Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |
We moved to freedom... [17]
CARDINAL MINDSZENTY
[p. 1, col. 2] The months of summer and early fall, 1956 dragged slowly
on. But toward the end of October there came a sudden change. I heard on
the radio that the workers and students had started demonstrations, but
no details were given. I was isolated and, of course, did not know what
was really happening.
Still there was a feeling in me that my country had arrived at a decisive
turn. I began to fast and to pray extra prayers. I spent my nights in prayer
asking the grace and mercy of God for my people.
Then on Oct. 24 the radio was taken away and the newspapers stopped. The
guards became silent.
There was a week of total isolation. The tension could be felt every time
I saw one of the guards. Then, on Oct.30, they broke their silence.
Guards Are Frightened
Their leaders came into my room. They asked me to come with them. My
life was threatened, they said.
"But who threatens me?" I asked.
"The mob," was all the AVO man would say.
"I won't go," I answered him. "If it is the will of God
that I should die here, here I will die. But I will not move."
The officers were puzzled. They spoke briefly among themselves. Then one
of them asked almost timidly, "Would you go if we use force -just
token force? For example, we could touch your arms as a symbol of force.
Then would you go?"
"No," I answered them.
At this they hardened. They were afraid. They grabbed at me and started
to pull me from the chair. I resisted.
They were still pulling at me when one of the guards downstairs rushed
up to say that a [p. .1, col. 2/p. 14, col. 4] Russian-style armored car
was coming up the driveway to the house. The officers ran to the window.
A few minutes later, John Horvath, head of the Government's Office of Church
Affairs, ran into my room.
"Your life is not safe in this place," he almost shouted at me.
"I have orders to move you!"
"I will not go," I told him. "You have everything from me
there is to take. You can take nothing else."
Horvath left the room. He went to the telephone and called his superiors
at Budapest, asking for help.
By this time they needed it, for the people of the village had been attracted
by his car. First came the children and young people, because they are
always first in these things. After them, from the fields, from their homes,
from the shops, came several hundred men and women from the village. Many
of them carried hoes and other farming tools which they raised as their
weapons.
These people had known I was in the castle. And on seeing the armored car
speed up to the building, were afraid for my life. They assumed the Russians
were going to take me away.
Horvath's telephone call to Budapest was intercepted by the Hungarian Military
Unit at Retsag, twenty kilometers away. The officers and soldiers there
knew all about the freedom fight in the country. They were not yet in action
because there [col. 4/col. 5] was no need yet. But on hearing Horvath's
call for help, they decided this was their time.
(Horvath did not know his message was overheard, and when his call was
completed left in his car for Budapest. He never got there. The Hungarian
soldiers intercepted him on the way and we do not know what happened to
him, except that he has not been heard of since that time.)
The AVO soldiers who were left in the house became restless, and I could
hear them running from one room to the other and shouting to each other
about the demonstrations outside.
By this time the people had surrounded the castle and were raising their
weapons, calling, "Freedom for Mindszenty and bread for the Hungarian
people."
Freedom Comes
Horvath was not gone more than thirty minutes before my guards decided
they could not last against the people. They formed a revolutionary council
and came to me with humility and presented themselves with great respect
before me.
"Sir," said their spokesman, "we have declared ourselves
on the side of the people and have decided that you have been kept a prisoner
illegally. From this moment on you are free." They spoke not an instant
too soon, for then came the Hungarian soldiers in tanks and in armored
cars from Retsag. They rushed to my room and declared that now I was to
be under their protection.
The Hungarian freedom fighters disarmed the AVO guards, but I asked that
they not be harmed. Then they went to the [col. 5/col. 6] cellar, where
they found a quantity of machine guns, small arms, and ammunition hidden
under the coal pile.
The freedom fighters helped me and my secretary pack the few belongings
which were ours. Then they brought us down the stairs to the car.
The people cheered as we drove away from the castle in procession. One
tank went before us, the other behind. On both of them the red star had
been removed and the Hungarian national colors painted on.
Thus we moved to freedom after eight years. [col. 6]
Richard Lettis: The Hungarian Revolt |