Pál Kelemen

Pál Kelemen (24 April 1894 – 15 February 1993) was a Hungarian-American archaeologist, art historian, and international art lecturer who contributed to the research of Pre-Columbian art. Kelemen was one of the first to recognize the importance of medieval Spanish colonial artwork of the Americas. Kelemen received the Order of Merit from the government of Ecuador. After the war Kelemen started to study early Christian and Byzantine art. In 1932, Kelemen moved to the United States. On May 2, 1932 he married Elisabeth Hutchings Zulauf and seven years later became a naturalized US citizen.

Kelemen died at the age of 98 in La Jolla, California.

The book provides an uncommon perspective on the war as it is written by a well-educated, multi-lingual, Hungarian officer serving in multiple fronts. Though battles and combat feature throughout, the main focus is on the author's personal life. The war serves as a backdrop to a man of high birth in a society struggling to adapt to the modern world. The portrait provided of war on the eastern front is starkly different from that of the western front described in novels such as Le Feu (Under Fire). Antiquated militaria such as cavalry regiments are only eliminated near the end of the war period. The memoir presents a fairly positive view of the author's service. Written in a different time period, it could easily have passed for pro-war propaganda. Parts of the author's diary were used as such during the war period by the Hungarian government. For most of the book, the view of the war is a positive one and the author's personal experiences harken back to the romantic and idealistic notions of war.