Ödön Pásint: A Prisoner of His Conscience – Part I
Ödön Pásint: A Prisoner of His Conscience – Part I

Summary/Abstract: Chief of the Prime Ministerial Department Ödön Pásint (1900–1950) was the Transylvanian born son of a Unitarian pastor’s family, later on a secretary of Count István Bethlen, Hungarian Prime Minister (1921–1931), who maintained close and confidential ties with him up until late 1944 when Bethlen was detained by the Soviet Army. In 1928 Pásint became the personal secretary to Bethlen and in 1942 the head of the Special Agency for Transylvania, where he headed a number of rescue efforts aimed at ethnic minorities during and after the Second World War. In the spring of 1950, he was driven into death by the constant harassment suffered at the hands of the communist State Security (ÁVH). As it happens so many times, the one who dedicated his life to protect and save others could not finally save himself. Béla Nóvé’s biographical reconstruction, based on both archival and oral history research, was first published in Hungarian by Kriterion Publishers, Cluj/Kolozsvár/Clausenburg, Romania, in 2012. The present edited excerpts have been selected from the upcoming English version of his biography titled Odon Pasint a Prisoner of his Conscience. A Voice for Minorities in Dangerous Times.

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