in 1951, in what was a common practice during this time, the hungarian police arrived at dawn to seize the pallendal family home and arrest and deport the family from budapest. seven-year-old béla and six-year-old lászló banathy, along with their pallendal grandmother and two aunts, were put aboard a freight train and sent toward russia. the train stopped occasionally and a few hundred people were forced off at rural towns. the pallendal family was ejected in eastern hungary. there an uncle located them and hid them from authorities in a small village.