Trapped in the Cold War : the ordeal of an American family

The disappearance behind the Iron Curtain of the American brothers Noel and Hermann Field in 1949, followed by that of Noel’s wife and their foster daughter, was one of the most publicized international mysteries of the Cold War. This dual memoir gives an intensely human dimension to that struggle, with Hermann narrating all that happened to him from the day he was abducted from the Warsaw airport to his release five years later, and Kate relating her unrelenting efforts to find her husband. Thousands of potential victims of Hitler’s dragnet were rescued in 1939 and during World War II through separate efforts of the Field brothers. Arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1949, Noel was taken to Hungary and used as an example of American perfidy in show trials. Hermann went to Poland primarily to find out what had happened to his brother. After Hermann’s abduction, he was taken to the cellar of a secret Polish prison, where he was held for five years. He gives us a detailed account of his battle to survive, alternating despair and horror with mordant humor. Meanwhile, his family had no idea whether he was still alive and if so, where. This moving story, based on detailed notes made by the authors during and shortly after the events described, presents an inside-outside counterpoint, as Hermann’s chapters on his inward journey in his cellar world alternate with Kate’s efforts in London to find him by scrutinizing accounts of political events in Eastern Europe for clues and penetrating the diplomatic corridors of power in the West for help. Hermann had been arrested by a Polish security agent who later defected and became one of the West’s most important informants on Soviet operations in Eastern Europe. The search for the Field brothers was complicated by their history of leftist connections, for this tense period in the Cold War was also the era of McCarthyism in the United States. The book ends with an Epilogue that analyzes the events of fifty years ago in the light of what we know today, as the result of newly available archival material. The German translation of Trapped in the Cold War appeared in September 1996 under the title Departure Delayed with the Europäische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) of Hamburg as publisher.

The book's publication was timed to coincide with the official opening of the Swiss documentary film Noel Field, the Invented Spy which relates to the same Cold War incident that forms the substance of the book. Thus the two reinforced each other in building up a unique level of public interest. Hermann Field, who had made the film possible through his special access to the closed files in Hungary dealing with details of his brother's interrogation and who appears as a witness at several points in the film, participated in on-stage audience discussions at successive openings. The film won top honors and awards at successive film festivals. It was featured on German, Austrian, Swiss and French television. An English language version of the film had its first U.S. showing at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1998.

The book received unusually broad reviewer attention 1997, including extensive reviews in Germany's most widely circulated papers such as Die Welt of Munich, Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Zeitung.

The Polish language edition appeared in April 1997. Its publisher is the Panstwowy Instytut Wydawnicy (PIW) of Warsaw, Poland's leading publishing house. Both authors were invited to Warsaw for the occasion which was publicized through an invitational meeting in the book publishers' club in Warsaw's Old Town. Chapters from the book were read by a Polish actress. Simultaneous translation allowed both authors to address the participants and to take part in a question and answer session. Since the events of that time have left their mark on several generations of Poles and the setting of the cellar confinement of those five years is on the outskirts of Warsaw, there was a special immediacy in Poland in our account, reflected in a wide public interest.

Stalin's show trials calculated to wipe out much of the leadership in the communist satellite countries—Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Poland—was one of the most devastating moments of the early Cold War, a sequence of events triggered unfortunately by abduction of members of the American Field family, inevitably catapulting these events to the center of the international scene at that time. A reexamination of this bit of history has become a major area of public interest in Europe. To a lesser extent there now appears a resurgent interest likewise in this country which Trapped in the Cold War would seem to fit into.

"The disappearance behind the Iron Curtain of the American brothers Noel and Hermann Field in 1949, followed by that of Noel's wife and their foster daughter, was one of the most publicized international mysteries of the Cold War. This dual memoir gives an intensely human dimension to that struggle, with Hermann narrating all that happened to him from the day he was abducted from the Warsaw airport to his release five years later, and Kate relating her unrelenting efforts to find her husband.". "Thousands of potential victims of Hitler's dragnet were rescued in 1939 and during World War II through separate efforts of the Field brothers. Arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1949, Noel was taken to Hungary and used as an example of American perfidy in show trials. Hermann went to Poland primarily to find out what had happened to his brother. After Hermann's abduction, he was taken to the cellar of a secret Polish prison, where he was held for five years. He gives us a detailed account of his battle to survive, alternating despair and horror with mordant humor. Meanwhile, his family had no idea whether he was still alive and if so, where.". "This moving story, based on detailed notes made by the authors during and shortly after the events described, presents an inside-outside counterpoint, as Hermann's chapters on his inward journey in his cellar world alternate with Kate's efforts in London to find him by scrutinizing accounts of political events in Eastern Europe for clues and penetrating the diplomatic corridors of power in the West for help."--BOOK JACKET. Acknowledgments Contents Prologue 1. August Afternoon in 1949 2. Warsaw Courtyard 3. Journey to Nowhere 4. Vacation's End 5. But Muffin Could Hear 6. Shock 7. Days and Nights 8. London 1949 9. London 1950 10. Face to Face 11. Stanislaw 12. Cell University 13. The Oppression of Time 14. As the Second Year Began 15. Unequal Battle 16. Peepa 17. London 1951 18. London 1952-1953 19. Breaking Point 20. Twenty Months of Twilight 21. Final Summer 22. Forest Paradise 23. London 1954 24. London: Battle for a Soul 25. Breaking Out 26. The Mist at Dawn 27. Kate Epilogue Afterword Identities of Names in Text Notes Annotated Bibliography Index