Magyar News, 2003. szeptember-2004. augusztus (14. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2004-01-01 / 5. szám

The 1956 Hungarian revolution gave an excellent excuse for the Romanian Communist dictator, Ceausescu, to arrest thousands of Hungarian ministers, priests, professors, teachers and intellectuals of Transylvania. They did not participate in the uprising and did not organize any resistance in sympathy with the events of Hungary, but had been working diligently in their respective professions.

This was ground enough to arrest them and eliminate them from their communities, which were a thorn in the eyes of the dictator. They were put on trial before corrupt Communist magistrates and sentenced on trumped up charges for lengthy imprisonments. Most of them were sent to the death camps of the Danube canal. The megalomaniac Ceausescu, in order to shorten the travel routes of the ships on the Danube by about one hundred miles, wanted to construct a canal to the Black Sea through the rocky sands of Dobrugea. The Hungarian prisoners were used as slave laborers in this enterprise. Everything they had was taken away from them. They were marched off to work in the morning, spent the day at hard labor, had only a little thin soup to eat, and staggered back to the camp in the late afternoon. Many were sick and hundreds of them died.

This was the background of a highly successful monologue, entitled Julia, written by András Visky, presented by Enikő

Enikő Szilágyi, actress

Szilágyi at the basement theatre of St, Emery's Church in Fairfield, last month. Miss Szilágyi, a nationally acclaimed and talented performer, is a member of the Thália and Bárka theatres in Budapest. The audience listened to her in mesmerized awe as she told the story of a Hungarian couple in love and their seven children, whose life was interrupted by the brutality of the Communists.

The wife had lived under comfortable circumstances in Budapest before she joined her husband, whose parish fell to Romania according to the dictates of Paris, following the Second World War.

The husband, a Reformed minister, worked faithfully and successfully in his congregation, and that was in the eyes of the regime his greatest sin. They were expecting a visit from the fearful Securitate, the state police. Indeed, one night they hear a knock on the door as the policemen arrive. The husband, following biblical instruction to be hospitable to strangers offers them seats. They turn the house upside down and take away the minister. Several months later, the wife meets her husband in a court room, pale, haggard, with cropped hair, when he is sentenced to 23 years of hard labor. For years the family receives no news about his whereabouts. Then one day the police return to deport the wife and the children. They are horded on a truck without their belongings and shipped to an other camp at the Danube canal. Even the children's pet dog, which runs after the truck, is shot by the heartless policemen. The family is placed in a hut without a roof. Suddenly a great storm arrives. The mother quickly undresses the children, age one to eleven, and gives them their first bath in many weeks. The Franciscan friars, who are also prisoners at the same camp, build a straw roof for their hut, only to be blown away five more times. The following months and years were of privation and hunger. The only delicatessen is some soup, cooked out of stolen lucerne. One day a major comes to visit them in their hut. He orders the children out and presents the mother with a prepared declaration, according to which she is ready to divorce her husband. If she signs the paper, they can return home. She is filled with joy, for this is the first sign

Performing the monologue

that her husband is still alive. Then she quickly bums the paper by the candle light. How could she divorce him, when they are made one in soul and body by the almighty God.

Following her refusal, she becomes even more emaciated. One day as she lies on her bunk, she hears a choir of angels. But opening her eyes, she sees her children around the bed singing a familiar anthem. She gets out of her bed and begins to walk. Yes, yes she walks, as the Scripture says: "but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31.

There is one more thing that should be told, which was not part of the drama but happened right here in Connecticut. In the year 1964 the Communist government of Romania approached our American administration with the desire to establish commercial relationships. Fearful of potential adverse publicity, Washington was hesitant to grant such favor to a Communist country. Two of our senators, Thomas Dodd, the father of our present Senator Dodd, and Abraham Ribicoff approached us for our opinion. We assured the senators that they should go ahead and grant them their wishes, but what are they going to demand in return. We agreed after lengthy deliberation that Washington should demand the immediate liberation of all political prisoners. In two weeks all political prisoners in Romania, including those at the Danube canal were freed. Although this was not mentioned in the monologue, we are happy that we, too, were part of this dramatic event.

Dr. Alexander Havadtőy Page 7