The Soviet troops entering int Zala county, anti-communist movement in 1951. memories of 1956.
Stáhnout obrázek
Dr. Kelemen József born in 1931 in Baltavár (Vas county) He remembers that only a few people joined the Arrowcross Party - those were the ones who wanted to gain greater respect in the village. As the Russian soldiers occupied the village they wanted food and wine right away. The first night was very frightening: the drunk Russians looked for women in every house and those who were found were raped. When they did not find women, they beat up the husbands. He supported the Smallholders Party. He went to secondary school in the town of Zalaegerszeg. There everyone knew the two leaders (city and county) of the State Defense Authority. They often appeared in the gymnasium in order to demonstrate. One of their relatives married a local Jewish-Hungarian girl in the village. Their son, Mihályi, was deported and when he returned from the concentration camp he became a local chief policeman. Unlike others in this position, he defended the richer peasants when the communist came to hunt them down. He also saved Franciscan monks in Búcsúszentlászló. Eventually he was removed from his position and sent to prison. He wanted to become a doctor and was accepted at the university. In 1951, with two friends, he start a resistant movement. But very soon after, the state defense authority arrested his friends. They never accused him, probably because the other two friends remained silent and never revealed his involvement. They were each sentensed to 13 to 15 years in prison. From 1956 on, he attended at all major events of the revolution, including the removal of the Stalin statue.