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 and other persons who have already been introduced before, please refer to the appropriate chapters of Volume One.

1. Liberation (1945)
Yes, we were finally liberated from this horror! The Russians were there and they gave us food! A truck came with bread and a huge crowd of starving people surrounded it immediately. A soldier stood 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 to the crazed crowd. My grandfather came back barely alive with two loaves of fresh bread wrapped in his old white scarf which was covered with lice. Then people started to eat. They ate like animals, stuffing the fresh bread into their mouths, swallowing it without chewing, filling their empty stomachs. Many of them paid with their lives for this. Their exhausted intestines could not deal with so much food in such a short time and they died of diarrhea. Fortunately, my grandfather knew this. He cut one piece of bread for me and one for himself. I happily ate the bread and thanked God for being alive. I only learned many years later that my life had been saved by Raul Wallenberg (see last chapter of Volume 2). He saved my life and I could not do anything to save his.

At about 10 oclock in the morning my grandfather told me: Although we are both very weak, we must leave these inhuman conditions immediately. We left and headed home. The one-mile walk took us the whole day. There were no streets, just ruins. The bodies of dead people and horses covered the entire city and German bullets made our journey very dangerous. The war was far from over. The Germans still held Buda (the hilly part of the city on the western side of the Danube) and they were shooting over the river with their artillery. Aunt Mili, one of my grandfathers sisters (Laci Friedmans mother) and her daughter, Rzsi were both killed several days later by these shells. Buda was liberated only a month later, on February 13. We saw what they had done to our beautiful city, the Pearl of the Danube. Everything was in ruins and they had mercilessly destroyed our magnificent bridges when they retreated to Buda. Interestingly enough, the Hungarian people have easily forgiven this crime while they deeply resented the Russian liberators. Finally, we arrived home. Our neighbors greeted us as if we were just back from a short vacation. No apologies, no shame, nothing. They gave us some food, however, and we climbed the stairs to find our apartment empty. There was some furniture left and lots of books on the floor. The Arrow Cross brothers evidently had no interest in reading but dropped the books on the floor while searching for valuables hidden behind them. There was nothing else left in the apartment. The windows were all broken and it was a very cold winter. We were given some blankets and my grandfather found some 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 the night. Lvlde Square was covered with fresh graves . In one of them was laid to rest the 16-year-old son of the Bulyovszky family. When the front was already two blocks from the house, the brothers collected all the young boys and forced them to fight against Bolshevism. Soon the unfortunate boys body was found among the ruins riddled with bullets. Next day, we found out that not all of our problems had been solved by the Liberation. The Red Army did not come to save the lives of the Jews (although they did save ours!). After they emptied all the pharmacies of alcohol, they started to collect men for kicsike robot (a little work) which sometimes meant years in the Gulag. 2

Women were very much afraid of the Russian soldiers because of the rumor that they raped every female. One of our neighbors, Lszl Tanos, for example, swore that if they touch his wife thay would both jump to their deaths from the fourth floor of the house. Nobody touched her and many-many other women, either. I did not even hear about a single such case in spite of the fact that after the atrocities committed by the Hungarian occupants of the Ukraine, it would have been easy to understand if they really had done this. (By the way, Tanos died soon of a heart attack. He was only 60 years old.) People in the streets started to discuss Hungarys future. Although a Provisional National Assembly (its Speaker was Dr. Bla Zsednyi) and a Provisional Government (Prime Minister Bla Dlnoki Mikls) had been formed in Debrecen at the end of 1944, many people believed that Hungary would be divided among its neighbors or maybe altogether swallowed by the Soviet Union and cease to exist as an independent country.

Dlnoki Mikls Bla

Voroshilov

This opinion was partially based on previous statements by 3

Hungarian politicians. Prime Minister Mikls Kllai said in 1942: If we do not win [the War], there will be no Hungary! Horthy himself said at a meeting of the Crown Council in 1944: It may happen that Hungary will even lose her national existence. He wrote later: Maybe there is a possibility to obtain some guaranty from the victors regarding the survival of Hungary. The country was formally governed by the Allied Control Commission under the chairmanship of the incompetent Marshal Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (evidently, Stalin could not find a less important position for him). In fact, the Red Army ruled Hungary. The brothers quickly learned how to avoid the little work and find new opportunities at the same time. The backside of their armbands happened to be red, so they turned the bands inside out and 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 the conclusion that only the Communists do anything for the betterment of society. One day we went to one of the offices of the Communist Party. We immediately noticed the brothers standing on guard outside. We went in and a lady comrade greeted us. Grandpa started with inquiring about his friend, Aladr Weisshaus (introduced in Chapter 6 of Volume 1). The lady replied: Comrade, please forget this name! This was enough for my grandfather. He gave up on his idea 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 Party and imprisoned again when Rkosi came to power. When our house had been a Yellow Star House, my paternal grandmother and Manci moved in with us. When they left the Ghetto, they came back to our apartment again. Because of their indifferent attitude toward me in the Ghetto, their connection with my grandfather was quite strained at this time. They hardly talked to each other. 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). She frequently remembered World War I but called it the Great War as if this war was not great enough. There were scarcely any utilities in the city. When there was no water, she said: The most terrible thing is 4

the lack of water. The next day there was no electricity. It was immediately considered the most terrible thing. Bla came back in February. He deserted Labor Service when the front was in Eastern Hungary. The Russians let him go home after the liberation of Budapest. A week later, Communist Party activists came, offering him some job in the provinces. Grandmother and Manci started to cry hysterically. They virtually forced him to refuse the offer. Bla waved his hand with resignation and stayed. There were some other people in the apartment who came from houses destroyed by the war. I remember two of them: a young man and a young woman (not related to each other). The woman wore wedgies and had beautiful strong legs. The man started to burn our books to warm the apartment. We had a complete collection of the Great Rvai Encyclopedia, the most comprehensive Hungarian encyclopedia ever published. When I noticed that he was burning this treasure I offered him less valuable books instead and managed to save six volumes.

This was left from our beautiful bridges

And the war was still not over! In March, there was a massive German counterattack (35 divisions strong) in the region of Lake Balaton. It was the last large offensive of the Wehrmacht in WW II. It lasted ten days and we already heard the sound of the cannons as they approached Budapest. We were horrified. Fortunately, the Red Army pushed them back and by April 4 the entire country was liberated. There was very little food in the city, mostly beans and peas. There was no transportation, wild beasts escaped from the destroyed cages of the Zoo, and all the bridges were buried in the Danube. In order to cross the river, you either had to hire a small boat or use the floating bridge built by the Red Army near the destroyed Margit Bridge (we called it Manci Bridge). We had no money, nothing. My grandfather found two small tin bowls and two canteens, took me by the hand, and we went around panhandling. Wherever we found a place where some food was being sold, this proud man who had raised four children on his own, humiliated himself and begged: Please give something to eat to this child! 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 shortly thereafter died of cancer.] We went home and I woke up in the middle of the night asking Grandpa for a piece of cake. To make the long story short, by next morning there was no cake left! As my grandfathers health began to deteriorate, we both came to the conclusion that I could not remain with him much longer. There was a new organization called Nemzeti Segly (National Salvation) that had a program to take the hungry children of Budapest to the villages and have them work there for food. So, I bid farewell to my grandpa and boarded a so-called childrens train that took me to Oroshza, a small town approximately 150 miles southeast of Budapest. The peasants were informed about our arrival. We were taken to the main square of the city that was full of farmers eagerly waiting for the free labor force. If they liked a boy, they registered him with the officials and took him home. As I was very skinny (all my bones could be seen through my skin), nobody wanted me. There remained 6

a couple of other boys, too, who were not taken. We were given to people responsible for different streets of the city. It was their job to find a place for us. I was virtually forced on an old, poor, and blind couple to take me in. Their name was Vkony, which means thin in English (nomen est omen). They reluctantly agreed but only with the condition that I would 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 the previous spring. I was thirsty for learning and could not accept this condition. 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 us and came to that office trying to get some free laborers. I stood at the square and a woman approached me asking if I was looking for a place. She said that she needed a girl to look after their geese but as girls were not available she would take me. I only asked if they had enough 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 very small village at five-kilometer distance from Oroshza and surrounded by a huge area of detached farms a kilometer from each other. One of these farms belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Jzsef Bors, my new masters, a couple in their forties. They were not rich, had only about five acres of land, a couple of horses and cows, some pigs, geese, and chickens, but their pantry was full of food: sausages, bacon, eggs, and everything else you need. And fresh milk every morning! This was heaven for a hungry child like me. They had two beds. In one of them slept Uncle Bors alone, in the other Aunt Bors with me. We liked each other and they were good to me. The geese were forgotten soon and I had to help them in every peasant work like an adult. They used me to their advantage but it was good for me. I quickly recuperated from the previous hunger and became a strong boy. When neighbors came to visit, they told them: We have pitied 7

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 the same place and same time! It was quite a task but she managed it well by giving different assignments to different grades. The students had to learn the material by heart and recite it loudly, e.g., the multiplication table or all influents of the river Tisza. She immediately recognized that I knew much more than the other third-graders and put the first grade under my tutelage. While she was teaching the other five grades, I did the same for the first grade. It was a wonderful experience. The school was about a kilometer from our farm. I went there barefooted but as it was only March I had my winter coat on. The children sarted to call me Mezitlb-nagykabt (barefooted in a coat). On one occasion speculants from Budapest came to the farm with a truck. They were given some pigs in exchange for industrial products, mostly clothes and bed linen. The neighbors of course saw the truck and heard the pigs squeal. Aunt Bors was running around all the neighbors screaming: the Russians came and took everything from us. Otherwise, Uncle Bors sympathized with the Russians and was not even against the Communists until he learned that they want to take away the land from the peasants. This totally changed his attitude. The war was over by May 9. One Sunday there was a political meeting in Oroshza and Uncle Bors took me there with him. The speaker was Jnos Gyngysi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government. He belonged to the Smallholders Party suppported mostly by peasants; therefore, one would expect him to know how to talk to them. However, he was untactful enough to mention in his speech that even he, a member of the Cabinet, does not 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 very friendly toward the population. Each time I encountered them, they gave me some candy. I have not heard a single case of their inappropriate behavior. Nevertheless, the women were horrified by the fear of being raped by them. Whenever they were nearby, Aunt Bors who was neither young nor attractive went hiding to the corn field and always took me with her. 8

There was a love story between a Russian officer and a local girl. They wanted to marry but he had to go as the war moved toward Berlin. 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 taken from a walnut tree to the wound and it healed in a week. (Its trace can still be seen on my leg.) Another time, they sent me to do some work with the watermelon plants which were in bloom. As soon as I arrived there, I was attacked by hundreds of bees. This was really serious. I was very sick, but Aunt Bors healed me without a doctor (I do not remember how she did that). Inspite of all that I had to endure I was still an innocent child. I asked my schoolmates if their roosters were as cruel as ours jumping on the hens. They laughed at me and explained everything. Following their advice I also started to observe the sex organs of the horses and cows. I was also playing together with the other boys. We spent most of our time finding explosives and blow them up. We found an entire ammunition dump left behind by the retreating Germans. The Russians had different weapons and could not use the German ammunition, 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 to work, my grandfather I were communicating with each other by letters. We were both convinced (especially Grandpa) that we were the only members of our immediate family who survived the horrors caused by Horthy and the Arrow Cross. Unfortunately, this was true regarding my father and Gyuri who never returned. In August, however, a happy letter arrived from Grandpa. He asked me to return to Budapest because he had received news from my mother that she was alive and coming home. What a joy! Aunt Bors was kind enough to travel with me. I said goodbye to Uncle Bors and we departed by train from Oroshza. We covered the 150-mile distance in just five days. The trains were running at the mercy of the locomotive engineers. They were running the trains for a while then stopped and declared that they would not continue until 100 cigarettes were collected. Sometimes there were no trains at all. I remember that we covered only 25 miles during the 9

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 of the 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 station to Lvlde Square and claimed the stairs to reach our apartment. I rang the bell and my mother opened the door! This was 67 years ago but it is still very difficult to describe what I felt. My mother was alive! I was so happy!!! And she was so beautiful. I fell in love with her instantly. We embraced each other and cried from this happiness. Then we entered the apartment and I found there Grandpa with Laci. He also came back! It turned out that they were already at home when my grandfather wrote to me but knowing me well he hid this fact from me because he did not want me to escape again and try to get home 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 until they reached the Mauthausen death camp. The inhuman conditions in 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 they miraculously found each other. Moreover, they also found Uncle dn and Lacis friend, Dr. Lszl Nussbaum there. Nussbaum, a very tall man, was a pediatrician. The prisoners were mostly Hungarian Jews and some Russian prisoners 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 sentence but fortunately dn and Laci managed to hold her from both sides during Appels and she miraculously survived. When the Gnskirchen camp was opened as an addition to Mauthausen in April 1945, thousands of prisoners were evacuated there on death marches from Mauthausen. This camp was rather short-lived. On May 4, the 71st Infantry Division of the US Army 10

liberated Gnskirchen. They transferred the former prisoners to a military 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 14

Four days later, the war was over. A segregated black unit occupied Hrsching. The black soldiers considered it their duty to bring the nothing but skin and bone prisoners back to life. They fed them very well, pampered them with chocolate, and provided them with clothes. It was difficult to find clothes for the very tall Dr. Nussbaum. Finally, he was given an abandoned SS uniform that fitted him. Friendships developed in the camp between the former prisoners and the good soldiers. Laci held a picture of one of his black 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 between the different zones of occupation. Mother, dn, Laci, and Dr. Nussbaum decided to come back to Budapest to see if anybody is alive there. They said farewell to their friends and boarded a train toward the Soviet Occupation Zone. Their journey took ten days. As soon as they crossed the border, a Russian soldier started to yell pointing at Nussbaum: This swine murdered our brothers! Not only was the unfortunate man wearing an SS uniform, but his last slave assignment was to remove ashes from the crematorium in Mauthausen. The Russian soldier could see him there. The Military Police appeared immediately and arrested Nussbaum. Laci had learned a little Russian when he was serving in the Ukraine. He tried to explain to the Police that Nussbaum was a Jewish prisoner like anybody else in the train. It did not help. They yelled at him: Shut up or we take you away, too. [We learned the rest of Nussbaums story only eleven years later. After his arrest they ordered him to write down his name and typed his confession above it. He was taken to the Gulag from where he was transferred to Hungary after Stalins death in 1953. As he had committed a crime against the Soviet Union, he continued his life in a Hungarian prison until 1956. I met him several times during the sixties. After spending five years as a prisoner of the Nazis and additional eleven years as a prisoner of the Stalinists, this fine gentleman never complained about his fate. Unfortunately, he died soon, at an age below 60.] After the depressing loss of Nussbaum, the three remaining people continued their journey to Budapest. They arrived at the 15

Kelenfld station late in the evening. My mother and dn remained at the station and Laci went to the city to inquire about our fate. They agreed that if no one were alive, they would return to the West immediately. Laci went to Lvlde Square and rang the bell at our apartment. My grandfather opened the door and nearly lost consciousness when he saw his son alive. It took him several minutes to be able to explain where I was and also tell Laci that dns family had also survived the Ghetto. Laci went back to the station, picked up the other two and they together came back to Grandpa. After having lost two of his younger sons, he was immensely happy to have Mother and Laci back. Uncle dn was also happy that his wife and son survived and went home immediately. 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 for several more years. Grandpa did not think it was a good idea to stay in Hungary. He told his children: Dont put the curtains up. They did not listen to him. Mama and Laci both stayed and joined the Hungarian Communist Party. My father once worked in the printing shop of the publishing company Singer and Wolfner situated in Honvd Street. This printing shop was now renamed Szikra (Spark) and it belonged to the Communist Party. My mother was hired as a doorkeeper there. Her job was to stamp the entrance permits to the printing shop. She had the opportunity to meet many famous writers there. One of them, Ern Szp introduced himself so: I used to be beautiful ( szp means beautiful in Hungarian). Another one reprimanded my mother: Maam, will you ever recognize me? When she came home after work, 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 in 1938 because of the Jewish Laws. Soon he was promoted to branch manager there. Bla was appointed Director of Personnel at the Athenaeum Printing Shop. My grandmother proudly addressed a package to Comrade Director Szilgyi. They went back to live in their former apartment at #10 of Nefelejcs Street. The relationship between them 16

and Grandpa continued to be strained. Grandpa used to address Bla as thou (an informal, familiar mode of address) but he stopped it after the events of 1944 although Bla was not even present in the Ghetto. It is interesting to note that Grandpa was also addressing Uncle dn as thou and dn who was only 18 years younger called him Brother-in-Law without using thou. This showed the respect to older people. This is one of the reasons why I cannot stand the 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 the Szilgyis departure. A member of our family accidentally came across Bla on some street. Allegedly, Bla asked this question: Is the child still around? I cannot believe this! Bla was much more to me 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 was about ninety years old at that time. Their beautiful daughter did not survive. We also found Gyula Szilrd, his mother Aunt Hani, va and Laci Lwinger (their parents died in the Auschwitz gas chamber), Pl Weiner, Aunt Margit, her children and grandchildren, Laci Friedman, his father and one sister, Uncle Sndor and his family, Ilonka and Zoli Deutsch, and some others whom I do not remember. (All these people were introduced in Volume 1.) Some Hungarians were talking about the Jews who returned with disgust: More of them returned than had been taken away. This is certainly not true for my family. Our loss in the Holocaust is listed in the last Chapter of Volume 2. I was so happy to find my mother! Soon I started to beg her for a brother or sister. She explained to me that it was impossible because they had killed my father. Then I asked if Laci could be their father. Laci is my brother! was the answer. I did not give up and asked How about Bla? He is not a man, answered Mama. I was very much disappointed. It is indeed true that I have never seen any woman around Bla for the remaining thirty years of his life. He left his diaries to me but I found them too painful to read. They are lost forever in the Box.

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My clothes were remade from a French uniform

Removal of ruins

Permission to operate a radio set

Classified ads from 1945 I would exchange new American boots 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 food and gave trucks for the removal of ruins. Food rations were increased. Soon reconstruction started. Railroads were needed for transporting coal and other materials. The slogan Arccal a vast fel! (Concentrate on the railroads!) was issued. Ern Ger, the second in command of the Communist Party, became Minister of Communications and worked diligently on restoring the railroads, then the bridges. Rumor spread that when he was going home after his working day, he met himself coming back to work. International help arrived, mostly from UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Joint had become so popular that if someone asked another person for money, the standard answer was: Lean on Joint, not me. UNRRA found its place in one of Lszl Kazals 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 adomny sohasem 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 tartozol s 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 meglttalak s egy leten t az ifjsg titkunk marad.

And, of course, the sex goddess Katalin Kardy who was singing now Russian songs like Katyusha and Dyevushka but also songs 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 lejr Hamvad 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 beautiful Russian songs like this one: 21

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 better life. They were singing songs like this one:
Sej, a mi lobognkat fnyes szellk fjjk Sej, 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 lesz holnapra 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 gyamba s szpet lmodjl.

But the most important song for me was Yiddische Mame sung by 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 Partys paper was called Szabadsg (Freedom). I remember two satirical magazines: Ludas Matyi and Pesti Iz. The first ones editor was Andor Gbor, the famous cabaret author and revolutionary. New 23

humorists appeared: Szilrd Darvas, Bla Gdor, Lszl Tabi, etc. There was also a hardly noticed young humorist by the name of Ferenc Kishont. He emigrated to Israel some years later and using the name Efrayim Kishon became the most published Hungarian author 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 it would be worth a fortune today. I also started to collect stamps. I still have this collection. New books were published. I remember two of them: A knok tja (The road of tortures) by Sndor Millok and Mengele boncolorvosa voltam (I was Mengeles dissector) by Dr. Mikls Nyiszli. 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 I asked Grandpa if a certain book was suitable for me. Every book is suitable for you! was his answer. I also started to write a diary about the events happening every day. This would be an extremely valuable source of information today but it was also lost in the Box. Cinemas opened. They started to show Soviet movies. The first one was Tovarishch P (Comrade P). American movies followed showing Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, Deanna Durbin, and other stars. Even three Hungarian movies appeared in 1945 with such actors as Lajos Bsti, Lili Berky, Tivadar Bilicsi, Gyula Gzon, Pl Jvor, Klmn Latabr, Klmn Rzsahegyi , Artr Somlay, va Szrnyi and Zoltn Vrkonyi in the leading roles. Gyula Csortos died on August 1, 1945, but a famous anecdote about 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 the house. 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 Hirsch Man szab. Advertisements like these appeared in the cinemas: If rain, snow or sunshine umbrellas from Wiener, I dont go to bed without Puma eiderdown, and It is worthwhile to climb to the second floor to visit furrier Szemere. I also remember a tiny little shop on Oktogon Square where 24

American pin-up posters were on sale with silly Hungarian texts like these:
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.

Vetkztet was a new word meaning hooligans who were forcibly taking off passersbys clothes at night. Public safety was very bad in general. Once I was awakened in the middle of the night by a fight in front of the house. Did you hurt my sister? yelled a young man to another while beating him up. On the pleasant side of life: There were two gypsum statues on the ouside wall of the house, close to one of our windows. (It was the fashion when the house was built in the mid-18th century.) One of them had been hit by a bullet. A pair of blackbirds built their nest in the hole. Soon I could watch them feeding their offsprings. Laci Friedman found me anemic. He prescribed small doses of vermouth to me. The coffeehouse Kairo (where Kazal used to sing) was now a liquor shop where we could buy vermouth and table schiller for my grandfather who was drinking half a glass of this red wine after dinner. Sometimes, he prepared puliszka (a Transylvanian corn porridge). He started to dream about his childhood among those distant mountains. School started in September. I went back to my old school at Szv Street as a 4th grader. The old female teachers had disappeared and my new teacher was a very nice man, Klmn (I do not remember his last name). We were fed at school by a Swedish kitchen donated by the Government of Sweden. The food was excellent, especially the dairy products. In return, we had to learn and sing 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 because they were Jews, some others escaped because their parents were Nazis. However, I met some new people, like Istvn Zelenka, with whom I became friends. As I already knew everything that was taught in this grade, I do not recollect too much from this academic year. However, the school brought me my first literary success. There was a competition among all 4th graders of Budapest. As we were very little when the war started and it had ended only a month earlier by the surrender of Japan, we had to write about peace: how we imagined our peacetime life. I wrote a very sad essay about my horrible experiences, especially about the loss of my father, and how I imagined living my life with these memories. This was a cry of a fatherless child.The Evaluation Committee appreciated my thoughts: my essay was evaluated 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 1945 alone. By January 16, the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes collapses. 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 final assault on Berlin on April 16. The city falls on May 2. 300,000 Soviet soldiers die in this battle. April 25: Soviet and US troops meet on the River Elbe. On May 7, Germany surrenders. Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, respectively. The Soviet Union declares war on Japan on August 8. Japan surrenders on September 2. The war was finally over! 55 million people had died, Europe had 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 on October 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 Stalin takes place February 4 - 11. Stalin meets Truman, Churchill, and Attlee in Potsdam between July 17 and August 2 (Churchill lost the elections and resigned on July 26). Stalin becomes Generalissimo on June 27. The United Nations are established on October 24. The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial begins on November 20. Only a small fraction of those directly involved in war crimes and the Holocaust were brought to justice. Some of them are still alive today, in 2013. Congress approves the Displaced Persons Act that makes it easy for Nazi war criminals to immigrate to the United States (Jews had not been 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 the world was American. Approximately 4 million Germans died in the war (650,000 of them 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 Soviet POWs 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 for the entire history of the world!

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6 million European Jews (two thirds of all European Jews, one third of all Jews in the world) were massacred by the Nazis and their willing collaborators. 119,000 Jews were liberated in Budapest by the Red Army. 63,000 Jews (my father and uncle Gyuri among them) were murdered by Horthys thugs years before the German occupation. An additional 501,500 Hungarian Jews were exterminated during the occupation, including 440,000 in Auschwitz, deported there with the enthusiastic help of the Hungarian authorities. Tens of thousands were massacred by the Arrow Cross brothers. It is a very painful fact, but I must mention that Hungary was the only Nazi-occupied country where there was no resistance movement. During the Arrow Cross terror, millions of Hungarians were hiding in their dark apartments and with very few exceptions did not do anything to save at least some of their unfortunate fellow countrymen. 390 major Hungarian war criminals were arrested by the Allies and returned to Hungary during October 1945. The trials of former Prime Ministers Brdossy and Imrdy started soon thereafter. * * * Mtys Rkosi arrived in Debrecen from Moscow on January 30. He became General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party (Magyar Kommunista Prt) on February 2.

A temporary membership card of the Communist Party

Out with the Germans! (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) was passed on March 17. Jzsef Cardinal Mindszenty became Primate of Hungary on September 15. Elections were held on November 4, resulting in the absolute victory of the Fggetlen Kisgazda, Fldmunks s Polgri Prt (Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers, and Civic Party). They gained 275 representatives in the Parliament, the Communists had only 70. Zoltn Tildy became Prime Minister but the Smallholders Party had only seven cabinet positions while the Communists and the Social Democrats (Magyarorszgi Szocildemokrata Prt) had four each. The National Peasant Party (Nemzeti Parasztprt) and the Civic Democratic Party (Polgri Demokrata Prt) were also represented in the Parliament. The leader of the Social Democrats was rpd Szakasits (we will meet him later). 29

Allied troops prepare Szlasi, A joint meeting of the Communists the 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 was 10,000,000 peng. The most rapid hyperinflation in the history of the world that happened next year is simply unbelievable!

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One-peng bill issued by the Red Army at the end of 1944

One and ten million peng bills issued a year later

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