Betrayed Generation: Shattered Hopes and Disillusion in Post War Czechoslovakia

The book is an autobiographical account of the authors life in Czechoslovakia and later in Denmark and England during 1945- 1960. It is a continuation of Trust and Deceit (published by Valentine and Mitchell 2006) where the author descibes how as a Jewish teenager in Central Europe she survived the holocaust. After liberation from fascism in 1945 the experience of freedom, opportunities to study work and explore new aspects of living, imposed new chalenges. Tainted by the experiences during the second world war many young people felt that communism is a system that would provide a just society where all the wrongs of fascism could be remedied. They embraced with enthusiasm the comunist ideals and failed to see that they helped to bring to power another dictatorship and an evil system, where human rights were constantly violated. Thus our hopes were dashed and our ideals betrayed.
The description of the authors personal life, her experiences as a scientist the ups and downs of her relationships, are skillfully blended with the political and scientific background of the time. After a tempestious mariage to her former childhood sweetheart the author decided to divorce and with her two children lived as a single parent in communist Czechoslovakia. When she met and fell in love with a scientific colleague from England she was not permitted to marry him and leave Czechoslovakia. Finally the restrictions of personal freedom by the totalitarian regime became too much and forced the author to escape illegally taking incredible risks. During and after the escape the author was helped by other scientists and the story illustrates the solidarity of the scientific community woldwide even during the darkest period of the cold war.