MICHAEL NEWMAN RECALLS

MY FATHER'S TIME IN FORCED LABOUR AND AT MATHAUSEN
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​My Father, George Neumann, was drafted into the Hungarian Army in 1938 at the age of 21. He took part in Hungary’s invasion of Romania to take back Transylvania. He came out of the army in 1940 only to be forced into a forced labour battalion as most Hungarian Jewish males were when Hungary joined Nazi Germany in the invasion of Russia in Operation Barbarossa in June of 1941.

George and his battalion were shipped off to the Russian front in 1942 where they built roads, trenches and fortifications. He was close to Stalingrad when that battle took place, and then in early 1943 retreated with the remnants of the 2nd. Hungarian Army all the way back to Hungary. Germany invaded Hungary on March 19, 1944 and my Father was arrested in August of that year and shipped off to the concentration camp of Mauthausen, near Linz in Austria. He spent eight terrible months as a prisoner in Mauthausen. I mention George Neumann in Chapter 34 of Between These Walls.   
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STRENGTH IN ADVERSITY
My father was a leader among men. Despite the daily hardships of Mauthausen, he took it upon himself to speak for other prisoners. The document above, signed by Hungarian prisoners, is a proclamation from Mauthausen's commander of Hungarian prisoners naming my Father as top authority for Hungarians in camp. 

The photo to the right shows my father (front row, left) on the day U.S. General George S. Patton's 3rd Army liberated Mauthausen. George later worked for the United Nations Relief and Welfare Agency. He died in 1985, just before his 68th birthday.
Top and right: Documents for my Father after his release from Mauthausen

Far right: Letter from United nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency to provide safe passage for my Father


FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE
MICHAEL NEWMAN'S TIME IN THE WAR ZONE DURING THE 2006 SECOND LEBANON WAR
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The Second Lebanon War broke out in July of 2006 when Hezbollah terrorists from Lebanon kidnapped and murdered three Israeli soldiers. Israel responded by invading Lebanon to confront and punish Hezbollah. Hezbollah responded by raining Katyusha missiles down on Israeli civilians in the north of the country. While watching news coverage from the comfort of my living room in Richmond Hill, Canada, I came to the conclusion that the news coverage was not very balanced because it gave much greater emphasis to the Lebanese civilians under Israeli air attacks, than to Israeli civilians trapped for days on end in shelters, hiding from the rain of Katyusha missiles being launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah. So I decided to do something about it. Without telling anyone in my family I made arrangements to fly to Tel Aviv, Israel and from there get a ride up to the war zone in the north of Israel. I spent a week in Israel constantly under fire, visiting bomb shelters, air raid command centers and troops in the field. My journey was written up in the Toronto Star and National Post daily newspapers. I used this trip as the model for Dr. Samuel Singer’s journey to Israel in 1948 to participate in Israel’s fight for independence (Chapters 14, 15, 16, 17).

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