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p The freedom struggle of the Spanish people and their call for assistance in the summer of 1936 found a response among the oppressed people of Horthy-ruled Hungary. The developments in Spain were eagerly discussed at factories and in workers’ neighbourhoods, above all in the underground Communist and legal Social-Democratic organisations. Reports were read at trade-union meetings, talks on Spain were held at factories, and Spanish songs were sung in the workers’ clubs. Books about Spain and Spanish dictionaries were sold out virtually within a few days.

p In the course of several months the Social-Democratic newspaper Nepszava gave a wide and unbiased coverage of the events in Spain. However, the Minister for Internal Affairs soon ordered it to stop printing these reports. News from Spain first disappeared from the front page, then it was shortened and finally ceased altogether. But the authorities were powerless to prevent the illegal activity of the Communist Party and the SocialDemocratic workers’ organisations, who appealed to all progressive people for support for the selfless struggle of the Spanish people. “For every person who prizes peace and freedom,” said one of the appeals of the Communist Party of Hungary, “it is a matter of honour to support the Spanish people, who have been attacked and are defending the peace and freedom of all peoples."  [176•1 

p Under the Horthy dictatorship, solidarity with the Spanish Republic, as any other progressive movement, could be manifested only deep underground. The collection of money was one of the forms of international support. Cells of the International Red Aid began to collect donations. It is indicative that within a month following the outbreak of the war in Spain a sum of 5,000 pengos (according to incomplete data) or nearly $ 1,000 was collected and sent to Spain.

p What the Hungarian working people really felt and thought 177 at the time could be freely expressed only outside Hungary. The Aid Spain Campaign therefore assumed a large scale only among Hungarians living abroad. It will be recalled that after the Hungarian Soviet Republic was crushed in 1919 nearly 100,000 Communists and other progressives had to leave Hungary. They formed the nucleus of the political emigres. In subsequent years hundreds of thousands of Hungarians left their country in search of work.

p The Hungarian emigres living in France, Belgium and Canada were particularly active in helping Spain. Lectures, film shows and literary evenings devoted to the struggle of the Spanish people were organised in workers’ neighbourhoods where Hungarians resided, and placards and maps showing the course of the fighting were hung on the walls.

p The collection of donations was one of the major activities in the Hungarian emigre movement of solidarity with Spain. The tiny donations grew into a considerable aid fund. This was due in large measure to the efforts of women, whose husbands, fathers and brothers were fighting in Spain. They took part in agitation and organised shows, thereby drawing attention to and sympathy for the fighters for the Spanish Republic. Widespread popularity was won by two Hungarian dancers, Anna Poor and Klara Tarr, whose husbands fought and died in Spain. In Paris there was hardly a trade-union or workers’ club where they did not stage a performance in aid of the Spanish people. A particularly deep impression was made on audiences by their dance, Children of Madrid, which conveyed the horrors of the bombing of the Spanish capital.

p In Belgium the Hungarian solidarity movement was headed by party groups of Communists and Social-Democrats, who worked in close unity following the formation of the Belgian United AntiFascist Front. In Brussels the Communists and Social-Democrats took turns in arranging lectures devoted to the events in Spain. The evenings organised to increase the Spanish aid fund were attended also by those Hungarians who usually shunned political activity and held aloof from the working-class movement.

p Some 40,000 Hungarians, among whom substantial influence was enjoyed by the Communist Party of Canada, were resident in Canada in the 1930s. Despite the hardships multiplied by the economic crisis, the Hungarian emigres collected large sums in aid of the Spanish people. They sent many parcels with cigarettes, tobacco, soap, clothes, bandages and medicines, and set up blood donation centres in Canada. During the first months following the fascist revolt the Hungarians, together with their Canadian comrades, bought and sent two ambulances to Spain. To collect funds the Hungarian organisations arranged shows, dances and concerts.

p The finest representatives of the Hungarian intelligentsia took 178 part in the mighty solidarity movement that embraced the whole world. The writers Emile Madarasz, Lajos Kassak, Zseni Varnai, Gyorgy Balint, Imre Forbath, Antal Hidas, Gyula Illyes, Laszlo Herebejos, Attila Jozsef, Miklos Radnoti, Mihaly Andras Ronai, Miklos Veto and Aladar Komjat devoted their works to the developments in Spain and inspired Hungarians to fight fascism, which was the common enemy of the Spanish and Hungarian peoples. In this connection mention must be made of Aladar Komjat’s poem March of the International Brigade, which was put to music by the Hungarian composer Paul Armand, who was living in Paris at the time. For nearly three years this song put heart into the Hungarian volunteers in Spain and to this day it resounds as an ardent appeal calling for the fulfilment of the proletarian internationalist duty.

p In September and October 1936, when it became apparent that material assistance was not enough for the Spanish Republic, nearly 1,000 Hungarians went to Spain. Volunteers came not only from Hungary but also from France, Belgium, Canada, the Soviet Union, the USA, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other countries.

p In Hungary itself many who wanted to join the Republican Army were unable to do so. The Horthy regime raised every possible obstacle to prevent volunteers from leaving for Spain. In the instructions of January 16, 1937 from the Minister for Internal Affairs to the frontier authorities it was stated: “Without exit permits and in most cases by foot, persons with Bolshevik sympathies and also jobless are fleeing to Czechoslovakia, and from Czechoslovakia they are being smuggled to Spain... . Persons crossing the frontier illegally shall be closely questioned and, having in mind the above-mentioned circumstance, every effort shall be made to ascertain and register every case pointing to the activities of recruiting agents or showing that the defector secretly intends to join the Spanish Red Army.... With reference to these instructions every such person shall be taken to the political department of the Central Police Administration in Budapest."  [178•1 

p Despite stringent police measures, the attempts to leave for Spain illegally did not cease. But only 120 persons managed to reach Spain. The others were seized at the Hungarian frontier or detained in neighbouring countries and returned to Hungary. For instance, during the first weeks of the civil war a group of 40 building workers crossed the frontier into Czechoslovakia, but only a few of them reached Spain.

p The trade unions and the Communist Party organised the selection of volunteers in Hungary. The largest contribution to this 179 work was made by the building workers’, metalworkers’ and bakers’ trade unions. Matyas Kronovitz, a leader of the bakers’ union, who subsequently volunteered to Spain and died the death of a hero, was particularly active in this work.

p The money for the travelling expenses of the volunteers was donated by their work-mates. Some went to Spain by foot with only a few pengos in their pockets. They included Vilmos Zsinko, member of the Central Committee of the Young Workers’ Communist League, Laszlo Humhal and Laszlo Teke, who headed the League’s Budapest organisation, and Istvan Bakalar, an active member of the YWCL. Before they reached Spain many volunteers spent months in prison in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France or other capitalist countries.

p The journey from Budapest to Madrid took Ferenc Kerekes five months. In reminiscences written in 1938, soon after the events, he gives an account of this journey:

p “I was working in Budapest when I heard that the fascist generals had risen in revolt against the lawful democratic government of Spain.

p “I took my wife and son to my parents in order to be able to leave for Spain at once. I was denied a passport, but that did not discourage me. I did not abandon my intention and on December 25,^1936,1 set out for Madrid.

p “I had no money and knew no foreign language. I reached Austria and from there I headed for Switzerland across the snowbound Alps. The difficulties were formidable. Four times I was caught on the frontier and turned back. The fifth attempt was successful. No less difficult was my journey to France. From Lyons, where I was held in prison for thirty days, I travelled to Marseilles, counting on boarding a ship and sailing secretly to Barcelona. But I was caught again and they wanted to force me to join the Foreign Legion. But I managed to escape. In Perpignan I landed in prison again, for twenty days. Upon my release I set across the Pyrenees.

p “On May 17 I reached Figueras, and from there I went to Albacete. Finally, my wish came true, and I set out for Madrid, where I got the opportunity of fighting for a noble cause."  [179•1 

p For Hungarians living abroad the journey to Spain was not so arduous. However, they had to make large sacrifices. Many left wives and children without a breadwinner or kin.

p In Uruguay nearly 50 Hungarian volunteers signed up as soon as it became known that International Brigades were being formed in Spain. The Hungarian Communist organisation checked with the families of the volunteers and decided to approve the departure only of bachelors or married men who had no children: the 180 organisation was unable to support the families of the volunteers. Gyula Kovacsik, secretary of the Hungarian Party group, was the first to sign up. He was wounded at Brunete in July 1937, and although he was crippled, he rejoined the ranks. While he was in hospital he had written to the Hungarians residing in Uruguay, calling upon them to take his place in his unit. Many responded to this letter. The Party group sent six volunteers to Spain. Kovacsik fell in action at Lerida in 1938.

p In the Spanish Republican Army two of the Hungarian volunteers held the rank of general. One of them was Mate Zalka, a Communist, soldier and author. He had been a prisoner-of-war in Russia, and after the Great October Socialist Revolution he joined the Red Army, becoming an officer and fighting till the end of the Civil War (1919-22). In October 1936, he went to Spain from Moscow under the assumed name of Pal Lukacs. He was in command first of the 12th International Brigade and then of the 45th Republican Division. The second Hungarian general in Spain was Janos Gal. Like Zalka, he had been taken prisoner on the Russian Front during the First World War. He had taken part in the socialist revolution in Russia and fought in the Red Army during the Civil War. Later, as a regular officer, he had graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. In Spain the Republican Government promoted him to the rank of general and appointed him commander of the 15th International Brigade. Later he was in command of the 15th Republican Division.

p Nine of the Hungarian volunteers held the rank of major. One of them was Ferenc Miinnich, a veteran internationalist, who had taken part in the Great October Socialist Revolution and been a leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He went to Spain under the assumed name of Otto Flatter. He held various command posts, and in the period from April to the end of August 1938 he was in command of the llth International Brigade.

p Dezso Jasz, who had been a regimental commissar in the Red Army of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, fought in Spain under the assumed name of Juan de Pablo. As a colonel he held various high posts, including that of Operations Chief at the HQ of the Northern Army.

p Among the other Hungarian volunteers whose names are known, 99 were officers and 47 were non-commissioned officers. In the Spanish Republican Army there were 15 Hungarian doctors and 10 nurses.

p The first Hungarian volunteers arrived in Spain in early August 1936. Among them was Mihaly Szalvai, who had joined the Hungarian Communist Party as soon as it was formed. A Horthy counter-revolutionary court sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment for being a soldier of the Hungarian Red Army. He escaped 181 from prison and after long wanderings in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France he finally reached Spain. The first group of volunteers included Endre Keszocze, who had been in the working-class movement from the age of 14. In Paris he had worked at the Renault car factory and in 1927 joined the French Communist Party.

p At the close of September 1936 there were 45 Hungarian volunteers in the Republican Army. On October 11, 1936, over 600 volunteers, of whom 46 were Hungarians, arrived in Figueras, a Spanish border town. One of them was Istvan Stechmayer, who became widely known among the volunteers by the name of Stefi. In Spain he graduated from an officers’ school, following which he was put in command first of a platoon and then of a company. In February 1938 he was killed in Estremadura.

p In the same group were Hungarians who had come from Belgium. They included Endre Basch, who had been a leader of the Hungarian emigre Communist organisation in Brussels. He went to Spain with his wife and son, and with them he was active in the anti-fascist struggle. Holding the rank of lieutenant he was in charge of the Salamanca Army Barracks in the town of Albacete, and then until the end of the civil war he was in command of an artillery unit. During the nazi occupation of France the Gestapo arrested him as a leader of the underground anti-fascist movement, and his life was cut short in a death camp.

p A Hungarian unit of 91 men was formed in Albacete on October 17, 1936. This unit became the third company of the Edgar Andre Battalion of the llth International Brigade. The Hungarian Company included a Yugoslav Platoon. On November 9, the Hungarian Company received its baptism of fire on the Madrid Front on the Manzanares river. Despite heavy casualties the Hungarian Company stood firm and justified the trust that was placed in it by the people of Madrid. Three years later one of the Hungarians who had been in this battle wrote:

p “We had been up early that morning. After breakfast we were ordered to prepare for battle. Soon we heard rifle fire—it was the People’s Militia courageously fighting the fascist mercenaries at the Casa de Campo.... The company moved toward its position at 11 o’clock. But we had hardly covered 800 metres across the park than we ran into a hail of fascist bullets.

p “The company deployed within a few minutes and quickly advanced in the direction of the French Bridge. We soon saw the bridge and the Manzanares. On our side of the river several militiamen with one machine-gun were guarding the bridge behind a barricade of sandbags.

p “ ’The internationalists have come,’ the militiamen said to one another. Some of them thought we were Russians. The company commander ordered the first and second platoons to a position 182

Mate Zalka (Pal Lukacs), commander of the 12th International Brigade, and
members of his staff
to the left of the bridge. The third platoon and the machine-guns were sent across the river to the far side of the bridge.

p “These orders were carried out immediately. Paying no attention to the bullets whistling through the air we waded into the icy water. A hard-fought battle began. Our small unit fought numerically superior forces. The machine-gunners under Chapayev (Szalvai’s pseudonym) and Keszocze sowed death among the advancing close ranks of fascists, Moroccans and cutthroats from the Foreign Legion. I could hear the rattle of Ferenc Kovacs’ 183 submachine. The fascists were not more than 30 metres away from us. The commander ordered the fourth platoon into battle. ... The enemy tried to force us back with hand grenades, but we held our ground.”

p The commander of the Hungarian Company was wounded at the French Bridge. His place was taken by Mihaly Szalvai, commander of the machine-gunners. As an officer he was brave, levelheaded and exacting. He was on friendly terms with his men and they loved him for it. A few weeks later, at the close of November, he was wounded. He returned to the front at the close of January 1937 with the rank of major and was appointed commander of the Edgar Andre Battalion, llth International Brigade. He lead the battalion in the fighting on the Jarama and Guadalajara fronts. At the end of March he was appointed commander of the Dimitrov Battalion, 15th International Brigade.

p A Hungarian volunteer named Rezso Szanto distinguished himself during a critical moment of the fighting at Guadalajara as commander of an artillery battery of the 12th International Brigade. The Italian fascists had broken through the lines at the junction between two International Brigades and there was a threat of an enveloping movement. General Lukacs saw this danger and sent the brigade’s entire staff into the battle. Rezso Szanto turned his artillery and fired with deadly effect on the fascists, who were attacking from the rear, forcing them to flee.

p The victory at Guadalajara gave the Republicans a short respite. When the Hungarian Company was withdrawn to the village of Meco for a rest a Hungarian Battalion began to be formed on the initiative of Mate Zalka, Janos Gal and Ferenc Miinnich. The Hungarian volunteers, who had been in other international units, were now concentrated at Meco. The battalion was formed quickly under the direction of Captain Lajos Cseby, who was known as Pedro Fernandez. The first order of the day in the battalion, which was named after Matyas Rakosi,  [183•1  was posted on April 1, 1937. Soon afterwards the 12th Brigade was formed into a division under Mat6 Zalka. It consisted of two International Brigades— Garibaldi and Dabrowski. The Hungarian Battalion became part of the Dabrowski Brigade.

p The numerical strength of the Hungarian Battalion grew steadily. New volunteers arrived, men who had been wounded returned to the ranks after recuperating from their wounds, and 184

Mihdly Szalvai (“Chapayev”)
graduates of the officers’ school were posted to the battalion. Its first commissar was Gyorgy Weiszbrunn, who had been a member of the workingclass movement in France. Later he was replaced by Imre Tarr, a veteran of the Red Army of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. He left Hungary when the counter- revolution triumphed in that country and upon his return in 1923 he was sentenced to a term of three years in prison. After serving his sentence he went to France, where he wrote for a Communist newspaper and was a leading member of the Hungarian group of the French Communist Party. The battalion commander was Akos Hevesi, who had fought for the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The Horthy regime sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment, but in 1922 he was exchanged by the Soviet Government for prisoners-of-war and went to the USSR. In Spain he was known as Major Pal Niebuhr.

p Not all of the Hungarians fighting in Spain were in the battalion commanded by Akos-Hevesi. The Petofi Platoon of the 15th International Brigade consisted of Hungarians, most of whom were Czechoslovak citizens. Captain Sandor Sziklai was a staff officer at the Madrid Front. A prisoner-of-war in Russia during the First World War, he had taken part in the Great October Socialist Revolution and in the Civil War and joined the Bolshevik Party in Russia in 1917. In Spain he was known as Peter Ladi. Serving with him was Miklos Steinmetz, who, as a truce envoy of the Soviet Army, was foully killed by the nazis at the approaches to Budapest on December 29, 1944.

p The first operation of the Hungarian Battalion and of the entire 45th Division was the offensive in early June 1937 at the town of Huesca on the Aragon Front. In the evening of June 11, on the eve of the offensive, a fascist shell cut short the life of the division commander, Mate Zalka, while he was inspecting the front lines. 185 Battalion Commander Akos Hevesi and Battalion Commissar Imre Tarr also lost their lives in this operation.

p The Hungarian Battalion of the Dabrowski Brigade fought in many battles, which cost it innumerable lives. Among the fallen heroes were Company Commander Imre fibert, who was killed at Brunete in the summer of 1937, and Pal Nagy, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary.

p The battles in Estremadura were followed by hard defensive fighting in the spring of 1938, when the enemy broke through the Aragon Front. The 13th Brigade distinguished itself during the defence of Lerida. Outstanding leadership was displayed in these battles by Mihaly Szalvai, who had taken over the command of the Hungarian Battalion in August 1937. An eye-witness account of an episode of the Aragon retreat is given by Imre Mezo in reminiscences published in 1938:

p “After the battalion had taken up a new defensive line, Szalvai as usual was inspecting the positions of one of the companies when somebody sounded the alarm.

p “Enemy cavalry were charging in the direction of the hill where the men had dug in temporarily. The machine-gunners managed to fire only one belt before the cavalrymen were upon the Hungarian positions. An unequal battle ensued, and it was only due to Szalvai’s cool-headedness and resourcefulness and the staunchness of the men that the cavalry attack was repulsed, with the enemy suffering heavy losses."  [185•1 

p During the 42 days’ fighting on the Aragon Front the ranks of the Hungarian volunteers were again thinned. The casualties at the defence of Lerida included the company Party organiser, Gyorgy Sebes, and Battalion Commissar Gyorgy Weiszbrunn.

p During offensive of the Republican Army of the Ebro, the Hungarian Battalion was the first unit in the sector of the 13th Brigade to cross the river. The order for the crossing was received on July 24 at 21.30 hours, and by 00.30 hours the battalion had successfully completed the operation. After capturing Camposinas the 13th Brigade advanced in the direction of Gandesa. The Hungarian Battalion inflicted heavy losses on the fascists, capturing many prisoners and a large quantity of equipment.

p In the course of two weeks in August, during the defence of the bridgehead on the right bank of the Ebro, the battalion’s casualties were 30 killed and 105 wounded.

p The Hungarian Battalion was at the firing lines until September 23, 1938, when the Republican Government recalled the international volunteers from the front.

p At the farewell ceremony the men of the Dabrowski Brigade, the 186

Hungarian volunteers. Second row, left to right: Akos Hevesi (Major
Niebuhr), Captain Istvan Molnar, Rezso Szant6 (Major Bailer)
soldiers of the Hungarian Battalion among them, pledged their fidelity in the following words:

p “We, freedom volunteers of the Dabrowski Brigade, soldiers of the invincible Spanish People’s Army, defenders of the freedom of the Spanish people and all the peoples of the world, we sons of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, mortal enemies of fascism, barbarism and national oppression, swear in this beloved land of Spain, where we have left the graves of our comrades, we swear by the blood shed in the struggle against fascism, by our revolutionary and anti-fascist consciousness, by our battle banners, by the decorations we have received from the hands of the Republican Government that to our last breath we shall be true to the ideals, for whose defence we had come to Spain. We shall carry on this struggle wherever life takes us.

p “We swear to be eternally true to the Spanish people, whose blood has mixed with our blood. We swear to be true to the Government of the Republic and to the Command of the People’s Army and solemnly declare that we shall return to the ranks of the People’s Army at any time ... if that is needed and desired by the Republic....

“But even should there be no need for us to return to you, the memory of liberty, the passion for which burns in you and for which you have fought so heroically, shall live on in our hearts and in the hearts of the coming generation.”

187

p On January 23, 1939, the volunteers awaiting to be evacuated from Spain, with Hungarians among them, again took up arms to fight in the last battles as soldiers of the Catalan Army. It was necessary to safeguard the withdrawal of the wounded and the hospitals and cover the stream of refugees who were fleeing to the French frontier from the fascist army that had broken through the Catalan Front.

p Even wounded men—László Rajk, András Tómpe and László Gyáros among them—joined the newly-formed international units. Along with the other volunteers and the Spanish troops, the Hungarian volunteers honourably discharged their last duty.

p They crossed the frontier into France at Port-Bou on February 9, 1939. The heroic freedom fighters were met by French colonial troops, gendarmes and concentration camps.

p Despite the bitterness of defeat, the Hungarian volunteers were eager to continue the struggle against fascism. A Communist Party organisation was set up and began to operate as soon as the volunteers were taken to concentration camps. The struggle did not cease for a moment in these camps. The moral and political staunchness and the internationalist and anti-fascist tempering of the Hungarian volunteers were soon put to a new test.

p The Second World War broke out on September 1, 1939.

p The French authorities wanted the men of the International Brigades to join the Foreign Legion. This was rejected by the volunteers. They wanted to fight fascism, not colonial peoples. Fifty-two volunteers, including ten Hungarians, whom the authorities suspected of organising Resistance, were taken to a penal camp at Vernet and then to a camp at Djelfa, Algeria, on the border of the Sahara. The other volunteers were shipped to that camp soon afterwards.

p In March 1941, after France had been occupied by the nazis, some of the volunteers escaped while they were being deported to labour in Germany and made their way home. They continued the struggle against fascism in Hungary as members of the underground anti-fascist movement. Among them was Laszlo Rajk, who had been the secretary of the Party organisation in the Hungarian Battalion and became a secretary of the Central Committee of the underground Communist Party of Hungary. Many of those who returned to Hungary were seized and imprisoned or killed. The latter included Pal Fiigedi.

p Algeria was liberated by the Allies in 1943 and the volunteers held at the Djelfa camp were able to go to the USSR to take part in the struggle against nazi Germany. In May 1944, Mihaly Szalvai flew to Yugoslavia where he joined in the liberation struggle of the Yugoslav people. Sandor Sziklai, who became an 188

The Hungarian Battalion after the Aragon battles, 1938
officer of the Soviet Army, returned to Hungary in the autumn of 1944. Ferenc Miinnich fought in the battle of Stalingrad, that marked the turning point of the Second World War.

p Other Hungarians continued the anti-fascist struggle as members of the Resistance in France, Belgium and other countries where circumstances took them. Thirty-three of them died in this struggle—among them were Istvan Molnar, who in Spain commanded the Polish Palafox Battalion, and Lieutenant Laszlo Marschall, who during the liberation of Paris in August 1944 was in command of a barricade at the crossing of the St. Germaine and St. Michel boulevards and later commanded the Petofi Company in the French Army.

p After Hungary’s liberation in 1945 the former Hungarian volunteers in Spain energetically helped to restore their country and then build the foundations of socialism. Many became ministers, deputy ministers, generals or army officers. From 1958 through 1961 Ferenc Miinnich was Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic.

p The former volunteers took up arms again during the counterrevolutionary revolt in Budapest in October 1956. Imre Mezo, Secretary of the Budapest City Party Committee, and Major- 189 General Sandor Sziklai, who headed the Institute of Military History, were killed in this struggle.

Today nearly 150 former volunteers live in Hungary and many of them are still active in political and civic life. They are a living example for the rising generation, an example of revolutionary passion and of fidelity to the ideals of socialism and proletarian internationalism.