Prison on Wheels is a remarkable diary kept by a young Hungarian woman, Eva Dános, during sixteen horror-filled days and nights of deportation by the Nazis in 1945. It is an eyewitness report of a 700-kilometer rail journey from Ravensbrück, north of Berlin, to Burgau, near Munich, one of the countless such operations that took place within Nazi Germany’s vast network of labor- and concentration camps. What makes this account of particular interest is the fact that the author had been a member of a small, underground group in Budapest led by Gitta Mallasz (Talking with Angels), and her fellow-prisoners included some of these same comrades. Their humanity helped to sustain them.

Eva Langley-Dános was born in Budapest, Hungary, and studied and taught school there, earning a Ph.D. in economics at the University in 1943. Then, the Nazis arrived: she went underground, working in the “clothing factory” used by Gitta Mallasz for protecting Jewish women and children, and she participated in some of the now well-known dialogues with angels. Ultimately, she and some of the other Jewish women were captured and deported to Germany by the Nazis, and her diaries of this horrible experience comprise Prison on Wheels. Eva Langley-Dános survived the war and emigrated to Australia, where she lived in peace, cherishing and loving her children and grandchildren. She passed away in 2001.