Prisoner of Liberté

This is the story of a man, one among millions who were caught in the crushing power of Communism. The shattered life of this pastor-teacher-scholar in a small village of Transylvania [Romania] symbolizes an entire era under totalitarian dictatorship and the insidious ways it corrupted every aspect of society.

This is the story of his arrest and torture by the secret police and the Communist show-trial on false political charges. His refusal to compromise his conscience and convictions led him into the prison ship, “Liberté,” and to an imprisonment that branded his and his family’s life forever. This is also the story of his release, creation of a monumental scholarship in virtual exile, his solitude and untimely death. Finally, this is the story of how his life inspired or made fearful those who survived him. He has often been compared to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This man was my father.
Having studied with Nobel Peace laureate Professor Elie Wiesel at Boston University, I received from him the mandate to write and publish my father’s biography – which I did first in English, then in Hungarian.

Világjárásai közben Gellérd Judit (Zizi) akár a Csendes-óceán „Tűzgyűrűjében,” akár a Dél Keresztje alatt hajózik vagy gyalogol, mindent és mindenkit székely szemmel lát és láttat; e mostani könyvében vele együtt zarándokolhatunk a dzsungel fojtogatásából kiszabadított ősi kultúrák szent városaiba és az ökológiai katasztrófát jósló gleccserek Alaszkájába; Hawaii és Tibet száműzöttjeinek anyanyelvük és vallási hagyományaik mentésében pedig társaivá szegődünk.