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

"On November 3, I got up at five in the morning. As I went from the cottage to the spareroom, I heard our small door slamming. So did my father, who was rubbing down the horses inthe barn, where there were two cows as well.Before the reoccupation of the village, he had already received his draft-card from theHungarian Army. Then he and my mother had decided that he would be hiding in our farm in theSziget, where no one would find him. He had taken two calves with him.On November 2, 1944, it was growing dark when my father returned with the two calves.In the evening, when we went to bed, he said that the war was over for us, and soon we would behappy again. In the morning he spoke to me for the last time, saying, "Pray for me, son." It wasthe first Friday of the month and I observed a novena (a Catholic Friday prayer service). Rightafter high mass, partisans surrounded us with grenades in their belts, levelling their machineguns at us. The men, also observing a novena, were separated immediately and dragged off toIsterbac. It is true that everyone who observes First Friday will not die without being absolved. Ido not know the exact number of the victims, but I am sure that they had all received the HolyCommunion. By the time I got home, the partisans had already taken away my father. He was tounearth tanks that hindered the partisans' advance. My mother asked them whether a shovel wasneeded, but they answered that everything that was needed could be found there.In the morning, the town crier was walking around in the village, reading aloud anannouncement, which said that all the people able to move should be on the soccer field by noon,and those found at home would be shot dead. At about two in the afternoon, the46partisans began driving the villagers together with machine guns. At around three they tolled thechurch-bells and started the massacre. My father may have been one of the first victims. In theevening we had to leave our home, and father had not returned.Mother hitched the horses to the wagon on which we had loaded food and clothes. We wereabout to leave for our farm, when two Russian soldiers entered our yard and unharnessed thehorses. We could hardly make them understand that we were badly in need of horses. Then theybrought two pony-like ones, but mother had to adjust the harness, as it did not fit these smallhorses. We set off for the farm with mother and my father's mother, practically pushing thecarriage and the two exhausted horses, we arrived late.There was already a rumor going about, that the gathered people were all killed at 3 o'clock inthe afternoon. The victims were told that, in the event that they should resist, the whole villagegathered on the soccer field would be massacred. They were tortured from morning to 3 o'clock,first in a cellar then in a shed. A record player was on, while the partisan woman sitting on ahorse watched the people being driven into the water in groups of ten. Those dressed well wereforced to strip, so some of them had only their underwear on when they died. My father wasordered to take off his brogue, winter coat, and watch.Mother went to look for father, but in vain. During the executions, a German plane wastaking photos, and this allowed three men to escape across the river.When mother returned with the news that she had been unable to find my father, we stillhoped that he would appear, since there was a forest next to the river, and the farm behind it with3 acres of land, that belonged to mother. We were hiding in the farm, when we saw soldiersapproaching. After a while a mounted militia-man came looking for mother, he told her thatfather had been one of the massacred victims, and the place they had left him. Mother and some