Levente Batizy

The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain Levente Batizy

The Batizy family was Eastern European nobility during the thirteenth to twentieth centuries and continued to lead comfortable lives even as the importance of aristocracy faded. Then, the unimaginable happened. These centuries of happy, committed citizenship would all seemingly fade away in an instant as communism took over. Driven from their home after the 1956 Hungarian revolution against communist rule failed, the Batizys found themselves starting over, seeking and creating a new dream: the American dream.

The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain: The Batizy Story is Levente Batizy's sweeping yet intimate immigration story. Starting with the story of the Batizy patriarch, the architect of the family's great escape, and following the sacrifices that the Batizy's mother and stepmother made during the resettlement, The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain also includes recollections from Batizy and his thirteen siblings following the fiftieth anniversary of the revolt.