine had much less to offer them in 1966. The World War 2 group was large and had fairly standard medical problems. Physicians did not know enough to get into their thoughts about previous experiences in combat. That did not become an issue until Vietnam veterans got older and the medical bills began to mount up. It became obvious that there was a whole field that needed investigation. It became easier to detect the problem, but it could not be determined why one individual was affected and another not. Psychological as well as physical questions are now part of the initial investigation of a patient's problems. That was not an everyday occurrence when Sarosi started in residency. Today's returning veterans are all volunteers who want to be there. Out of Sarosi's cohorts, no one wanted to be in the army. It was said that there was a right way, a wrong way and the army way. It is a different group today. The Vietnam veterans never felt good about what they did. That was unlike the World War 2 veterans who came back feeling positive. They felt they were victors. That did not extend to the Vietnam veterans who had more problems in societal re-entry. It was obvious in their health issues.

George A. Sarosi suffered nightmares from his stresses. It made him a believer. The bad dreams faded over time. They do not happen now but were very real while he was a teenager. Many horses were killed during the siege of Budapest. Horses were the only means of transportation. He remembers people cutting sections of a barely dead horse for food. The dead in the streets was not something that a seven year old typically sees while growing up. In the Ghetto, the dead were all piled up behind the synagogue. It was a very cold winter so the bodies froze stiff as cordwood. That stayed with him but has slowly faded. His mother did not want to talk about the past. She tried to guard him from bad memories. She did not want him to dislike people even though he learned that on his own. World War 2 changed his life in every way. He lost his family during the war. He grew up without a family. Now, having his own family, he knows what he missed. Only one uncle survived the war. The conflict altered his life in every way. He fears that the memory will disappear if people are not mindful of the bad things as they happen. The roots of all the evil could have been recognized early on, but people did not want to see them.