Fraternity-Testvériség, 2006 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2006-07-01 / 3. szám
Honoring the freedom fighters on the streets of Budapest! By Frank Kapilan, HRFA Branch 300 Manager and 1956er, at the October 2006 HRFA Kossuth House Celebration. All over the world we remember and celebrate 1956. We talk about Imre Nagy, Maleter, Kadar, and Khrushchev. We write books about those days in October; and at assemblies and gala dinners we honor the “freedom fighters”. But who were the freedom fighters? Who are we honoring? Today I am honoring Szigetvári István! And the freedom fighters on the streets of Budapest! He was bom on March 23 1940 in Szekesfehervar. His father was an engine fitter (géplakatos) and died on February 2 1943 of hart failure. His mother was a housewife and died in 1948 of a lung infection which; she got while fleeing from the Soviet troops during the war. In 1950 he was in an orphanage in Szekesfehervar. In 1954 he signed up to become, like his father, an engine fitter (géplakatos) and was accepted in the Rákosi Mátyás Young workers trade school in Pest. He became a member of DISZ, the Communist Young Workers Federation and sincerely believed that the Communist Party was over everything. “I was a Rákosi youth throughout”. (“Izig-vérig Rákosi-gyerek voltam.”) Frank Kapitan photo by deKun October 23 was a huge shock and surprise for him. On October 25 he witnessed the killing of the crew a Soviet Armed Personnel Carrier. On October 26, on the corner of Tűzoltó utca he met and joined a group of fighters led by a disheveled, tousled, gesticulating man: Angyal István. And he became a freedom fighter and fought, as he said: “...for an independent, free and neutral Hungary.” During the revolution he fought with the Tűzoltó Street freedom fighters. On November 4 they stayed together and fought the Russians, by November 7 the fight was hopeless. Later one of his friends from Tűzoltó Street asked him to escape the, but he stayed. He went back to the orphanage, because the director there promised that they can always have a home there. On December 24 he was arrested and transported to Pest. In Hungarian he recalled: “Akkor néhány részeg géppisztolyos pufajkás beültetett egy Pobjedába, és elindultunk Pestre. Útközben az egyik azt mondja: „Mit tökölünk vele, intézzük el és tűzzünk hazafele.” Megálltak, kiszállítottak és odaállítottak egy fa alá. A másik azt mondja, „és mi lesz, ha felelősségre vonnak?” Ezen elvitatkoztak egy darabig, végül visszatuszkoltak a kocsiba.” At the Fő Street jail for two days he didn’t see anyone. He had nothing to eat for four days and he was drinking from the toilet. He was interrogated. On January 17, 1957 a Russian officer told him that after investigating his case they found that he did not participated in any terror actions and was fighting like a soldier. “YOU SHOT AT US, WE SHOT BACK, AND WE ARE EVEN.” And he was set free. But on April 7, 1957, the reorganized, reconstituted Security Police, the PUFALYKAS arrested him again. He was brutally beaten with rifle butts, he had to take his shoes off and they beat the sole of his feet with rifle cleaning rods; and then he had to run in place and sing that “I lie. I always lie.” From April 1957 to April 1958, during the investigation of his case and trial he was in various jails and prisons. His trial was a group trial with 16 other accused. On April 17, 1958 the verdicts were announced. The Page 15 Fraternity - Testvériség
