Items

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  Network scheme of Hungarian Catholic underground cells

  This network scheme is from a file on a Hungarian Catholic underground movement. Hand drawn and sketchy, it is a less sophisticated version of its more elaborate and detailed – and sometimes almost artistically executed – Soviet and Romanian counterparts. The purpose of network schemes was to map the connections of groups or individuals; in this case it shows the people István Divald, a young Piarist monk recruited to the Catholic underground movement lead by György Bulányi. Amongst the recruits we find a canon, three parish priests and a catechism teacher from three settlements in north-western Hungary, Győr, Sopron and Csorna. According to the scheme, two of the recruits headed three subgroups, while one of them lead only one. Since the scheme comes without any notations, it is unclear what the little circles below some of the groups stand for, but most probably they indicate the number of members in each group. The scheme also shows that Divald communicated with the Budapest centre of the movement via “couriers” who, according to various reports in the file were mostly university students. We don’t know the exact date of the network scheme but it should have been drawn sometime in 1951 or early 1952. István Divald joined the underground Catholic movement in 1949 or – according to some sources – 1950. After his monastery was closed in 1950 he worked as a chaplain in Kóny, a village near the county capital Győr, and this is where he started to organise the underground cells shown in the network scheme. According to reports in the file Divald regularly visited and lead the cells he helped organise, and was especially successful in engaging young people: he frequented pubs, played cards and bowls and organised the local volleyball team. Authorities deemed the whole movement extremely dangerous and alleged that it “did not only try to ideologically influence its members but prepared them for terrorist activity and diversive action.” Divald was dispelled from the diocese in 1951 and from 1952 – the year the movement’s leaders were arrested – had various non-ecclesiastical jobs. His relationship with the secret police took a turn sometime in 1954 when he was officially roped in as agent “Dusek”. From then on he regularly reported on the resurgent cells of various Catholic underground movements such as Catholic women’s groups and scouts groups with which he was also actively involved as an occasional lecturer. In the summer of 1956, before the planned arrest of the second generation of underground Catholic group leaders, Divald emigrated with the help of the secret police first to Austria and in 1957 to the USA. Between 1962 and 1965 he reprised his role as an active agent under the cover name “Broger”. The network scheme is included in file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O-11959, which also contains summary reports, confessions under interrogation, reports on shadowing and informer’s reports.
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  Confiscated letter and religious images from Hungary

  The image comes from a documentary file on the former leaders of KLOSZ (National Confederation of Catholic Girls), a Hungarian Catholic youth organisation, which was by that time, like other civil organisations, dissolved by law. It shows an intercepted letter, an envelope and two religious images. The message on the card is rather enigmatic: "I’m writing hastily, my dear Margit, asking Gizi not to write to our brother-in-law – on the contrary, if she happens to come here, she should tell him not to make any inquiries in this matter for now, – and he should also return what he had noted down – I will explain if I visit you – Hugs, [illegible name]." According to a note made by the secret police in the file, the letter was posted on 27 May 1953. The header in the envelope originally displaying KLOSZ, but is has been taped over. Other than this, there is no information about the identity of the corresponding parties or the meaning and importance of the letter. However the context and the other confiscated letters contained in the file suggest that it is an example of how clandestine religious communities communicated and organised their activities. Aware of being surveilled by the secret police, these groups were cautious in their actions and had various strategies to safely transmit information: they relied on oral communication whenever possible and used coded language or ambiguous wording if writing was unavoidable. In this case for example we may assume that the term "brother-in-law” stood for a cleric participating in the movement. When caught by the secret police, these messages were used as evidence of the illegal activities of these groups. KLOSZ was founded in 1923 to provide extra curicular education for girls and young women to help them become modern and active Catholic women. It lost its legal recognition in 1946 when nearly all civil organisations were dissolved by law but continued its original work underground with its leading figures and some of its members participating actively in underground Catholic movements. The image is included in file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O–10202 titled "Catholic girls." Apart from the letter the file contains other items of confiscated or intercepted correspondence and interrogations of various leaders of the underground Catholic youth movement (including György Bulányi), operative plans, studies of targets and potential collaborators, summary reports and recommendations for arrests. For related entries see:
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  Smuggled Catholic holy card Hungary

  This is a picture of a confirmation holy card by artist Maria Spötl (1898-1953). The holy card depicts a confirmation with a bishop giving a blessing to a praying young boy. On the lower part of the holy card we find the following text: “Megbérmállak téged …….hogy Krisztus katonája légy az ördög, a bűn, a tévedés és gúny ellen. Győznöd kell, hogy megkapjad az élet koronáját.” “I confirm you ………..to be the soldier of Christ against the devil, sin, deception and scorn. You have to be victorious to receive the crown of life.” The "VMS" abbreviation below the picture stands for Verlag Maria Spötl (Maria Spötl Publishing). This holy card was confiscated from a Hungarian Verbite (Society of the Divine Word) missionary priest while trying to smuggle 10 000 holy cards along with 300 memorial cards and 10 rosaries from Austria into Hungary in 1962. The memorial cards and the rosaries were found during the customs check at the border but were allowed to be brought into the country as it was not a large quantity. He offered to give the holy cards to the Bishop of the Diocese of Győr, however, the bishop refused them due to their illegal origins. Having tapped the bishopric palace, the secret police learnt of the smuggled holy cards and used this illegal act to blackmail and incriminate the Verbite monk. During an interrogation in 1962, the monk was asked to cooperate with the secret police under the cover name 'Hobbs' and send intelligence on the Verbite order and on his mission field in the Philippines. At his missionary post Hobbs worked in the improvement of the social well-being of the 14000 indigenous people living on two islands 300 kilometers away from Manila. He stayed in contact with the authorities and sent a few reports back but was not in active operation. Only when he visited Hungary to see his family, which he didn't do every year, did he have to report to his officer. In 1974 Hobbs was 'de-activated' as an informer without letting him know as he might have been required to serve the Hungarian secret police upon his return to the country. After 1984, the file describes a series of attempts to reactivate him as an informer. Eventually the officer overseeing Hobbs decided that despite his willingness to cooperate, he had no potential to provide useful intelligence so there was no need to keep up the connection with him. The Hobbs case illustrates two things, how something as everyday as a confirmation card was for a period of time were difficult to source and required sensitive navigation on the part of the Catholic Church, and secondly, that this seemingly insignificant act could lead to a protracted attention from the secret police. The holy card comes from file ÁBTL 3.2.1. Bt-2333. Along with the holy card, the file also contains the transcript of a tapped conversation with the Győr bishopric palace, Hobbs’ interrogation reports and transcripts of Hobbs’ letters written to his contact officer.
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  Cryphtographic letters written by a Hungarian Baptist minister

  In this image we see cryptographic letters written by agent ‘Géza Szebeni’. This was not his real name but his secret service pseudonym. The first image is of the visible “cover letter” which masks the cryptographic letter shown here in the second image, while the third image is the decoded transcript of the cryptographic letter. The letters were created using a cryptographic technique that allows the writer to hide the important message underneath a decoy message containing inane and useless information. In this case, the cover letter resembles friendly correspondence such as family issues and weather. The cryptographic letter, which is hidden behind the cover letter and which had to be developed using a special technique, contained the intelligence information. The agent, ‘Géza Szebeni’ sent his letters to the Hungarian secret service using different Hungarian-American names and addresses. Agent ‘Géza Szebeni’ was recruited in 1961 and between 1961 and 1969 in five working dossiers he reported on the inner life of the Baptist community in Hungary. In 1969 he took up a position as the pastor of the Hungarian Baptist community in Detroit, USA. Szebeni was expected to work as an operative for a period of 4-6 years to “conduct research and maybe recruit people in addition to collect, organize and analyze materials connected to the American small churches.” From 1969 he reported on a monthly basis through “first class cryptography.” From the dossiers we learn that Szebeni was trained in intelligence methods, including the use of cryptographic letters for communication and in eavesdropping techniques and its prevention. The officers of the Hungarian secret police kept reminding ‘Szebeni’ to fold the paper first before writing to ensure that he did not write on the folded part as it was not possible to develop text written on the fold. Often his coded messages were incomprehensible. An instruction document entitled “The basics of invisible cryptography” (A láthatatlan tikosírás alapjai) was produced for agents and can be found in the archives at ÁBTL. In 1969-70, ‘Szebeni’ was met at a previously agreed location every six months, however, from 1971 reports from ‘Szebeni’ become scarcer. He explains to the complaining officers that he felt he was under surveillance and therefore did not send regular reports in order to protect himself. In 1972, the secret police broke off contacts with ‘Szebeni’ as his existential and social situation took an unfavorable turn and his reports had no operative value for the Hungarian secret service. Finally, in 1976 he was expelled from the secret police network. When visiting Hungary in 1979, he returned his cryptographic toolkit, a black notebook. He died in 1981 in the USA. The cryptographic letters come from files ÁBTL 3.2.2 T-27/2-3. In the files we find many letters with the original cover letter, the developed cryptographic letter containing the intelligence and the transcript of the reported message.
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  Hungarian religious samizdat on the life of Magdi Bódi

  The first image depicts the cover of the samizdat book entitled Ketten egy felé… III. Ki volt Bódi Magdi (Two towards one… III. Who was Magdi Bódi?). The second image is the inside cover of the book with the text: Ketten egy felé… Szent Goretti Mária és Bódi Magdi utja. 1956, Karácsonyán. – Kézirant gyanánt.- (Two towards one… The life of St. Maria Goretti and Magdi Bódi. 1956, Christmas. -As manuscipt). The third image is a photograph of Magdi Bódi from the book with the caption below the image reading “Fűzfő angyala”, “The Angel of Fűzfő.” The last image is of page 204 of the confiscated book and depicts the tomb of Magdi Bódi in the village of Litér and the caption reads: A litéri sír… Magdi! – Élsz Krisztusban!...(The tomb in Litér… Magdi! You live in Christ!). The typewritten book is an account of Mária Magdolna Bódi (1921-1945), a working-class girl from Balatonfűzfő. Her life story is paralleled with that of the martyr St. Maria Goretti. Magdi Bódi was a young Catholic girl who had made a vow of chastity to Christ. She was active in organizing faith life in Balatonfűzfő having initiated the local group of the Hungarian Catholic Working Women’s Movement. According to the book, Magdi Bódi’s parish priest instructed her to always keep a knife or scissors with her in order to be able to defend herself against the violence of the Soviet soldiers. In 1945 a Soviet soldier shot her as she was trying to protect herself from sexual assault. The typewritten book contains original photograph illustrations of Magdi, some with her family and one of her tombstone with a crucifix. In the dossier, the tomb of Magdi Bódi is discussed as a place of gathering of reactionary priests and sisters. The samizdat book was written by a Catholic abbot, Dr. Miklós Galambos, in 1955. He had heard of Magdi Bódi’s martyrdom while imprisoned in Veszprém. The book is the third part of a series. The first two parts of the book series tell of the life of St. Maria Goretti. The content of the book is discussed in the dossier as anti-Soviet content in the guise of religion. The book was confiscated from Dr. István Kiss, professor of theology and vice-director of the Theological College of Eger. Dr. Kiss was the target of the operative dossier in which the book is located as he was a representative in the Hungarian National Assembly for the Independent Smallholders’ Party and had strong connections with the high clergy and the democratic opposition leaders between 1945-48. Authorities judged him to be reactionary and he was under surveillance from 1951 onwards. His name occurs in several other secret police dossiers as he was openly anti-communist and is accused of educating the seminary students of the Theological College in this mentality. Dr. Kiss was interrogated in 1958 and on several other occassions for spreading the illegal samizdat entitled “The Angel of Fűzfő.” His ownership of the book was used as evidence against him. After 1989 there has been a growing cult of Magdi Bódi, especially in her home town where she was buried. Her beatification process was initiated by the Hungarian Catholic Church in 2017. The images and the book are found in ÁBTL 3.1.5. O-8934 along with intercepted letters to Dr. Kiss, an operative plan to disclose the details of the circulation of the illegal book and interrogation reports.
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  Secret police analysis of typewritten religious letters Hungary

  These images show the pages of a secret police report on an investigation concerning three letters with religious content. The letters were addressed to a candidate for the local Member of Parliament and the municipal council’s president of a small town in northern Hungary and were posted locally. They contain various religious narratives and a short section about the funeral of Pál Jávor, a famous Hungarian actor. The report comes from a documentary file titled “Religious sects” in Nógrád county which mainly deals with Baptist communities (belonging to an officially acknowledged free church), Baptist splinter groups and Jehovah’s Witnesses. This file demonstrates the fine line between tolerated and not tolerated religious activity, while also providing a glimpse into the investigative methods of the secret police. Sent to local political figures in sensitive times just before the upcoming elections, the letters immediately seemed suspicious: authorities considered them implicitly incendiary and an attempt to influence the addressees. Although one letter bears the name of the sender, a local woman from the Baptist community, the police carefully examined their content and graphic appearance to identify the writer. On the basis of their analysis, they concluded that the writer was someone with at least high-school education, was deeply religious, well versed in church teachings and an experienced typist. The author was most probably female, since “the letters were typed smoothly and evenly”, which is not characteristic of male typists. They also pointed to the peculiar features of the type-writer which could later help identify the machine: small and capital letters “e” were closely followed by the next letters and the small “a” showed certain differences to the small “á”. Authorities also concluded that the writer and the typist were the same person, who – they assumed – could even have been a church person. Although first thought not to be educated enough to be the real writer of the letters, the perpetrator turned out to be the woman whose name appeared on the envelope as sender. During her interrogation she proved to fit the description of the suspected writer: she was religious, finished four years of secondary school, studied as an office clerk and had access to a typewriter which was in poor condition. She confessed to having written the letters out of gratitude because both addressees had been helpful around the death of her brother. Due to her poor health – and also probably to the goodwill of the local authorities – she was not punished severely: she received an official reprimand and was warned not to send religious letters to people outside their “sect”. As this case shows, in Hungary of the 1960’s members of officially accepted and controlled churches could practice their religion as long as they confined their activities to their own circles and remained politically neutral. The letters also reveal something about how religious people may have understood their world: even if it seemed risky, the best way this woman could think of expressing her gratitude was in terms of her faith. The report is included in file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O–14916, containing informant reports and summary reports on religious sects. The letters in point were not included in the file. For related entries see:
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  List of confiscated items from Church of Turan Believers of One God

  The image shows a typewritten copy of a list of confiscated items that were taken from the home and workshop of Mihály Virasztó during a house search on 5 March 1957. He was a former member and táltos (ritual specialist) of the Church of the Turan Believers of One God. The list contains several items that are directly linked to the group: a “turan stamp”, a “turul” stamp (turul is a mythological bird used as a national symbol in modern Hungary), a book of ceremony, a book written by the groups founder, Zoltán Bencsi, and various copies of “Turanist journals”, possibly referring to the radical Turáni Roham (Turan Attack) published between 1934 and 1939. Beside these, the secret police also expropriated a book on Hungarian history, a Hungarian travel atlas, a hand-drawn map, legal documents, photos, a poem, and two dossiers, one containing newspapers and the other private letters. The list comes from Virasztó’s surveillance file, which was opened in 1968 but contained various documents and informant reports from before this time. From these we learn that Virasztó was arrested on 12 March 1957, seven days after the house search, for the illegal possession of a firearm. It is interesting to note, however, that no weapons were mentioned in the list of confiscated items above, which suggests that another house search may have been conducted at the time of the arrest. The authorities’ action in 1957 was a result of his supposed activity in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and his former involvement with the Church of the Turan Believers of One God. According to a summary report written before the house search on 26 February 1957, Virasztó had reorganised the Turan Believers after 1945, and had been hosting their meetings in his home and corresponding with other similar organisations. As the report claims his group was active in 1956, spreading rumours before the October events, and producing and disseminating anti-communist leaflets during the revolution. They also called for strikes. The report also briefly introduces the Church of Turan Believers characterising it as nationalist, chauvinist and racist. It even gives a short description of their initiation rites: “new members were anointed with jam. This procedure was formerly effected with blood; the Catholic Church has condemned this ritual as different from the usual ceremony of Christian baptism and launched a counter attack on the “Turanian” organisations.” Following the incident Virasztó was interned for 15 months, although the authorities could not prove his ownership of the weapon found. Mihály Virasztó had a long police record in both regimes before and after 1945. As a priest (táltos) and missionary of the Church of the Turan Believers of One God he was repeatedly condemned to prison at the end of the 1930’s for „agitation against religious denominations”. He remained on the radar of authorities in the communist regime for his anti-communist political views and activity, his relationships with right-wing figures abroad, and also for his past and supposedly present involvement with the Church of Turan Believers of One God. He had several clashes with the authorities: apart from his 1957 case, he was imprisoned for two months in 1952 for slander, and his mental health was investigated and he was sent to a mental hospital in 1964 and 1967. After his last release in the summer of 1968, he was placed under the guardianship of his wife. His file was closed in 1972. This image comes from the file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O-14980/18, which also includes confiscated personal letters and photographs, issues of Keleti Figyelő (The Orient Observer), two poems written by Virasztó, medical reports, interrogation minutes, and informant reports. For more on Virasztó and the Turan Believers of One God see: Ablonczy Balázs 2016 Keletre Magyar! A magyar turanizmus története. Budapest, Jaffa Kiadó. Fazekas Csaba 1996 Kisegyházak és szektakérdés a Horthy-korszakban. Budapest, TEDISZ–SzPA. Szécsényi Mihály 2013 Virrasztó Koppány és társai. A Turáni Egyistenhívők és a hatalom az 1930-as évek második felében. In Lukács Anikó (szerk.): Rendi társadalom – polgári társadalom 25. Budapest, Hajnal István Kör, 349–362. For related entries see:
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  Intercepted materials from Church of Turan Believers of One God Hungary

  These images have been selected from the photo-documentation of materials sent by post to Mihály Virasztó, a former religious specialist of the Church of the Turan Believers of One God. The first photo shows the cover page of the Keleti Figyelő [Orient Observer], the short-lived journal of the Turáni Történelmi Társaság [Turan Historical Society] founded by immigrant Hungarians in Melbourne, Australia. The second photo shows a certificate of honorary membership of Mihály Virasztó for supporting the study of Hungarian history, issued by the same society in 1962. The images come from a documentary file on Virasztó. The case of the Orient Observer is illustrative of the performative power of certain objects and of the responsive mechanisms of the secret police. By the time of the journal’s arrival in February 1962, Mihály Virasztó had been under surveillance for years, after being classified as dangerous due to his openly anti-communist stance, involvement in 1956, relations with right-wing emigrants, and his past as the priest and activist of the Turan Believers of One God. The arrival of the issues and the certificate was reported by an informant working on Virasztó in July 1962, only four months after the local county division of the secret police had claimed in a report that the Church of the Turan Believers of One God was practically non-existent in the region. Along with Virasztó’s correspondence with other Hungarian right wing emigrants and his involvement in a case of anonymous anti-collectivization letters, the package set the machinery of the secret police in motion. The local branch of the secret police made excessive efforts to get hold of the issues: they asked for photocopies from the Budapest headquarters, while also drawing up a plan to get Virasztó’s own copies. The police also mobilized its network of informants to find out if Virasztó was disseminating the issues, and instructed them to collect more information on the Turan Believers of One God as well. In September 1962, the Budapest headquater sent the copies of the certificate and selected pages of the journal, with a short note that according to their examinations, the articles focused on "the origins and development of various languages”. To decide whether the journal’s content was "hostile”, the local secret police attained Virasztó’s copies in March 1963 through a local informant, who managed to borrow them from him for a couple of days. The Orient Observer was also featured in Virasztó’s two penal files from 1964 and 1966. From these and from other informant reports we know that he had given the issues to several people, the director of the local museum being among them. We also learn from these files that during a house search at his home in 1964 the secret police was looking for the issues but could not find them. The Observer came to the forefront again in 1966, at the time of Virasztó’s last penal case, with the secret police planning a complex operation for its confiscation. This time their aim was to produce evidence that Virasztó was circulating materials hostile to the regime. The Orient Observer was founded in 1960 and had only two volumes and four numbers during its existence. Printed on a small offset printing machine and having hand-drawn illustrations, it claimed to be scientific and focused mainly on the origins of the Hungarian people. Using linguistic and historical argumentation that would not stand up to modern academic scrutiny, the journal argued for the relatedness of Hungarians to various past and present Asiatic peoples. Although the articles were not openly political, the issues contained some negative references to communism and the Soviet Union here and there. One of these, a sentence on the fatal consequences of Soviet dominance for the future of the Hungarian nation, was picked out by the secret police as proof of Virasztó possessing and circulating anti-communist contents. Mihály Virasztó had a long police record in both regimes before and after 1945. As a priest (táltos) and missionary of the Church of the Turan Believers of One God he was repeatedly condemned to prison at the end of the 1930’s for "agitation against religious denominations”. He remained on the radar of authorities in the communist regime for his anti-communist political views and activity, his relationships with right-wing figures abroad, and also for his past and supposedly present involvement with the Church of Turan Believers of One God. He had several clashes with the authorities: he was imprisoned for two month in 1952 for slander, detained for possessions of arms in 1957, a charge that was later dropped, his mental health was investigated and he was sent to a mental hospital in 1964 and 1967. After his last release in the summer of 1968, he was placed under the guardianship of his wife. His file was closed in 1972. These images come from file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O-14980/18. The file also includes confiscated personal letters and photographs, two poems written by Virasztó, lists of confiscated items, medical reports, interrogation minutes, and informant reports. For further entries on Virasztó and the Church of Turan Believers of One God see:
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  Letter about clandestine catechism classes Budapest

  The image shows the photocopy of a handwritten letter from Budapest, September 1954, recommending a cathecism teacher who gave clandestine classes to children. Written on a piece of checkered paper the letter provides precise information about when and where to contact this person. It also contains instructions on how to get to the location of the meeting, a private flat. The visit of the person addressed in the letter, a doctor’s wife who was looking for a religious teacher for her daughters, was already expected by the catechism teacher, who had been notified of her intentioned visit. Near the end of the short and rather straightforward text the writer, a widow, notes: „This has to be kept in secret, obviously”. The envelope belonging to the letter with the names and addresses of sender and adressee was also copied and attached to the file. Although there is no additional information in the file about the identities of the corresponding partners, the letter gives some clues about their relationship and social background. The writer uses a form of address "My honourable Lady” typical of the old regime and notes at the very end of the letter that "the clothes are ready”. This allows us to assume that she may have been a seamstress or a laundress and the addressee was one of her clients. It is also apparent from the letter that the sender knew the cathecism teacher and wrote of him with utmost repsect, describing him as an extraordinary person and a superb speaker whose sermons were attended by "thousands”. The letter was written four years after the Hungarian government made the previously compulsory cathecism classes optional in schools. Although getting religious education remained technically possible, parents were strongly discouraged against enrolling their children in these classes. As a 1955 informant report from another file reveals, even cathecism teachers in schools were confidentially instructed to try to reduce the number of students in their classes. For those wanting to learn about religion, private cathecism classes held by one of the several clandestine religious organisations and movements were the only option. The authority deemed these classes illegal and pursued their teachers: priests, former monks and nuns, or lay activists. Getting involved in these classes in any way was risky and as this letter illustrates, finding a teacher or accepting a student was a matter of trust in which people relied on their personal relations. The letter comes from a documentary file on underground Roman Catholic religious groups that were connected to a movement lead by György Bulányi, a piarist monk. Though the letter only mentions the surname of the cathecism teacher, "Barlai”, he is most probably identical with Ödön Szabolcs Barlay, a former cistertian monk and teacher, who is featured in many other ÁBTL files. He was imprisoned in 1958 and 1961 for organizing illegal religious youth groups and giving illegal cathecism classes. Interestingly however, he was not in touch with those groups that were the targets of this particular file, and apart from the letter his name is not mentioned in it. The letter is included in file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O-11959/4. Apart from this letter the file contains copies of personal letters and postcards, confessions under interrogation, reports on illegal gatherings, transcripts of tapped phone calls and recorded gatherings and detailed reports on shadowings. For further readings see: Bögre Zsuzsanna – Szabó Csaba 2010 Törésvonalak. Apácasorsok a kommunizmusban. Budapest, Metem–Historia Ecclesiastica Hungarica Alapítvány–Szent István Társulat. Mezey András 2014 Az első hazai bázisközösségek: a Bulányi-jelenség és a Katolikus Egyház az 50-es évek elején In Barna Gábor – Povedák Kinga (ed.): Lelkiségek, lelkiségi mozgalmak Magyarországon és Kelet-Közép Európában.
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  Confiscated photographs from a clandestine religious community Budapest

  These images were confiscated from an underground Pentecostal community in Budapest-Pesterzsébet in 1972. The first image depicts a baptism where pastor József Németh is baptising a young girl. The second image is a group-picture of pastor József Németh and another five congregants in white who had just been baptised. They are standing with presumably other congregants and family members. The third image depicts pastor József Németh preaching to his congregation in their hidden house church. Prior to confiscation, the photos belonged to pastor József Németh. The photos were taken by a member of the community named in the file. 12 images were confiscated altogether along with several other religious materials by the secret police during a house raid on September 26th, 1972 during a regular Tuesday service. The images were used as incriminating evidence against the leading figures of the community including pastor József Németh himself. József Németh had separated from the officially recognised Evangelical Christian Church (Evangéliumi Keresztény Egyház), which was the recognised Pentecostal organisation, in 1968 after being accused of a series of "misdemeanors" by the Church. Following this, the secret police initiated an investigation on the grounds that the religious group held no official permit to operate. In 1972 the secret police decided to take action and according to the investigation file the following objectives were set out: a) end the illegal religious activity, b) collect evidence for the illegal activity and c) assess the valuables of the illegal community. The main accusation against József Németh and his congregation was the misuse of the right to freedom of association. The secret police used an anonymous note written by a citizen as a pretext (a common practice of the Hungarian secret police) in order to justify a raid on the community. After the house search József Németh and other leading figures in the community were interrogated on several later occasions. Pastor József Németh received a suspended sentence of 3 months. As part of the Hidden Galleries research project, these photos were later shown to the community. From them we know that the hidden house chapel was no longer used following the house raid and due to ongoing surveillance the community dissolved. József Németh only succeeded in planting a new community ten years later in 1982. The new community began to gather again in the same hidden house chapel. However, by this time pastor József Németh had become a member of the officially registered Free Christian Church (Magyarországi Szabadkeresztyén Gyülekezet). We also learned that the girl in the picture is the daughter of the pastor, who was 12 years old at that time, and that the baptism took place in the garden of the hidden house church in a specially constructed font. The confiscated images serve as evidences proving the secret religious activities of the religious group. The photographs come from file ÁBTL 3.1.9. V-160122. Along with the confiscated images the file contains interrogation reports, the trial sentence, 27 crime scene photographs and other confiscated documents including a diary and the community’s cash book. For related entries see:
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  Letter about a secret Roman Catholic home christening Budapest

  This word-for-word transcript of a typewritten personal letter tells about a secret home christening held in Budapest in December 1954. Amongst other deeply personal matters, the author, the child’s grandmother, briefly reports about the baptism. From this we learn that the child was baptised by a Piarist monk in the presence of the extended family, altogether 22 people. For the occasion the child’s grandfather erected a makeshift altar. As the letter-writer notes, he "made a beautiful altar. He made it so exceptionally nice that everybody was weeping with emotion. My entire home looked like a stage. Everything was shining bright.” Although in theory the Hungarian state granted freedom of religion even in the harshest years of the communist regime, the years of Mátyás Rákosi's rule (1947-1956), many people chose to refrain from openly practicing their faith in fear of various kinds of retribution. The secret baptism is a good example of how people tried to reconcile their religious needs with their desire to avoid conflict with the authorities by withdrawing their religious activities into the domestic sphere. It also nicely illustrates how people creatively turned their everyday environment into a sacred ritual space, even temporarily. And finally, this home-held ritual is also an illustrative example of silent resistance against the regime: as the letter goes on we learn that in his baptismal sermon the Piarist monk made derogatory metaphorical references to communism, much to the approval of the author. As her request at the end of the letter, „please burn this letter after reading” shows, however, she was very much aware of the risk her family was taking in conducting the baptism and in writing this letter. This transcript comes from a file on "illegal" organizations that were connected to a movement lead by a Piarist monk, György Bulányi. The goal of his movement was to keep Christianity alive through small secret local cells where members – mostly young people – could have access to religious education and spiritual guidance. The Bulányi movement started in 1945, and gained momentum after 1948, when the nationalization of church-owned schools excluded historical churches from educational activities and drastically decreased their access to young people. While most of its leaders came from the Piarist order, one of the four monastic orders that were allowed to keep some of their schools and were granted legal status after the dissolution of religious orders in 1950, many of the movement's activists were former members of other banned monastic groups. The secret police considered the movement an "illegal clerical-fascist organization" which, under the disguise of religion, was working to undermine democracy and the building of socialism. For this reason, the secret service had been gathering information about the movement since its early days. As a result, Bulányi and other leading figures were arrested and condemned in 1952. The movement, however, did not cease to exist and the ÁVH, the Hungarian secret service at the time, continued to surveil its activities extensively for at least another decade. The letter comes from a documentary file containing diverse materials, and focusing on groups mainly lead by lay female activists and former nuns. It includes no additional information concerning the letter; apart from their names we don’t know who the correspondents were, what their social background was or what kind of relationship they had with each other. Neither is there any direct information about their involvement in the movement or about the way the secret police got hold of the letter. However, the context of the file allows us to assume that the addressee was a member of a religious cell, officially deemed illegal. The letter is placed in the file among other letters, which indicate that it may have been used as evidence of the clandestine religious activity of Piarist monks. The letter is included in file ÁBTL 3.1.5 O-11959/4. Apart from this letter the file contains copies of personal letters and postcards, confessions under interrogation, reports on illegal gatherings, transcripts of tapped phonecalls and recorded gatherings, and detailed reports on shadowings. For further readings see: Bögre Zsuzsanna – Szabó Csaba 2010 Törésvonalak. Apácasorsok a kommunizmusban. Budapest, Metem–Historia Ecclesiastica Hungarica Alapítvány–Szent István Társulat. Mezey András 2014 Az első hazai bázisközösségek: a Bulányi-jelenség és a Katolikus Egyház az 50-es évek elején In Barna Gábor – Povedák Kinga (ed.): Lelkiségek, lelkiségi mozgalmak Magyarországon és Kelet-Közép Európában. For related entries see:
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  Crime scene photographs of a raid of a hidden house church Budapest

  These pictures have been selected from the 27 crime scene photographs that were taken during a raid of pastor József Németh's community in a hidden house church created. The raid took place on September 26th, 1972 during a regular Tuesday gathering. The first photograph depicts the hidden house church in József Németh’s house in Pesterzsébet. On the picture we see nine congregants some of whom are facing the occasional table-alter, discussing the unfolding situation, others are turning towards the back of the room in order to follow events. Behind the alter, the double doors are covered with curtains which frame the alter. The house church is furnished with new chairs. The second image depicts the back of the room with congregants and possibly two officers. The third image presents the electric organ in the house chapel, while the fourth picture portrays the collection box. These three later photographs inform us of the intentions of the secret police to collect evidence for the supposed crimes of the community. The main interest of the secret police centered around finances of the illegal religious group. The secret police had a deep interest in finding out how the pastor could make a living only on the donations of the community without having a civil job and how the community could afford such a modern electric organ and new furniture. József Németh was expelled from the Evangelical Christian Church (Evangéliumi Keresztény Egyház), the recognized Pentecostal organization, in 1968 after a series of misdemeanors. The secret police initiated an investigation because the religious group held no official permit to operate. Németh’s community had been under surveillance since 1968. In 1972 the secret police decided to take action and according to the investigation file the following objectives were set out: a) end the illegal religious activity, b) collect evidence for the illegal activity and c) assess the valuables of the illegal community. The main accusation against József Németh and his congregation was the misuse of the right to freedom of association. The secret police used an anonymous note written by a citizen as a pretext (a common practice of the Hungarian secret police) in order to justify a raid on the community. After the house search József Németh and other leading figures in the community were interrogated on several later occasions. From the investigation file we find out that four police officers, a driver and a staff photographer participated in the operation. In the file the names of the officers participating in the house search are present without anonymization. After the raid, the hidden house church was no longer used and under ongoing surveillance the community dissolved. Pastor József Németh received a suspended sentence of 3 months. He later succeeded planting a new community in 1982. The community began to gather again in the same hidden house church. However, by this time pastor Németh had become a member of the officially registered Free Christian Church (Magyarországi Szabadkeresztyén Gyülekezet). The photographs come from file ÁBTL 3.1.9. V-160122. Along with the photographs of the crime scene there are confiscated images taken by the community, interrogation reports, the trial sentence and other confiscated personal documents including the community's cash book and diary. For related entries see:
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  Evidence of illegal activity of underground Catholic religious order Hungary

  This picture depicts a Continental typewriter confiscated during a house search of a Hungarian Cistercian monk, Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász (1909-1994) in 1961. The typewriter was photographed along with illegally held US dollars. Three photo images were taken by the secret agents in order to show how the US dollars were hidden in an envelope inside the typewriter. On the reverse of the photograph we find the following text: "Elismerem, hogy a fotokópia hátoldalán látható dollár az én tulajdonomat képezte, illetve azonos azzal a négyszázkilencvenhét dollárral, melyet a fotokópia hátoldalán látható írógépben rejtegettem. Budapest, 1961. június 12., Dr. Halász Ferenc" "I acknowledge that the dollars on the other side of this photographic image are my property and are identical with the 497 dollars that I hid in my typewriter which is found on the photo as well. Budapest, 12th June, 1961. Dr. Ferenc Halász." These pictures served as one of the main pieces of evidence against Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász when he was given a 6 year prison sentence in 1961. This constituted the main evidence against Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász, one of the main defendants of a show trial against the underground Cistercians. The images here follow the classic model how evidence was found. The sequence of shots demonstrate a classic photographic methodology of how secret police produced incriminating evidence. In this case we can assume that the dollars were planted by the secret police agents. Similar to show trials - where the authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant(s) –house search scenario was usually constructed in a way that the forbidden western foreign money – in this case US dollars – was hidden and then found by the officers on the spot. The possession of foreign currency was considered a criminal offence according to the state and served as unambiguous evidence against the incriminated person. Typewriters of persons under surveillance or persecution had a significant role in the eye of the secret police as the uncontrolled typewriters provided means for the production and circulation of uncensored documents, messages or spiritual writings. For this reason, typewriter can also been seen as the symbol of free speech. By producing a sample from the typewriter, it is possible to identify the typewriter later and get an insight into the distribution network of religious samizdat and the volume of produced materials. Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász was a member of the Cistercian order dissolved in 1950. He was one of the main defendant of the show trial against the underground Cistercian order after the dissolution of most Catholic religious orders in 1950. From 1946 he was the Prior of the austere, ascetic Borsodpuszta Cistercian community. He was active in producing religious writings. After the dissolution of the order, Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász was a parish priest in Csatka from 1951-1961. The persecution against him began in 1961. According to the charges of the show trial he was one of the ideological leaders of priests and monks organizing the overthrow of the political system. During his allegedly subversive, anti-state efforts he copied and re-produced the sermon-collection “Preach the Gospel!” which served as an evidence for the trial. Dr. Ferenc Piusz Halász was convicted for 6 years of prison but was freed in 1963 as part of the collective political amnesty but convicted again in 1965 with a similar sentence. The photo image is found in ÁBTL 3.1.9. V-146835/3 For related entries see: