Varga Benedek szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 149-157. (Budapest, 1996)

TANULMÁNYOK / ARTICLES - Huszár György: Balogh Károly professzor (1895—1973) életútja és iskolája. Születésének centenáriumára. Magyar és angol nyelven

be no mention, not even a hint, of the struggle which he had had with the Communist system for the survival of his school and for himself (39). Balogh was not a political person and accordingly did not join any of the political parties before or after World War II. However, the Communist Party soon made its appearance at the Clinic. Its representative was Ede Jáhn (1908—1981), first a resident, then assistant and later adjunct professor, who was "a müitant, non-compromising Communist dentist", according to his obituary. (1) Jahn was a disagreable, humorless man, full of suspicion and hatred, "who already in the summer of 1945 participated in the organization of the Communist Party apparatus at the Medical School ' ' and was until 1949 its local secretary, and then chairman. (43) Through the Party — or by claiming its support — Jáhn often forcefully interfered with the life of the Stomatologic Clinic and tried to direct it according to Communist ideology. Although with great tolerance and skillful diplomacy Balogh could avoid an open clash with Jáhn, their mutual antipathy was obvious and well known. In 1948—49, the medical staff of the clinic was under heavy pressure to join the Communist Party. Under this great pressure Balogh was repeatedly cajoled to join and was threatened with loss of his position if he hesitated. More subtle forms of coercion were also employed to this end; for instance, the Party's commissar for the Dentists' Group of the Trade Union (successor to the disbanded Association of Hungarian Dentists), Jenő Kertész, a man with a sense of humor who liked Balogh, paraphrased Hamlet putting it to Balogh "To join or not to join". Balogh successfully resisted this attempt too, but a significant part of the Clinic's physicians were compelled, against their convictions, to join the Communist Party. Moreover, the Communists were intent on removing from the clinic those who did not sympathize with them. The unwarranted dismissal of several such members of the medical staff impeded the healingteaching-research work at the clinic and caused Balogh much grief. Among those outstanding physicians forced to leave the clinic, I should mention Privatdocent István Szenthe, an excellent orthodontist, and Károly Tarnai, an internationally known oral surgeon. The main crime of Tarnai was that he did not want to join the Trade Union. At the recommendation of Ede Jáhn and the local Party Committee, the appointment of five very active physicians was not renewed in 1949. Thus they removed: Privatdocent Ervin Lőrinczy; Adjunct Professor László Papp, who was managing the administration; Pál Sztrilich, the chief of the radiologic service; Assistant Professor György Huszár, and László Takács, staff physician. In 1949, the Communist Party overtly consolidated its monopoly, assuming uncontrolled power over every aspect of life in Hungary. The Communists euphemistically called 1949 "the year of the turnover". Not unexpectedly, Balogh was put into a difficult position and was exposed to vicious attacks. The leader of the Trade Union, Emil Weil, expressed his ambiguous appreciation of Balogh at the 1949 Annual Congress of the Dentists, but also sharply attacked him. He acknowledged that Balogh's "militant activity had a great share in the rapid rebuilding and growth of the Clinic", but states in the same breath that "the rapid rebuilding of the country (after the destruction caused by the war) is unquestionably owed to the leadership of the Communist Party and its General Secretary, Comrade Mátyás Rákosi". Emil Weil attacked Balogh because he spoke "about the great misery of the countryside", chastising him ' 'because it is politically incorrect to criticize at a time of the fiercest class war". At the same congress, Weil also attacked the dentists as a group who, in his opinion, ' 'are closer to the petit bourgeois than are the other medical specialities ' '. (67) In 1962, the executive committee of the Party investigated the political-professional activity of the School of Dental Sciences. They stated that "the state and party leadership was