Jenő Ivánfi

"Well, the tussocky, it was full of water. It was the end of November, it was raining, there was sleet. We walked in the water and in the mud in well-ironed pants, nice shoes. We didn’t seem like human beings by the end--our feet were wet--but we didn’t give up. Uncle János knocked, the tziganes opened the door of their lodge. Uncle János said: 'I brought some refugees'. 'Come in!' The tziganes were very happy. 'Guests have arrived, boys! Where are the violins?' They began to play. 'Wine in the table!' They opened a bottle of red wine--they were so delighted. We had to tell everything about what had happened in Budapest. 'What is your favourite song? Which Hungarian song would you like to listen to?' I answered immediately that I wanted ’Come my dog, Bodri’, I wanted him to play it to me. And, we began to enjoy ourselves literally forcibly. We didn’t know what would happen to us, whether we could go on across the tussocky, for how long time we would be the guests of the tziganes in this small island. But, we drank together, we sang together and they played the violins to us. And, suddenly somebody kicked the door. It was Uncle János again and he called us: 'Gentlemen, come, we are to leave. It is already dark'. Then we left.”

Jenő Ivánfi (JL): "The train stopped at Veszprémben. Me and my family was living in that town those years, and I had the keys of our flat with me. A colleague of mine with whom I worked together in NEVIKI (Institute for Heavy Chemistry) had joined me in the compartment in Budapest." Interviewer (I): "Lucky you were!" JI: "And, I pulled out my keys and handed him saying: 'Look! These are my keys. I live in Hóvirág utca 12. Give them to Laci Harmati. They live with their parents; they don’t have their own flat; they don’t have where to live. Please, inform my wife that I’ve given you the keys and help her to move to her parents definitively, because she don’t know that I’m leaving the country.' This colleague of mine got off, he gave the keys to my friends, they got the flat and they were delighted. They helped my wife to move to Debrecen where she returned to her parents in tears." I: "Also Laci Harmati was a colleague of yours?" JI: "Yes, he was, but he was also a friend of mine--we didn’t have only a formal working relationship. We visited each other at New Year’s Eve, at Xmas, at Easter. We visited each other for chatting. We went together to Lake Balaton, to Almádi, where our institute had a comfortable weekend hotel on the coast with yachts. Also, these programs linked us together.”

Jenő Ivánfi (JI): “We began to walk in that direction, and it was easy to hear: 'Halt! Wer da?' A border soldier shouted at us. We stepped out of the trees, we approached him with arms up to let him know that we hadn’t got anything in hands, any weapons or others. Even so he asked us: 'Haben Sie munition?' We said we had nothing, neither weapons nor ammunition, we were Hungarian refugees, Ungarische Flüchtlinge, and we’ve escaped to Austria. Then he replied: 'You are welcome here! Just come! You can see a village down in the valley, it is Rohonc, you go there and there you will be told what to do'." Interviewer (I): "It means that the soldier didn’t even see you in anywhere?" JI: "No, he didn’t. He showed us only the way where to go. We followed his instructions, and then I sat down on to the first milestone. It was a high place. We could look at the region down in the valley where the lights were on…street lights in the villages…." I: "Yes, I imagine the shimmer." JI: "They were shimmering. Then I smoked a cigarette--the first after a long day--and I thought over what I had done, what I should do next. I thought about my wife, my children, when I would meet them again, how I would manage myself. A prayer helps always. And, the four of us went on walking calmly but we didn’t have to step in a single line anymore, we could also talk to each other.”

Jenő Ivánfi (JI): "I used to smoke a lot those days. So, I went out to smoke in the corridor, the others followed me, too--a lot of people stood on foot in the corridor. A man with a hat and in a green coat, which was typical of those years, because, in fact, factories distributed it among workers, stood near to me. I: "In a coat, yes." JI: "He leant over and asked, 'Do you need a guide?'. I thought it over. I examined the man, and finally I said: 'Look, I have to discuss it with my friends because I’m not alone, but we may accept your help'. Then, I joined my friends, one step, two steps apart, I said them: 'Listen boys, there is a man here who has offered to guide us across the border. What do you think about it?' Each of them agreed to it, they said: 'We certainly need him because we don’t know the region'. 'Listen,' I said. 'I’m going back to him, and if I find him sympathetic, and if I find plausible what he promises, I accept his offer and I come back to you. If I don’t, I won’t accept it.' I wanted to control two things. The first is whether he was looking into my eyes when he spoke to me, and the second is what his handshake was like: whether his palm was dry and whether he shook my hand sturdily. Not in such a way.… I: "Yes." JI: "It is terrible. Well, I returned to him and said: 'Sir, we would like to know first of all how you think to manage it'. I: "That is to say, what was his plans.' JI: "Yes, about his plans. He answered: 'Listen, tomorrow morning you should come to Bucsu by train or by bus from Szombathely'. It was a village there, a very small village, nevertheless it used to have a railway station. 'You should get off the bus, go along the main street as far as you arrive to the last house of the village, where on your right you will see a cross of stone, it signs the beginning of the village…” I: "Or the end of it." JI: Yes. 'You will see a big rural building with granary and with a large gate in front of the cross. Knock at the gate! Two dogs will run out barking heavily, but also the keeper will arrive after them. He will ask: "Who is there?” You should only say that uncle János sent you there. He will open the gate, let you in. He will close the gate again and will tell you where you can wait for me. At noon, when the bells toll, I’m arriving and we leave for the border.” ' I trusted him; I accepted his plans. I informed my friends, and we all agreed that we accept him as our guide, that man.”

Jenő Ivánfi (JI): "We knocked at the gate, the dogs ran out. Also, the housekeeper arrived. We said what we had been told to say: 'Uncle János sent us'. He opened the gate, let us in, he closed the big gate and said: 'Follow me to the granary!' He led us to the granary. All of us had a briefcase, nothing else. A towel, toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, other stuff like that, a big portion of speck with red pepper packed carefully, and we went to the granary, the four of us. There was a big cart in the granary, without shaft… a sort of wain." Interviewer (I): "Was there anybody else?" JI: "No, nobody. Only the family." I: "Yes." JI: "But, they didn’t come out. Only the man came out. We could see only him. He said: 'I must ask you to lie down in this wain.' Stalks of turnsole and of corn covered its bottom. He made us to lie down on it one beside the other, and finally he covered us with the stalks, too. Well, we put a handkerchief on our face in order that we could take a breath and we could look at our watches. So, we lay down and we spoke to each other quietly, whispering in the wain. We heard the bells. 'Finally', we said, 'we will be released soon. Uncle János is coming, it is noon. Don’t move!' One, two, three, four hours passed, it was getting dark. Uncle János was nowhere. Instead…." I: "But you could at least chat in the meantime." JI: "Yes, sure, but we were very close to each other: two of us on the bottom of the wain, and two of us against the two sides of the wain. The keeper came, he pulled the stalks off and said: 'Get off the cart! The night raid comes when it is growing dark, and they, the soldiers, push their bayonettes into the stacks. So, I have to see you across the tussocky to the tziganes'."