The Unforgettable Pastor

In the dark early days of World War II, the Hungarian village of Balatonboglar became a haven for hapless victims of the crushing Nazi advance--50,000 Polish soldiers and civilians, fleeing the Nazis and Soviets, and later, some 2,200 French soldiers who escaped from Nazi prison camps after the Battle of France. All found a firm, resourceful friend in the pastor of Balatonboglar, a Father Bela Varga, whose Church of the Sacred Cross became the center of refugee relief. Many of the refugees got away to fight again. Others, especially imperiled Jews, got forged documents from Father Varga that enabled them to settle down in Hungary.

Last week the onetime pastor of Balatonboglar, himself a refugee from Soviet tyranny, found that free men can remember quiet heroes. At a brief ceremony in the Washington residence of French Ambassador Herve Alphand, tall, scarlet-caped Bela Varga, 57, made a papal prelate during his 13 years in exile, was decorated with France's Legion of Honor, in remembrance of the refugees he saved.

Elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1939 as a member of the liberal Smallholders Party, Father Varga, immune by reason of his parliamentary position from political arrest in pre-Hitlerite Hungary, had bolstered the spirits of his refugee flock and outraged local Nazis by flying the French Tricolor from his church spire. In 1944 Hungary fell to the Nazis. Condemned to death by the Hitler regime, Bela Varga hid in a church cellar, was sometimes sheltered by his lifelong friend, Josef Cardinal Mindszenty. Soviet "liberation"' saw his death sentence reaffirmed by the NKVD; but he was released after 14 days in prison. In Soviet-occupied Hungary's only free election in 1945, the Smallholders Party won a resounding majority, later installed Father Varga as Speaker of Parliament. But political liberty was short-lived. In 1947, he fled to Vienna and was airlifted to freedom.

As ranking member of Hungary's last freely elected Parliament, he came to the U.S. and rallied other Hungarian exiles. Over the years he prayed that his country would not be forgotten by the free world. To Bela Varga, last week's honor was a quiet sign. Said he: "After 15 years I was not forgotten; the work for freedom in Balatonboglar was not forgotten. They who suffer for freedom in Hungary today --they, too, will not be forgotten.''

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