Mr President!
Members of the Slawik and Antall families!
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The friendship between the Hungarian and Polish people is historic and is common knowledge. Some pages of that history shine brightly – days of great monarchs and holy personages such as Stephen Bathory, John Sobieski and Saint Hedwig. And there were times – far more of them – which prove that a friend in need is a friend indeed. We have mutually offered asylum to refugees from each other’s country for centuries, as the turmoil and tribulation wrought upon us by history created near constant waves of refugees. In the 1830s it became a tradition among many Hungarian families to have their own Pole, a refugee accepted as a long-term guest. This was when our authorities evolved the practice of assisting people from Poland even if they had to go against official policy and violate their own rules.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Today’s event fills me with both joy and gratitude. Granting asylum to Polish war refugees in Hungary was a very significant manifestation of our friendship. With today’s commemoration, Katowice City Hall and the Henryk Slawik Society have turned it into a wide-scale discussion topic, making certain that the young people of Poland and Hungary learn all about it. Today’s commemoration also proves that truth eventually comes to light. Although for two generations the forces of communism tried to stifle information on Poland’s Nazi and Soviet occupation and its consequences, we are slowly shedding light on the true story. Historical truth has rendered a judgement in favour of the one-time participants for it has recognized their value. Historical events are never merely black and white. The many intermediate tones and complexities of what went on between 1938 and 1945 are finally becoming known. And we can clearly see how friendship and humaneness were capable of winning out over all opposing interests, political commitments and even direct pressure.
At that time, the foreign policy interests of Hungary and Poland were diametrically opposed. Poland had the post-World War I. peace treaties to thank for its independence so it had a vital interest in their continued recognition. Hungary, at the same time, lost huge amounts of territory and one-third of the Hungarian population to those treaties, and was therefore aspiring for their revision. One such border revision, the Hungarian occupation of Trans-Carpathia in March of 1939, restored the common Hungarian-Polish border, and this was what made it possible for over one hundred thousand Poles to seek asylum in Hungary.
Hungary was Germany’s ally. Nevertheless, it refused to allow the German army passage through Hungary to attack Poland from the south. “If … we allowed the Germans to use us as a springboard to fight against Poland without a word of protest or even amidst protests, there would be a revolution in Hungary…” the Hungarian foreign minister wrote to his Italian counterpart. “Due to moral considerations, Hungary … is not in a position to initiate military action against Poland,” the Hungarian prime minister told Hitler on 24 July 1939. Complying with the request “would not be in conformity with the honour of the Hungarian nation,” was the government response.
Germany put heavy diplomatic pressure on Hungary because it granted asylum to the Poles and because of the way it treated them. The German press also went on the offensive against Hungary, demanding that they put an end to “the irrational Hungarian sentimentality towards the Poles.” There were strong supporters of German interests in both the Hungarian government and the army. Nevertheless, solidarity with the Poles won out in government and among the people. Back when tensions had begun to build in the relationship between Germany and Poland, numerous demonstratively pro-Polish events were held in Hungary. Later, the one-time refugees bore witness to the friendship demonstrated by residents. Within the government organization itself many officials actively supported the Polish cause.
The lion’s share of the credit goes to József Antall Sr., who managed the refugee programme. Antall restored the 19th century tradition in which officials provided assistance behind the backs of official policy. He was satisfied with the taciturn support of Prime Minister Teleki and the Internal Affairs minister which gave him a measure of security, although – as he wrote in his memoires – he neglected to brief them on many important matters so that if need be, he could take the full blame. And in a lovely historical gesture, just as General Bem, who came to the aid of the Hungarians in 1848/49 became known as Father Bem, the refugees named Antall “The Father of the Poles.”
Cooperation between Antall and Henryk Slawik, which evolved into a deep friendship, is the best example of Hungarian-Polish friendship – for it symbolizes the essence. When both men were arrested by the Gestapo after Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, Slawik refused to provide information on Antall, who later said he had Slawik to thank for his life. Slawik was deported to Germany and murdered there. We know that there is no greater love than when someone sacrifices his/her life for his/her friends.
Allow me to use Antall’s own words to explain why I am particularly grateful for today’s commemoration. He wrote that Hungary went on to forget the many people who had assisted the Poles, and that they had to suffer a great deal of injustice. Nevertheless, they too were proof that “there was another Hungary, one with modest but unquestionable achievements and good deeds” amidst the war. We Hungarians sorely need to be made aware of this. To once again quote Antall: “… learning of humane integrity has a better effect on people’s emotions and acts as a more powerful deterrent than does presentation of the horrors committed by those who have become stripped of their humanity.”
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Thank God, both of our peoples are rather well informed regarding the fates of the Polish refugees. Hungary made it possible for military refugees to move on to the west and join Polish forces who were fighting the Nazis – which is what they actually did. We also know that Hungary was a liaison centre between the Underground State and the government in exile in London.
As far as the civilian refugees were concerned, to this day we are happy to have been able to offer them civilian living conditions. Balatonboglár is the best known example, for that is where the Polish secondary school operated and where Béla Varga was parish priest. Henryk Slawik very clearly stated that work had to be found for the Poles and a school had to be organized to enable the refugees to become useful members of a future Poland, and to be able to bear the tragedy of their current lives with dignity. Thanks to cooperation between the refugees and the Hungarian residents and to mutual sympathies, this is exactly what was done. We also need to focus on the important role played by the Polish priests, who had freedom of movement throughout Hungary and were thus able to handle spiritual care and conspiracy alike. And we also need to remember that asylum for the refugees was also a lease on life for very many Polish Jews – some stayed in Hungary, others found ways to travel onward and still others hid their children, presenting them as the orphans of military officers.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The one-time Polish refugees and the many other people who remember this act of friendship do a great service to Hungary here in Poland. I would like to voice my thanks for the huge collection of documents and for the album with photos of that time which you published for the anniversary as an expression of gratitude on the part of the Polish people. Thank you to the Antall family and to everyone who made these documents available.
Friends in need – that was the title of an early memoire published in Hungary in the mid-1980s, and many programmes organized since carried the same title. But perhaps we should also speak of our friendship at time like the present, when there is no need, when both countries are free and members of the European Union. Both countries have officially designated a day of Hungarian-Polish friendship, on which the Hungarian and Polish presidents get together, sometimes in Hungary and sometimes in Poland, to celebrate. There will be such a celebration this year, too. Our local government ties, particularly between southern Poland and Hungary, are both strong and vibrant.
The idea of a north-south corridor beginning in Poland and running through Hungary all the way to Rome was first raised by a Hungarian politician in 1934. Today, the idea of a joint action of that nature and of coordinating our interests is often raised at meetings of the Visegrád Four nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). This is both good and important.
However, what I would like to hope and wish for at this commemoration is more than that. I place my trust in the sincere and deep-rooted pure feelings of friendship between Hungarians and Poles which surfaced among masses of people so powerfully and to the surprise of both countries, during the war. It was also manifest later, when there was no crisis. For instance, it was demonstrated in the 1960s, when huge numbers of Hungarian and Polish youngsters visited one another’s country, often by hitchhiking. I also lived through demonstrations of that friendship later on, at the time of the transition to democracy, at our Roundtable Negotiations. What I hope and wish for is that the generation just growing to adulthood can share the same experience. And it is to those youngsters that I would like to dedicate this commemoration.
