My Father's Words

Book excerpt: This work is the first-hand account of the oppression and persecution of the millions subjected to the unprecedented dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin. Ranging from the personal humiliation and political ostracism of his family for being peasant farmers, to the grand scale of dehumanizing institutions and methods of both Communism and Nazism, Charles Turk's My Father's Words places human faces on the millions of silent victims of 70 years of totalitarian rule in Eastern Europe. However, this story does not end there. Unable to speak or read English, Turk escaped to Austria in 1956 and immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee from the Hungarian Uprising. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean was the easiest length of his personal journey, bolstered only by his faith in God and the wise words of his strict and humble father.