Against the Wall

Pal Kosa seemed a model young Communist. He lived and worked in Ujpest, an industrial suburb of Budapest, was a member of the workers' committee and a party leader. But when the Russian tank columns moved to crush the revolution of October 1956, Pal Kosa opposed them. He led a crowd of fellow workers in overthrowing the Soviet war memorial in Ujpest, helped keep resistance going in his suburb long after the fighting had ceased throughout most of the country. On Nov. 12, Pal Kosa was captured by the vengeful puppet government of Janos Kadar.

Early this month Pal Kosa and seven others were lined against a wall in Budapest's Fo Utca prison and shot dead by a firing squad. At the secret trial of Pal Kosa and his friends, 182 witnesses were called for the prosecution, none for the defense. Some Ujpest Communists offered to testify for the defendants but were refused a hearing by Hungary's hanging judge, Janos Borbaly. Not a word about the trial or execution appeared in Hungarian newspapers, but word leaked out to the Manchester Guardian's Victor Zorza, a Polish exile with excellent contacts behind the Iron Curtain. Why such secrecy, asks Zorza, why this great fear of obscure Pal Kosa even when dead and buried in an unmarked grave? "Could it be because to many in Hungary he is a national hero?"

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