The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The cigarette factory

Géza Vitéz Hollós (who later came to an unfortunate end) was responsible for the general overseeing of the factory as well as being fully in charge of the cigarette side of the operation. His deputy, Ede Czapek, looked after the cigar production as well as production of pipe tobacco. Gyula Pataky, a retired clerk, was standing in as Head of the Accounts department, at the same time keeping an eye on the filing and press offices. This, at least, is the information we get from Adorján Oltványi’s jerky, black and white silent film, made in 1942 about the Eger factory whose flagstones were made more grey and faded and worn every day by the passing months of war, and which the curt German word of command and the harsh sound of the air-raid siren finally closed down altogether in November of 1944.

The refugee German soldiers and the troops that marched through the town caused serious damage to the factory. The depots with their stocks of cigars and cigarettes were raided and stripped bare by the Germans who also took with them maintenance equipmente. A large proportion of the factory’s outbuildings were reduced to ruins, manufacturing buildings and warehouses became targets for artillery fire. Géza Vitéz Hollós was arrested and interned on the charge of having collaborated with the Germans. He was later set free as a result of a petition written by the workers in which they describe him as “a scrupulously fair boss, always ready to defend the interests of the worker”. However, he was not reinstated in his position as director. The factory, like a spoil of war, passed into the hands of the Soviet Army, and Lieutenant Sheshukov entrusted care of the production side to Dr. Géza Vendrei, excise clerk. During the first few peaceful days after the city’s liberation from the Germans, workers bombarded the factory looking for work, and those that were taken on got stuck into the task of setting the factory on its feet again. In order to get production going again, the Soviet army corps had to deliver much greater quantities of tobacco. Processsing of the raw