Youth Lost in Red Hell

This is a gripping personal memoir of survival that I couldn't put down...and a must read, especially for Eastern European emigres and their descendants (like me). The incredible resilience of one man is a metaphor for spirit of freedom that the Soviet empire besieged for decades, but never extinguished.

Very highly recommended reading, Bela Gogos' Youth Lost In Red Hell is an autobiography story of survival under the most brutal conditions. Following one young man's service in the Royal Hungarian Air Force, and Bela's horrific ordeal in the mines of Arctic Russia (a nightmare so enduring that only his faith in the Almighty could sustain him), Youth Lost In Red Hell is a gripping and true tale of horrific tragedy and the indomitable human will to survive.

Man's accomplishments in the twentieth century came tumbling one after another at a rate unprecedented in human history. But, while conquering many of nature's ways of slaughtering humans, mankind displayed an amazing willingness to develop and use "improvements" in the deliberate destruction of his fellows. That same century brought the "war to end all wars", shortly followed by an even more devastating world war, and several massive efforts at genocide on an uprecedented scale in Europe, Asia, and Africa. To a very real degree, violence against his fellows ranks as high in the twentieth century as the explosion of new knowledge. But one of the catastrophes of that century, the rise and fall of communism, was by itself more devastating than all the others combined . . .and spread out over almost the entire century and several continents. Perhaps because of its diffusion over decades, it has failed to focus the collective attention of otherwise thoughtful men to the extent that others (e.g., WW II, the Holocaust) have. This is unfortunate because, as Johathan Rauch recently noted* "The fact remains: communism, not Nazism or racism or whatever other ism you please, is the deadliest fantasy in human history, and even Americans for all our struggles against it, have not yet looked it full in the face". Those of us who are aviators are often privileged to peek into the lives of men and women whom we may view as peers through various "niche books" - small circulation books that provide starkly personal views into the detailed daily lives of those who survived. Examples of this valuable and often overlooked genre include Simon's "German Air Attache" (a biography of Peter Riedel, a German glider pilot attached to the German embassy in the United States in the thirties) and Joe Volmer's "I Learned to Fly for Hitler". Both these men were caught up in WW II as German aviators, albeit with very different stories. Both are thought provoking. Now, however, comes a truly shocking revelation of treachery, cruelty, deprivation, and survival by a victim of the communist fantasy. "Youth Lost in Red Hell" was written by "one of our own", a very well regarded US soaring pilot and philanthropist, whose aviation life began in his native Hungary. He relates in painful detail a decade of suffering, and inspires by the revelation of how he survived. He not only survived, but went on to personal and professional success in every way. This slim volume is much more than a first person revelation of the horrors of what Rauch calls the "communist fantasy", but a story of courage and determination that should be on the reading list of those would seek to fully understand the history of the twentieth century. The language is plain, personal . . and gripping. With narrative and flashbacks, he tells in the first person of how flying shaped his life from a very early age; of military flying in WW II; of imprisonment - twice - by the Russians; and of torture, solita

a great story of a great life by a great man!!!!!!!

no words !!!! just read it ! it will make you aware of just what a great hero a human being can be !!God has blessed Bela. knowing him & his wife Susan has made me grateful!!!!!!!!!!!! I am only 38 years old;. this story made an impact on life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!