Murder at Christmas

Commemoration of the execution of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and his martyr companions at Christmas.

MEASZ held a commemoration in remembrance of the 65th anniversary of the execution of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and his martyr companions at the Bajcsy-memorial at Deák square in Budapest at 16.00 on the 23th of December.

 

 

At the small commemoration Iván Vitányi, president of the National Council of MEASZ, recalled the last hours of the politician, who was held in the cell next to him, in front of fifty people. He remembered that Bajcsy had left them the cakes, which he had got from his wife, so they could eat them on Christmas Eve.

The coverage of MTI (Hungarian News Agency):

Jobbik voters are the descendants of the Arrow Cross Party members

The anti-fascists remembered Bajcsy-Zsilinszky

MEASZ remembered Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and his anti-fascists martyr companions in Budapest on Wednesday, on the 65th anniversary of the execution of the politician. The participants lit candles at the Bajcsy-memorial at Deák square across from the Evangelical church.

Vilmos Hanti, president of MEASZ, called the followers of Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom (Movement for a Better Hungary) the descendants of the Arrow Cross Party members in his speech. He thinks that there are some in the present far-right organizations who „are abused and deceived by their populist leaders”. As he said in many cases the financial crisis had made those people's lives very difficult and „they don't feel that they could trust and rely on those who embrace democratic values”.

Vilmos Hanti emphasized that „the Arrow Cross tyranny mustn't be permitted to spread again in Hungary”. He referred to the victims of the Holocaust and to the former political persecution, which among others Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky fell victim to; the Arrow Cross executed him as a member of the resistance in Sopronkőhida on the 24th of December 1944.

Vilmos Hanti said it was sad that „in the past twenty years neither our public educational system, nor the opinion leaders, nor the political elite, which today is at a very low level, could effectively contribute to the conscious enhancement of democracy”.

Speaking of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky he said: „his aversion to the left dissolved gradually”. After the German occupation on the 19th of March 1944 “he recognized the life-saving importance of hiding and he experienced the dolorous state of being segregated”.

Iván Vitányi, MSZP parliament member, said at the commemoration that his cell had been next to the cell of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky in the prison of Sopronkőhida and in the course of their last conversation Bajcsy-Zsilinszky “had left Hungary to the young left”.

He added that Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky had had an instructive life story, which had started at the right and ended at the left. He observed that the politician “wouldn't have thought that 65 years later an aggressive right would spread in Hungary”.

MTI (Hungarian News Agency)

Below you can read the whole speech of Vilmos Hanti, president of MEASZ:

Dear Rememberers,

thank you in the name of the leaders of MEASZ for coming at this special time, during the Christmas preparations and in this bad weather. I would like to greet the members of the Hungarian anti-fascist movement, who organize more and more anti-fascist commemorations.

My dear friends,

We came here today to compensate for the missing pillars of our public educational system and our public opinion. Those who deny or undervalue the Hungarian anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War, and deny that there were courageous people who wanted to save their country and were ready to lead the resistance, which was suppressed again and again, either don't know Hungarian history or are trying to distort it.

The chauvinist, revisionist and nationalist brain wash in the Horthy period lasting for twenty years had of course its effects. Hungary's “gain of territory” owing to Hitler didn't even arouse bad feelings in the majority of the intellectuals, they didn't think about what the prize would be.

The rise to power of the Arrow Cross – but we can say the spiritual predecessors of today's Jobbik – paved the way for Hitler to plunder Hungary, which by that time had been devastated by the effects of war.

The realization of the disastrous situation awakened the people. The existing resistance groups gained strength and new ones were born everywhere in the country to fight the fascists, save the hunted and protect the national wealth.

This situation led the Hungarian Front to accept the idea of an armed uprising. In the first days of November The Liberating Committee of the Hungarian National Rebellion (Magyar Nemzeti Felkelés Felszabadító Bizottsága) was founded under Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky's leadership. Upon his request lieutenant-general János Kiss assumed the organizing and leading of the Committee's Military Staff. This secret organization dealt with the preparations and carrying out of the armed uprising and united the patriots of different origin and political beliefs. Thus the political and military staff of the Hungarian anti-fascist movement was born and tried to find and prepare a clear and definitive solution to avoid national disaster.

It was not their fault that they could not carry out their plan. They could not prevent Hitler's followers and the Arrow Cross from damaging the country and destroying people's lives. They could not save our beautiful bridges, historical monuments and Budapest, they could not stop the deportation and killing of civilians, soldiers, young and old people.

They could not because they were betrayed! At 6.30 pm on the 22nd of November 1944 the Arrow Cross gendarmes broke into Vilmos Tartsay's flat, which was on Andrássy street, and where a group of the preparers of the uprising was having a meeting. In the gunfight with the gendarmes Pál Széchenyi and Lajos Messik artillery lieutenants died a heroic death. (I only mention in brackets that if our Supreme Court judged this case today, it would in all likelihood and in a totally absurd way – like in the Ságvári-case – consider the gendarmes' actions legitimate and our martyrs would be guilty because the gendarmes acted according to the valid fascist laws.)

On the 8th of December the Arrow Cross drumhead court-martial condemned lieutenant-general János Kiss, colonel Jenő Nagy and officer Vilmos Tartsay to death and had them executed within two hours.

Bajcsy-Zsilinszky's defender pointed out that his client was still a parliament member and therefore had to be granted the right of immunity and could not be prosecuted. The judge had to deal with Bajcsy's case separately but his death sentence had already been decided and he was hanged on the 24th of December.

The Evangelical priest of the prison of Sopronkőhida asked the judge not to execute anybody on Christmas Eve but the judge answered: “I want to spend Christmas in peace””.

On the evening of the 23rd of December, 65 years ago, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky asked his companions for “not to be unfaithful to the idea, which János Kiss and his companions sacrificed their lives for”.

In the morning of the 24th of December Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, who was 58 years old, and three fighters of the juvenile anti-fascist movement in Budapest István Pataky (30), Barnabás Pesti (24) and Róbert Kreutz (21), were hanged.

(It says a lot about the situation after the political change in Hungary in 1989 that conservative, liberal and socialist politicians banished the anti-fascist martyr's, Róbert Kreutz's, memorial tablet to the statue cemetery in Buda, as if telling the society that remembering the anti-fascist resistance was not desirable, it was a sin in the new democracy. Let us take a look around us today! This way of thinking has its results.)

Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky arrived from the far-right to embracing anti-fascism. He was an honest man, who loved his country. Many people hated him for his unbending sense of justice but this did not prevent him from enunciating the truth. He objected to the alliance with Hitler's Germany. He forecast that it would lead to Hungary's destruction. He spoke against the meaningless death of all the Hungarian soldiers, who were sent abroad by the guilty politics. He let his opinion be heard about problems concerning the country's destiny and he did everything to rouse the nation's conscience.

While preparing the armed uprising his aversion to the left dissolved gradually. He accepted János Kiss' ideas about the planned uprising and he agreed with him about the fact that the uprising should rely on the working class in Budapest. Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, who did not understand the illegality of the left movement for a long time, recognized the life-saving importance of hiding and experienced the dolorous state of being segregated after the German occupation on the 19th of March 1944.

Dear Rememberers,

let us bow our heads in front of the memory of Bajcsy and his martyr companions with the respect and humility of posterity.

Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky and his executed and imprisoned companions are outstanding figures of Hungarian history. Bajcsy's fate can be used to analyse his period without nostalgia and illusions but his life can be an ideal to today's extremists, too.

There are honest people in the Hungarian Guard and Jobbik, who are abused and deceived by their populist leaders. In many cases the financial crisis had made those people's lives very difficult and they don't feel that they could trust and rely on those who embrace democratic values. In the past twenty years neither our public educational system, nor the opinion leaders, nor the political elite, which today is at a very low level, could effectively contribute to the conscious enhancement of democracy.

Dear anti-fascist friends,

Christmas gives us the message of peace and of birth – not only in the Christian world. On Christmas Eve we give each other gifts to make each other happy, Christians are waiting for Jesus Christ's, the Saviour's birth…

Today Jobbik in a cynical way set up wooden crosses in our country – often with the church's blessing. They want to seem Christian while they incite strife and hate among people. They are trying to arouse the lowest instincts. We should not forget that 65 years ago it was not German Nazis who shepherded those branded as undesirable to the death camps' trains but it was Hungarians, often neighbours and acquaintances!

Jobbik unveil themselves against their will with their crosses, with the peculiar gallows where our Saviour died… 65 years ago, in a tempestuous period of Hungary, the former extreme right settled their accounts with their political enemies in a cynical way on the holy day of Christmas. This timing lacked even the smallest bit of humanity. This is not only a sin, it is a shame!

We anti-fascists can not let the Arrow Cross tyranny dominate our beloved country again. Let us remember the barbaric murders 65 years ago and let this remembrance be a warning for today!

2010. január 3.