László Mikecz

* 1931

  • The care was terribly poor. In the second month, we had a riot, which meant that we didn't pick up food in the morning. Breakfast was given at 5 o'clock in the morning, but then lunch was given together for us. Well, the supply was very poor, it was said that military had eight catering categories, the eighth was the best for flight crew and state protection authorities; and ours was a "weakened one". Then, a high-ranked officer soon got out to us, to Fehérvár, and there were interrogations, and five of us were taken to the military court. This included Feri Rabár, who was the first finance minister in Antall's government. Me and Rabár were lying on top of each other on the bunk bed. Returning to Csepi (the military officer of the labor service), this showed also a zeitgeist, he was a peasant, a kind of honest Hungarian peasant. And nothing came of the whole case in the end, because he was heard as a witness at the military court, and he said that the food was so bad that he wouldn't have given it to pigs. So they acquitted the whole company, only poor (...) Matyi stayed in jail because he said "asshole Rákosi". Because of this, he was sentenced to two year prison.

  • We were so hungry, not so much for food but for vitamins, that when the Russian guard staff ate the grapes, they allowed us to eat the fallen grapes below them. These were such humiliating things, but we ate them with pleasure. But there was no retort because the civilians did not allow it. The conditions were bad, but the construction company had already taken over the catering here, and we got the same food as their workers. The situation here has already improved. When we went back to the camp, there were political sessions, a kind of re-education. But there were no bullying or physical exertion. Regarding the political lectures, they put me on the top of the hill, and a guard member came and read up a brochure. It wasn't very demanding because he didn't understand what he was saying, and we didn't pay much attention.

  • At that time, enrollment into military service was mandatory. And authorities realized that kulak boys, or descendants like me, and the aristocrats should be not enrolled. And then in 1950 or 1949 they realized that something should be done with these persons as well. And then only these, i.e. the kulak boys, children of soldiers and aristocrats, were called into the so-called labor service. So, on February 12, 1952, I was also enrolled. At the time, we didn't know there was such a thing as labor service. The first conscripts were called up in July 1951, for those who born in 1930. I was born in 1931, so it was my turn the following year. We were called in without specifying when demobilization would take place. Practically, they took us out of circulation without a deadline. It was actually a military internment. For soldiers, they are told when they can be demobilized. Our "disarmament" became final when the first Imre Nagy government came, then they liberated us.

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    Budapest, 17.10.2022

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    Budapest, 18.10.2022

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    Budapest, 18.10.2022

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“Practically, it was a military interment”

László Mikecz, during an interview
László Mikecz, during an interview
photo: István Kollai

László Mikecz was born in 1931. In the years following the Second World War, he was already a young man when his family background, which had been respected up until then, became a disgrace. His father was a high-ranked military officer during the Second World War, fighting against the Soviet, so his son was also registered as an unreliable element: instead of military service, he was enrolled to do labor service in the 1950s. Here he learned the trade of electrician, which later helped him get a job. After 1956, working in a regular, “civilian” job, he was able to slowly build a career, but even then his past as a “class enemy” haunted him again and again.