Hungary -- History -- Revolution, 1918-1919 -- Personal narratives; Tormay, Cécile, 1876-1937 -- Diaries
The day after the meeting in the Zichy Palace I wrote letters, telephoned
and called to my side a few brave, energetic women. We had no time to
waste, and we decided that each of my guests should invite to her own
home her reliable women friends, and that we should address them, so that
they in their turn might spread the idea of the organisation of Christian
Hungarian women. There was no other solution, for the Press had ceased to
be free. The few Christian and middle-class papers which would otherwise
have been at our disposal had begun to be terrorised by red soldiers.
Our ideals had been condemned to death by the Social Democrats; they had
declared war against patriotism and Christianity. As for the integrity of
Hungary’s soil, they had declared in their official paper that it was no
business of theirs....
We had perforce to return to the primitive means of olden times. The idea
was spread by word of mouth, and we separated so as to be able to do
more work. Emma Ritoók visited one end of the town and I the other. Like
the primitive Christians, women gathered now here, now there. I visited
dingy lodgings, baronial halls, schoolrooms; through dark streets, in the
gloom of hostile alleys, I walked in snow and wind day after day. Women
understood me, and their souls glowed with courage and decision in these
sad times of exhaustion and resignation. With very few exceptions they
signed my lists, those who did not had been forbidden to do so by their
husbands. Never once did I find among them the cry of resignation “It is
all over, effort is useless.” I respected them and was grateful to them,
for they were simple, great and faithful. And while I thought of them in
my wanderings from one modest home to another, and tormented myself about
the misfortunes of our country, one scene for ever kept passing before my
eyes. Though the snow was falling and it was dark I could see an eastern
city under a burning sky; a house with pillars, the house of Pilate, and
in the hall stood Our Lord in bonds. In front of the house a crowd, mad
with hatred, clamoured: “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!”
That is what they are shouting against our fettered country to-day. They
drag it down among themselves, put a crown of thorns upon its head, smite
it and spit upon it. They load it with a heavy cross and drive it unto
the place called Golgotha. They nail it to the cross, so that it shall be
able to see with its dying, bloodshot eyes, how they cast lots for its
vesture at its feet. Then they put it into a sepulchre and roll a great
stone before it, sealing the stone and setting a watch so that it shall
not be able to rise....
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