As well as providing a piece of distinctively Central European autobiographical literature, this detailed and imaginative short memoir is also an important document of the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944. The Smell of Humans relates the events following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, focusing on the author`s own three week internment in a forced labour camp. This vivid and detailed portrayal of events reflects Hungary`s, and indeed Europe`s, historical legacy and reveals the voice of a man who remarkably harbored no bitterness in his soul.

Szép`s tone is a meld of stupefaction and irony. Without overtly condemning or succumbing to despair, he describes a series of events along progressively grosser stages of infamy.

With an introductory essay by Dezső Tandori