Bob Ratonyi's book
Dear fraternity brothers,
I am writing this email to you to let you know about the recent publication of my book From Darkness into Light – My Journey Through Nazism, Fascism, and Communism to Freedom. The paperback version is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles and the eBook version will follow in about four weeks. Unfortunately, the “look inside” features are not yet available for another six weeks I am told by my publisher. To show you what is inside the book I have attached the “CONTENTS.” The reason to bring my book to your attention is that out of 335 pages I devoted 34 pages to my life at MIT, most of it at our fraternity house at 34 Fenway. These experiences are in the last chapter titled “Journey 5: Immigrant Years”. The book is based on five stories I wrote more than fifteen years ago when my second grandson was born in 2002. I wanted them, their parents , and future generations of Ratonyis to know about their Jewish-Hungarian roots and the life-altering experiences I lived through during the first 26 years of my life. The first story starts when I was born in 1938, the year of Kristallnacht, in Budapest and the last story ends when I left MIT in 1964 with my BS and MS degrees in engineering, my wife Eva, a sweetheart of Sigma Alpha Mu, and my newborn son David.
At the time I wrote these stories I had no intention to publish them. These stories were for family and a few close friends. But the law of unintended consequence kicked in. In 2010, the word got out in Atlanta that I am a Holocaust survivor, and somewhat reluctantly at first, I became a regular speaker at The Breman Holocaust Museum and on behalf of the Georgia Commission of the Holocaust. During the past ten years I have spoken to over ten thousand middle and high school students and over a thousand adults at churches, civic organizations (Rotary Club, YMCA, Churchill Society and others), educational institutions (Georgia Tech, Georgia College, UGA, etc.). Following my speech (a PP slide presentation) I was occasionally asked if I published my stories. People wanted to know how a seven years old Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust in Budapest ended up in America with an MIT education. So, a year ago, I decided to use my stories as the foundation for a professionally edited book and self-published it.
I had no financial motive in publishing the book and will never recover my investment. All the royalties (assuming I sell a few books) will be donated to two of our favorite non-profit charitable organizations in Atlanta: Jewish HomeLife Community (www.jewishhomelife.org) and the Jewish Educational Loan Fund (https://jelf.org).
Some of you will find yourselves in my last Journey. I never forget Ed Lindy and Joe Perkell picking Peter Csakany and me up after our long trip from Montreal at the railroad (or bus) station to take us to 34 Fenway. How can I forget arm wrestling with John Rothschild at our basement party after pledge week, and ending up with a broken left arm two days before my first day at school in September, 1961? Or the drive to the infirmary in Bob Morse’s sport car after the accident. I have long ago forgiven Joel Kalman’s habit of starting his studies at midnight with his radio on in our room in the basement. I think I was sleep deprived for the whole semester, and was glad to be assigned to another room for the next semester. The years at MIT and at the Sammy house were some of my happiest times in my life.
I compiled my email list using the MIT Infinite Connection website and included those names I remember. If I left someone out I apologize. Unfortunately, a few fraternity brothers I was close to are no longer with us: Howard Leibowitz, Steve Malkin and Peter Csakany.
If you buy my book let me know if you have any comments, and even if you don’t, let me know how you are doing.
Best regards,
Bob Ratonyi
C: 404-375-1865
About the Author (from Amazon)
https://smile.amazon.com/Darkness-into-Light-Journey-Communism/dp/1646545451/ref=sr_1_1
Robert Ratonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, in January 1938, a critical year in world history. In March of that year, Nazi Germany annexed Austria into the Third Reich, signaling Hitler's intent to start WWII by invading Poland in 1939. In November 1938, organized pogroms were carried out throughout Germany and Austria in what is called the Kristallnacht, or the "Nights of the Broken Glass," when a hundred Jews were killed, seven thousand Jewish businesses were destroyed, a thousand synagogues were burned, and thirty thousand Jews were deported. Ratonyi's parents saw what was coming to Jews in Hungary and decided not have any more children. As a result, he grew up as a single child, which he always regretted.
Hungary became an ally of Germany in 1940, and following that, Ratonyi's early childhood was scarred by fear, upheaval, and loss. He was four years old in 1942 when his father was conscripted into a Jewish labor battalion, and he never saw him again. Germany invaded Hungary in 1944, when he was six years old, and his mother was deported to an Austrian concentration camp. He was forced to wear a yellow star and face the terrors of war and ghetto life without his parents. He survived, thanks to some family members and strangers. He was brought up by his mother who survived and grew up under communist dictatorship.
He was a freshman at the Technical University of Budapest when he was caught up in the bloody uprising against the regime in October 1956. After the Russians crushed the Uprising, he managed to escape to Austria and eventually ended up as an immigrant in Canada in February 1957.
Once in Montréal, Canada, Robert restarted his life, learned English, worked during the day, and continued his education in an evening engineering program at a local university in the fall of 1957. In 1961 he transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering. While in graduate school, he married his wife, Éva, also a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, and became an American immigrant in 1964. After leaving MIT, Ratonyi worked for General Electric and continued his education in the evening to receive a master's degree in management from Drexel University.
The combination of his engineering and business education then catapulted Robert into a successful corporate business career. He left GE and worked for Exxon Enterprises and Xerox Corporation. He moved to Atlanta with his wife and two children in 1978 when he became Vice President of Contel Corporation, now part of Verizon. Subsequent to his corporate career, he formed and managed his own mergers and acquisitions and strategic consulting business.
Mr. Ratonyi is the Founding Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta from 2000 to 2002. He is also an Educational Counselor for MIT and interviews high school seniors who apply to MIT.
As a child survivor of the Holocaust, he is a regular speaker to middle and high school children and to various adult audiences on behalf of The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum since 2011. He is also a regular speaker on behalf of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust throughout Georgia.