life under communism 1

7/29/2019 Life under Communism 1.

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THE STORY OF MY TIMES(My 20th Century)

By MIKLOS N. SZILAGYI

Copyright 2007- 2013 Miklos N. Szilagyi

I cannot tell this to anyone; therefore, I will tell it to everyone.- Frigyes Karinthy

Volume Three:Life under Communism

This is the third volume of the Story. For the family members andother persons who have already been introduced before, please referto the appropriate chapters of Volume One.

1. Liberation (1945)

Yes, we were finally liberated from this horror! The Russianswere there and they gave us food! A truck came with bread and a

huge crowd of starving people surrounded it immediately. A soldierstood on top of the truck and threw loafs of dark bread into the crowd.People trampled each other for the bread. One man lost his eye tothe crazed crowd. My grandfather came back barely alive with twoloaves of fresh bread wrapped in his old white scarf which wascovered with lice.

Then people started to eat. They ate like animals, stuffing thefresh bread into their mouths, swallowing it without chewing, fillingtheir empty stomachs. Many of them paid with their lives for this.Their exhausted intestines could not deal with so much food in such ashort time and they died of diarrhea. Fortunately, my grandfatherknew this. He cut one piece of bread for me and one for himself. Ihappily ate the bread and thanked God for being alive.

I only learned many years later that my life had been saved byRaul Wallenberg (see last chapter of Volume 2). He saved my lifeand I could not do anything to save his.

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At about 10 oclock in the morning my grandfather told me:Although we are both very weak, we must leave these inhumanconditions immediately. We left and headed home. The one-milewalk took us the whole day. There were no streets, just ruins. Thebodies of dead people and horses covered the entire city andGerman bullets made our journey very dangerous.

The war was far from over. The Germans still held Buda (thehilly part of the city on the western side of the Danube) and they wereshooting over the river with their artillery. Aunt Mili, one of mygrandfathers sisters (Laci Friedmans mother) and her daughter,Rzsi were both killed several days later by these shells. Buda wasliberated only a month later, on February 13. We saw what they haddone to our beautiful city, the Pearl of the Danube. Everything was inruins and they had mercilessly destroyed our magnificent bridges

when they retreated to Buda. Interestingly enough, the Hungarianpeople have easily forgiven this crime while they deeply resented theRussian liberators.

Finally, we arrived home. Our neighbors greeted us as if wewere just back from a short vacation. No apologies, no shame,nothing. They gave us some food, however, and we climbed thestairs to find our apartment empty. There was some furniture left andlots of books on the floor. The Arrow Cross brothers evidently hadno interest in reading but dropped the books on the floor while

searching for valuables hidden behind them. There was nothing elseleft in the apartment. The windows were all broken and it was a verycold winter. We were given some blankets and my grandfather foundsome paper to light fire in the stove. We went down to the square,brought a couple of bricks, and warmed them to keep us warm for thenight.

Lvlde Square was covered with fresh graves. In one of themwas laid to rest the 16-year-old son of the Bulyovszky family. Whenthe front was already two blocks from the house, the brotherscollected all the young boys and forced them to fight against

Bolshevism. Soon the unfortunate boys body was found among theruins riddled with bullets.

Next day, we found out that not all of our problems had beensolved by the Liberation. The Red Army did not come to save thelives of the Jews (although they did save ours!). After they emptied allthe pharmacies of alcohol, they started to collect men forkicsikerobot(a little work) which sometimes meant years in the Gulag.

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Women were very much afraid of the Russian soldiers becauseof the rumor that they raped every female. One of our neighbors,Lszl Tanos, for example, swore that if they touch his wife thaywould both jump to their deaths from the fourth floor of the house.Nobody touched her and many-many other women, either. I did noteven hear about a single such case in spite of the fact that after theatrocities committed by the Hungarian occupants of the Ukraine, itwould have been easy to understand if they really had done this. (Bythe way, Tanos died soon of a heart attack. He was only 60 yearsold.)

People in the streets started to discuss Hungarys future.Although a Provisional National Assembly (its Speaker was Dr. BlaZsednyi) and a Provisional Government (Prime Minister BlaDlnoki Mikls) had been formed in Debrecen at the end of 1944,

many people believed that Hungary would be divided among itsneighbors or maybe altogether swallowed by the Soviet Union andcease to exist as an independent country.

Dlnoki Mikls Bla Voroshilov

This opinion was partially based on previous statements by

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Hungarian politicians. Prime Minister Mikls Kllai said in 1942: If wedo not win [the War], there will be no Hungary! Horthy himself said ata meeting of the Crown Council in 1944: It may happen that Hungarywill even lose her national existence. He wrote later: Maybe there isa possibility to obtain some guaranty from the victors regarding thesurvival of Hungary.

The country was formally governed by the Allied ControlCommission under the chairmanship of the incompetent MarshalKliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (evidently, Stalin could not find a lessimportant position for him). In fact, the Red Army ruled Hungary.

The brothers quickly learned how to avoid the little work andfind new opportunities at the same time. The backside of theirarmbands happened to be red, so they turned the bands inside outand immediately pretended to be activists of the newly formed

Hungarian Communist Party.We experienced this ourselves very soon. My grandfather, the

old Social Democrat, lost confidence in his party and came to theconclusion that only the Communists do anything for the bettermentof society. One day we went to one of the offices of the CommunistParty. We immediately noticed the brothers standing on guardoutside. We went in and a lady comrade greeted us. Grandpa startedwith inquiring about his friend, Aladr Weisshaus(introduced inChapter 6 of Volume 1). The lady replied: Comrade, please forget

this name! This was enough for my grandfather. He gave up on hisidea of joining the Communist Party.We learned later that Weisshaus, who spent most of his life in

prison, was sitting in the same cell as Mtys Rkosi at one time.They had a fist fight over some issue. He was expelled from the Partyand imprisoned again when Rkosi came to power.

When our house had been a Yellow Star House, my paternalgrandmother and Manci moved in with us. When they left the Ghetto,they came back to our apartment again. Because of their indifferentattitude toward me in the Ghetto, their connection with my

grandfather was quite strained at this time. They hardly talked to eachother.

My grandmother, as we saw her before, was a strange old lady(she was only 66 but looked very old to my nine-year old eyes). Shefrequently remembered World War I but called it the Great War as ifthis war was not great enough. There were scarcely any utilities in thecity. When there was no water, she said: The most terrible thing is

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the lack of water. The next day there was no electricity. It wasimmediately considered the most terrible thing.

Bla came back in February. He deserted Labor Service whenthe front was in Eastern Hungary. The Russians let him go homeafter the liberation of Budapest. A week later, Communist Partyactivists came, offering him some job in the provinces. Grandmotherand Manci started to cry hysterically. They virtually forced him torefuse the offer. Bla waved his hand with resignation and stayed.

There were some other people in the apartment who came fromhouses destroyed by the war. I remember two of them: a young manand a young woman (not related to each other). The woman worewedgies and had beautiful strong legs. The man started to burn ourbooks to warm the apartment. We had a complete collection of theGreat Rvai Encyclopedia, the most comprehensive Hungarian

encyclopedia ever published. When I noticed that he was burning thistreasure I offered him less valuable books instead and managed tosave six volumes.

This was left from our beautiful bridges

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And the war was still not over! In March, there was a massiveGerman counterattack (35 divisions strong) in the region of LakeBalaton. It was the last large offensive of the Wehrmacht in WW II. Itlasted ten days and we already heard the sound of the cannons asthey approached Budapest. We were horrified. Fortunately, the Red

Army pushed them back and by April 4 the entire country wasliberated.

There was very little food in the city, mostly beans and peas.There was no transportation, wild beasts escaped from the destroyedcages of the Zoo, and all the bridges were buried in the Danube. Inorder to cross the river, you either had to hire a small boat or use thefloating bridge built by the Red Army near the destroyed MargitBridge (we called it Manci Bridge).

We had no money, nothing. My grandfather found two small tinbowls and two canteens, took me by the hand, and we went aroundpanhandling. Wherever we found a place where some food wasbeing sold, this proud man who had raised four children on his own,humiliated himself and begged: Please give something to eat to thischild! And they did. Sometimes they even gave some soup to him,too, but this holy man shared even his portion with me.

Once we were invited by Aunt Annus, Uncle Izss wife(Grandpas sister-in law) to visit her. She baked a cake with molasses

for us (sugar was not yet available). [This good woman shortlythereafter died of cancer.] We went home and I woke up in the middleof the night asking Grandpa for a piece of cake. To make the longstory short, by next morning there was no cake left!

As my grandfathers health began to deteriorate, we both cameto the conclusion that I could not remain with him much longer. Therewas a new organization called Nemzeti Segly(National Salvation)that had a program to take the hungry children of Budapest to thevillages and have them work there for food. So, I bid farewell to mygrandpa and boarded a so-called childrens train that took me to

Oroshza, a small town approximately 150 miles southeast ofBudapest.

The peasants were informed about our arrival. We were takento the main square of the city that was full of farmers eagerly waitingfor the free labor force. If they liked a boy, they registered him withthe officials and took him home. As I was very skinny (all my bonescould be seen through my skin), nobody wanted me. There remained

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a couple of other boys, too, who were not taken. We were given topeople responsible for different streets of the city. It was their job tofind a place for us.

I was virtually forced on an old, poor, and blind couple to takeme in. Their name was Vkony, which means thin in English (nomenest omen). They reluctantly agreed but only with the condition that Iwould take care of them all the time and would not even go to school.

It was already March and I had not been to school since theprevious spring. I was thirsty for learning and could not accept thiscondition. A couple of days later I escaped.

I was nine years old and alone in the world.

* * *As I had nothing, I did not have to pack my belongings. I just

went to the square where the office of the National Salvation was.The peasants from the nearby detached farms had heard about usand came to that office trying to get some free laborers. I stood at thesquare and a woman approached me asking if I was looking for aplace. She said that she needed a girl to look after their geese but asgirls were not available she would take me. I only asked if they hadenough food (especially milk and sausages) and let me go to school.The answer was yes.

We did not even bother to register our deal with the National

Salvation but departed immediately by foot for Szentetornya, a verysmall village at five-kilometer distance from Oroshza andsurrounded by a huge area of detached farms a kilometer from eachother. One of these farms belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Jzsef Bors, mynew masters, a couple in their forties.

They were not rich, had only about five acres of land, a coupleof horses and cows, some pigs, geese, and chickens, but their pantrywas full of food: sausages, bacon, eggs, and everything else youneed. And fresh milk every morning! This was heaven for a hungrychild like me.

They had two beds. In one of them slept Uncle Bors alone, inthe other Aunt Bors with me.

We liked each other and they were good to me. The geesewere forgotten soon and I had to help them in every peasant work likean adult. They used me to their advantage but it was good for me. Iquickly recuperated from the previous hunger and became a strongboy. When neighbors came to visit, they told them: We have pitied

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this poor Jewish boy and feed him here.And I went to school! It was a small building with one classroom

where a young female teacher was trying to teach six grades at thesame place and same time! It was quite a task but she managed itwell by giving different assignments to different grades. The studentshad to learn the material by heart and recite it loudly, e.g., themultiplication table or all influents of the river Tisza.

She immediately recognized that I knew much more than theother third-graders and put the first grade under my tutelage. Whileshe was teaching the other five grades, I did the same for the firstgrade. It was a wonderful experience.

The school was about a kilometer from our farm. I went therebarefooted but as it was only March I had my winter coat on. Thechildren sarted to call me Mezitlb-nagykabt(barefooted in a coat).

On one occasion speculants from Budapest came to the farmwith a truck. They were given some pigs in exchange for industrialproducts, mostly clothes and bed linen. The neighbors of course sawthe truck and heard the pigs squeal. Aunt Bors was running aroundall the neighbors screaming: the Russians came and tookeverything from us.

Otherwise, Uncle Bors sympathized with the Russians and wasnot even against the Communists until he learned that they want totake away the land from the peasants. This totally changed his

attitude.The war was over by May 9. One Sunday there was a politicalmeeting in Oroshza and Uncle Bors took me there with him. Thespeaker was Jnos Gyngysi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of theProvisional Government. He belonged to the Smallholders Partysuppported mostly by peasants; therefore, one would expect him toknow how to talk to them. However, he was untactful enough tomention in his speech that even he, a member of the Cabinet, doesnot eat meat every day. This was not taken well by the peasants.They booed him and he had to leave the meeting in a hurry.

There were Russian troops in the region. They were veryfriendly toward the population. Each time I encountered them, theygave me some candy. I have not heard a single case of theirinappropriate behavior. Nevertheless, the women were horrified bythe fear of being raped by them. Whenever they were nearby, AuntBors who was neither young nor attractive went hiding to the cornfield and always took me with her.

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There was a love story between a Russian officer and a localgirl. They wanted to marry but he had to go as the war moved towardBerlin. I think they never saw each other again.

Aunt Bors knew all the simple methods to deal with injuries.Once an infection developed on my right leg. She put a leaf takenfrom a walnut tree to the wound and it healed in a week. (Its trace canstill be seen on my leg.)

Another time, they sent me to do some work with thewatermelon plants which were in bloom. As soon as I arrived there, Iwas attacked by hundreds of bees. This was really serious. I wasvery sick, but Aunt Bors healed me without a doctor (I do notremember how she did that).

Inspite of all that I had to endure I was still an innocent child. Iasked my schoolmates if their roosters were as cruel as ours jumping

on the hens. They laughed at me and explained everything. Followingtheir advice I also started to observe the sex organs of the horsesand cows.

I was also playing together with the other boys. We spent mostof our time finding explosives and blow them up. We found an entireammunition dump left behind by the retreating Germans. TheRussians had different weapons and could not use the Germanammunition, so they left it there. This was a very dangerous game.

As I learned later, some of my friends had blown themself up in a

barn after my departure.This was my life in Szentetornya. As the mail service started towork, my grandfather I were communicating with each other byletters. We were both convinced (especially Grandpa) that we werethe only members of our immediate family who survived the horrorscaused by Horthy and the Arrow Cross. Unfortunately, this was trueregarding my father and Gyuri who never returned.

In August, however, a happy letter arrived from Grandpa. Heasked me to return to Budapest because he had received news frommy mother that she was alive and coming home.

What a joy! Aunt Bors was kind enough to travel with me. I saidgoodbye to Uncle Bors and we departed by train from Oroshza. Wecovered the 150-mile distance in just five days. The trains wererunning at the mercy of the locomotive engineers. They were runningthe trains for a while then stopped and declared that they would notcontinue until 100 cigarettes were collected. Sometimes there wereno trains at all. I remember that we covered only 25 miles during the

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first day and spent the night in Szentes waiting for a train.The conditions of travel were far from ideal. When there was a

train it was overcrowded. Many people were traveling on the roofs ofthe wagons. Once we found a place only on the frame of a freight car.It had no bottom: the wheels were right below us.

Finally we arrived to Budapest. We took a tram from the stationto Lvlde Square and claimed the stairs to reach our apartment. Irang the bell and my mother opened the door! This was 67 years agobut it is still very difficult to describe what I felt. My mother was alive! Iwas so happy!!! And she was so beautiful. I fell in love with herinstantly.

We embraced each other and cried from this happiness. Thenwe entered the apartment and I found there Grandpa with Laci. Healso came back! It turned out that they were already at home when

my grandfather wrote to me but knowing me well he hid this factfrom me because he did not want me to escape again and try to gethome alone.

And I learned their story.As I mentioned in the last Chapter of Volume 2, my mother was

forced to march on the Highway of Death in November of 1944 untilthey reached the Mauthausen death camp. The inhuman conditionsin that camp are well known from the Holocaust literature.

Laci was also taken to Mauthausen after his ordeal with the

murderous Labor Service and the Arrow Cross bandits and theymiraculously found each other. Moreover, they also found Uncledn and Lacis friend, Dr. Lszl Nussbaum there. Nussbaum, avery tall man, was a pediatrician.

The prisoners were mostly Hungarian Jews and some Russianprisoners of war. One of the tortures of the death camp was the daily

Appel(roll call). The prisoners had to stand still every morning,wearing very thin clothing, in all weathers and for hours on end.

Anyone unable to stand was shot on the spot.Under these circumstances, Mother developed exanthematic

typhus with very high fever. This would have been a death sentencebut fortunately dn and Laci managed to hold her from both sidesduringAppels and she miraculously survived.

When the Gnskirchen camp was opened as an addition toMauthausen in April 1945, thousands of prisoners were evacuatedthere on death marches from Mauthausen. This camp was rathershort-lived. On May 4, the 71st Infantry Division of the US Army

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liberated Gnskirchen. They transferred the former prisoners to amilitary camp in Hrsching, Bavaria.

Soviet flag over Reichstag

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Victory parade in Moscow

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Lacis provisional ID card dated June 9, 1945

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Laci is Barrack-Chief in Hrsching

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Four days later, the war was over. A segregated black unitoccupied Hrsching. The black soldiers considered it their duty tobring the nothing but skin and bone prisoners back to life. They fedthem very well, pampered them with chocolate, and provided themwith clothes. It was difficult to find clothes for the very tall Dr.Nussbaum. Finally, he was given an abandoned SS uniform thatfitted him.

Friendships developed in the camp between the formerprisoners and the good soldiers. Laci held a picture of one of hisblack friends dearly until his death.

Naturally, there was no transportation and no mail available.They did not know our fate as we did not know theirs.

It took three months to develop a working train system betweenthe different zones of occupation. Mother, dn, Laci, and Dr.

Nussbaum decided to come back to Budapest to see if anybody isalive there.

They said farewell to their friends and boarded a train towardthe Soviet Occupation Zone. Their journey took ten days. As soon asthey crossed the border, a Russian soldier started to yell pointing atNussbaum: This swine murdered our brothers! Not only was theunfortunate man wearing an SS uniform, but his last slaveassignment was to remove ashes from the crematorium inMauthausen. The Russian soldier could see him there.

The Military Police appeared immediately and arrestedNussbaum. Laci had learned a little Russian when he was serving inthe Ukraine. He tried to explain to the Police that Nussbaum was aJewish prisoner like anybody else in the train. It did not help. Theyyelled at him: Shut up or we take you away, too.

[We learned the rest of Nussbaums story only eleven yearslater. After his arrest they ordered him to write down his name andtyped his confession above it. He was taken to the Gulag fromwhere he was transferred to Hungary after Stalins death in 1953. Ashe had committed a crime against the Soviet Union, he continued

his life in a Hungarian prison until 1956. I met him several timesduring the sixties. After spending five years as a prisoner of the Nazisand additional eleven years as a prisoner of the Stalinists, this finegentleman never complained about his fate. Unfortunately, he diedsoon, at an age below 60.]

After the depressing loss of Nussbaum, the three remainingpeople continued their journey to Budapest. They arrived at the

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Kelenfld station late in the evening. My mother and dn remainedat the station and Laci went to the city to inquire about our fate. Theyagreed that if no one were alive, they would return to the Westimmediately.

Laci went to Lvlde Square and rang the bell at our apartment.My grandfather opened the door and nearly lost consciousness whenhe saw his son alive. It took him several minutes to be able to explainwhere I was and also tell Laci that dns family had also survivedthe Ghetto.

Laci went back to the station, picked up the other two and theytogether came back to Grandpa. After having lost two of his youngersons, he was immensely happy to have Mother and Laci back. Uncledn was also happy that his wife and son survived and went homeimmediately.

This was their story.Aunt Bors stayed for the night, and then went back to

Szentetornya. I continued to correspond with Mr. and Mrs. Bors forseveral more years.

Grandpa did not think it was a good idea to stay in Hungary. Hetold his children: Dont put the curtains up. They did not listen tohim. Mama and Laci both stayed and joined the HungarianCommunist Party.

My father once worked in the printing shop of the publishing

company Singer and Wolfner situated in Honvd Street. This printingshop was now renamed Szikra (Spark) and it belonged to theCommunist Party. My mother was hired as a doorkeeper there. Her

job was to stamp the entrance permits to the printing shop. She hadthe opportunity to meet many famous writers there. One of them,Ern Szp introduced himself so: I used to be beautiful (szpmeans beautiful in Hungarian). Another one reprimanded my mother:Maam, will you ever recognize me? When she came home afterwork, she was telling us what happened at the printing shop.Grandpa called these stories sparkles.

Laci went back to the Credit Bank from where he was retired in1938 because of the Jewish Laws. Soon he was promoted to branchmanager there.

Bla was appointed Director of Personnel at the AthenaeumPrinting Shop. My grandmother proudly addressed a package toComrade Director Szilgyi. They went back to live in their formerapartment at #10 of Nefelejcs Street. The relationship between them

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and Grandpa continued to be strained. Grandpa used to addressBla as thou (an informal, familiar mode of address) but he stoppedit after the events of 1944 although Bla was not even present in theGhetto. It is interesting to note that Grandpa was also addressingUncle dn as thou and dn who was only 18 years youngercalled him Brother-in-Law without using thou. This showed therespect to older people. This is one of the reasons why I cannot standthe widespread use of informal address prevalent in todays society(even small children address me in such a way).

There is also a very strange story that happened after theSzilgyis departure. A member of our family accidentally cameacross Bla on some street. Allegedly, Bla asked this question: Isthe child still around? I cannot believe this! Bla was much more tome than an uncle. He was like an older brother and we were very

close to each other.We found some relatives who survived the horrors: Aunt Terz,

Uncle Pali, and even Aunt Fni, mother of Aunt Terz, who wasabout ninety years old at that time. Their beautiful daughter did notsurvive. We also found Gyula Szilrd, his mother Aunt Hani, va andLaci Lwinger (their parents died in the Auschwitz gas chamber), PlWeiner, Aunt Margit, her children and grandchildren, Laci Friedman,his father and one sister, Uncle Sndor and his family, Ilonka and ZoliDeutsch, and some others whom I do not remember. (All these

people were introduced in Volume 1.)Some Hungarians were talking about the Jews who returnedwith disgust: More of them returned than had been taken away. Thisis certainly not true for my family. Our loss in the Holocaust is listed inthe last Chapter of Volume 2.

I was so happy to find my mother! Soon I started to beg her fora brother or sister. She explained to me that it was impossiblebecause they had killed my father. Then I asked if Laci could be theirfather. Laci is my brother! was the answer. I did not give up andasked How about Bla? He is not a man, answered Mama. I was

very much disappointed. It is indeed true that I have never seen anywoman around Bla for the remaining thirty years of his life. He lefthis diaries to me but I found them too painful to read. They are lostforever in the Box.

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My clothes were remade Removal of ruins

from a French uniform

Permission to operate a radio set Classified ads from 1945I would exchange new Americanboots for flint or saccharine.

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The first bridge over the Danube The first sunbathers

Life started to normalize slowly. The Red Army distributed foodand gave trucks for the removal of ruins. Food rations wereincreased. Soon reconstruction started. Railroads were needed fortransporting coal and other materials. The slogan Arccal a vastfel! (Concentrate on the railroads!) was issued. Ern Ger, the

second in command of the Communist Party, became Minister ofCommunications and worked diligently on restoring the railroads,then the bridges. Rumor spread that when he was going home afterhis working day, he met himself coming back to work.

International help arrived, mostly from UNRRA (United NationsRelief and Rehabilitation Administration) and the American JewishJoint Distribution Committee. Jointhad become so popular that ifsomeone asked another person for money, the standard answer was:Lean on Joint, not me. UNRRA found its place in one of LszlKazals popular songs:

Babons ember vagyok egy kicsit,cipben nem szeretem a kicsit.

A Markban sok lni, villamos al kerlni,szerintem az sose jelent jt.

Babons ember vagyok n bizony,ppen ezrt lgkvet nem iszom.

Adhtralkban lenni, romlott hsbl kolbszt enni,szerintem az sose jelent jt.

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Egy rva kicsi lny,egy j nagy hozomny,egy UNRRA adomnysohasem hozhat nagy bajt rm.

Babons ember vagyok n taln,tomboln nyert engemet a mamm.Ha elt egy teheraut, vagy ha jn a vgrehajt,soha nincsen j hatssal rm.

Here is another of Kazals songs:

Balogn felshajt: Hogyha meghalok,hol kapsz olyan nejt, amilyen n vagyok?Szp gynyrsgem! vlaszol Balog -Ki mondta, hogy n egy ilyet akarok?Sej, diri-dong, hej-re-tyu-tyu-ty,kence-fice puttony, rgja meg a l!

Sznszbejrnl egy kis gyerek ll.Rordt a ports: Nem msz haza mr!

Ports bcsi, mrt bnt, nem tudja taln,ebben a sznhzban grl a nagymamm?Sej, diri-dong, hej-re-tyu-tyu-ty,kence-fice puttony, rgja meg a l!

Haldoklik egy skt, a csald sszel,baj van, a temets egy vagyonba kerl.Felfigyel a sktunk, gy szl: Gyerekek,lovas kocsi nem kell, gyalog kimegyek.Sej, diri-dong, hej-re-tyu-tyu-ty,kence-fice puttony, rgja meg a l!

Women adored a new singer, Olivr Lantos. I remember, for

example, his song about picker-ups: Mi vagyunk ht a csikkszedk.j szabad szakszervezetet szervezk.kzben a jelszavunk mindig egy:sok csikk az sokra megy.

Ha gy rzed, hozznk tartozols mikznk belpni kivnkozol,tanuld meg, a jelsz mindig egy:sok csikk az sokra megy.

Szke vagy barna, nem vits,mindegyikbl jlesik a kstols,kzben a jelsz mindig egy:sok csikk az sokra megy.

Hogyha szvsz egy Purzicsnt, a vgt flretedd,mert nem tudod, hogy holnap lesz-e ms.S hogyha ltod, hogy bartod nva szvja mr,ht vedd el tle es te szvd tovbb,

Dalold velunk a csikk dalt,s ne bnjad, hogyha nehz ma a vilg,mert a mi jelszavunk mindig egy:sok csikk az sokra megy.

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Other popular songs:

Szp estnk lesz, ha egyszer majd megregsznk,sose' veszeksznk,lnk a kandallnl, s fogjuk majd egyms kezt.

A lmpa g.Akkor megksznnm azt a napot,amikor n meglttalak.Hogy egy leten t vrtam terd -hls vagyok.Emlkszel mg az els cskra a Szigeten?Lz gett szvemen.Szp volt, gynyr szp!Kzben jflt t mr a kakukkos ra, trj nyugovra!nvelem szlt des prom, csak lmodj tovbb!J jszakt!

Aztn bredj jra fiatalon, ahogyan n meglttalaks egy leten t az ifjsg titkunk marad.

And, of course, the sex goddess Katalin Kardy who wassinging now Russian songs like Katyusha and Dyevushkabut alsosongs like these:

Te vagy a fny az jszakban,Te vagy a nyr, ha hull a h.Te vagy a sz a nmasgban,

A szlben plmalevl,Szvemben te vagy a vr!Imdlak!Te vagy a kk az g sznben,Tenger vizn fehr haj.Vihar utn szivrvny fenn az gen,s ha van bn, Te vagy benne a j.

Hamvad cigarettavg, l a hamutlcn, s csendben vgigg.Kis cigaretta, te hidd nekem el, hogy engem is csak gve dobtak el.Voltam n boldog, lngol, bborpiros ajkat cskra csbt,Most a szobmban magam vagyok n, merengek a mltnak idejn.Hittem nked, s ezernyi cskban gett a nyr.gben, szvben azta sz van, mr ks jr, az n idm lejrHamvad kis fehr parzs, megremeg az jben, gy veri a lz.Nyugszik a tlca hamus peremn,

Az sorsa pontosan enym.

Tudom, hogy trdrehullni szgyen,De hol van mr a bszkesgem?Knyrgk trden llva szpen:Csak egyszer lgy az enym!

We learned to swear in Russian and to sing some beautifulRussian songs like this one:

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Sztlingrd piros lngban g, bborszn az g.Sr egy lny a sok rom felett, a sok vrbl elg!Hol vagy j apm, j anym, hol vagy drga Ivn?, szvem bosszra vr.

I still remember this one word by word:

Drga fld, szlhazmnak fldje,Drgaknl drgbb kincset d,Nincs a fldn gazdagabb, szebb orszg,Minden ember rzi, hogy szabad.

Zg a tenger, szl svt a skon,Hegyek ormn ggs szl fenyk,Bza ring, ha lgyan sg a szell,Szunnyadoznak vgtelen erk.Mint a napfny, vg rm sugrzik,Frfi, n s gyermekarcokon,

Mert a jog, s a szabadsg kznk jtt,Megszereztk kemny harcokon.

Egyik ember annyi, mint a msik,Br a bre barna, vagy fehr,Egyetrt, mert egyenl az ember:Mennyi munkt vgez, annyit r.Nincs, mi gtat emeljen kzttnk,Trs a trsra mindig rtall.Mert a rend, a jog s a szabadsg,Brhov tekints, szilrdan ll.

Drga fld, szlhazmnak fldje,Drgaknl drgbb kincset d,Nincs a fldn gazdagabb, szebb orszg,

Minden ember rzi, hogy szabad.

Young people were enthusiastic about the prospects of a betterlife. They were singing songs like this one:

Sej, a mi lobognkat fnyes szellk fjjkSej, az van arra rva: ljen a szabadsg!Sej, szellk, fnyes szellk, fjjtok, fjjtok:Holnapra megforgatjuk az egsz vilgot!

(This song gave the name to the generation of bright breezes.)

And, of course, The Internationale:

Fl, fl, ti rabjai a fldnek,Fl, fl, te hes proletr!

A gyzelem napjai jnnek,Rabsgodnak vge mr!

A mltat vgkpp eltrlni,Rabszolgahad, indulj velnk!

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A fld fog sarkbl kidlni,Semmik vagyunk s minden lesznk.Ez a harc lesz a vgs,csak sszefogni ht!s nemzetkziv leszholnapra a vilg!

And silly songs like this one:

Mister Bill az egy pingvin r,Mississ Lill az egy pingvin lny,Lill s Bill az egy tncos pr,s pingvin tncot jr.Gyere be a, gyere be a hzamba,Bujj bele a, bujj bele az gyambas szpet lmodjl.

But the most important song for me was Yiddische Mame sungby Kat Fnyes:

Yiddische Mame! A haja fehr, mint a h,oly hajlott, oly megtrt, oly szent, oly nfelldoz.

A legjobb falatot szjtl vonta meg,nttek a gyermekek, de megregedett.

Yiddische Mame! A kabtkja csupa folt,az egyetlen kincse gyermeke mosolygsa volt.

rva s koldus vagy nlkle,mert t ptolni nem tudja senki sem,ezt a jszv szhaj asszonyt,yiddische desanym.

Elhurcoltk gyermekt, oly szrny volt a kn,kignyoltk a jajszavt, nevettek knnyein., mennyit ltott s futott, csalt, csempszett szegny,hogy kijtszza az rket, segtsen gyermekn.Titokban kldtt stemnyt a Krptok fel,oly des volt, hiszen szvt sttte tn bel.

Yiddische Mame! Szembl lassan hull a knny.Yiddische Mame! A fiad vissza sose jn!Hiba mondasz rte szz meg szz imt,azrt nevelted t, hogy megljk a banditk.

Yiddische Mame! Kifosztott koldus, megrabolt,mert egyetlen kincse a fia mosolygsa volt.Minden rkez vonat el kinz,cskoljtok meg az elfradt kt kezt,hogyha lttok egy szhaj asszonyt,yiddische desanym.

Newspapers and magazines appeared. The Communist Partyspaper was called Szabadsg(Freedom). I remember two satiricalmagazines: Ludas Matyiand Pesti Iz. The first ones editor was

Andor Gbor, the famous cabaret author and revolutionary. New

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humorists appeared: Szilrd Darvas, Bla Gdor, Lszl Tabi, etc.There was also a hardly noticed young humorist by the name ofFerenc Kishont. He emigrated to Israel some years later and usingthe name Efrayim Kishon became the most published Hungarianauthor of all times!

Pesti Iz was rather erotic and I started to collect it.Unfortunately, my collection was later lost. It is a pity because itwould be worth a fortune today. I also started to collect stamps. I stillhave this collection.

New books were published. I remember two of them: A knoktja (The road of tortures) by Sndor Millok and Mengeleboncolorvosa voltam (I was Mengeles dissector) by Dr. MiklsNyiszli.

I was reading lots of books and wrote down about half a page

about each of them. I also catalogued all our remaining books. Once Iasked Grandpa if a certain book was suitable for me. Every book issuitable for you! was his answer.

I also started to write a diary about the events happening everyday. This would be an extremely valuable source of information todaybut it was also lost in the Box.

Cinemas opened. They started to show Soviet movies. The firstone was Tovarishch P(Comrade P). American movies followedshowing Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, Deanna Durbin, and other

stars. Even three Hungarian movies appeared in 1945 with suchactors as Lajos Bsti, Lili Berky, Tivadar Bilicsi, Gyula Gzon, PlJvor, Klmn Latabr, Klmn Rzsahegyi , Artr Somlay, vaSzrnyi and Zoltn Vrkonyi in the leading roles.

Gyula Csortos died on August 1, 1945, but a famous anecdoteabout him is still alive today: A young actress asked Csortos:Colleague, will you have lunch with me? Csortos replied:Colleague? Do you think I am also a whore?

Shops opened. There was a little photographic studio in thehouse. The owner was a very old man. Another old man was a tailor.

He put a sign up on the wall informing everyone that he was HirschMan szab.

Advertisements like these appeared in the cinemas:If rain, snow or sunshine umbrellas from Wiener, I dont go to bedwithout Puma eiderdown,and It is worthwhile to climb to the secondfloor to visit furrier Szemere.

I also remember a tiny little shop on Oktogon Square where

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American pin-up posters were on sale with silly Hungarian texts likethese:

Rita Hayworth, kvnsgom rted-e?Csak Teveled futnk n a rvbe be.

Ez a hlgy itt Daisy Drops, ki Pestre kltztt,vatos s pp ezrt alig ltztt...Rajta sokat nem keres a vetkztet.

Vetkztetwas a new word meaning hooligans who wereforcibly taking off passersbys clothes at night. Public safety was verybad in general. Once I was awakened in the middle of the night by afight in front of the house. Did you hurt my sister? yelled a youngman to another while beating him up.

On the pleasant side of life: There were two gypsum statues onthe ouside wall of the house, close to one of our windows. (It was thefashion when the house was built in the mid-18th century.) One ofthem had been hit by a bullet. A pair of blackbirds built their nest inthe hole. Soon I could watch them feeding their offsprings.

Laci Friedman found me anemic. He prescribed small doses ofvermouth to me. The coffeehouse Kairo (where Kazal used to sing)was now a liquor shop where we could buy vermouth and tableschiller for my grandfather who was drinking half a glass of this redwine after dinner. Sometimes, he preparedpuliszka (a Transylvanian

corn porridge). He started to dream about his childhood among thosedistant mountains.

School started in September. I went back to my old school atSzv Street as a 4th grader. The old female teachers had disappearedand my new teacher was a very nice man, Klmn (I do notremember his last name). We were fed at school by a Swedishkitchen donated by the Government of Sweden. The food wasexcellent, especially the dairy products. In return, we had to learn andsing the National Anthem of Sweden every day. I still remember it:

Du gamla, du fria, du fjllhga Nord,du tysta, du gldjerika skna!Jag hlsar dig, vnaste land upp jord,din sol, din himmel, dina ngder grna,din sol, din himmel, dina ngder grna.

Very few of my former classmates remained after the disaster

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of 1944. Some of them had been murdered or emigrated becausethey were Jews, some others escaped because their parents wereNazis. However, I met some new people, like Istvn Zelenka, withwhom I became friends.

As I already knew everything that was taught in this grade, I donot recollect too much from this academic year. However, the schoolbrought me my first literary success. There was a competition amongall 4th graders of Budapest. As we were very little when the warstarted and it had ended only a month earlier by the surrender ofJapan, we had to write about peace: how we imagined our peacetimelife.

I wrote a very sad essay about my horrible experiences,especially about the loss of my father, and how I imagined living mylife with these memories. This was a cry of a fatherless child.The

Evaluation Committee appreciated my thoughts: my essay wasevaluated the best in the entire city and I won the competition!(Unfortunately, this work also died in the Box.)

Yes, finally it was peace but it did not come about easily.Hundreds of thousands of people had to die to achieve peace in 1945alone.

By January 16, the German counteroffensive in the Ardennescollapses. On February 4, General MacArthur enters Manila. The

Americans cross the Rhine River on March 7. Ruthless bombings of

Dresden and Tokyo follow. V1 and V2 rockets hit London.Vienna falls on April 13. The Red Army launches its finalassault on Berlin on April 16. The city falls on May 2. 300,000 Sovietsoldiers die in this battle. April 25: Soviet and US troops meet on theRiver Elbe. On May 7, Germany surrenders.

Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki onAugust 6 and 9, respectively. The Soviet Union declares war onJapan on August 8. Japan surrenders on September 2.

The war was finally over! 55 million people had died, Europehad 10 milllion displaced persons.

Roosevelt dies on April 12, Mussolini is executed on April 28,Hitler and Goebbels commit suicide on April 30. Laval is executed onOctober 15, Quisling on October 24.

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The end of Mussolini and his lover The Big Three in Yalta

The Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalintakes place February 4 - 11. Stalin meets Truman, Churchill, and

Attlee in Potsdam between July 17 and August 2 (Churchill lost theelections and resigned on July 26). Stalin becomes Generalissimo onJune 27.

The United Nations are established on October 24. TheNuremberg War Crimes Trial begins on November 20. Only a smallfraction of those directly involved in war crimes and the Holocaustwere brought to justice. Some of them are still alive today, in 2013.Congress approves the Displaced Persons Act that makes it easy forNazi war criminals to immigrate to the United States (Jews had notbeen given this privilege during the Holocaust!)

Bla Bartk dies on September 26.The first electronic computer, ENIAC was built this year. The

microwave oven was patented on December 7.Sixteen million Americans served in the war, 350,000 of them

died. By the end of the war, one half of the industrial production of theworld was American.

Approximately 4 million Germans died in the war (650,000 ofthem were killed in the bombings). 140,000 allied airmen were lost .

In contrast, 27 million Soviet citizens (16 million of them

civilians) lost their lives. Eighty percent of the five million SovietPOWs died in German camps.It has been estimated that altogether 70-80 million soldiers from

60 countries participated in the war and at least 55 million people(mostly civilians) died. This is the greatest amount of war victims forthe entire history of the world!

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* * *

6 million European Jews (two thirds of all European Jews, onethird of all Jews in the world) were massacred by the Nazis and theirwilling collaborators.

119,000 Jews were liberated in Budapest by the Red Army.63,000 Jews (my father and uncle Gyuri among them) were murderedby Horthys thugs years before the German occupation. An additional501,500 Hungarian Jews were exterminated during the occupation,including 440,000 in Auschwitz, deported there with the enthusiastichelp of the Hungarian authorities. Tens of thousands were massacredby the Arrow Cross brothers.

It is a very painful fact, but I must mention that Hungary was theonly Nazi-occupied country where there was no resistance

movement. During the Arrow Cross terror, millions of Hungarianswere hiding in their dark apartments and with very few exceptions -did not do anything to save at least some of their unfortunate fellowcountrymen.

390 major Hungarian war criminals were arrested by the Alliesand returned to Hungary during October 1945. The trials of formerPrime Ministers Brdossy and Imrdy started soon thereafter.

* * *

Mtys Rkosi arrived in Debrecen from Moscow on January30. He became General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party(Magyar KommunistaPrt) on February 2.

A temporary membership card Out with the Germans!of the Communist Party (Relocate them to Germany!)

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A Communist meeting in 1945.The pictures show Lenin, Rkosi, and Stalin.

The law about agrarian reform (redistribution of land) waspassed on March 17.

Jzsef Cardinal Mindszenty became Primate of Hungary onSeptember 15.

Elections were held on November 4, resulting in the absolutevictory of the Fggetlen Kisgazda, Fldmunks s Polgri Prt(Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party). Theygained 275 representatives in the Parliament, the Communists hadonly 70. Zoltn Tildy became Prime Minister but the SmallholdersParty had only seven cabinet positions while the Communists and theSocial Democrats (Magyarorszgi Szocildemokrata Prt) had foureach. The National Peasant Party (Nemzeti Parasztprt) and theCivic Democratic Party (Polgri Demokrata Prt) were alsorepresented in the Parliament. The leader of the Social Democratswas rpd Szakasits (we will meet him later).

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Allied troops prepare Szlasi, A joint meeting of the Communiststhe disgraced leader of the Arrow and the Social Democrats

Cross, for his trip back to Hungary before the elections

Tildys Cabinet. He is sitting in the center; next to him is Szakasits,then Rkosi. Imre Nagy is standing behind Szakasits.

Inflation started at the end of 1945. In 1944, the highest

denomination was 1,000 peng. By the end of 1945, it was10,000,000 peng. The most rapid hyperinflation in the history of theworld that happened next year is simply unbelievable!

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One-peng bill issued by the One and ten million peng billsRed Army at the end of 1944 issued a year later

life under communism 1

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