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

criminal attempts of the Dobrovoljacs in 1941, warned the Szekelys that their quiet farming lifewould not last very long.Adam Sebestyen writes the following in his memoir entitled "Flight of the People ofAndrasfalva from Bacska.""Towards the end of September, the situation had become chaotic; the partisans started toendanger the life of the peaceful peasants. Fear spread because of the night raids on the villagevolks; the leaders disguised the real situation.The Andrasmezo people were preparing for a fair on October 8th. They kept cooking andbaking, expecting guests. Those headed for the houses of their friends received the horriblenews; they had to run!Orders to evacuate their homes came late; there was hardly any time to pack. There wasan enormous pell-mell confusion; they had but two or three hours to think. People did not knowwhat to pack for the family in their haste; they had to decide between food, clothes, or furniture.Many of them were not able to leave until the next morning. They had to leave things behind,just when they had become a bit better off; when the barns were full of corn, the lofts full ofwheat and other grains. The sties were full of pigs weighing between one hundred and fifty andtwo hundred kilos. Some farmers left behind as many as fifteen or twenty pigs; a small fortunefor them.They had no idea where they were going to sleep the following day. On the roads, withthe German army retreating, cart after cart fled from the Soviet army, together with cars andtanks obstructing one another. They had frequent air raids and the army was trying to force thepoor families off the road. A lot of women bore their children on the road, many labored on cornhills. They were even robbed by malevolent people. On a pitch dark night, even the coffin of onegrandfather was stolen. Only at dawn did the son find the coffin cast on the edge of a ditch withthe body of the father.The escapees of Andrasfalva, who could not cross the Danube on the ferry because of thetumult, were sent by the army to Paks and Dunafoldvar. During the air raids that came, whenthey were crossing a lot of children lost their parents and could only find131them weeks later. They fled towards Dombovar, but they did not accept Szalasi's advice to go toGermany."Many people hastily killed and cut up a pig to provide the family with food on the road.They could not prepare the meat anywhere so it rotted in the cart and they threw the pork into theDanube.When the partisans met the packed carts they made good use of these opportunities byrobbing the wretched people of their meager belongings. After robbing the people, they drovethem to camps or let them go with the shirts on their backs." The losses of the Szekelys of thetwenty-five villages have not been counted to this day. We could only count and list the victimsof the people of Hadikliget. Sandor Sara made a film of their struggle to get north, entitled "Atthe Crossroads." interviewing widows, and other survivors. Gabor Albert also wrote aboutthem in his book "Head Up."A man from Hadikliget, Titusz Varda, had rare luck in surviving his fellows: