Over the summer the protection afforded by neutral states saves the líves of thousands, among them the poet, playwright and novelist Ernõ Szép. Then, on 15 October, comes the Nazi-assisted Arrow Cross takeover. Six days later the 60-year-old writer, along with all the other men in the apartment house, is dragged away for forced labour. The Smell of Humans recapitulates the events following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, and then narrates the 19-day story of the forced march, the Arison camp at the brick factory, the digging of trenches outside Budapest, the round-the-clock exposure to the elements and to the whims of the guards (ranging from taunts to summary executions), until the release of the author three weeks later, when the regular army took the labourers out of the hands of the Arrow Cross henchmen. |
