Stephen de Bastion: copy family papers

Stephen de Bastion was born Istvan Bastyai in 1907 in Hungary. Having learned to play the piano he worked as a solo pianist in bars and restaurants in Hungary and later Switzerland. He was regarded as one of the seven best pianists in Hungary in that field. Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe he was sent on several spells of forced labour to Transylvania, interspersed with periods of 'normal life' back in Hungary, working as a pianist and composing songs until some time in 1942 he was sent along with over a 1000 others to the Russian front on a slave labour mission from which he wasn't expected to return. He did however manage to return to Budapest only to suffer at the hands of the Nazis once they had marched into Hungary in March 1944. He spent another gruelling year in several camps and on forced marches, suffereing near starvation, contracting hepatitis and jaundice. Having returned to Hungary at the end of the war, he married Edith Riech and they settled in the UK where they had 2 children. Edith's first husband, Laslo Somogyi, hade actually been sent to Siberia with Stephen whence he never returned.

family papers

Donated March 2013

Donor: Julie de Bastion