Bukovszky László: A Csehszlovákiai Magyar Demokratikus Népi Szövetség és a Mindszenty-per szlovákiai recepciója (Budapest-Somorja, 2016)

Földrajzinév-mutató

in the activities of the organization were arrested and interrogated in the most brutal way.

During the investigation, the political police arrested and interrogated more than three dozens of suspects. Some of them were later released and the charges against them were dropped. Based on the investigation conducted by the political police, prosecutor Anton Rašla submitted an indictment to the Bratislava State Court on 20 May 1949. In the 21 pages indictment, he had accused 26 suspected persons of participation in the preparation of crime against the foundations of the republic, of committing the crime of divulging state secrets abroad and of the misdemeanor of public order disturbance according to Law No. 50/1923 Coll.

Contrary to the preliminary plans, the trial only took place on 28—30 December 1949. The verdict in the lawsuit filed on the basis of the indictment against Hentz and Others was taken by the Bratislava State Court jointly with the case of Ferenc Bokor and Others. Thus, the number of the original 26 suspects had increased to 32 accused, among them 20 Catholic priests and 3 Protestant pastors, all of them being accused of direct or indirect cooperation with Cardinal Mindszenty. According to the judgement at first instance, ten accused—László Arany Adalbert, Zoltán Hentz, László Hajdú, István Varró, Zoltán Krausz, Gyula Mészáros, Gyula Lipcsey, Mihály Restály, László Vízváry and Ferenc Bokor—were sentenced altogether to 55 years of imprisonment, not considering the additional sanctions. The Senate set an example by the verdict against László Arany Adalbert, as he was sentenced to the longest, eight years imprisonment. The severity of the giant trial was even aggregated when Pál Kovács, parish priest of Hrkovce died during remand, and Ferenc Bokor, cantor in Kosihy nad Ipľom, during imprisonment.

The main aim of this book published as a result of cooperation between the Hungarian Committee of National Remembrance in Budapest and the Forum Minority Research Institute in Šamorín (Slovakia), is to provide—applying the current research-based knowledge—as comprehensive a presentation as possible of the national minority rights defender activities of the Democratic People's Alliance of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia (Csmadnész) as of an illegal organization acting in the interest of the Hungarian community in Slovakia, to describe the courageous moves of the intellectuals gathering in the organization, the history of the political trial of 1949, the investigation process and the retaliation itself. Another intention of this book is to disseminate by documenting the “loudest” group of the “years of silence” the information that between 1945 and 1948, there had indeed existed a widespread, organized re-296