Aladar Kuncz

Hungarian classical scholar, school master and political victim. He was arrested and jailed in Paris in WW I for his political beliefs. In his autobiography, "Black Monastery," he describes a gruesome, hopeless and unforgettable account of the prison years for himself and other aliens interred in France during WW I. His early life was happy, though his mom died when he was five he was devoted to his dad. His four brothers did well, one a professor, two soldiers and one a doctor. Kuncz chose the academic life like his dad. With the outbreak of the war, his carefree life ended. He was in France that August 1914, where he usually spent his holidays; he and his friends were picked up by the police and imprisoned for five long years, because Hungary was then the enemy of France. The "Black Monastery" that became his home was an 800-year-old castle, molding from its surrounding moat, covered with slime and decay, stinking and rat-ridden. It held 240 men, 46 to a room, bitter cold and starving. After the armistice, the prison was not closed for another six month, during which influenza swept the corridors, killing many. When released, he found that his dad had died, his people at home were starving and Hungary had been traded in as Rumania's territory. With his health broken, he died after a brief illness at age 45, in June 1931.