George Hodos
SQUASHED BY THE PARTY, LIKE A VERMIN
I had been expecting them, more or less, when they came for
me at one in the morning on July 6th, 1949. For weeks my friends had been
disappearing, one by one , until the entire " Swiss Group " had been in–
volved . It would have been a disgrace , I felt , had they left me out.
When they finally rang the bell at the front door, I felt relief, my ten–
sion subsided , at long last I would find out what was going on . Perhaps, I
thought, I could help to clear up the misunderstanding that was obviously
taking place . I experienced no fear ; good Communists need not fear the
AVH , our State Security Office , the hard fist of the People's Democracy of
Hungary which moved only against reactionaries.
Neither did any fear develop in me when I sat for hours that night,
alone, facing a wall in a small room in the Andrassy Street headquarters of
the AVH in Budapest. Finally at dawn, a uniformed comrade came into the
room; he told me to get up, keep my filthy mouth shut and place my hands
behind my back. He marched me into another room where I was placed up
against another wall and left standing.
If anything I was puzzled . A mere routine, certainly, but can ' t our
police distinguish between communists and fascists?
At noon they finally began to take notice of me . I was fingerprinted,
photographed, made to empty my pockets, take off my tie and remove my
shoe laces. Then I was led through an endless maze of stairs and corridors,
devoid of people, down into the basement of the building. Even when the
door was locked behind me and I looked around my cell, its moist stone
walls lit by a lonesome bulb , a bare wooden cot, high above a tiny opening,
leading only to darkness, still I felt no fear . Soon , I knew, everything would
be cleared up , apologies extended and I would be allowed to go home . I lay
down on the cot, closed my eyes and fell asleep.
I was awakened in the middle of the night and taken to an interroga–
tion room. The Comrade Lieutenant who sat there in civilian clothes ex–
plained that I had not been brought to him as a witness but as a criminal.
