Gyula Kertész
Gyula Kertész was born on 16 July 1908 in a farming family (his parents farmed 100 acres of land).He graduated from high school in 1928, after which he worked on his father's land. In 1940, he enlisted and served in the military with the 6/II Battalion and its twin unit, the 36/II Battalion. From December 1941 to August 1942, he was in the field of operations (Donetsk Basin and Konotop) with the latter unit as a machine-gun company commander in the Eastern Invasion Group. In his autobiography he did not give any details as to why he was awarded the Governor's Commendation and the Iron Cross II Class (the latter being a rare decoration for a Hungarian officer at that time). He claims to have been on leave between January and June 1942, which is certainly not true. What is certain is that between December 1941 and January 1942 the battalion was involved in highly problematic partisan fighter operations, and subsequently experienced extremely heavy fighting at Sukhaya Gomolsa, south of Kharkov, in the spring months. In early August 1944, he moved with the 10th Infantry Division to the Carpathian foothills as commander of the machine-gun company of the 6/II Battalion (and in practice deputy battalion commander), took part in the defensive fighting of the 1st Hungarian Army, and in November 1944 fought in the Great Plain and then in the foothills of Budapest. In mid-December he withdrew with part of the battalion to the capital and withdrew from the fighting. He hid with members of his unit in the house at 11 Zivatar uta, but here he rescued several families, including Jews, from being deported and fed them. On 9 February 1945, he crossed over to the side of the Soviet troops in Orlai Street with 36 soldiers. However, he did not see combat, but on 15 February he was appointed battalion commander in the new Hungarian Volunteer Regiment in Budafok. Afterwards, the whole regiment was first transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp in Jászberény, and then, after reorganisation, as a unit of the new 1st Division. Nevertheless, in 1947 he was awarded the medal for the capture of Soviet Budapest, then the bronze degree of the Hungarian Order of Freedom, and a year later the silver degree of the Order of the Hungarian Republic.
He joined the MKP in September 1945. "(The MKP's) enlightenment work showed me that my place was in the working class," he wrote in his 1949 autobiography. He also held election rallies and campaigned regularly for the Communist Party, holding various party functions, but was downgraded to candidate when the two workers' parties merged, on the grounds that he had not developed sufficiently. He repeatedly applied for membership, but was refused, and in 1952 he was discharged from the army. He was described as 'lacking in initiative, insecure because of his origins and his long service as an officer. He often gives the impression that he could do more if he really wanted to." Kertész, moreover, recorded his demotion from the party as a personal revenge on a former regimental comrade: the political officer who had acted in this case had previously been a Reformed field chaplain in the 6th Infantry Regiment and had distributed 'spiritual comfort' to soldiers before an attack.
After his discharge, he worked in various jobs as an administrator, cashier, manual labourer, and from 1956 as a district supervisor and later branch manager of the State Insurance Company. In 1958, it was proposed that he should be stripped of his rank and decorations, but the Committee of Appeal did not approve this on the grounds of his 1945 merit.