Jehovah Protects His People in Hungary
HUNGARY, located in the center of Europe, has often felt the storms of history. Its people have suffered much, despite their having been offered to the Virgin Mary and forced to become nominal Christians in 1001 by Stephen, their first king.
Through the centuries Hungary was weakened by numerous internal conflicts that allowed other nations to subdue it repeatedly. The populations of entire villages were wiped out during these conflicts, later to be replaced by foreigners. Thus, the populace became a mixture of many nationalities. Religiously speaking, approximately two thirds of the country’s population remained Catholic, although the Reformation later spread in some areas.
A Modest Start
It was in 1908 that the seeds of Bible truth were first sown in Hungary. This was done by a woman who had learned the truth from the Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were then known. Because of her preaching, many became interested in the good news. Shortly thereafter two men returning to Hungary from the United States spread the good news full-time as colporteurs. The truth spread slowly but surely, and a printing press was set up at Kolozsvár.
The first reliable report was obtained in 1922, when 67 Bible Students from ten towns attended the Memorial of Christ’s death. Their witnessing work had an immediate impact, resulting in opposition as the clergy influenced the government and the press to hinder the preaching work.
The Attacks Intensify
In 1928, Catholic priest Zoltán Nyisztor issued a pamphlet entitled Millennialist Bible Students. In it he asserted regarding the Bible Students: “They are worse than the red bolshevists that attack with arms, for these mislead the innocent by hiding behind the Bible. The Hungarian Royal State Police is eagerly watching their activity.”
During that time a zealous brother named Josef Kiss visited the congregations. The gendarmerie stealthily followed him. In 1931 he was at the home of a brother when the police surprised him and ordered him to leave at once. As Brother Kiss started to pack his belongings, one gendarme hit him with the butt of his rifle and threatened: “Hurry up, or you will be stabbed through!” Brother Kiss smiled and said: “Then I will go home sooner,” referring to his heavenly hope as an anointed Christian.
The soldiers followed Brother Kiss to the train. He was expected to arrive at the congregation in Debrecen on June 20, 1931, but he never appeared. The brothers concluded that his enemies did away with him, that he indeed did “go home” to his heavenly reward. Although his work was stopped, the authorities were never able to extinguish the light of the truth.
Ingenuity was often used in order to give a witness. For example, in the mid-1930’s, a brother died at Tiszakarád. Funerals could then be conducted only with the permission of the officials. The brothers were allowed just one minute of prayer and one minute of song. Members of the gendarmerie, who came to the funeral with rifles and bayonets, were to enforce this. Many townspeople came because they were curious about how the funeral would be conducted.
A brother stood by the coffin and prayed for half an hour but in such a way that the people said they had never heard anything like it. “Even if six priests had conducted the funeral,” they said, “it wouldn’t have been so moving.” A brother with a good voice then started to lead the singing, but a gendarme ordered him to remain silent. The police later confessed that, although they felt uneasy, they could not interrupt the prayer.
As the attacks continued, Lajos Szabó, a priest of the Reformed Church, wrote the following in his 1935 brochure Antichrist by the River Tisza: “It was a stroke of genius to feed the people with bolshevism under the sign of religion . . . Marx took on Christ’s appearance . . . The Antichrist was here in his red robe with Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Years Under Ban
In 1939 the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned outright. It was branded an activity “against religion and against society.” Adventists, Baptists, Evangelicals, and Presbyterians issued pamphlets against the Witnesses. But Jehovah did not abandon his servants, and they were looked after by the Witnesses in other countries. Additionally, God’s people in Hungary had many faith-strengthening experiences.
For example, when a brother brought a backpack full of our magazines from Czechoslovakia, the customs officer asked: “What is in your backpack?” The brother honestly answered: “Watchtowers.” At that the officer made a sign with his hand as if to indicate that the brother was crazy, and he let him continue on his way. Thus, the spiritual food arrived safely in Hungary.
Yet, the harassment did not stop. More and more brothers were arrested and held captive for varying periods of time. Then a special investigating team was given the assignment of cracking down on Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1942, men, women, and children were gathered up and put in stables and empty Jewish schools. After two months of torture, they were tried and convicted. Some were sentenced to life imprisonment; others received from 2 to 15 years in the penitentiary. Three brothers—Dénes Faluvégi, András Bartha, and János Konrád—were sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence was later changed to life imprisonment. Then, 160 brothers were taken to the death camp at Bor. After crossing the border, they were told that they would never return alive. Of the 6,000 deported Jews taken to this camp, only 83 remained alive. Except for four, however, all the Witnesses returned.
Jehovah’s Witnesses did have their martyrs. Toward the end of World War II, the Nazis executed a number of brothers. Bertalan Szabó, János Zsondor, and Antal Hónis were shot to death, and Lajos Deli was hanged.—Matthew 24:9.
A Favorable Change Is Only Temporary
After the second world war, things changed once again. A coalition government promised human rights. The brothers returning from the camps immediately began to preach and to organize congregations. They felt that Jehovah had granted them freedom so that they could praise his great name, not in order for them to try to accumulate material possessions. By the end of 1945, there were 590 active Kingdom publishers. In 1947 a villa was purchased to be used as a branch office of the Watch Tower Society, and the first national convention was held, in a sports hall. The attendance was 1,200, and the Hungarian state railway even gave a 50-percent discount to those traveling to the convention.
Freedom did not last long, however. Soon, the Communist Party gained power, and the government changed. The increase of Jehovah’s people caught the attention of the new government, for they had grown from 1,253 publishers in 1947 to 2,307 in 1950. In that year officials started to put obstacles in the way of the preaching work. Permits were required, but the government refused to issue them, and those who applied were beaten by the National Guard. Newspaper articles continuously denounced the Witnesses as ‘agents of the imperialists.’ Interestingly, before Communism came to power, the Witnesses had been sent to detention camps as ‘Communist Jew henchmen.’
The Terror Starts
On November 13, 1950, the branch overseer and the translator (two of those formerly sentenced to death) were arrested, together with the overseer of the first circuit. They were taken to the infamous underground prison at 60 Andrássy Street in Budapest, to be “softened.” Their trial took place on February 2 the following year. The branch overseer was sentenced to ten years of detention, the translator to nine years, and the circuit overseer to eight years. All three had their property confiscated. During the trial, four more congregation overseers were given prison sentences ranging from five to six years on charges of trying to overthrow the government.
The brothers were put in a high-security prison, where they could not receive letters, packages, or visitors. Their families heard no news of them. Their names could not even be mentioned by the guards. For identification, each wore a wooden tag hanging from his neck with a number on it. There was even a sign on the wall that read: “Do not simply guard the prisoners; hate them.”
The Witnesses went underground, but the preaching work did not stop. Other Witnesses continued in the place of the imprisoned ones. In time the replacements also were captured. By the year 1953, over 500 of the brothers had been convicted and sentenced to prison, but the good news could not be bound in chains. Only a few of the brothers believed the enticing promises of the guards and compromised.
Bright Prospects
In the fall of 1956, the people began to revolt against the government. The Soviet Army suppressed the revolution, and the Communist Party regained power.
All imprisoned Witnesses had been freed, but then a few well-known brothers were sent back to prison to continue their sentences, though newer ones were not convicted. Finally, in 1964, things began to ease up. The authorities no longer did anything to interrupt funerals and wedding feasts. Circuit assemblies were held in the forests. While some of these were interrupted, no additional Witnesses were sent to prison.
In 1979 brothers in oversight were allowed to attend the convention in Vienna. During that year too, the authorities promised to grant Jehovah’s Witnesses legal recognition, but ten more years passed before this actually happened. In 1986 the first district convention was held, at the Youth Park of the Kamara Forest, with the knowledge of the authorities. A sign was even posted, stating that this was the “Divine Peace” District Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The following year the “Trust in Jehovah” Convention was held, and in 1988 the brothers enjoyed the “Divine Justice” Convention.
Free at Last!
June 27, 1989, was a wonderful day, for it was then that the brothers received a document granting official recognition to the Religious Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hungary. In July the stately Budapest Sports Hall accommodated the 9,477 in attendance at the “Godly Devotion” District Convention. The same hall was used for the “Pure Language” District Convention in 1990, and conventions were also held in three other large cities in Hungary.
Now that the ban had been lifted entirely, it was possible to organize the first international convention. In spite of the bad weather, it was held at Népstadion in Budapest, where 40,601 met to enjoy the warmth of brotherly love. Members of the Governing Body attended and strengthened the brothers’ faith with their talks, and new books and brochures with full-color illustrations were released at this convention.
What Is Happening Today
The Hungarian editions of The Watchtower and Awake! are now published simultaneously with their English counterparts and in the same beautiful format. In 1992 the Yearbook began to be published in Hungarian. The number of publishers of the good news jumped from 6,352 in 1971 to 13,136 in January 1993.
Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hungary enjoy freedom of religion and preach freely from house to house. There are 205 congregations, and 27,844 attended the Memorial on April 17, 1992. Until sufficient Kingdom Halls are available, the congregations continue to meet in schools, cultural centers, empty barracks, and even in the vacated offices of the Communist Party. As of 1992, ten congregations had dedicated their own Kingdom Halls, and other halls are under construction.
Throughout all the changes and revolutions, the brothers have faithfully remained on the side of Jehovah God and his Son, Jesus Christ, and have kept on preaching. The storms of the times have not destroyed them, for Jehovah has protected his people in Hungary.—Proverbs 18:10.
[Map on page 9]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
Vienna
AUSTRIA
Budapest
Debrecen
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
[Picture on page 10]
Jehovah’s people assembled in Budapest