School of a Different Kind

This book is the true story of children, made homeless at the conclusion of World War Two, who found a home in an unusual school at an unusual time. It is the story of dedicated teachers, remarkable, supportive parents and spirited youngsters, rapidly growing to adulthood during highly unusual circumstances. The story is about people and about their struggles to overcome the ordeal of witnessing the collapse of the familiar. While facing the loss of home, future, and security, they managed to transmit to their children, or to their students those values and ideals which were the very foundation of their former life. The story is as much part of history as those of the famous battles. It is a tale of time gone by. Anne Frank, Helga Weiss, and Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertész wrote about Jewish children and youth living or disappearing in the horror of the Holocaust; Esther Hautzig recounted Jewish children deported to the Soviet Union; Helen Szablya and Tibor Fischer wrote about youth surviving in Communist Hungary just after World War Two. The present book fills a gap: it describes, for the first time. the life of the young people, who had to flee their homes toward the end of the war, leaving everything behind. They had to rebuild their life in a country totally foreign to them during bewildering times. In this respect, the above mentioned books are related to the SCHOOL OF A DIFFERENT KIND because it too tells about the true, innocent and unsung victims of a war: children and young adults. Despite its documentary aspect, it is easy reading because joy and humor were just as part of the life in the school, as was serious studying paired with hunger and cold. The upbeat spirit of youth is truly indomitable.