Page "Béla Bartók" Paragraph 19

In 1940, as the European political situation worsened after the outbreak of World War II, Bartók was increasingly tempted to flee Hungary.

He was strongly opposed to the Nazis and Hungary's siding with Germany.

After the Nazis came to power in the early 1930s, Bartók refused to give concerts in Germany and broke with his publisher there.

His anti-fascist political views caused him a great deal of trouble with the establishment in Hungary.

Having first sent his manuscripts out of the country, Bartók reluctantly emigrated to the U. S. with Ditta Pásztory-Bartók in October that year.

They settled in New York City.

After joining them in 1942, their son, Péter Bartók, enlisted in the United States Navy where he served in the Pacific during the remainder of the war and later settled in Florida where he became a recording and sound engineer.

His oldest son, Béla Bartók, Jr., remained in Hungary where he survived the war and later worked as a railroad official until his retirement in the early 1980s.