The Hungarian Army lost many comrades during the war. However for the most part they were fighting as allies of Germany in order to reclaim the land lost at the end of World War I. Hungary fell to the Red Army and was not going to get back any lost land, so those lost in that struggle were going unremembered. That does not mean Hungarian Communists could not find a list of approved victims, and give them stamps. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Poet Miklos Radnoti, not his real name, was one of the victims chosen to be part of this issue of stamps issued on the thirtieth anniversary of their war deaths. Seven leaders were chosen, none had served in combat units that had taken such a beating in Stalingrad and elsewhere. This fellow even had a pen name identifying him with a place in Bohemia where he had ancestors, instead of his own Budapest birthplace. Still enough of a Hungarian hero for government work.
Todays stamp is issue A494, a 1 Forint stamp issued by Hungary on November 11th, 1972. Mr. Radnoti received a single stamp. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused. There is an imperforate version of the stamp that ups the value to $3.00.
Miklos Radnoti, then Glatter, was born into a wealthy family of Jewish merchants. His twin brother was stillborn and his mother died in the aftermath of childbirth. He was raised with the family of a strict uncle. He received university training in business and married but was pining for a different life in the arts. Luckily for Radnoti, that’s what money is for and he quit the family firm and studied philosophy and French at the University of Szeged. He earned a PhD there. He then set out as a poet. He was helped in this by the fact that his father in law headed an important Hungarian publisher.
His work was mainly romantic views of simple peasant life as he had viewed previously as a merchant. Today many of the chronicles we have of this long ago East European life comes from the class of mainly Jewish merchants that interacted with them. The peasants themselves did not return the love to the merchants, as they often felt taken advantage of.
In 1940, Radnoti was drafted into an army construction battalion set aside for Jews. The government did not trust the Jews to fight for them if armed. He ended up working at a copper mine in Bor, Serbia. This was a massive operation and Radnoti was promoted to Kapo, a supervisory position. At this point Radnoti and his wife professed a conversion to Catholicism, probably to improve his lot. In October 1944, the unit gave up on the copper mine with the enemy approaching and began marching back toward Hungary. The government had gotten much more right wing that month and the Jews of the battalion did not see a future in Hungary. 20 of the 3600 marchers refused to go on and were shot near Abda, Hungary. Radnotti was 35.
Radnotti has several statues to him around Hungary and a large school named in his honor. Many of the Communist figures have been downgraded in esteem by the modern Hungary. So far Radnoti’s heritage has saved him that fate. His widow lived till 2014 so there was also still someone to make his case.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for those that had to go to great lengths to survive a war they did not believe in. Not all made it through. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.