My work was fascinating. I learned how to estimate and calculate the cost of building a bridge, a highway, a railroad track. My department had about 70 people - mostly men - plus 150-200 students from the University of Engineering during the summer brake. These engineering students worked on the fields, collecting geodesic data for the coming year. The best design engineers in the country worked with me during my six years on the job. It was the most interesting, fulfilling and challenging job I ever had!
Every workday started with the "Meeting," at which, everybody had to be present. In the factories, offices, institutions, stores, and hospitals - without exception - the whole country's work force had to listen for 30 minutes to the official party-line interpretation of the daily news. It was conducted by one of the many Communist Party officials planted in all the work places. Their jobs had nothing to do with any kind of production. Their only duty was to keep every person - from janitors to managers -"well informed" and keep them all strictly within the Party Line. We just listened and could hardly wait for these meetings to end every single morning. Regardless, what your opinion or belief was, you had to keep your mouth shut and go along to keep your job. Speaking Russian was not required at all, we received the exact translations of the Soviet Party Line daily.
Everybody was unhappy! We lost our freedom of speech and freedom of expressing our
views. The economy - as we knew it - collapsed. The standard of living slowly and gradually reached the bottom. The working conditions were bad, the communist controlled so-called "trade unions" were powerless. The farmers were upset with the land policies, giving up their well-managed family farms and going to the so called "Kolhoz" - government managed huge combined farms. Whatever crops they harvested, went first to the Russian army, then the Russian people, the leftover came to our markets.
There was no clergy. All the churches, (including our little Reform Church next to our home, the large Lutheran Church a few corners away), synagogues, and religious institutions were closed, the buildings used for offices, or converted to apartments, party headquarters, schools or Day-care Centers, or just not used at all. The more important religious leaders were imprisoned, the most famous was Cardinal Mindszenty, narrowly escaping execution. Any religious gathering, praying, or preaching was strictly forbidden and punishable by deportation (to Siberia) or prison.
There was nowhere to turn, we were living in a communist country where the Soviet Union and their installed Hungarian puppet government - headed by Rakosi, the hated leader of the Hungarian Communist Party - dictated everything.
Meanwhile we made the most of the situation. Andy graduated from the University and got his diploma in 1952. He liked his job at Standard Electric, which was a British company, but by then communist party had "nationalized" all the foreign owned factories, institutions, and assets without compensation. The company's new name was "Beloianis", named after a Greek communist hero! They renamed almost everything to erase any capitalistic origin and then rendered them dysfunctional.
I was content with my position, working with those intelligent, kind - and unhappy but still very productive - engineers, taking part in the rebuilding of our beloved city.
The evenings were precious. To see our son growing to be a smart, good-natured, sweet child - and oh, so beautiful - was the best part of our life.
This was the year when Gabe started to go to elementary school. He was way ahead already, reading the capital letters in his little children’s' books. He had such a large vocabulary, he could carry a beautiful conversation. He was counting nicely and most importantly he was very sociable. We knew that he would do very well in school.
The elementary school, old but well kept, was a big building in the neighborhood. There was no other choice, private schools were all closed, but the teachers were good, the school was clean and Gabe got a good education there. He liked to go to school, had friends, was a good student and we hoped that he was happy there.
My parents played a big part in his life. After school he stayed with them until we came home from work He also had a Great-Grandma - she and my aunt Elizabeth lived with my parents, so there were plenty of people to spoil him...Oh, they loved him so very-very much!... We all worked very hard on giving him a happy childhood under the existing circumstances.
We had a fair social life, lots of good friends, most of them with children about Gabe's age. We went to each other's homes on weekends for an afternoon coffee and cake, then played cards. (Canasta was the craze after the war.) The theatres were in full swing, mostly playing never seen Russian comedies and dramas. The movie theatres banned all the foreign films, but Russian, Hungarian and some Polish and other satellite country films. The museums featured the creations of the "Working Class People." Books and magazines were censored. The Iron Curtain was tight, no light came thru from the "Western World.
We had our big motorcycle, the Matchless 500, and we added a nice sidecar to it, so we could go for vacations with Gabe. On weekends we drove up to the mountains surrounding the "Buda" side of our City. In the height of the summer we drove to one of the many beautiful resorts with large pools, sand, and restaurants. We both had two weeks vacation every summer, which was the time to drive to Lake Balaton and settle into one of the villages, enjoying the beauty of the Lake, having a lot of fun swimming, boating, eating the good food, and building sand castles...
Everything appeared fine, and from the outside it looked like we had a good life. The sad truth was that people were unhappy, and full of complaints. But we had to be very careful not to vent our grievances outside our home. The children were warned not to tell anybody, especially in the schools, what their parents were talking about at home. The Hungarian Security Police (AVO) was in full control. It occupied the same building, where the Arrow Cross Party atrocities took place. It was fully equipped with torture chambers, etc. ready to persecute the "enemies of the people." ( The whole building is a museum now, open to the public.) The AVO, equivalent to the KGB, ruled and enforced the communist agenda in every aspect of life.
The University was the hotbed of resistance. The "Petofi Circle" started as a small underground group of the intelligentsia. The members were students, writers, newspaper and radio reporters, doctors, etc. Its membership grew rapidly. They had meetings where the true stories of the free world were told. Every member's duty was to spread the truth among the population. Andy, with his connections to the University, was asked to join. He was eager to join, and was very active in his work place (Beloianis) informing as many workers, engineers, office staff, etc. as he could.
In a few years, the existence of the Petofi Circle (named after the famous poet of the 1848 uprising against the Habsburgs: Sandor Petofi) became an open secret. The members were considered brave freedom fighters waiting for the right opportunity to change the Soviet dictatorship.
Andy's mother passed away in the spring of 1953. She was rushed to the hospital for a gallstone operation and died on the operating table. She was only 53 years old. Andy was left without parents. His stepfather remarried within a few months. He married an old friend from his past. They moved away from our neighborhood to her house in the suburbs on the Pest side of the City.
My beloved Grandmother, Rose - Gabe's Great-Grandmother also passed away. She died in her sleep without being really sick, at the age of 92. She lived with my parents and my aunt Elizabeth in the same house where we lived. It was a great loss for all of us.
It was sadness in the air, personal losses and the loss of the lifestyles we were used to.
The whole country was waiting for something great to happen soon....
Copyright 2008 - Gabe Dalmath Foundation
