Book Summary

The book Yellow Star-Red Star is one of survival of the Shoah – her family lucky that their train to almost certain death was diverted. It is also one of living under the Communists in Hungary. The story is more than a Holocaust survivor’s story; it is one that tells of the author’s struggles post war, how she worked hard to enter Hungarian society by studying to be an electrical engineer. It was the 1956 Revolution that gave her the opportunity to escape, which she did, finally arriving in Folkestone in the United Kingdom.

Her story is one of surviving two dark periods, one from which she emerged with great accomplishment and one which allows us, the reader, a greater insight into a window of a world about which we know so little.

Along with her unique story, the historian László Csősz provides us with important context about the wider story. This book is a remarkable testimony of a remarkable woman, written with great dignity, and only positivity for us to contemplate.

This book is a great gift. Jewish life in Debrecen, a provincial capital in prewar Hungary, the early impact of authoritarian rule on her family's life, the resilience of her grandmother and her mother, but also the educational ambition of her father, all this is told with a great sense for the right balance between necessary detail and the wider context, complemented by the 'historian's voice' of Dr László Csősz. Her memories from childhood and early youth, and the story of her and her family's unlikely survival during the Second World War as slave laborers in Austria reflect an enduring commitment to humanity and decency. The book also tells the story of a young woman of exceptional intellectual ambition as one of very few female electrical engineers - first in Stalinist Hungary, and then, after a narrow escape in the turmoil of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, in Britain. Agnes Kaposi is a witness of one of the darkest periods in European history. She inspires us with her kindness, her commitment to truth, and her generous invitation to follow her unique life trajectory.

François Guesnet
Professor of Modern Jewish History Departmental Graduate Tutor Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL

Every human being is unique. However, some human beings seem more unique than others. Agnes Kaposi is one such person. Rising to the top of her profession, she became one of the very few women to do so in a field at the time dominated by men. She broke the symbolic ‘glass ceiling’ for many other women to follow. Agnes also survived not only the Holocaust, but also the Soviet invasion of Hungary following the uprising in 1956. Hence the title of her extraordinary memoir ‘Yellow Star-Red Star’ (i2i Publishing 2020). Those who endured both fascism and Soviet communism have a particular story to tell. Agnes recounts it with élan, whether through her book or in her gripping presentations before audiences of all ages.

I first met Dr Agnes Kaposi at Limmud in December 2019. At that point her book was about to be published. She had just held a large audience spellbound with an account of her life. Agnes was born in 1932 in Debrecen, the second largest city of Hungary situated close to the Romanian border. Like many Jews in Hungary at the time, the family considered themselves to be loyal to both their faith and state without being actively religious. Agnes takes us through her childhood under the threat of war and her years under Nazi occupation and incarceration in a concentration camp. A series of fortunate circumstances, including an air raid that put the railway track out of use and prevented Agnes from being sent to a death camp, enabled Agnes to survive. The bombing itself almost ended her life. More than 15,000 who had arrived with Agnes at Strasshof in June 1944 did not survive, nor did 564,000 of the Hungarian Jewish community. The story didn’t end at liberation, far from it. Even in the weeks and months thereafter, many perished through malnutrition and disease. As a young teenager, Agnes managed to pull through. The following eleven years were not without trauma and incident. Protected by her teacher, Agnes, the top pupil in her school, unconsciously managed to not be sent to the Soviet Union to study. Instead, she stayed in Hungary and studied Electrical Engineering. Agnes graduated in 1956, the year of the Hungarian Revolution. By the end of the year she had escaped to Austria and her life in exile began. A few weeks later on the 12^th anniversary of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Agnes arrived in Folkestone in the United Kingdom. Her academic career took off and she became only the third woman to be admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

The story Agnes brings to us is one of survival yes, but more than that, it is one of immense achievement, it is inspirational and can change the lives of those who hear it. The story has been withheld for decades; only now is Agnes telling it. It is fresh, vivid and compelling. Once heard, it is unforgettable and once met, Agnes too is unforgettable. The story is unique, and Agnes is unique.

The Reverend Bruce Thompson
Chair, Lincolnshire Methodist District
Author of Echoes of Contempt: A History of Judeophobia and the Christian Church, Wipf and Stock Publishers (US), 2018.

A vital book in our comprehension of the Holocaust in Hungary and the Communist regime that followed. Yellow Star-Red Star refers to the two totalitarian regimes that Agnes Kaposi survived, first as a child slave labourer during the Holocaust, and then as a student and worker in Communist Hungary.

Yellow Star:  It is the story of a little girl growing up in pre-war Hungary who, with her family, was caught up in the Holocaust.  By a fluke of fate, their deportation train to Auschwitz (and certain death) was diverted to Austria where they were forced to work in intolerable conditions.  Her story shows how innocent people can be pawns in political machinations beyond their control.

Red Star:  We may be familiar with the story of survivors who came to the West, and to Britain after the war; we may be familiar with Hungarians who fled Hungary in 1956 and made new lives in a free democracy.  After liberation by the Soviet Army, Agnes and her family returned to Hungary and lived under a Communist regime.  The description of her years there gives us an insight into the political and social situation in Eastern Europe in the years after the Second World War and helps us to understand better the situation there today.

Agnes has grounded her story in the general history of the time with the addition of chapters by Hungarian historian Dr Laszlo Csosz who gives the context of the wider picture against which Agnes's story plays out.  We see the micro, the individual, as well as the macro, the wider angle.

Esther Gilbert
Creator and Editor, Holocaust Memoir Digest