Book excerpt: This text traces the evolution of Communism in post-war Hungary. It identifies the distinctive features of the Jewish community and describes the relationship of the Communist authorities and the Jewish leadership, pinpointing the difficulties of Jewish students in all walks of life. The second part of the book contains the recollections of 17 people, all Holocaust survivors, who faced the threat of Communism in Hungary. These contributors managed to preserve freedom of speech and action, as well as their Jewish self-awareness, in the darkest years of Stalinist Communism in Hungary.