Overview

Hungary, 1944. Almost half a million Jewish Hungarians are deported to Auschwitz. Among the few surviving Hungarian Jews from this era were young men who, like Ervin Wolf, were forced into the brutal Labor Service where they were cut off from the outside world and forced to endure inhumane brutalities and servitude. Once freed, a new oppression took hold as communist rule under Stalin turned friends to foes, enveloped the nation in fear and suspicion, and tested everyone’s character and strength. This is the true story of Ervin Wolf and his family as the fascist tide of Eastern Europe takes hold of Hungary. From the Wolfs’ comfortable upper-class life to imprisonment, daring escapes, tragic deaths, cloak-and-dagger adventures, and Ervin’s final escape to freedom in the dead of night, Not a Real Enemy is a page-turning tale of suspense, tragedy, comedy, and ultimately, triumph.

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Reviews

Robert Wolf deftly combines his father's testimony and his own research into a riveting historical narrative to recreate a sensitive and sophisticated portrayal of Jewish life in Hungary before, during, and after the Holocaust. It is a profoundly moving account of the Wolf family's dignity, courage, and resilience in the face of implacable hatred. It is a story of loss, but more importantly of survival and the strength of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. Edward B. Westermann, Regents Professor of History, Texas A&M University-San Antonio and author of Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany. Not a Real Enemy is a powerful tribute and compelling narrative that begins at the turn of the twentieth century and takes us through the turmoil of World War I and the build up to the Holocaust. It then brings us into the death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau and into the slave labor camps of Hungary and also to life under communism and the daring escape into the free world. The writing is crisp, the story complex but the author weaves the narrative strands together seamlessly. I was moved to tears of sadness and frustration but also tears of joy! Well done indeed. Michael Berenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University, Los Angeles, CA Dr. Wolf's book breaks new ground in describing Soviet postwar rule in Hungary, with its forbidden zones, secret files, seizures of property, and paranoia which favored only the privileged party elites. . . . Not A Real Enemy merits a worthy place in recalling the Jewish people's darkest night and its ongoing thirst for rebirth and renewal. Monty Noam Penkower, Yom Yerushalayim 5782, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at the Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem), is the prize-winning author of many books on the Holocaust, on American Jewry, and on the rise of the State of Israel in the years 1933-1948.

Author Information

Robert Wolf, M.D., grew up in a suburb of Detroit as the only child of Ervin and Judit Wolf. Their stories of their escape from communist Hungary, and his father's tragic history of escaping the Nazis twice but losing his own parents at the hands of Joseph Mengele, inspired Robert to document his parents' tales and share those stories with Jewish groups and others throughout the United States. In Not a Real Enemy Robert shares his family saga-and the forgotten history of the nearly half million Hungarian Jews who were deported and killed during the Holocaust-through an epic and inspiring tale of daring escapes, terrifying oppression, tragedy, and triumph. Janice Harper is a ghostwriter who has ghostwritten eight memoirs and several nonfiction books. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, her ethnography, Endangered Species: Health, Illness and Death Among Madagascar's People of the Forest, was nominated for the Margaret Mead award for anthropology written to appeal to a wide audience. She has been a regular feature blogger for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

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