The Traveler — Antal Szerb

In 1945, near the end of World War II, Antal Szerb, the author of "The Traveler," was executed along with 2000 other Hungarian Jews during a forced march westward. Three years later the New York Jewish Refugee Aid Society erected a memorial in the Hungarian town of Balf where the executions had taken place. Part of the memorial is an open book, engraved in stone, bearing the following Antal Szerb quote: ""Freedom is the concern not only of one nation but of all mankind."" In 1995, on the 50th anniversary date of Szerb's execution, Peter Hargitai, "The Traveler's " American translator, and his students at Florida International University had the name of Antal Szerb inscribed into the memorial wall of the Holocaust Memorial in the city of Miami Beach.