Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter (born September 4, 1917 in Eperjes , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , today Prešov, Slovakia , † June 16, 1958 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian officer and Minister of Defense.
His father was a professor at the law faculty of Eperjes, which was affiliated to Slovakia under the Treaty of Trianon . Maléter had aspired to a military career since childhood, but did not want to serve in the Czechoslovak army . In 1935 he therefore began to study medicine at Charles University in Prague . When Hungary was annexed again after the Vienna arbitration , Maléter broke off his medical studies and enrolled at the Budapest Ludovica Military Academy . In December 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant by Miklós Horthy as the first in his class . In the spring of 1944 he was ordered to the front against the Soviet Union . After a few months he was taken prisoner by the Soviets near Kolomyja . After attending an anti-fascist school , he was trained as a partisan , parachuted from behind the front lines and fought in Transylvania in the winter of 1944 . For this he was awarded by the Soviet side.
After the liberation of Hungary, Maléter remained a soldier and participated in the reorganization of the Hungarian army. He was promoted to captain of the border troops and joined the Communist Party . A little later he was promoted to commandant of the guards of the new President of the Republic, which was dissolved again in 1949. Maléter was transferred to the Ministry of Defense.
At the beginning of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 , Maléter was a colonel in the Hungarian army and commander of an armored division . First sent to Budapest to put down the uprising, he contacted the rebels and joined them. He was first promoted to general by the new government and made defense minister on October 29, 1956. He headed the Hungarian delegation, which was to negotiate with the Soviet rulers on November 3, 1956. During the negotiations, Maléter was arrested on November 4th on instructions from KGB chief Serov . After the suppression of the uprising, he was together with Imre Nagy sentenced to death and prison by the Budapest train executed .
On June 16, 1989, Pál Maléter, Imre Nagy and three other victims of justice were solemnly buried in Budapest with the participation of several hundred thousand people. On October 6, 1989, the Supreme Court officially overturned the unjust judgment against him.
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.spiegel.de: “I will open fire on the Soviets”, dated December 5, 1966, accessed on January 8, 2017
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maléter, Pál |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Hungarian Defense Minister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 4, 1917 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prešov |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 16, 1958 |
| Place of death | Budapest |