DESPERATE PLIGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26413, 18 March 1947, Page 4

DESPERATE PLIGHT

POST-WAR HUNGARY EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN OCCUPATION Professor G. A. F. Knight, who was the first person from the British Isles, other than those serving with the army or a Government service, to enter Hungary after the war, gave his impression of the country under Russian occupation to a well-attended meeting of the Otago branch of the United Nations Association last night. The speaker said he had lived in Hungary for five years previous to 1940, and all through the war years he had been in touch with people in the country, although they were at war with the Allies. Professor Knight is the only non-Hungarian who was a member of the Association of Free Hungarians in Britain. Country Devastated “When I arrived back in Hungary last June I was not jwepared for what I saw,” Professor Knight said. “As I flew over the cities few of the old familiar landmarks remained, and I was reminded of the German cities devastated by bombing. I was also struck later by the tremendous difference in the standard of living compared with 1940. Everyone was in rags and everyone was- hungry. “It was the vicious circle,” the. speaker said. “The country had been at first devastated by the Germans and then by the incoming Russian army. The country could not feed the towns and the towns could not produce agricultural machinery. People would make periodical visits to the country, where they foraged for food in exchange for household articles. Professor Knight said the country was going through the worst inflation that had ever been known. “ What is the financial collapse of Hungary compared with its moral and spiritual collapse? ” Professor Knight asked his audience. It was true that in practically all of Eastern Europe the people were living without hope. In 1942 the Germans infiltrated into Hungary and the country had declared war on Russia at the German instigation. The official occupation of Hungary by the Germans took place in 1944. At that time, he said, one out of every four residents of Budapest, was a and between the years 1942 and 1944 the Jews were sent wholesale to the Russian front and to the German labour camps. In 1944 every remaining Jew was placed in a ghetto, where indescribable horrors were perpetrated. Russian Liberation The speaker then described the Russian liberation of Budapest, where bitter street fighting had led to the death of about 90,000 civilians. The ghetto was opened by the Russians in March, 1945, and an immediate result was that the Jews were predisposed to Communism for the very reason that the Russians had set them free. At a general election held a few months after the occupation only 6 per cent, of the country voted Communism. The Russians then had to set up a Government roughly representative of the voting groups, but it was arranged that the key positions were in the hands of the sympathisers with Communism. The same principle was applied to what was known as the “ People’s Court,” whose judges were drawn from the group of “ reliable people.” “A feeling is abroad that the people who are occupying the country will find some excuse to stay,” Professor Knight said, “ and that feeling is shared by all classes of the community. They are living under a reign of terror and those with any other political leanings may be arrested on any excuse. You never know when your best friend might tip you off to the secret police, which the Russians have instituted.” Professor Knight said that the type of Russian soldier in the occupation forces was a simple fellow who was not conscious of the indignities he was heaping on a highly cultured people.