Pál Szegö diary

Pál Szegö (later Paul Szego, 1902-1995) was born in Szentendre, Hungary. He was a master hat maker and owned a hat shop. He was Jewish, but converted to Christianity after marrying his wife, a devout Catholic, in the 1920s. They had one son, Peter. In June 1944, he was drafted into a forced labor battalion under Swedish protection. At the end of November his company was taken by train to the western border of Hungary. In March 1945, they were taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp and later to its subcamps until liberation in 1945. Throughout the months he was imprisoned, Pál kept a diary in the margins of a pocket size New Testament. He reunited with his family after liberation and they returned to Hungary. In 1956, Pál and his son fled Hungary through Austria and immigrated to Canada. His wife joined them several years later and they settled in Montreal.