Out of the Darkness

The lonesome chatter of a Teletype in dead of night told the world of Hungary's return to shadows. At 5:15 Sunday morning (11:15 p.m. E.S.T. the night before in the U.S.), a man in the Hungarian M.T.I, news agency in Budapest punched out an urgent Teletype message to the Associated Press in Vienna:

RUSSIAN GANGSTERS HAVE BETRAYED US; THEY ARE OPENING FIRE ON ALL OF BUDAPEST. PLEASE INFORM EUROPE AND THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT . . . THEY OPENED FIRE ON EVERYBODY . . . KADAR . . . MARO-SAN AND RONAI FORMED A NEW GOVERNMENT. THEY ARE ON THE RUSSIANS' SIDE.

There was a pause.

A FEW HUNDRED TANKS ATTACKED BUDAPEST ... A THOUSAND . . . THERE IS HEAVY FIGHTING ... I STAY OPEN AND CONTINUE

WITH THE NEWS . . . WE SHALL INFORM THE WORLD ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE RUSSIAN TANKS NOW ARE IN RAKOCZI STREET.

The clatter stilled once more, resumed.

WE ARE UNDER HEAVY MACHINE-GUN FIRE. PREMIER NAGY WILL SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE . . . HAVE YOU INFORMATION YOU CAN PASS ON ... TELL ME. URGENT. URGENT.

For the next hour, in urgent, tortured fragments, the man at the keyboard tapped out the tragedy.

I SPEAK IN THE NAME OF IMRE NAGY. HE ASKS HELP . . . THE WHOLE PEOPLE ASK FOR HELP.

Pause.

HAVE YOU ALREADY SOME INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN PASS ON TO ME? LONG LIVE HUNGARY AND EUROPE. THE RUSSIANS ARE USING PHOSPHOROUS BULLETS.

ANY NEWS ABOUT HELP? QUICKLY. QUICKLY. . . . THE RUSSIAN ATTACK WAS STARTED AT 4 A.M. IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING PLEASE PASS IT ON. WE HAVE NO TIME TO LOSE. NO TIME TO LOSE.

NAGY IS SPEAKING ON THE RADIO . . . ANY ANSWER PASS IT ON. IMRE NAGY PERSONALLY ASKS HELP. AND DIPLOMATIC STEPS.

At 6:10 a.m., the connection between M.T.I, and Vienna A.P. went dead, but the Telex circuit between the Budapest newspaper Szabad Nep and Vienna A.P. chattered to life. SOS SOS SOS.

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MAKING MOLOTOV COCKTAILS AND HAND GRENADES TO FIGHT THE TANKS. WE ARE QUIET NOT AFRAID. SEND THE NEWS TO THE WORLD.

THE FIGHTING IS VERY CLOSE NOW AND WE HAVEN'T ENOUGH TOMMY GUNS IN THE BUILDING. I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG WE CAN RESIST . . . HEAVY SHELLS ARE EXPLODING NEAR BY. ABOVE JET PLANES ARE ROARING. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER.

DON'T BE MAD THE WAY I'M WRITING. I

AM EXCITED. I WANT TO KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO END. I WANT TO SHOOT.

I AM RUNNING OVER TO THE WINDOW IN THE NEXT ROOM TO SHOOT BUT I WILL BE BACK. WE WILL HOLD OUT TO THE LAST DROP OF BLOOD. DOWNSTAIRS THERE ARE MEN WHO HAVE ONLY ONE HAND GRENADE.

NOW THE FIRING IS STARTING AGAIN. WE ARE GETTING HITS . . . WE NEED MORE. IT CAN'T BE ALLOWED THAT PEOPLE ATTACK TANKS WITH THEIR BARE HANDS.

WHAT IS THE UNITED NATIONS DOING? GIVE US A LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT.

THEY'VE JUST BROUGHT A RUMOR THAT AMERICAN TROOPS WILL BE HERE WITHIN ONE OR TWO HOURS.

He asked the A.P. to send a personal message to a relative in London: SENDING

KISSES. WE ARE WELL AND FIGHTING AT 9:30 A.M. Less than an hour later came his sign-off.

That was the last to be heard from the man at the Teletype of Szabad Nep. Not much later the Russians cut off all communications between Hungary and the outside except one stubborn rebel radio station. A Teletypist in the United Press Bureau in Budapest composed as his final message to Vienna an epitaph:

GOODBYE FRIENDS. GOODBYE FRIENDS.

GOD SAVE OUR SOULS.

THE RUSSIANS ARE TOO NEAR.

The line went dead.

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