GEORGE HODOS
593
his wife, Julia, he refused to confess . Only when janos Kadar, then Minister
of the Interior, came to his cell and assured him in the name of the Polit–
bureau that the Party had no doubts about his innocence, did he give in.
Kadar not only promised him his life, but a new existence in the Crimea if
he made a "moral sacrifice" and assisted in Tito's unmasking. (Kadar's
conversation with Rajk was tape recorded and seven years later, in 1956,
during the show-down session of the Party Central Committee that preceded
the Hungarian revolution of that year, Rakosi played the tape to shift part
of the responsibility for the execution ofRajk to his opponent, Kadar.)
N~t
all died on the gallows. Dr. Andras Kalman was a Spanish Civil
War fighter and" Swiss ," all at the same time . He was kind and gentle, one
of the most humane Communists, obsessed by the idea of a better world.
His torturers and the psychopathic operators of the MVD and the AVH had
an easy time with such " sentimental idealists," a responsive object to be
marched up against Szonyi and later to be sentenced to life imprisonment.
When, in 1952, Stalin prepared the "Doctor's Trial," Beria conceived
of a new role for Kalman. Russian doctors wanted to poison Stalin, accord–
ing to the script, so it was logical that the scenario be repeated in the satellite
countries. Kalman was called on to " unmask" this plan ofJewish Commu–
nist doctors to plot Rakosi's assassination, he was to assume the role of a link
between the Doctor's Trial , whose preparation was in progress, and the Rajk
conspiracy. But this time the psychologists failed, Kalman hanged himself
in his cell.
The fourth victim of our group was Toni Drittenbass, the wife of Janos
Dob6, a Swiss national who followed her husband
to
Hungary and into the
prisoner's dock. She was a diabetic and did not get her insulin in prison. She
was murdered, even though the hangman did not put the rope around her
neck.
There were also chance victims among the "objects." Ibolya Molnar
was a totally unpolitical young girl living in Switzerland when she fell in love
with the German Communist emigrant, Bernhard Steinberger. They mar–
ried and returned after the war to the Eastern Zone of Germany. In May,
1949, she visited her parents in Hungary and before returning to her hus–
band, spent her last night at the home of the Kalman family. That was the
night of his arrest and the AVH took her along as well.
She was totally confused, not a responsive object for a political role, so
she was interned without trial. Her husband was arrested in Leipzig and
carried off
to
the Soviet Union . After the posthumous rehabilitation of
Kalman and those who survived the Rajk affair, both were discharged , Mrs.
Steinberger from the concentration camp of Kistarcsa and her husband from
a camp in Siberia.
