My Private War

On the BC

Robert Winkler was born in Budapest and graduated from high school. He was drafted into forced labor in 1944. After the war he entered the technical university of Budapest and graduated in structural engineering. He immigrated to the US in 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution and had a productive career in civil engineering. He has been married to Jolan Winkler for 37 years and lives in Riverdale, New York.


This book tells the story of a young Hungarian Jewish man drafted into forced labor and his numerous escape attempts. The "escape artist" vividly describes the tricks he used to fool the Hungarian and the Germans who inadvertently shielded him from Hungarian captors.