Outcasts – A Love Story

“A lyric story of love within an epic saga of hate. You know it’s true; inventing it would be impossible. It really is a fascinating and highly readable book.”- George Jonas, author of Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorism Team and Reflections on Islam: Ideas, Opinions, Arguments.

“Susan Papp has done a masterful job at what was an extremely difficult task. She has chosen a poignant love story to explore and explain a part of Europe in a time of crisis and extraordinary danger. As Papp eloquently explains, in this highly contested part of Europe, survival was paramount. Her book tells us much about the catastrophes that befell Europe both before and during the Second World War and the possibilities that came with the War’s end. Papp gives us an immensely readable book that tells a personal story with big implications.”
-Robert C Austin, Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

     Outcasts: A Love Story is a bittersweet story that has taken two families through war and peace — from Europe to Canada — amid happiness and heartbreak.

     Central to their saga is the true tale of a man and a woman who chose the worst possible moment to fall in love — and their surviving brothers’ lifelong search for understanding and forgiveness.

     Their story unfolds in Nagyszöllős—the city of wine, in a region of rolling riversides, nestled in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe, where Hungary, Ukraine and Slovakia converge.

     The town was a place of tolerance, where families of many creeds pursued their lives in harmony. But by 1944, Central Europe has been shattered by three years of war, and the vineyards of the Carpathian foothills are under the Nazi shadow. It is during this perilous environment that a young businessman named Tibor Schroeder and a stunning beauty named Hedy Weisz fall in love, and pledge to marry. She works as the office manager for his company.

     Tibor and Hedy’s love for each other blossoms at the worst possible time. Tibor is a Christian, Hedy a Jew — their relationship is a violation of Hungarian Law. What is more, Tibor is the son of the head of the press corps for the Hungarian army. Tibor is a reservist in the Hungarian army. His unit receives its orders to leave by train. Hedy’s fate is much more ominous. She and her family are herded into the ghetto. Tibor resolves to try to save her. His plan is to hide her in a railway baggage car on his troop train and take her to safety — wherever that may be. But Tibor’s plan collapses. The lovers are swept apart by the war and its aftermath.

     In the poignant climax of the book, we join Tibor in Canada’s Centennial year of 1967, aboard a train from Toronto to Montreal, bound for a reunion with his beloved Hedy and what — he hopes — will be a renewal of a love stronger than hate and war.

     Based on true events, this sprawling love story of hope, courage, and redemption will stay with readers long after finishing the book. Originally published in English by Dundurn Press, the book has been translated and published in Hungarian (2010), Hebrew (2011) and most recently in Italian (2020). A documentary based on this story, from Postmodern Productions, was released in 2009.