"We, Hungarians, wanted to belong to the free world, but that world left us high and dry," Péter Szijjártó said.Continue reading
Mária Wittner, a well-known freedom fighter of the 1956 anti-Communist uprising has passed away at the age of 85 today. She has died after a long illness surrounded by her family.
She worked as a young typist in Szolnok, a small town South-East of Budapest until her fateful decision to move to Budapest in 1956.
She was one of those who have took part in the anti-Communist uprising and fought against the occupying Soviet forces during the 1956 revolution, such as the siege of the Hungarian Radio. She was involved in a number of armed clashed until she was wounded by shrapnel. When the Soviet troops have eventually crushed the revolution, she fled to Austria but after a short stay she decided to return to Hungary, where she worked as a laborer.
Along with other freedom-fighters she was arrested and in 1958 sentenced to death under the charge of conspiracy to overthrow the state order. In 1959 the courts have commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. She was eventually released in 1970, but was not granted amnesty.
After the fall of communism, from 1989 she was deputy chairman of the Hungarian Political Prisoners’ Association, and from 2006 to 2014 a member of parliament for Fidesz.
The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has reacted to Mária Wittner’s passing on his social media pages saying: “Loyalty unto the death. May Mária Wittner rest in peace!”
Likewise, President Katalin Novák had remembered the hero of 1956 writing: “May Mária Wittner rest in peace!”
Featured Photo: MTI/Kovács Tamás