IV.

WALKING TO, AND BETWEEN CAMPS

THE LENGTH AND PERIOD OF WALKS

At the place where they fell into captivity, the prisoners were aligned into rows of
5 ("po piat!" as the Russian goes) and the processions – consisting 40-50, 4-500, but
sometimes more than 2000 persons – were driven to the collection camps. János Kiss
recalls the start of the journey to the collection camp like this: “They dragged us away
amidst gun and mine fire. Once behind the firing line, they added some more groups,
both soldiers and civilians. Finally, the hundreds of prisoners were aligned by rows of
five and dispatched on the way to uncertainty, accompanied by guards on foot and on
horse, through Rákosszentmihály village up to the Gödöllő collection camp.”1
The above quote goes to show that the number of prisoners in some groups,
mainly in and around Budapest and coming from Austria, kept increasing parallel
with the length of the distance. „At the dawn of January 6 1945, […] the male
population of the neighborhood was collected in the basement of a villa in a nearby
street. About 40 people were there. From here, we were directed to Budafok, of
course, with armed guards. From that time on, we were prisoners and – together with
more and more captured civilians – we were taken to Baja en route Cece and
Dunaföldvár.” – this is how Kázmér Michalik recalls his deportation from Budapest.2
The composition and the regularly expanding number of prisoner groups marching
from Austria to Hungary is generally described by the following quote: “They
escorted us to a village where there were already quite a few people, then to another
place, where there were even more people, so our number grew to 2-3000, including
soldiers, civilians, women and kids, travelling on foot or on a horse carriage, making
our way home.”3
The journey to the collection camps, set up generally 50-100 km or even further
behind the front line, took more or less 3-5, or many times 6-8 days, but sometimes
even more than 10 days. On average, the guards made the war prisoners cover 30
kilometers a day. The processions became longer, for the most part, because the
nearby collection camps became quickly full, or were inflicted by epidemics, and at
some other times due to counter-attacks by the opponent troops and their presumable
1
Comradely Association of Former Prisoners of War (VHBSZ) 402. – 1993. János Kiss recollections
p. 1.
2
Interview with Kázmér Michalik. The recording is possessed by the author.
3
Ernő D. Kiss: Amerikai fogságból Szaratovba [From American captivity to Saratov]. In: A vásárhelyi
leventék háborús kálváriája [The war ordeals of the Vásárhely military trainees] (Published by: Mihály
Herczeg.) Studies from the history of Csongrád county, XVII Szeged, 1990, p. 148.
extension, the changing commands, errors made by the escorting guards or the
wartime road conditions. This is the reason why the civilians captivated in Kesztölc
(near Dorog) on 30 December 1944 were forced to walk more than 200 kilometers.
They had to walk up to Baja, through the collection points in Sóskút, and then in
Ercsi.4 In fact, a significant 14% of those captured in Budapest were made to walk
180-200 km to Baja in various routes (for example, Budapest–Sóskút–
Tetétlenpuszta–Kalocsa–Baja or Budapest–Sóskút–Ercsi–Cece–Dunaföldvár–Baja). 5
After the war in Europe ended, quite a few people were escorted from a Soviet
occupation zone in Austria (its former German imperial name was Ostmark) to a
West Hungarian collection camp more than 200 km, for example, the 225 th
independent battalion, led by András Kovács, lieutenant- colonel, which was
captivated at Deutschlandsberg, Styria. They walked in a procession up to the
Jánosháza prisoner camp through Graz and Szentgotthárd, and arrived totally
exhausted after a long mountain trip.6 (See also the chapter “Territorial relationships”
about the length of processions to the collection camps.) The following two examples
well illustrate the anarchic circumstances due to the wartime conditions. Valér Nagy,
regular lieutenant – as he reported to the Defense Ministry – was captivated on
December 27 1944 at Kicsind (village north of Esztergom) and arrived at the
Jászberény prisoner camp – which is about 110 km on foot – only 9 days later. 7 As
we more or less know the distance, even more interesting and informative is the
ordeal of the civilians who were ordered to go to Siklós on January 14 under the
pretext of doing 6 days’ public work, but were taken away as war prisoners. These
people arrived at the Baja camp (about 80 km) only 10 days later, making a huge
detour of 210 km due to contradicting commands, changing war conditions and for
some other, unknown reasons. The civilian war prisoners covered the following route:
once captivated, they started for Pécs two days later, in the morning of January 16.
After Pécs, they turned north-west and were taken to a collection camp in Sántos,
near Kaposvár, where they stayed for two days. From there, they turned around and
went back to Pécs in the south-west. They moved on to Mohács, crossed the river
Danube, passed Bátmonostor and got to the Baja war prisoner collection camp on
January 23, which is revealed from the report made a couple of weeks later. 8 This is
just one, but very demonstrative example of how meandering routes the war prisoner
groups had to follow.
The period from getting captured to the arrival at the collection camps was not
only due to the extended routes. Typically, especially in Budapest, the captivated war
prisoners had to wait 2-3, or even 4 days till the required number of prisoners was
collected and made their way to the collection camps only then.
4
Hungarian National Archives XIX-J-1-q POW Dept. of MFA 27.891./pol. – 1945.
5
Zalán Bognár: The population of Budapest and its environs ... p. 109.
6
Mihály Szabó: A Krímben voltam hadifogoly [I was a war prisoner in Crimea]. Mezőhegyes, vol.
September 1990, p. 6.
7
Military History Archives, Defense Ministry 27.734/eln. – 1945.
8
Hungarian National Archives XIX-J-1-q POW Dept. of MFA 25.168. – 1945.

2
 Another reason for the longer period of getting to the camps was the one-two-
three-day stay at the collection points.9 Namely because these spots had to give
instructions besides several other functions. This is where the guards received the
necessary escort-related information and commands, and they could have a rest. In
addition, this is where smaller groups (a couple of hundred prisoners) arrived, and
when one or two thousand people were collected, they were dispatched to the marked
out collection camp. While waiting, war prisoners had a haircut, and sometimes the
prisoner groups were screened in terms of health and politics.
The third reason for the delay was related to the collection camps rather than to
the longer routes. As has already been mentioned, the prisoner groups could many
times not enter the collection camps right after their arrival. This had several reasons.
Firstly, the camp became jam-packed. On such occasions, the people had to wait near
the camp for one or two days, then they could take the place of transports moving out
of the camp, or they were directed to another collection camp. It also happened that
they had to wait outside because the prisoner camp was not completed yet. Several
times, the prisoners were not allowed to enter the camp due to epidemic, and were
directed to another camp when it was decided which camp was able to receive them.
This happened, for example, in Gödöllő, where people were not permitted to enter, so
they were driven on to the Jászberény prisoner camp. 10 The prisoner group of dr.
Zoltán Varga had to wait for three days outside the Gödöllő “concentration camp”.
„We followed the Pestszenterzsébet – Kistarcsa – Gödöllő route, and arriving there
we had to stand on the snowy Gödöllő hillside for 3 days and 3 nights with no food
and drink, my comrades stood around me to keep me from the cold … Then they took
us into a stable when the people who had been there were transferred to the large
camp, which was in building of the high school. We were also taken there in a few
days.”11

NIGHT ACCOMMODATION, COLLECTION POINTS

On their way to the collection camps, the prisoners spent several nights at the
most varied places: generally in stables, pens, farms, schools or in some unheated
stone buildings, but it was not rare that they had to spend the night on a snowy field,
under the open sky. The nights spent by the war prisoners in the processions are
reflected in their recollections as follows: “We slept where we happened to stop for
the night. […] Once we camped in a huge field. They placed a machine gun at the
four corners of the field and told us they would shoot anyone crossing the imaginary
line.”12 „It became dark. We arrived at a carrot field, it was already dark and the

9
Such collection points were e.g. in Balassagyarmat, Ercsi, Erdőtelek, Monor, Poroszló, Sántos and
Sóskút.
10
Imre Kovács: Magyarország megszállása [The occupation of Hungary]. Budapest, 1990, p. 191.
11
VHBSZ 422. – 1993. Dr. Zoltán Varga, recollections, p. 1.

3
guards told us through interpreters to lie down on the ground.” 13 „Late in the evening,
when it was getting dark, we got to Kerepes, where we were driven into the cellar of
the parish hall. They gave us no food. I holed up in a corner, we could not sit down
because there were many of us and the room was small.” 14 „In a village named Nova,
we spent the night in a barn floor pertaining to the priest’s residence near the Catholic
church …”15 „The first and second nights were spent at an abandoned farm, hiding in
straw, and our accommodation was a village school for the third night.” 16 „The whole
group was driven into a huge sheep pen. There was some straw on the ground. The
hungry and exhausted people lay down next to each other, and lay for 5 days with no
food and drink.” 17
The cold weather, especially at night, was so unbearable for the prisoners that
most of them could not sleep, or hardly had any sleep. „It got dark when we arrived at
Albertirsa [Alberti at that time – Z.B.] 18 . We suffered through the night sitting on the
icy snow field outside the village. The guards were patrolling around us, firing a few
intimidating shots.”19 „The morning was even colder than the day before. The ordeal
started again. The hungry and exhausted people had difficulty with lining up, so the
guards started to use their gun-stock again. We were pretty bad at that military
practice. At last, we got started.” – this is how a civilian prisoner recalls the early
morning torments.20
In winter, one or two prisoners in the groups did not wake up any more after the
cold nights (minus 20–25 ºC). Many of those captivated in winter got frozen due to
the insufficient clothes and lack of food. „By the morning some people got frozen on
the ground because we did not have proper clothes and many of us were wounded so
they could not bear the hunger and suffering any more.”– wrote István Hrdlicska.21
As has already been mentioned, some of the prisoner groups were given minimal
political screening at some collection points, so one could ask for hearing: “Late in
the evening, after about nine, a guard came, he could speak Hungarian and said that
anyone who had something to report should go with him. I also signed up. He wrote
down my name and they picked me up half an hour later. They took me into a large,
dark room where there was a Soviet and a Hungarian officer. They called on me to
tell them what I wanted to say. I produced my hospital certificate and also told them
that I was not a soldier, I was sick and I wanted to go home. The Hungarian captain

12
Lajos Rácz: Soprontól Székesfehérvárig [From Sopron to Székesfehérvár]. In: The Vásárhely
military trainees … p. 142.
13
VHBSZ 331. – 1992. István Hrdlicska, recollections, p. 1.
14
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections, p. 2.
15
VHBSZ 414. – 1993. József Sramó, recollections, p. 2-3.
16
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 1.
17
VHBSZ 288. – 1992. Béla Baranyai, recollections, p. 1.
18
Alberti was united with Irsa in 1950, and the new name was Albertirsa.
19
VHBSZ 402. – 1993. János Kiss, recollections, p. 1.
20
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections, p. 2-3.
21
VHBSZ 331. – 1992. István Hrdlicska, recollections, p. 1.

4
said something to the Soviet officer, who waved a soldier to take me back to the
others. They did not give my certificate back.” 22
En route, the prisoners used “wind post” to notify their relatives about the
direction of their deportation. This means that the prisoners wrote down on a piece of
paper the name and the address of their loved one, i.e. the addressee, which way the
prisoner group was going as well as which settlements they passed, and when.23
“Wind post” thrown away en route with the following text: “Please, notify my
Parents by way of post that their son, Sanyi, was taken from the Győr prisoner camp
in the direction of Vienna.”
The papers were dropped at busy places like railway or road junctions, or where
they were visible to local people. Once the group of prisoners was gone, the locals –
many times railwaymen or kids – collected the pieces of paper, or “letters”, and
forwarded them to the indicated addresses without expecting any compensation,
which is a nice example of the sympathizing help of the Hungarian people. As a
result, hundreds or thousands of relatives – mainly women, but also elderly men and
young boys – kept waiting near the war prisoners collection camps so that they could
meet their loved ones and give them some food or clothes. “When passing through
villages, we left behind pieces of paper (wind post), thus spreading news of which
way they were taking us. Then we also used wind post when going from Gödöllő to
Cegléd. Later, we learned in both collection camps that several of the scattered wind
mails got to the addressees, thanks to the help of all those good people! This is also
how my beloved wife managed to follow me up to the Cegléd camp.”2323

CATERING EN ROUTE

Catering was not organized for the prisoners walking in the procession. It was
totally up to the escorting guards’ good intentions. Many times, no food was provided
for days. This also happened to Ferenc Maurer Klimes, who was deported from
Budapest as a civilian, and his group was given food only on the 4 th day: “… we had
no food for four days. Now they are serving soup, but what shall we put it into? Half,
or three-quarters of the people had no bowl or pot. Those who were soldiers had that
German-type, oval bowl with a top. Some asked for their portion in their hat or
tobacco case (1 dl). Most people could not eat as they had nothing to put the soup
into.”24

22
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections, p. 2.
23
2323
VHBSZ 402. – 1993. János Kiss, recollections, p. 1.
24
Ferenc Maurer Klimes: Gödöllőtől a Kaukázusig [from Gödöllő to the Caucasus]. (Life and death is
so simple.”) In: Memories along the war paths. Or: military history, reverence and traditionalism.
(Editor: István Ravasz) Budapest, 2006, p. 46.

5
 The reason for the poor catering of prisoners was partly the punishment of the
enemy, partly mere comfort and partly the fear from escape. Explanation for the
latter: if the residents of nearby settlements could help with catering, the personal
contact of local people with the prisoner groups sometimes offered a chance for
escape. In addition to this, hungry and weak prisoners had a much lower chance of a
successful escape! This is why the prisoners mainly got some food only if the
residents of the affected settlements threw packaged food among the marching
prisoners as it was forbidden to go near them. Those who tried were driven away with
a gunstock or with warning shots. “They drove us on along the main road, where
many local residents, both men and women, tried to come nearer and threw us bread
as they saw how miserable our condition was. Unfortunately, their benevolent attempt
failed as the Soviet armed guards who were escorting us scared them away with alarm
shots.”25 „This is how we proceeded towards Cegléd, without any food or drink,
passing villages where the population tried to help by throwing pieces of bread and
bacon to the war prisoners slowing marching in the line. The Russians did not prevent
this, although later, when we were nearing Cegléd, they already threatened with
shooting the villagers who tried in this manner to help hundreds of deported people.”
26
“Outside the village, the guards got angry with us because women came from the
village and wanted to give us some food. The guards did not permit this although
there was no breakfast! Some brought us hot food but we had no dishes. Thus, we
were just longing for hot food but the cruel guards made the procession continue its
way towards “fate”.”27
On the way, people who had not known each other made friends, which is
important for war prisoners to survive as man is a social creature and it is much easier
to cope with ordeals in a company than alone. Such friendships proved to be a
lifesaver already at the beginning, but not primarily for satisfying physical or
biological needs (supporting each other en route and sharing food) but mainly for
strengthening the spirit, which will also be exemplified later. “One of our friends
managed to find a large kohlrabi, which was food for three of us for three days.
Smaller and larger communities developed on the way.” 28 „A middle-aged fellow
next to me was munching something. He began talking to me and we discussed how
we got there. He was eating some potato sugar, and gave me some.” 29 Many of those
who had no food could not hold on any longer: “January 30. At dawn, they sent
everybody out of the pen and ordered a line-up through the Ruthenian interpreter. It is
unbelievable what hunger and thirst can do to people in 5 days. Some came out on all

25
VHBSZ 331. – 1992. István Hrdlicska, recollections, p. 1.
26
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 1.
27
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections, p. 3.
28
VHBSZ 325. – 1992. József Balog, recollections, p. 3.
29
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections, p. 2.

6
fours, while some others could not even move.” 30 Some were given food only 6 or 7
days after being captured. 31
At times, those who were captivated under the pretext of doing several days’
public work were luckier because they could take some food with them. However, it
also happened to some of them that the procession to the collection camp took a
longer time than the food they took with themselves, as instructed by the Soviets. In
other cases, the trip to the collection camp took 10 days but the prisoners were only
prepared for 6 days’ public work, and the guards gave them no food during the way.
So „all of us had to eat what was brought with us from home.”– said József Bernáth, a
resident of Máriagyüd, in his testimony laid down in a report at the Pécs lord
lieutenant’s office on February 13 1945. 32
At some settlements, the guards of some war prisoner groups – mainly the elderly
guards – allowed women to bring hot food to the prisoners, though, of course, the
guards were the first to eat. For example, this happened in Tápiószele, when prisoners
were being taken from Jászberény to the Cegléd camp, and for many of them this was
the first decent food they got „after three months’ captivity.” 33 Many former war
prisoners think back on women in Albertirsa (named Alberti at that time) with sincere
gratitude. Let me quote two memories: “At dawn, the prisoners were told after the
line-up and roll call that the residents of Albertirsa collected food for the prisoners
who spent the night on the snowy field. The head of the guards permitted the
distribution of the food. Thus every prisoner got a few snacks, which helped them to
regain some strength. This happened 47 years ago, still I think of all those good
people in Albertirsa with gratitude!” 34 However, another survivor also recalled a sad
memory besides the food that they were given: “The residents of Albertirsa cooked
Goulash soup for the wandering prisoners in large cauldrons, and this was the first
time we got hot food after starving for 3 days. One of the Hungarian prisoners had his
wife among the food-serving women, and when she spotted him, she fell into his
arms. The joy only lasted for a couple of seconds because when the Russia guard saw
this, he hit the man with the gun-stock (the men lost his consciousness immediately)
and roughly pushed the woman away.” 35
According to the report of the general municipality assembly, from December 8
1944, Baja ran a social kitchen where women and girls representing all social groups
cooked delicious, hot food and took it to the prisoners, and this food saved many
lives. The ingredients for the food were collected from donations by residents of the
town and in the neighborhood, which could also be observed elsewhere. Between
December 8 1944 and May 1 1945, i.e. during 144 days, 137,209 portions of hot food
30
VHBSZ 288. – 1992. Béla Baranyai, recollections, p. 1.
31
Received food on the 6th day: VHBSZ 331. – 1992. István Hrdlicska, recollections, p. 1.; Received
food on the 7th day: VHBSZ 288. – 1992. Béla Baranyai, recollections, p. 1.
32
Hungarian National Archives XIX-J-1-q POW Dept. of MFA 25.168. – 1945.
33
VHBSZ 423. – 1993. Sándor Csernai, recollections 4.
34
VHBSZ 402. – 1993. János Kiss, recollections 2.
35
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections 1-2.

7
(lunch and dinner) were served. This means that, with Sundays included, almost a
thousand people received hot food every day, on average. There was a day – February
23 1945 – when 3400 portions were distributed. 36 According to the recollections and
the documents of the War Prisoner department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
when the siege of Budapest was ended, most of the war prisoners who were collected
in Buda arrived at the Baja camp during these days, hungry and exhausted after the
180-km-long walk.
At the last, end-year general meeting held in December 1945, the municipality
management respectfully commemorated the dedicated, life-saving work of women in
Baja: “We should also mention the social kitchen, which deserves an individual
chapter in the town’s history. We all know the generous and persistent work that’s
been done there since December 8. So this work was still in progress at the time of
the general meeting! – Z.B. All social groups had a share in the work that was
intended to provide hot food to the captivated people, who either work in this town or
are just travelling through. Weak female hands provided energizing food to our
captivated soldiers, crossing the ice of the Danube in rain and blizzard. This warm
female heart made our name known nationwide. We can say now that the women in
Baja have now become just as famous as the women in Eger.”37
Water was available many times only in roadside puddles, in cart-tracks or in
holes left by horse hoofs. “Our drinking water ran out very fast. We drank water
from the roadside ditch, and took some quinine.”– wrote Lajos Rácz. 38 At the nearby
settlements, the local population felt sorry for the prisoners and tried to give them
some water, but this intention many times failed due to the guards’ cruelty. This is
also shown by the testimony of Jenő Morcsek: “When an old woman came out with a
bucket of water, they kicked her over together with her bucket. We kept walking
without any food or drink. I managed to get a small piece of bread, but no water. We
had some snow instead of water.”39
Diarrhea became very frequent among the prisoners due to the anti-hygienic
circumstances, mainly because they had to get water from puddles or from infected
wells. However, there were few breaks during the procession. “Its natural
consequences could be dealt with only in the line, while walking. For this reason, the
internal lines of the procession kept waving. The one with diarrhea squatted down in
the internal lines, then rushed back to his place. In the meantime, to escape the gun-
stocks, the ones walking on the edge of the line took the internal place of those who

36
Bács-Kiskun County Municipality Archives (BKMÖL) XXI. 502. reports on the municipal general
meetings in Baja, May 12 1945.
37
BKMÖL XXI. 502. reports on the municipal general meetings in Baja, December 15 1945.
38
Lajos Rácz: Soprontól Székesfehérvárig [From Sopron to Székesfehérvár]. In: A vásárhelyi
leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …], p. 142.
39
Interview with Jenő Morcsek, former war prisoner. The voice recording is possessed by the author.

8
lagged behind. This is how people kept changing in the external lines during the
walk.”40

GUARDING

The war prisoner groups were escorted mainly by Cossack soldiers either on foot,
armed with long bayonet rifles – also called “nutting rod” at that time – and/or on
horseback, armed with a submachine gun. As for the number of guards compared to
the prisoners, it is generally true that those escorted from Austrian territories to the
Hungarian war prisoner collection camps had fewer guards than those captured in
Hungary. Pál Török, former war prisoner, wrote the following about this: „We were
walking on the highway in rows of 5, attended by few guards, which made us feel that
guarding was a mere formality as anyone could have run away if they wanted to, but
it would have been in vain without any documents.” 41 Ferenc Somfay, lieutenant, was
heading towards the Hungarian border in an approximately 5000-strong procession,
with just one Soviet guard at the front and at the end of the line. 42 A similar story was
also recalled by other, former war prisoners coming from Austria: „only a few
Russian soldiers escorted us on the roads”, „we only had few guards with us”, „only
few Soviet soldiers were escorting us, and we only saw them when we stopped for the
night.” 43
As against this, war prisoners captured in Hungary and those taken from Austria
to Hungary were given a closer watch, and those getting nearer to the collection
camps were guarded even more strictly. „January 25. At about 5 in the morning, they
opened the iron door (in a cellar in Budapest, Alsóerdősor utca – B.Z.), we pulled out
and they soldiers pushed us into rows of five. Tired and hungry, we embarked on the
long and cold trip on foot, under strict guarding.” 44 „The next morning, they once
again ranked us in rows of five, and we hit the road, escorted by even more guards
with sub-machine guns. The procession was headed by German soldiers, and we
came right after them. Our situation was totally hopeless…” 45
The prisoner groups taken from Austria to Hungary were guarded with more and
more sternness. It happened that a 600-strong war prisoner column was accompanied
only by two guards in Austria, and when they reached Hungary, near Sopron, they

40
Military History Archives, Sc. coll. 3729. István Korchmáros: A birodalom markában [Grabbed by
the empire], 1944-1948. p. 14/1.
41
Pál Török’s recollections. In: András Németh: Mostohafiak. Emberi történetek. [Stepsons. Human
stories.], Szeged, 1999, p. 113.
42
Military History Archives, Sc. coll. 3230. Ferenc Somfay: Szovjet hadifogságban a Fekete-tenger
partján [In Soviet war captivity at the Black Sea coast], 1945-1948. 1.
43
Dr. Ernő D. Kiss: Amerikai fogságból Szaratovba [From American captivity to Saratov]. In: A
vásárhelyi leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …], p. 148.
44
VHBSZ 288. – 1992. Béla Baranyai, recollections, p. 1.
45
VHBSZ 331. – 1992. István Hrdlicska, recollections, p. 1.

9
were already attended by more than 50 guards. 46 But let the former prisoners recall
this: “… they came with us on horseback, they said they did not want us to hit places
where mines haven’t been picked up yet. Some time later they were so many that they
totally surrounded us” by the time we got to the Ságod collection camp. 47 The earlier
quoted Pál Török described all this even more vividly: „We were welcomed by an
orchestra also outside the gate to the Jánosháza camp. There were more and more
guards on our way, and by the time we got to the gate, we were surrounded by so
many armed soldiers that it was impossible to step out of the line or to attempt
escape. Within no time, there were watch towers and barbed wire fence all around us.
We started to realize that we became prisoners because the place we entered did not
look like a document issuing office at all.” 48
Some prisoner groups were not guarded by the Red Army soldiers but by the
green capped, mounted and infantrymen of NKDV. This is mainly reflected by the
recollections of captured officers, for example, Béla Fehér, retired lieutenant colonel
and former war prisoner: „In late November, new occupying corps turned up in our
town Jászárokszállás – Z.B., and they were wearing green service caps. […] There
were 172 of us by noon, and the armed guards took us into an emptied house. We
stayed in cold rooms, without food and nowhere to sit and lie down, then the next
morning the company was lined up by five, and we were counted by several people
and several times. Afterwards we were dispatched in the direction of Jászberény,
escorted by green-capped guards on foot and on horseback.”49

DEATH PROCESSIONS

Walking, especially in winter, many times in minus 10 – 15 ºC, was an extreme

challenge especially to civilians, some of whom were dragged from their flat,
workplace or from the shelter only in their jacket. Many people, especially civilians,
died on their way to the collection camp as they did not have proper clothes because
they did not, and could not get prepared for being dragged away. Dr. Sándor Tóth
recalls this: “I was taken away from the customs palace in my single-breasted, dark
grey suit and without a cap, when I wanted to go back to the cellar for my wintercoat
after the Só utca looting, but I was prevented by a Russian soldier claiming that we
can get back in a short time anyway. So I had to join the others, who had at least a
winter coat, in a jacket and without a cap in minus 15 ºC.” 50 But we had unsuitable
46
Tibor Rémiás: Tolmács, majd suszter voltam Oroszba’ (Szibéria), a fogságba’ [I was an interpreter,
then a shoemaker in Russian (Siberian) captivity] (recollections by József G. Rémiás). Szülőföldünk
[Our homeland]. 1992. p. 40.
47
Rémiás Tibor: Hát élsz, édes fiam? [You’re alive, my dear son?] (interview with József Rusznák).
Szülőföldünk [Our homeland]. 1992, p. 35.
48
Pál Török’s recollections. In: András Németh: Mostohafiak … [Stepsons…], p. 156.
49
VHBSZ 134. – 1992. Béla Fehér, recollections, p. 2.
50
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Tóth Sándor, recollections, p. 1.

10
clothes not just because we were not well prepared but also because the prisoner
escorting guards or the accompanying Russian soldiers simply took the prisoners’
good clothes, especially shoes, to replace their bad and torn garment and footwear.
Let me quote a few recollections that also reported many similar events:
“Reinforcement troops kept coming from the opposite direction, on and along the
highway, towards the west, mainly on carriages. […] The Russian soldiers stopped us
every hundred meters and took away what they needed. I had a great pair of high
boots from somewhere, and one of the soldiers immediately exchanged them for a
pair of military boots.”– wrote Lajos Rácz.51 „A truck driving Russian officer found it
outrageous that the ensign next to me was walking in brand new boots as a prisoner,
and on such a bad road: he took them off and, triggered by philanthropic emotions,
threw his worn boots to him.” – recalls another former prisoner. 52 „Looting was
continuous on the way. They took away our blankets and packages, sometimes they
even took off our boots.”– recalls Miklós Gyergyai.53
The death rate during the walk was especially high among those deported from
the truncated Bereg county as they were launched to cross the Carpathian mountains
in early winter. The residents of Lónya village (Bereg county) described the route of
their loved ones in their petition: “They are wearing rags and their shoes are totally
torn, and a lot of them work and crawl around barefooted or with rags rolled around
their feet in this icy winter. Their body and spirit is worn out, and each and every day
they look forward to being freed, dead or alive.”54
If someone felt sick or was unable to walk, a guard shot them and pushed them
into the roadside ditch after the prisoner group went on. The guards replaced the
missing prisoners with people who were passing by, or who were somewhere near.
“They warned us that they would shoot anyone staying behind. […] we had several
stops because we heard shots more and more often, which meant that the soldiers who
were falling out got killed without any mercy. The guards who were walking with us
in a quilted coat sure were not happier either, but at least they had better food, and
they were regularly replaced”– recalled Péter Fekete.55 „There were many sick people
among us as no aptitude test was made when capturing us, wrote István Balczó with
some irony. Some of them were unable to walk, they collapsed and fell out of the
line. The Russians did not make too much of a hassle, they shot them right on the
spot. […] As the procession went on, more and more people gave it up although they
knew what to expect. When passing Mátyásföld, an elderly man staggered out of the
line in front of us, which was soon followed by a shot. A middle-aged man among the
“onlookers” saw this, started running on the sidewalk and gave a shout to our line
thinking that someone was a relative of the old man who had been shot. One of the
51
Lajos Rácz: Soprontól Székesfehérvárig [From Sopron to Székesfehérvár]. In: A vásárhelyi
leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …], p. 141.
52
Árpád Kadosa: Viszontlátásra hadnagy úr! [Bye-bye, lieutenant!] Budapest, 2001, p. 15.
53
Miklós Gyergyai: Fogságba esés Budán [Falling in captivity in Buda]. War prisoner news 1994/1.
54
Hungarian National Archives XIX-J-1-q POW Dept. of MFA 25.145/pol. – 1945.
55
Péter Fekete’s recollections. In: András Németh: Mostohafiak … [Stepsons…] p. 30.

11
guards seemed to like the brisk man because he gave him a “friendly” push in the
back with the gun-stock and asked him to join us in the line. Chelovek, chelovek. One
man or another – makes no difference at all, the point is that the headcount should be
fine. … Once the guard stopped three men coming from the opposite direction. He
checked their papers, carefully tore them to pieces and drove them into the line. Well,
the headcount had to be accurate.”56 Another former prisoner described the shooting
of his fellow as follows: „The corporal fell out of the line into the roadside ditch. The
soldiers told him to stand up but he showed he could not because he was wounded.
The Ukrainian soldier took his submachine gun, but the corporal started to beg him
not to shoot as he had four children. The soldier said: you were able to go to the
Ukraine, but unable to walk here. And he gave him a round of shots.” 57 However,
things did not always end like this. It happened especially in West Hungary, where
there were more carriages, that the guards confiscated a few horse-carts to carry the
sick and wounded prisoners and women – as, many times, there were also women
among them – to the designated collection camps. 58 Quite a few people were shot
dead because they had diarrhea, but when they stepped out of the line to relieve
nature, the guard shot them right away.59
Unfortunately, the emotions whipped by the war and the instigation against the
enemy, mainly the Germans, 60 also took toll in the processions. A similar case was
also recorded by Lajos Gömöri: There was a bend, called horseshoe, before Gödöllő.
They stopped us and the Ruthenian interpreter said those who had a watch should step
out of the line, and if they deliver it they can go home. Fortunately, I had no watch.
Maybe 12 or 15 prisoners stepped out and gave away their watches, then the Russian
said: “pashli doma” (go home). Once they left, two Russian soldiers shot all of them
dead. Those who did not fall into the ditch were kicked in.” 61 It was not rare either
that the drunken guards gave shots into the prisoners at night.62

56
VHBSZ 421. – 1993. István Balczó, recollections, p. 1-2.
57
Interview with Jenő Morcsek, former war prisoner. The voice recording is possessed by the author.
58
Árpád Kadosa: op. cit. 15.; Imre Tárkány Szűcs: Lágerből lágerbe [From camp to camp]. In: A
vásárhelyi leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …] p. 177.
59
Imre Tárkány Szűcs: Lágerből lágerbe [From camp to camp]. In: A vásárhelyi leventék ... [The
Vásárhely military trainees …] p. 177.
60
Stalin ‘s propaganda, just like his system, was totalitarian. The enemy was described as wicked,
murderer, vicious, the waste of mankind, or something to be eradicated, regardless of its actual
behavior. For example, Ilja Ehrenburg, one of the key personalities of Soviet propaganda called the
simple German soldiers as killers, wild beasts, dying scorpions, starving rats, and wrote, among other
things, the following about them: “We cannot regard them as human beings”, “Europe has known for a
long time that the best German is the dead German”. Similar thoughts also come up in the works by
Fadejev, Aleksei Tolstoy or in the novel of the Nobel-prize winner Aleksei Solohov bearing the tell-
tale title „The school of hatred”. (Ungváry: The siege of Budapest p. 266-267)
61
VHBSZ 26. – 1992. Lajos Gömöri, recollections, p. 1-2.
62
Same, p. 2

12
 ESCAPING EN ROUTE – DEATH OR FREEDOM

They made constant promises and used false propaganda to prevent escapes,
generally in the following forms: “We arrived in Cegléd on the fourth day of the
walk, and they said the local, Hungarian military headquarters would send home
those who are not soldiers, and the soldiers would be taken to Debrecen, to the new
Hungarian army.” 63 Imre Berta, former military trainee, recalls this: It was dark, late
in the evening, when we arrived, I think in Nickeldsdorf. The Russian guy told us to
lie down in the barn. It was pitch black. We saw nothing, did not know what was
there inside, but we didn’t care, we were happy to lie down. In the morning, and old
Russian woke us up saying: „davai, davai, pashli domoi, papa, mama”, showing that
we could wash ourself and go to sleep at home. Well, they were lying already here.
We were happy to get started, although we were hungry, thirsty and dirty, and when
we read the sign „Hegyeshalom”, we sighed with relief to be home again. … we
really hoped that they would give us the documents and we can go home. However,
all our illusions were gone when we saw the barbed wires in Mosonmagyaróvár, but
then it was no longer possible to flee.”64
One prisoner told about a more rare and refined method: “A few men came from
the direction of Gödöllő, saying the Russians would let everybody go home, they only
need to give us a document, and the men showed us some paper from a distance. I
found it strange to walk so much for a piece of paper.” 65 They used a similar method
at the camp, as well.66
Most people believed in the Soviet promises, what’s more, many of those who
were let go home for some reason ran back to the prisoner group or camp later
because they did not want to miss the certificate. Let me give just one or two
examples: “From the Customs Palace they deported a customs adviser named Kárpát,
who had a gold watch on a thick golden chain, which they did not notice upon the
looting in Só street. When held captive in Szigony utca, he gave his watch to a
Russian soldier so that he could go home to say good bye to his family. The Russian
soldier let him go, he went home and came back the next morning from his nearby
flat and joined the line because he believed the story that they would take us to the
Hungarian military headquarters in Soroksár to get our certificate so that we can
freely move around.”67 A former military trainee, who the Russians took to the Soviet
zone in Hungary from American captivity, recalls this as follows: „This is how we
got to Sopron, where we rushed into houses to get some water, but hurried back to the
group because did not want to miss our certificate.” 68 A similar event is described by
Pál Török, who came from Austrian territories to Szentgotthárd with a war prisoner
group: “The country border was near. In Szentgotthárd they welcomed us with a
Gypsy orchestra. We were surrounded by a lot of people. They asked questions,
shouted names, but some people called us fascists. Some people gave us food. One

63
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 2.

13
soldier asked his guard to let him go home for some food from his wife because he
lived nearby. The guard was pretty surprised when the poor guy returned later and
reported to be back. The document was so important. He did get it three years later,
when they sent him back from the Donetsk coal mines, looking like a bag of bones. 69
Those who tried to escape risked their life, which is quite understandable on the
side of the detaining power in wartime. If someone tried to escape, the guards used
their guns without any warning, still a few people managed to get away: “They kept a
close watch on us, so trying to escape would have been a sure kiss of death. At
Mogyoród, two men escaped successfully in a zig-zagged street. They were lucky
because the rain of bullets missed them. They substituted the two persons with local
residents.”– wrote József Balog.70 „When we stopped to drink somewhere during the
walk (we were very thirsty all the time), it happened, for example, that someone
jumped out of the line and ran into the cornfield, or into the yard of a nearby house.
The Russians had to deliver as many prisoners as collected at the beginning. Those
who escaped had to be replaced. Once it happened in the Ipoly region that a poor
peasant passed me carrying dung on his cart … Then the Russian guy pushed him
into the line, right next to me. The cows kept following us for a few kilometers. Then
they fell behind.” – recalled another prisoner.71
There was another way of escape: “Lots of people were waiting along the road at
settlements where they had learned that war prisoners would come in that direction.
They tried everything to free their husband, brother or child. The Russians loved this,
especially if it was a young woman or girl, but elderly women were also to their
liking. Generally, they let people go in exchange for 3 liters of brandy, or, well “…
they raped the woman on the spot, a little further away or sometimes in front of us,
and released the relative only then. However, the released people had to be replaced
for the proper headcount. What they did was: when they spotted a man in the street –
no matter if he was 17 or 60 – they simply hit him in the back with the sub-machine
gun and pushed him into the line.”72
If they collected more people than those who escaped or died on the way, the
redundancy was released in front of the camps. Imre Kalmár also witnessed such an
event: “They organized a “census” before letting us into the camp. There were eight
extra persons, who were let go. They had to keep up the order…”73

64
A vásárhelyi leventék háborús kálváriája [The war ordeal of the Vásárhely military trainees].
(published by: Mihály Herczeg) Csongrád County Archives, Szeged 1990, p. 68-69.
65
VHBSZ 421. – 1993. István Balczó, recollections, p. 2.
66
Compare: with sub-chapter “Promises and propaganda in the camps and about the camps”.
67
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 2.
68
Ernő D. Kiss: Amerikai fogságból Szaratovba [From American captivity to Saratov]. In: A
vásárhelyi leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …] p. 148.
69
Pál Török’s recollections. In: András Németh: Mostohafiak ... [Stepsons…]. p. 156
70
VHBSZ 325. – 1992. József Balog, recollections, p. 2-3.
71
Gábor Kilyén: Fennmaradni [Survival]. Interview no. 9. www.gulag.hu
72
Mihály Szabó: A Krímben voltam hadifogoly [I was a war prisoner in Crimea].
73
VHBSZ 415. – 1993. Imre Kalmár, recollections, p. 7.

14
 RETALIATION FOR ESCAPE

The guards retaliated escape and escape attempts with cruelty. Those who were
caught during escape or when trying to escape were generally shot dead, or were
beaten half dead. The guards did not bother too much about human life – they shot
dead anyone, even if there was no danger of escaping. Let me recall two cases: „We
were walking down Mexikói street, with the boy next to me. At that time, stones were
spread all over the road, and there were piles of stone along the road every 100-150
meters. When we got near one of them, the boy squeezed my hand, jumped out of the
line and hid behind the pile. The Russian soldier noticed this, went up there and made
a round of shots.”74 „Another mate – in the hope of escape – hid in the concrete tube
of the roadside ditch. The Russian soldier saw this, ran up there and fired a round
after him.”75 Some “got away” with getting beaten half dead. József Balog also
remembers a similar case: “On April 24, it turned out at Farmos that two people were
missing. […] They found them after an hour’s search. Six soldiers stood around them
and beat them half dead with gun-stocks. Then we moved on. In the first line, two
people flanked each beaten mate, as there was hardly any life in them. They could
hardly drag themselves on. We arrived in Cegléd amidst a lot of hardship. We were
worn out and exhausted, and many of us collapsed with fatigue.”76
There were, however, some more fortunate cases. One such lucky event was
related by dr. Sándor Tóth: “A group of hundreds of people was escorted by mounted
soldiers out of the city, on Üllői street. As I was very cold, I decided to try to escape,
although I knew that I would be shot dead if they caught me. As the mounted Russian
soldiers were riding on both sides of the procession, the only possible chance was to
slow down and get back to the last row, from where I could step backwards at the
suitable moment. That’s what I did, and at the seemingly right moment I tried to
escape with another three mates. Unfortunately, the Russian mounted soldier saw this,
and said he would shoot us to set a terrifying example. He stood us at the side of the
ditch and wanted to shoot us from horseback with his sub-machine gun. He would
surely have done it, but, to our fortune, a Russian commander car was coming with a
major, from the direction of Cegléd. The major saw that the Russian soldier was just
about to execute us. He waved us to get back to the line, which we were glad to do
without hesitation, and the Russian guard was so angry that he started cursing and
almost shot the major for preventing the execution.” 77
At the same time, Imre Kalmár’s recollections78 go to show that in some cases
they did not only threaten to kill the soldiers who attempted escape but also their

74
VHBSZ 26. – 1992. Lajos Gömöri, recollections, p. 3.
75
VHBSZ 415. – 1993. Imre Kalmár, recollections, p. 7.
76
VHBSZ 325. – 1992. József Balog, recollections, p. 14-15.
77
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 2.
78
VHBSZ 415. – 1993. Imre Kalmár, recollections, p. 3.

15
families. This is not just mere fantasy as it is also proven by the “Announcement” by
the Soviet municipality commander and the mayor of Baja.

It happened in October 1944 that Albert Ficzere, a resident of Baja, walking with
other war prisoners and escorted by Soviet guards towards Bácsbokod, took away the
sentry’s gun, wounded him and ran away. In response, the Soviet organizations
started a wide chase for the escaped prisoner. The Soviet municipality headquarters
placed out an announcement in Baja, trying to catch the runaway man with threat and
by offering 25,000-pengő blood money. In the announcement they called on the
citizens of the town to deliver Albert Ficzere by November 4, or he should give
himself up voluntarily, “otherwise they would execute his two daughters and 50
hostages from the town’s citizens.” If, however, Ficzere reports himself voluntarily,
“neither him and nor his daughters would be executed, and thus the 50 innocent
civilians would also be saved from sure death.” After this, Albert Ficzere reported
himself voluntarily, but in spite of this they executed him79

“Announcement” by the mayor of the town of Baja to hunt Albert Ficzere, an

escaped war prisoner.

The guards did not only shoot prisoners. It happened many times that they shot
civilians or members of a democratic or friendly army fighting on the Soviet side,
thinking that they were prisoners on the run. What’s more: it also happened that they
shot their own “comrades”. A few examples of this:
“If anyone tried to escape, they shot him immediately. When we were walking at
the beginning of Üllői út, a man climbed out through the window of a cellar, with a
bucket in his hand. He probably wanted to get some water from the river Danube.
When he saw us being escorted by Russian soldiers, he wanted to get back through
the cellar window. The Russian spotted him and shot him with a round of bullets, so
the man fell back into the cellar dead. This “intermezzo” put everyone off the thought
of escaping, all the more since they promised to take us to the Hungarian military
headquarters, where we would get a certificate and we can go home.”80
István Asztalos was on his way from the Mosonmagyaróvár barracks to the
Pozsony (Bratislava) camp as a prisoner military trainee when – not permitted yet
into the collection camp – he spent a few days at a clearing outside Pozsony and
witnessed the following scene: “There were also some Slovakians and Ruthenians
from Upper Hungary with us. An - already democratic - Slovakian soldier came down
to us from the road. He had a talk with his fellow countrymen. The guards did not
mind it. All of a sudden, he decided to leave. He made his way up the side of the
road. The guard said: “Stoi” (stop) but simultaneously he already gave a round of

79
8079
Krisztina Fehérváry: Kesztyűs kézzel [Gentle deal]. Authentic document of a Soviet revenge.
Demokrata, 2001/21.

16
shots and the man rolled back dead. They called a few prisoners, gave them a few
tools from the cart and the man was buried right there. Life was very cheap!”81
It also happened that a Soviet escorting soldier killed his own fellow. This
generally took place if the escorting soldier was relieving nature, or perhaps he had
ukranka disease.82
The Soviet guard relieved nature sometimes during the procession or sometimes,
when we had a break, 20-30 meters away from the prisoner group, in foggy or gray
weather. When the other guard saw that someone left the prisoner group despite the
order, he gave a round of shots with, or without warning. Such a case was recorded
by dr. István Tóth: “The escorting Russian guards were cruel all the way, and anyone
trying to escape was shot dead immediately. The Russian guards gave a few minutes’
break to relieve nature. One guard did not do it directly at the ditch but about 30
meters off the road. Another guard thought that a prisoner went too far, so he waived
him to come back right away. The other Russian guard waived back, thinking that his
mate knew he was also a Russian soldier. This was enough for the other Russian
guard to shoot his own comrade. When the prisoners told him that the shot guy was
also a Russian soldier, he just waved, collected the man’s sub-machine gun and the
procession walked on.83 Let me quote another witness to show that this was not just
an exceptional case: “The silent winter was interrupted by a gunshot, followed by a
cry. Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw a soldier with his body bent down
and rolling in a pool of blood. His gun was leaned against a poplar tree. The soldier
standing further away from us did not see the gun at the tree. He thought his comrade
swatting a few meters away from the procession was a war prisoner relieving nature.
He shooted without any warning. There was no doctor around. By the time they got a
horse-cart from the farm, the soldier exsanguinated.”84 85
On the way to the collection camps, 1-2% of the prisoners lost their lives due to a
disease, freezing, a shot or for other reasons.

ARRIVAL AT THE COLLECTION CAMPS

Many times, the prisoner groups had to wait one, two or even three days to enter
the collection camps. This also happened to Ferenc Mauer Klimes: “It was late and
getting dark when we reached Gödöllő, at the palace we turned left to leave the town.

8180
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 2.
8281
Recollections by Sándor Asztalos, former military trainee. In: A vásárhelyi leventék ... [The
Vásárhely military trainees …] p. 78.
8382
Soldiers used this name for dysentery as this disease was common in the Hungarian army during
actions in the Ukraine due to infected water, food and poor hygienic conditions. This is why they
named it ukranka.
8483
VHBSZ 193. – 1992. Dr. Sándor Tóth, recollections, p. 5.
8584
István Korchmáros: A birodalom markában [Grabbed by the empire], 1944-1948. Hadifogoly
életünk mindennapjai Szevasztopolban [Our everydays as war prisoners in Sevastopol]. Budapest,
2005, p. 107.

17
Further away from there, they directed us to a field covered with knee-high snow, and
from there they drove the crowd into a wire-fenced area, which was not covered at
all. This is where we had to spend the night, in snow up to our knees, and without any
roof above us. We stamped and walked around, my body went dead and, all of a
sudden, I fell asleep curled up at a small snow wreath, despite the big snow and the
real cold weather […] as we had walked almost 40 km the previous day. […] They
tried three times to deliver us to the collection camp, which was in the former
Premonstratensian high school. […] On the third attempt [on the third day – Z.B.] we
got into the large school building, which had several floors …”8585
Generally, the war prisoners had to wait because the collection camps were
jampacked, and new war prisoner groups could get in only if the healthy inmates
were transferred from the camp. However, the guards often used the waiting time for
shaving the prisoners and for looting them again. “We had to stand in several lines
one by one, and when we got to the blankets, we had to take everything out of our
pockets and bags. They did not give us back anything. They looted us.”86
As has been mentioned earlier, the guarding of those arriving from the Soviet
occupational zone in Austria grew gradually and unperceivably stronger and stronger,
and became especially threatening when arriving at the war prisoner collection camp,
which was surrounded by multiple barbed wire fences. This is well reflected in the
recollections of Ernő D. Kiss: „When we got to Sopronkőhida, many Soviet soldiers
were waiting for us. The group was divided, with men in one half as well as women
and children in the other half, together with horse carts. There was a big meadow
outside the Sopronkőhida prison, and the men were driven there. We had to sit down,
and were not allowed to stand up. Machine guns were facing us from all four sides,
then they opened the prison gate and we marched in. At that time, we had no trust in
the certificate any more.”87
However, many people had to walk not only up to the first collection camp but to
the second, third or fourth camp, moreover, some prisoners were taken to the
Mármarossziget transition camp on foot. This is how Gábor Kilyén was also taken
from Jászberény to the Mármarossziget camp.” 88 Apart from what has already been
mentioned, these routes will be covered with more details in the chapter „From camp
to camp – Territorial relationships”, while railway transports will also be discussed in
the chapter entitled „Transportation of prisoners in Hungary and their delivery to the
Romanian transition and distribution camps”.

8585
Emlékek a hadak útja mentén… [Memories along the war paths…], p. 46-47.
8686
Same, p. 46.
8787
Ernő D. Kiss: Amerikai fogságból Szaratovba [From American captivity to Saratov]. In: A
vásárhelyi leventék ... [The Vásárhely military trainees …] p. 148.
8888
Gábor Kilyén: Fennmaradni [Survival]. Interview no. 9. In: www.gulag.hu

18
19