Abdai gyilkosok
The Abda Murderers

Summary/Abstract: In the summer of 1946, 22 bodies were exhumed at Abda, a village near Győr. The victims murdered there in November 1944 were Jewish labor servicemen returning from the Serbian town of Bor and Szabadkirályszabadja, heading for Hegyeshalom. Among the executed was the poet Miklós Radnóti. To uncover the details of the execution and to identify the perpetrators, the Ministry of Home Affairs (Belügyminisztérium, BM) launched a secret investigation in 1967 that lasted till 1975. The nationwide probe was carried out with varying intensity, and the documentation of the findings was collected under the code name “The Abda Murderers”. “The Abda Murderers” dossier was kept in the Historical Archives of the State Security Agency and has been available for research since 1995. The Third “State Security” Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Home Affairs showed unprecedented thoroughness during the investigation. They consulted literary historians, did research in archives and at the scene, tracked down the surviving labor servicemen from Bor and dozens from among the military guards as well as Abda residents and those who had participated in the exhumation. The file contains a great deal of new information about the story of the “Bor march” as well as the execution of Miklós Radnóti and his companions. Some of these new findings support but some contradict what we previously knew of the incident. However, the primary goal of the investigation was to identify the murderers who had committed war crimes at Bor and bring them to account. Finally, the political police came up with an accurate record of the murder and named the persons suspected of carrying out the execution but was unable to fully substantiate its claims. The legal uncertainties and the accompanying political considerations – as well as the fact that some of those charged with the murders were MSZMP members – together may have contributed to the fact that in the end charges were not brought against them, and it is only now that the contents of the dossier could see the light of day for the first time.

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