Catherine E. Schandl, 2007 by Lulu Books Inc, USA (On-line self-publishing site)
ISBN 978-1-4303-1178-2
The London-Budapest Game is part of a trilogy (“Sword of the Turul” and “Swedish Gold”) tracing the life and activities of Karoly Schandl, an idealistic lawyer in Budapest during the Nazi occupation. It is an interesting read since it covers not just the underground activities of an anti-Nazi group but also explores the inter-twining and links to SIS, MI9, the Dutch and Polish underground, Tito and Operation CHICKEN, but also Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat. The underground group was led by Gábor Haraszty, a lawyer of Jewish origin whose code name was ALBERT. Having survived the war, both Gábor and Karoly secretly disappeared into the Soviet prison system in Vladimir prison to the east of Moscow for political prisoners. They were released years later with a curt warning not to reveal what had happened to them.
In Part 1 “Hidden Worlds”:
Chapter 1 “Scotland Yard” is set in the 1970s and recounts the Schandl family being followed by British secret police due to his knowledge of a Soviet spy ring in Britain. Because Karoly had been in the British Library in London, it was assumed he was researching for a book but had already completed a paper for interested parties for circulation which no doubt would be of interest to Britain’s SIS.
Chapter 2 “The Photograph” reverts to the Second World War to the early 1940s. The chapter details Karoly’s lifetime Member of the Hungarian Upper House, despite not having aristocratic lineage. In 1921 he had been appointed State Secretary of Agriculture until 1928, a period that covered the Great Depression. He had completed his doctorate in Jurisprudence and was a great advocate for land reform. Well-liked and supported by the constituents of Devecser, a town in Veszprém County to the north of Lake Balaton, the family were known to be liberal thinkers, pro-British and anti-fascist. The photograph relates to Thomas Veres who took his portrait and documented the Holocaust in Budapest for Raoul Wallenberg.
Chapter 3 “The First British Agent” covers Budapest in 1943. Regent Miklos Horthy, the Hungarian head of state, visited Hitler in April 1943. Among the residences of the Palace was a private apartment belonging to Countess Marie Pejacsevich, a Croation citizen. From an eminent family during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, her brother Peter was an accredited diplomat with a broad portfolio which included being the Ambassador to Madrid. Visiting family in Budapest, he had secreted away a W/T set and hid it in his room for collection by a British operative. He was recalled back to Madrid, so when a young man visited the residency, her other brother, Count Geza had no idea of the transmitter. With Countess Marie away, the young man left. On consulting her brothers (this included Count Marcus) they hatched a plan to bury the W/T set in the countryside. The young man returned sometime later and was given directions to locate the transmitter. The young man was Clement, one of SIS’s most active agents in Hungary during the war.
Chapter 4 “The Arrival of Colonel Howie” recounts Col. Howie’s escape from a POW camp located near Wrocław (Breslau) in camp Stalag 8B. His escaping companion was ‘Tom’ who was a Hungarian Jew in British uniform and called Weinstein. Howie’s intention was to join Tito’s partisans but remained in Hungary which brought him into contact with both the Dutch and Polish underground. As a linguist, he managed to escape into Hungary with a cover of a Dutch engineer and ended up in an internment camp at Zugliget on the outskirts of Budapest. He manged to develop a circle of influential confidants that included Polish Countess Tarnopolska who would later play a major role in the underground movements.
Howie was not a trained intelligence officer, and complaints arose over his lack of security. Countess Tarnopolska introduced him to a Dutch officer Gerit Van der Waals who would also play a significant role in the underground movements. He ended up hiding in a hostel run by the Reverend Szent-Ivanyi, another key figure in the underground. Through a Polish underground contact, he received a W/T set and became in charge of all Allied POWs who were protected at this time by the Hungarians. He appointed Capt. Roy Natusch to oversee the British who were interned in the castle of Count Andrassy in Szigetvár, in the Baranya County in southern Hungary.
Weinstein, Howie and Joel Brand, a Zionist met to establish an escape plan for Jews. Joel Brand played a key role in the Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee. Howie in a meeting ‘behind closed door’ tried to enlist the Zionist committee into acts of sabotage and use special passes for Jewish children to Palestine for British POWs. Brand refused.
In February 1944, SOE learned Howie would work for them in Hungary and had contacted with A-Force in Cairo where an escape and evasion plan was drawn up using SOE agents in Hungary. On 19th March 1944, Germany invaded Hungary as Hitler no longer trusted Regent Miklos Horthy with Howie ‘going to ground’.
Chapter 5 “Secret Agent Albert” introduces us to the role and interaction of Gabriel Szeleveny Haraszty aka ALBERT (sometimes called Gabor Haraszti) who had been trained in Egypt. He worked for Britains SIS/ MI6 whose mission was to rescue Jews and stranded Allied service personnel. Karoly knew the Haraszty brothers through a scout jamboree in Poland in 1932 where he befriended a Pole “Jack” who was Jerzy Waciorski (ACHILLES). Jack was in regular with the Polish Delegation to Hungary and assisted both Jews and Poles escape through the Inter-Service Liaison Department (ISLD/ MI6). Gabor, a lawyer was of Jewish origin and known to the Arrow Cross party which was allied to Nazi ideology. Karoly and Gabor assisted Allied POWs to escape home via Yugoslavia and Tito’s partisans. Clandestine operations covered the escapes, false identities and hiding the POWs in a villa in Budapest. Raphael Rupert, another lawyer was in contact with RAINPRECHT who provided them with disguises and papers. Clandestine meetings brought the group into contact with several underground movements including Col. Howie, SIS, Poles, and Dutch agents. The escapees from Hungarian internment camps arrived in Bari after the invasion of Italy whereas before they often went through Croatia to Palestine. Military intelligence was given to the W/T operator KLEMENT who contacted SIS.
During the occupation Joel Brand had an unusual meeting with Eichmann in the Majestic Hotel in Budapest who made a chilling offer of ‘selling’ 1 million Jews for 10,000 winterised trucks. The proposal had apparently been approved of by the Allies. In May 1944 Brand left for Istanbul while Gabor left for Bari with the proposals.
Chapter 6 “London” is set in London in the mid-1970s. The chapter focusses on the Cambridge Soviet spy ring and Karoly’s arrival in Britain in 1956 where Whitehall were impervious to his knowledge and experiences. Since this book was published in 2007, other more recent publications should be cross referenced with this chapter.
Chapter 7 “From Yugoslavia to Bari” covers Gabor Haraszti (ALBERT) crossing over the Hungarian – Yugoslav border in disguise with false papers at Herginitza heading for Ivanitika. The chapter also covers the SANDY Mission and the arrest of Count Andrassy and his wife who had hid POWs in their castle at Szigetvár. Hungary had been flooded with Gestapo agents and nowhere was safe.
Gabor was to meet the Jewish paratroopers in Operation CHICKEN 1 and II with SANDY, to rescue Hungarian Jews once the contacts and escape lines had been set up from Budapest. Gabor met Anthony Eden in Čazma in Croatia and passed on his intelligence report. He was then flown by Lysander to Bari and onto Istanbul to meet the Liaison Officer attached to the Jewish parachutists. It is now June 1944, Budapest was precarious for underground operations and Col. Howie needed to get out. The escape plan involved the local Polish internment camps. MI9 were aware of Gabor’s report, and the operations were to proceed, however a delay in a telegram being sent meant a key figure, Perez Goldstein (JONES) had crossed into Hungary.
Chapter 8 “Zionists” covers the CHICKEN I and II operations and the disastrous outcome for the Jewish paratroopers whose heroism is still recognised and remembered today. The chapter outlines the torture in the Hadik prison of JONES, NUSSBACHER and STIPE. These operations are also covered https://polandinexile.com/article/soe-and-the-poles-in-hungary/. Internees were given instructions on escaping camps and detention camps and changing into civilian clothes and then seek help amongst the Jewish population. The MI9 staff at Bari, led by R.S. Taylor were aware of ALBERT’s work with the ISLD in Cairo monitoring ALBERTS escape from Hungary. His return was planned to travel with Perez Goldstein (JONES) a W/T operator as Operation ALBERT with Joel Palgi and Hannah Senesh were MI9 agents and to enter Hungary in Operation CHICKEN I and II. A missed message meant Perez Goldstein and Joel Palgi entered Hungary without Gabor. Arrests by the Gestapo halted the operations in Hungary with Joel Palgi being mistaken for ALBERT.
Chapter 9 “The Neighbourhood of Raoul Wallenberg” describes Budapest in the autumn of 1944 and the proximation of the Swedish Embassy and the Finnish Legation which was next door to Karoly’s family villa where he had a separate apartment. Karoly’s mother was an active charity worker that now included helping the Jews in Budapest. Raoul Wallenberg was hiding 30 Jewish Hungarians in the Finnish Legation. Gabor’s delay in returning from Bari did not hinder the underground movement with Karoly still smuggling reports over the Croation border or use a secret W/T set in the family villa or with Peter Zerkowitz sending messages to the Allies. Clandestine meetings took place in the villa with Gabor and Raoul Wallenberg sometimes attending.
Chapter 10 “Secret Negotiations” is set in September 1944 with Col. Howie still operating in Hungary due to an aborted passage to Yugoslavia. Howie through Prince Sapieha and Horthy’s son arranged a meeting with Horthy with the proposal to surrender to the Soviets. The German occupation of Hungary was ruthless. Horthy agreed to contact the Anglo-American parties who would help break away from the Germans. Howie was given a W/T set and contacted the Poles in London with written correspondence being carried to Switzerland by courier. His lodgings were in the Royal Palace and had to be smuggled out and relocated to a house near Lake Balaton where they learned the Gestapo were seeking them. Moved to Esztergom, the plan was to link up with some Polish forces in Slovakia. While hidden on the island of Csepel on the Danube, it was planned to fly Howie out of Hungary aboard a Heinkel 111. Included in the party were Naday, Howie, the Hungarian pilot and his wife plus a mechanic and made it as far as Termoli on the Adriatic coast.
Both Horthy and Wallenberg testified over the Jews being deported with a Peter Hain overseeing the operation. Wallenberg’s suggestions for Jews to be given unhindered passage to Palestine seems to have floundered in the increasingly volatile situation. In Hungary. With the approaching Soviet armoured divisions approaching Hungary, Horthy was at odds with an Anglo-American solution since the British insisted the negotiations were with the Soviets whom Horthy regarded as the ‘enemy’. The Soviets pushed for an armistice to take place on 16th October in the knowledge that Churchill, Anthony Eden and Molotov had made a separate agreement over the future of the Balkans and Hungary as a Soviet zone of influence. To ensure Hungary’s compliance with the Nazis, Horthy’s son Nicholas was abducted by the gestapo and beaten up. Horthy and his family were taken to Schloss Hirschberg in Germany under an SS escort.
Chapter 11 “Chaos in Budapest” covers the seizure of Hungary by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross and the country under the leadership of Ferenc Szalasi. The Jewish population faced mass transportation to concentration camps and the Hungarian underground, the MFM were powerless and in hiding and being sought by the Hungarian counter intelligence who knew of the existence of ALBERT. Reprisals and arrests were frequent and frenzied. Joel Palgi, Hannah Senesh and Perez Goldstein were in prison with Hannah refusing to give up any codes and was mercilessly tortured and then shot.
Through the Polish underground, a prison break was planned for two British agents. Perez Goldstein was deported to Germany on the 14th November and of the two agents liberated, however only one arrived who was called Daniels. Daniels was part of the SOE mission to the Hungarian Slovak border. Daniels had been arrested shortly after arriving in Budapest. Having been liberated from the Polish Zugliget camp, the story of what happened next remains semi clouded in mystery and controversy. Daniels was interned in the Hadik prison and suspicion arose over his role and status.
Chapter 12 “Joel Palgi’s Escape” from the train taking him to Germany was a daring feat. Once back in Budapest, he returned to his mission of assisting escapees and Jews with the assistance of the Jewish Underground. British airmen were placed in hiding just north of Budapest on an estate owned by Raphael Rupert. Palgi hid in the Swiss Legation who were active in assisting Jews to escape. Palgi managed to get Hannah Senesh’s mother to Palestine. Palgi eluded the NKVD and crossed over the border into Romania where he left for Bari on a C-47 on 21st June 1945.
Chapter 13 “Allied Orders” covers a more sinister aspect of the war and the revealing of post war Europe would look like. Monthly reports by Gabor (ALBERT) simply disappeared and it later transpired these reports were delivered to the Soviets and no other interested parties. Karoly was ordered to the Soviet sector front with a British courier with Clement and Barratt to follow. In a clandestine meeting the British ‘Daniels’ was present. On 4th December 1944 Karoly set off with Gerit Van der Waals. This underground group were in peril since their contacts knew their true identities and the Hungarian counterintelligence were helping the Gestapo to track them down. On arrival, Gabor was to report to the Soviets in his British uniform and orders came through all agents should wear British uniforms which Palgi refused to wear. Karoly set off with Gerit Van der Waals for a villa near Lake Valance and waited for the Soviets. When the Soviets arrived, the meeting was ugly with NKVD and SMERSH agents apprehended them as German spies then for helping the British and Americans. Their interrogation lasted days and coincided with the last Kasztner train of Jewish escapees arriving in Switzerland. Karoly was arrested for being the British ALBERT on 8thDecember 1944, the same day Raoul Wallenberg wrote his last letter to his family.
Chapter 14 “The Senior Dutch Officer” covers the exploits of Edward Van Hootegem whose SOE contact was Col. Howie. Hungary was neutral towards the Dutch which enabled them to move around freely until the German invasion in March 19444. The Dutch had organised prisoners’ escapes and provided forged documentation to disguise individuals. The official head of Allied POWs was New Zealander Capt. Roy Natusch and had been based in Count Andrassy’s castle in Szigetvár. Natusch had made a daring escape from the Gestapo and linked up with Barratt who had also been in hiding in Szigetvár before heading to Budapest to seek out the help of Rev. Szent-Ivanyi whose church provided refuge for escapees. Unable to help, he directed them to Evelyn Gore Symes who put them in touch with Frank Brackel, a Dutchman and friend of Van Hootegem.
Brackel took Natusch to Van Hootegem since Col. Howie had ‘gone to ground’. Howie provided fake passports for Natusch and Barratt and on collecting them ran into Tom Sanders, the alias of Weistein, the Jewish Palestinian British soldier who had also been in hiding in Count Andrassy’s castle in Szigetvár. The passports were eventually given to Barratt and Weinstein who travelled south to Tito’s partisans. Van Hootegem gave Natusch a false passport and lodgings with a Dutch family in Buda. Howie was forced to flee Hungary in September 1944 to avoid capture by the Gestapo. The Dutch officers were placed under arrest by the Red Army in 1945. Barratt and Weinstein resurfaced and contacted the Haraszty-Schandl ALBERT’s group.
On 28th March 1945 an unusual meeting took place in Moscow due to the arrest of Van Hootegem where Brinckman of the 30th Military Mission to Moscow liaised with the War Office and M.I.3. Brinckman reported on the meeting where he described Van Hootegem’s English poor when close friends described it as perfect. Van Hootegem provided detail of activities of Louis Clement, Col. Howie, Dubreuil and Lafayette intelligence gathering on airfields, factories and oil refineries that had been sent via Clement’s W/T set. He also recounted the liberation of POWs from the Hungarians which included Barratt who had been arrested by the Red Army at Debrecen and taken to Russia. Natusch had been arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Germany (where he escaped again) and reconfirmed Howie had been flown out of Hungary to Italy in the autumn of 1944. In his opinion, during the siege of Budapest, the Hungarians provided little support to the Germans since they were pro Anglo-American. Van Hootegem also confirmed the mass looting and rape by the Red Army in retaliation with German corpses littering the streets.
Van Hootegem also confirmed there were 19 Dutch and 16 Belgians who had been taken to Moscow which included a member of the SS pretending to be Dutch. Van Hootegem was finally released through Odessa back to Britain. Gerit Van de Waals and Karoly Schandl were less fortunate and the NKVD never disclosed to the British their whereabouts.
Chapter 15 The British Military Mission starts in January 1945 during the Battle for Budapest which was a bloody siege comparable to the population losses at Stalingrad. Half of Budapest was destroyed with mass rapes, murder and refused accept passports issued by the Swiss Legation.
The British military Mission was established in Budapest in late April 1945. Joel Palgi was approached by Mátyás Rákosi’s secretary, the newly installed Hungarian communist leader – a Stalinist and planned totalitarian order. The communists wanted Palgi to report the names of anyone entering the British Mission as pro-Western Hungarians posed a threat to the government. Palgi immediately reported the incident to Capt. Bloodworth who took precautions to protect visitors. Palgi temporarily worked for the International Red Cross despite harassment by the NKVD. He eventually escaped to Palestine and at his request, discharged from the British Army having given excellent service.
Conditions in Hungary deteriorated with food and goods in short supply, and nighttime killings of citizens and strict censorship on newspapers. At this stage, the Soviets were still allies and the Cold War was not far off from starting. The British Military Mission (BMM) dismissed its agents and in official records use the unfortunate term ‘liquidate’ the operations. Karoly Schandl, senior approached the BMM seeking information about his son. Former agents were also seeking assistance since they were under threat of exposure to the NKVD. The British officer promised to make enquiries with the Soviets since they had taken him and Daniles into custody south of Lake Valence never to be heard of again.
Archival papers show traffic between the BMM, War Office and Inter-Service Liaison Department (ISLD). The report indicated Schandl was believed to be in Turkey and should as an ISLD agent report to offices in Istanbul which was denied by the Istanbul office. A former agent confirmed Schandl had passed through the Soviet front lines with another agent who was arrested and disappeared, so the same fate could have happened to Karoly. The British contacted Karoly’s father to talk of compensation and medals and was not willing to sign any papers presented to him. His son was working and acting on British orders. The chapter concludes with copies of correspondence between different British departments over the case and case studies of what happened to helpers of which some survived and given British papers and passports while many were deported to Russia and disappeared into the Gulag system and hidden from the British ‘gaze’.
Chapter 16 “Liquidation” The Hungarian underground movements learned that Reginald Barratt and Weinstein had been taken away by the Soviets. Weinstein had been in contact with the Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee through Ottó Komoly (Nathan Zeev Kohn), the Zionist leader and chairman of the committee who was later abducted and murdered by the Arrow Cross. Barratt (RAF used the codename TIM) and Weinstein had been active with the ALBERT group, and much confusion was around the fate of them and another helper Raphael Rupert who was sent to the gulags. It emerged Karoly Schandl and Van der Waals had been secretly transported to prison in Moscow. By 1945, Gabor Haraszty (ALBERT) was also arrested by the Soviets and not survive the treatment of the NKVD and was probably shot. Raoul Wallenberg vanished from Budapest without trace and controversy surrounded the abduction which the Soviets denied.
The Szalay Group which was made up of Hungarians and Dutch officers had produced false papers for escapees and refugees. It is known Weinstein was with them in hiding up until 28th November 1944. Bari had been informed that Weinstein had not gotten through the eastern frontlines, and it is known Gabor Haraszty was in contact by W/T until early December 1944 leaving an unexplained time gap. Clement was still in Budapest in December 1944 and his future whereabouts were not known until he was reported missing to the War Office in late 1945.
The Cave Church in Budapest was a Paulist Order. It had provided shelter and refuge throughout the war as anti-Nazi resisters and provided monk’s robes that enabled the underground unit to move around easily. In 1951, the church was raided and sealed up with Father Vezer arrested and then hung.
Chapter 17 “Top Secret”. In July 1945, Lt. Col. A.C. Simmonds of MI9 reported to Brig. Crockett at the War Office and ISLD headed by Col. Teague the contents of Nussbacher’s (Neussbacher, Neuzbacher) interrogation. Also known as Joel Palgi (MICKEY, HULBERT) had been ordered to penetrate Hungary via Yugoslavia and organise escape routes. The report covered agents from MI9 and ISLD with restrictions of the secret report limited due to Palgi still had relatives in Soviet occupied Hungary. The report covered the chronological events surrounding ALBERT and the MI9/ ISLD operations with MI9 wishing a speedy discharge where his discharge papers lacked any detail of length of service or office.
Chapter 18 “The English Patient” covers the role of Count Laslo Almasy, the romantic explorer featured in the film and book The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. The Count had offered his services to the British in Cairo as a desert advisor. He became a reservist captain in the Hungarian Air Force and politically was a Hungarian, not a Nazi sympathiser, but was involved in Operation SALAAM on behalf of the Abwehr as a member of the Afrika Korps smuggling two German spies from Libya to Egypt.
While in Turkey, the Count became a double agent for the British and may have operated a clandestine radio in Budapest for MI6. He helped several Jews to escape including an Olympic fencing champion (Attila Petschaur) with Swedish passports.
Laslo Almasy was arrested by the Hungarian Communist Police (AVO/ AVH) after the siege of Budapest and interrogated to assess his links to western intelligence services. He was released and transported to the British Zone in Vienna, then the consulate in Trieste and finally an air ticket from Rome to Cairo. It is rumoured a bribe was delivered to the Hungarians by King Farouk’s cousin at the insistence of the British (MI6).
Part II Cold War
Chapter 19 “Lubyanka” reveals some of the torture methods applied to Gerit Van de Waals and Karoly Schandl while imprisoned there. The methods included extreme heat/ cold, noise, sleep deprivation and mind-games making life intolerable. The chapter has a transcript of interrogations and the events of a staged ‘hearing’. The content highlights the Soviet paranoia and instability.
Karoly worried about his surviving family in Budapest whose fate was unknown and these are covered in Terezia Schandl memoirs “Sword of the Turul”.
The Lubyanka housed other secret prisoners which included Raoul Wallenberg. Gerit Van de Waals was moved to another cell on the same floor where he committed suicide. In 1947, the Soviets informed the Swedish government that they knew nothing of Raoul Wallenberg and denied holding Van de Waals or Schandl. It was known secret prisoners included anti-Nazis and Zionist activists who were all involved in intelligence, counterintelligence and dealing with foreign firms. In 1948, the Foreign Secretary was in serious talks with missing British officers in Hungary whose fate has never been disclosed.
Chapter 20 “Isolation” follows the ‘hearing’ after Karoly’s official arrest in January 1950. Both his parents were in prison too. Karoly’s captors tried to trick him into admitting he knew Lazlo Papp who was a helper in the same group of Gabor Haraszty (ALBERT). He was not allowed any defence, and the five testimonies were rigged or false which enabled the Soviets to sentence him to 25 years in prison for contacts with an anti-Soviet organisation, MI6. Subsequently he was transported to the secret Vladimir Central Prison located 180km east of Moscow which held dissidents, political prisoners and high-profile foreign prisoners. Who often had numbers, not names. Lazlo Papp and Tibor Klement were there too.
With the death of Stalin on 5th March 1953, change slowly spread across the Soviet Union with Karoly being transported to Potyama, south of Gorky and the Volga rivers which was made up of 40 camps.
Chapter 21 “The Swedes” takes us to Canada in 1958 and Karoly’s training as a Chartered Accountant awaiting Canadian citizenship. The Swedish government made a request to meet Karoly. As a Hungarian immigrant, he was very guarded in his approach to people. His parents had been released; however, the family were classified as “Osztaly Idegen” (undesirables) and would face the permanent threat of reimprisonment. Karoly had escaped Hungary in 1956 after the collapse of the revolution. In Britain, Whitehall and the British Government had no stomach for further investigation into war crimes (Katyn massacre) or other individual crimes. The disappearance of Imre Nagy, leader of the 1956 revolution was a stark reminder of the degree the Soviets and the Hungarian communists were capable of. Karoly had given a speech to the Newcastle Rotary Club in February 1957 about the Gulags and torture and disclosed the fate of Van der Waals, but refused to acknowledge he knew of Raoul Wallenberg, it was too dangerous.
Chapter 22 “From Poland” has Karoly in Canada as a university professor and introduces to a Polish professor and like Karoly was probably an enemy of the Polish communist state. He had been a member of the NSZ and AK and fought in the Warsaw Rising and was regarded as a hero of the resistance. Suspicion lingered over Karoly who found others who had experienced totalitarianism were fearful of spies and agent provocateurs. Many such former prisoners of the Soviets were placed under surveillance both in Britain and Hungary. The Hungarian resistance had worked closely with Poland’s AK, their couriers and the Cichociemni and SOE, so it is possible of indirect contact with each other.
Chapter 23 “The Address Book” were highly valued by the Soviet counterintelligence where any names labelled them spies and imprisoned. Karoly managed to keep in contact with Karoly Haraszty, an old school friend with harmless letters since these were intercepted by the Hungarian authorities. Others included Peter Kerkowitz, Raphael Rupert and Ferenc Vali (Vali Pepi), all of whom had significant roles in the Hungarian resistance and forced to flee abroad. Jozef Schandl, Karoly’s uncle had remained in Hungary and had a distinguished career in agricultural science.
Karoly’s address book was stolen in the 1970s while posting Christmas cards. One address, that of Jacques Dubreuil was never entered into the book and contact was lost.
Chapter 24 “Canada/ U.S. Border” sees the family pile into a Buick for a trip to visit relatives on the eastern seaboard of the USA. Stopped at the border, hey revealed they had originally been Hungarians and were now Canadian citizens. When asked if Karoly had been to Russia, he listed his prisons and then their car and belongings were thoroughly searched. Finally released, they made their way to visit relatives.
Chapter 25 “Kingsmen of a Century” was written by Patrick Wilkinson of King’s College, Cambridge University mentions Karoly’s role with the Hungarian resistance and British Intelligence plus subsequent imprisonment and settlement in Canada. This led to being interviewed by a prominent historian who was recording oral histories which had become more popular in the 1980s. Karoly had introduced his family to an enigmatic Hungarian who had detailed knowledge of the Hungarian resistance and the events inside the Schandl villa in Budapest. He is only referred to a ‘M’ and on visiting the Schandl’s presented Karoly with two small crosses and some form of message that appeased Karoly’s mood. Subsequently, he started writing his memoirs and the connection with Operation CHICKEN and other courageous operations with Zionists from Palestine emerged (See https://polandinexile.com/article/soe-and-the-poles-in-hungary/).
Chapter 26 “In His Words” covers the death of Karoly in 1990 at the age of 77 years old. The eulogy was given by an old school friend who covered his lifetime of adventures and surviving the Soviet prison system. At a family gathering in a Chinese restaurant, a conversation was struck up covering the recent screening of a film about Raoul Wallenberg and his disappearance in Budapest. The diners enquired of what Karoly knew and he confirmed the Soviets had taken him away and eventually shot him. Karoly confirmed the two men communicated through Morse Code when suddenly the messages stopped. He never disclosed the content of the massages. He spoke about Gerit Van de Waals, ALBERT, Jacques Dubreuil and Hannah Senesh.
His transcript had been handed to a member of the family to edit with some sections written in MI9 code. At the funeral was an undisclosed man who asked the family if Karoly had written anything down, especially the Soviet prisons which was denied. Repeatedly asked, all was denied. The man indicated he was writing a book and suddenly left the wake. The man was Daniels (Andrew Durovecz) from Operation WINDPROOF (See https://polandinexile.com/article/operation-windproof-and-the-slovak-rising/).
Chapter 27 “Surveillance” covers the Soviet smear campaigns and human rights violations during the Cold War. The Jewish doctor plot and show trials had been planned and unfortunately, Stalin died. These doctors were in the same section as Karoly and given numbers not names. Pravda reported on the group of saboteur doctors recruited by US intelligence trying to kill Stalin, however on his death the Soviet authorities had to admit it was a fabricated story. The fact there were Hungarians held in Soviet prisons was glossed over as the communist regimes under the Soviets attempted (very poorly) to extol the virtues of the new regimes. A story appeared in the Hungarian press covering the fate of Gerit Van de Waals which unfortunately was riddled in errors. The story just enhanced the mystery around the Hungarian underground, British Intelligence and the whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg. Karoly had spoken to the Van de Waals family discreetly and this was reported in the article which confirmed Karoly had been under surveillance.
The Epilogue brings us up to date on the leading characters and their fate. It is worth reading as a reminder of the brutality of the communist regimes in eastern and central European countries and the lengths the political ‘actors’ went to satisfy the paranoia of the Soviet regime during this period. To many, the communist politicians of this era were traitors to humanity and their county.
The book is a fascinating read and well written covering a dark period in history that should never be overlooked. Chapters have a reference list with archive references from Britain’s national Archive (TNA) and supportive published literature.
