Chapter One - Budapest Boy

CHAPTER ONE

Budapest Boy

GEORGE SOROS WAS born in Budapest in 1930, at a time when Europe was slowly falling apart. He grew up in a well-educated Jewish family, the son of Tivadar Soros, a lawyer who believed in Esperanto and liberal ideals. But the world around them wasn’t idealistic. It was on fire.

By the time Soros was a teenager, Hungary was already aligned with Nazi Germany. But in 1944 the Germans fully occupied the country and launched one of the fastest, deadliest mass deportations of the entire war. Soros, just fourteen years old, survived by hiding under a false identity. His father had arranged documents, contacts, and safe houses. It worked. The family avoided Auschwitz. Most others didn’t.

That year burned into him. Not just the violence, but the fragility of everything. Governments could collapse. Neighbors could turn. Identities could become death sentences. Survival wasn’t about strength. It was about timing, flexibility, and the ability to move when others froze.

After the war ended, Hungary didn’t return to normal. The Nazis were replaced by Soviets. One totalitarian system gave way to another. Soros could see what was coming, and he didn’t plan to wait around. In 1947, he left the country and never went back.

He landed in London with barely any money. He worked as a waiter and a porter to get by, eventually enrolling at the London School of Economics. That’s where he met the thinker who would shape his worldview more than anyone else. Philosopher Karl Popper.

Popper believed that all societies were vulnerable to collapse, and that the only protection against tyranny was what he called an “open society.” One built on freedom, tolerance, and the ability to criticize power. Soros didn’t just study the idea. He absorbed it. It gave structure to everything he had seen as a teenager. The rise of fascism, the fall of reason, and the speed at which things could break.

He didn’t become an activist right away. He still had to survive. But the blueprint was there.
The boy from Budapest wasn’t just looking for safety. He was starting to imagine how the world could be better, and how dangerous it was when people stopped trying.