PLEASE NOTE: This book contains graphic description ... - HUNSOR

18COLD DAYS - A NOVEL AND A FILMAuthor: When my novel "Cold Days" and later in the film based on the novel appeared, I wasreproached for the fact that I had discussed only the injustices committed by Hungarians withouteven mentioning the ten times greater Serbian vendetta, something nobody else had mentionedeither.Interviewer, What was your aim when you revealed in 1960 things that had happened duringthree days in January 1942 in Novi Sad.A: among others, I wanted to tell everything that was committed in the confusion of war, againstinnocent Serbian and Jewish people, at the command of a few blood-thirsty officers, unworthyof the Hungarian nation.I: Did you have another intention besides naming the delinquents, as if taking the responsibilityupon yourself instead of the innocent Hungarian nation.A: Yes. I hoped that there would be a Serbian writer who would reveal in response the cruelseries of massacres that paranoid, sadistic Serbians committed against tens of thousands ofinnocent Hungarians in Voivodina in the autumn of 1944.I: Were your hopes fulfilled in the form of Serbian writers making the same symbolic act ofcollective regret, if not a confession for their crimes like the one you had made in Cold Days .A: None of my hopes were fulfilled. A few Serbian writers voiced their opinion that in WorldWar II almost two million people lost their lives in their country, so these few tens of thousandsof Hungarians should not be of interest to them, especially not as writers.I.: Did not the memory of these forty thousand Hungarians weigh upon your soul.A.: Of course it did! The cries addressed to me have put more and more of a burden on myconscience, making me understand, although too late, that I should have presented the Serbianvendetta at the same time as the executions and murders committed by Hungarians. However,this was not possible at the time.I.: How did you react to the indifference of the Yugoslav writers.A.: The only thing I could do was to make myself a promise, as soon as it is possible to cry outlaud about the cruel weeks of those blood-curdling events, the massacre of innocent Hungariansin Vojvodina in 1944, I will do my best. That is why I have written this book.Budapest, April 199219Vendetta. Retaliation Multiplied:WAS THE MASS-MURDER COMMAND ISSUED?In October 1944 the Hungarian Army abandoned Bacska (Vojvodina) and shortly afterthe Red Army, under the command of Marshal Malinovsky, crossed the Tisza river. Following