The Last Train is the harrowing true story about young brothers Paul
and Oscar Arato and their mother, Lenke, surviving the Nazi occupation
during the final years of World War II.
Living in the town of Karcag, Hungary, the Aratos feel insulated from
the war -- even as it rages all around them. Hungary is allied with
Germany to protect its citizens from invasion, but in 1944 Hitler breaks
his promise to keep the Nazis out of Hungary.
The Nazi occupation forces the family into situations of growing panic
and fear: first into a ghetto in their hometown; then a labor camp in
Austria; and, finally, to the deadly Bergen Belsen camp deep in the
heart of Germany. Separated from their father, 6-year-old Paul and
11-year-old Oscar must care for their increasingly sick mother, all
while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid the horrors of
the camp.
In the spring of 1945, the boys see British planes flying over the camp,
and a spark of hope that the war will soon end ignites. And then, they
are forced onto a dark, stinking boxcar by the Nazi guards. After four
days on the train, the boys are convinced they will be killed, but
through a twist of fate, the train is discovered and liberated by a
battalion of American soldiers marching through Germany.
The book concludes when Paul, now a grown man living in Canada, stumbles
upon photographs on the internet of his train being liberated. After
writing to the man who posted the pictures, Paul is presented with an
opportunity to meet his rescuers at a reunion in New York -- but first
he must decide if he is prepared to reopen the wounds of his past.
