At the age of nine years I had direct exposure to SS soldiers and their Hungarian counterparts, the Arrowheads or "nyilasok".  Next year I saw my country  run over by the pilfering Soviet Red Army and for the following 11 years we suffered under the terror of the Hungarian Communist Party, installed by the Soviets.  The ruling click of the country slavishly delivered Hungary to Soviet exploitation while enriching themselves. Their actions included confiscation of businesses, land, property and other valuables such as jewelry, as well as mass deportations, jailing without trials, show trials and executions to create fear, denying freedom of free speech, of free press, of free assembly, of free worship, and of free change of job and of free change of residence.  There was no private property (except the goods confiscated by the ruling hierarchy), no private enterprise and, supposedly, no private thought. Everybody became an employee of the state. Your job was selected for you, your work was assigned to you and your remuneration was decided for you. There was no right to organize representative unions as there were no legal avenues to redress unfair labor practices or absence of civil rights. Protest invariably brought imprisonment.  One did not even have the alternative of leaving the country as the entire border to the West, i.e. to a land where the Communist were not in power and thus one could hope to find better living conditions, was outfitted with the "iron curtain".  This shame of humanity consisted of hundreds of miles of barbed wires supplanted by mine fields and special military units patrolling the border with attack dogs and cars and from look out towers outfitted with machine guns  and powerful search lights.  Its designs made death the likely outcome of an attempted crossing. Thereby the entire country was effectively turned into a giant prison camp. Life was unbearable yet one was hoping against all reasons as otherwise suicide would have appeared to be the only logical deed. Indeed, the high number of those who turned to alcohol and the lesser number of those who attempted to storm the Western border fortifications, reflected suicidal actions. In Hungary, as in other Soviet occupied countries, the master plan was delivered from Moscow.

In the different countries the plan and its implementation differed only in details. The person who was most guilty of its ruthless  implementation in Hungary was Mr. Matyas Rakosi. a.k.a. Mr. Roth and a handful of his confreres. During World War Two these people enjoyed Stalin's hospitality while hiding out in the Soviet Union.  At war's end they were literally riding into Hungary on Red Army tanks and were installed into power by the occupying Soviet forces. During those dark years I lived with my step mother and her mother in a medium sized town in northeast Hungary which was the county seat where coal mines and agriculture provided subsistence.  My mother died of breast cancer when I was not quite 5 years old, my father - who was a physician -  remarried two years later, then he died of tuberculosis when I was ten.  We survived by my mother cooking for others, by getting typing assignments from sympathetic clerks in the local county office, and by giving private German, French and piano lesions to children in exchange for food. We had a small garden in the back of our house where we were growing potatoes and tomatoes and had some apple and plum trees. My step grand mother was knitting for others while I worked during my time off from school at building and road constructions, loading trucks with sand, loading scrap metal into railroad cards, chopping wood in the forest, etc. During those years it gradually become clear to me that the "good people" needed protection from antisocial elements, from people exemplified around us first by the Nazis and for many years thereafter by the Communists. Thus during my teens in Hungary social responsibility for me came to mean the protection of the innocents, i.e. antagonism toward Communism.  Thus it was only natural that in 1956, when an open rebellion broke out in Hungary against the Communist rulers and their Soviet patrons, that I joined the revolutionaries.  The brutal suppression of the Revolution by the Soviet army is history.  Following my escape I remained concerned with the fate of my compatriots who once again found themselves in the hands of their former torturers and exploiters. Thereafter Khrushchev openly attacked the Western countries and in New York at the United Nations Assembly threatened Americans that their grand children will grow up under Communism.  It was clear to me both as a Hungarian Refugee and as an American who the principal enemies of human freedom were.  Of course I continued my opposition to the greatest mass enslavement of history, known as Communism.

In human affairs complacency confers greater survival benefits on the short run than does opposition. Thus standing up against injustice usually means being in the minority, being the underdog. However, opposition does not need to mean open confrontation.  The suppressor's intent can be foiled by collective refusal to sacrifice principles for material gains and by steadily engaging in cooperation and mutual aid.   We are born into a human community where we should offer help and cooperation to others and expect to receive the same when the need arises.  Those who do otherwise are social predators whose actions are anti-social and thereby anti-human and thus anti-survival.

Looking back at 65 I am not surprised to observe that material rewards belong to the opportunists, to the reckless users of others, to people who compromise principles for material gains. Yet those same people, when they get old, are unhappy, suspicious, isolated and surrounded by individuals who are looking for an opportunity to take advantage of them. To the opportunists material possession failed to bring security and peace of mind.  Those, however, who live their life as truly social beings are rewarded throughout their life and certainly at life's end with the knowledge and satisfaction that their life had a purpose, that it was spent in advancing a universally beneficial aim and thus their life was not wasted.  I see now clearly what my father said and what my stepmother - Gertrud Rozlosnik, a most wonderful human being - reiterated, that we are accountable for our actions to humanity at large and not only to the Almighty (who you might hope to be forgiving).  My father did not flaunt his nobility because he knew that nobility is not the question of a title but that of an attitude. Nobility is an ideal to live up to. True nobility is not bestowed upon us by an outside agent and we are not born into it.  Nobility is a matter of personal choice, it is a way of life which requires sacrifices but has its own rewards.  Today true nobility is an agent of positive social change and a profoundly democratic institution by being within everybody's reach.  Although my father died in mid life (at age 43), he seemed to have known that in old age true peace of mind comes not from a hoped for forgiveness for past misdeeds but as the reward of a caring, giving life.

The concepts of accountability and accounting are related whereby accountability foreshadows the eventual act of accounting.  In all my life I felt responsible for my actions. Onward from age 5, when I lost my mother, despite being surrounded by loving and caring people, life was harsh to me.  Yet in all circumstances I tried to remain humane. I never hurt anyone knowingly and intentionally except in desperate self defense and such confrontations were never initiated by me.  I offered help when help was needed and assisted when it was within my power to assist.  Although I was raised by deeply religious, but not fanatic, parents (my father was a Calvinist, my biological mother a Greek-Catholic and my step mother a Lutheran) in a Calvinist- Lutheran tradition, I acted the way I did not because of a religious teaching or of fear of punishment in the afterlife. 

Adherence to principles, consideration for others and mutual help simply did and do appear to be the right, just, fair, and humane way to exist. The rewards of a life which does not have material acquisition as its sole aim are manifold; it brings peace of mind, promotes self respect, generates good will around you, and has a constructive effect on the social fabric.  

This web site constitutes my accounting. It is not created in response to a request from anyone yet it might have been.  I believe that we not only should hold each other accountable but, in fact, shall require an accounting, a review of one's conduct and accomplishment.  It ought to be one's responsibility to society at large.   I am providing this account out of an inner sense of duty.  My children are entitled to it and so is society. 

The content of this site is considered by me as a status report.  While I am now 65, I plan to remain a contributing member of society as long as I have the mental and physical ability to do so.  Thus, I hope to update this report from time to time.

With this I end my introduction which already became longer than planned.  I wish you, visitor, good health and contentment and thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Mihaly K. Bartalos
July 2000.

Drawing by Peter Calleson