Dear Mr. Zsolt Bayer! Please allow me to call you Zsolt, as my wife and I always do at home when we watch your show or when you are mentioned. I think he may allow it; so:
Dear Zsolt!
As I read, with great difficulty, the article published with the above title, I also feel nauseous and can only speak with an almost trembling, trapped voice. I started writing right now, and forgive me for my shortcomings, but maybe my lines are not uninteresting, they are still circling and swirling inside me, but I am trying to put them into shape and order, after all, I had to try to put my things in order all my life. I don't want to blow my horn to the world right now either, but I hope it can be instructive for some, and it might cheer you up, Zsolt!
There is also a legal scholar and head of department at ELTE's sociology of law department, who, among other things, previously argued in favor of constitutionalism with a half-majority, his name is Zoltán Fleck. I could not meet my biological grandfather, but his name was: János Fleck. I hope there are no even so distant family ties to the mentioned "celebrity".
Ever since I hear the name of the Jurist many times, I don't want to pronounce my grandfather's name in the least, but sometimes I have to, and I think about how unfair it is if I don't want his name. János Fleck was a famous man in Budafok, as far as I know, he had a tire repair factory in the center, on Savoyai Jenő tér. He had a family villa and an office in the city center (Bp. VIII. ker. Csepregi u. 4.) and provided good conditions for his family. I'm only writing this here because, based on the little information I have, after the nationalizations of 1948, he was also in line and essentially everything in his name was stripped of his property - with less force than "half the majority"!
My grandfather János Fleck left everything here and went to Germany, where he lived well with his inventions and diligence in Munich - as I learned about this later, and as I once wrote about it on the CÖF website, after Manfréd Wéber's "statement". My grandmother, having no other professional skills, became a weaver at Goldberger Textilművek in order to support herself and her daughter, my mother. Even with her aching legs, she always roasted my pet after many horse-runs by the loom; mine was the five-pager. Yes, as you say, the smell of the cake, what an important and beautiful memory we have! Her second husband, who was a driver, was a simple but truly great man, HE was my GRANDFATHER! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk much with him either, because I was only around 10 years old at the time, and he is a quiet person, but I could also roll the cigarette paper of "Lepke" to him. I don't know anything else about my grandfathers. A memory of a photograph - because I didn't get it either - of my blood relative and sitting on the small stool with my "real" grandfather. One of them has always given me strength, because even though a person may be destitute, if he still has a little faith in the future, then the most important thing has remained!
My grandparents were religious people, but under the rule of "the majority that did not even reach half", this had to be hidden. My grandmother once took me to the small chapel on the corner of Hengermalom út and Fehérvári út, where there is a simple belfry, but I always admire it when I go there. I will always remember the silence of the chapel and the filtered light from the windows. I have to tell you, Zsolt, that this turned out to be very big, I can say the quarrel with the poor grandmother, since with a big leap I get to a new generation of family history; my father was already a labor guard at that time - "professional". My other life, which has become independent and separate, has been fundamentally and manifoldly influenced, even to this day, by the practice associated with a soul-crushing attitude, which can be identified with the "work" carried out for your disqualification, which I read in your current article.
That's why I also felt the stomach-churning, nauseating feeling that came over me when I read about the approach with which they conduct research and report the results of some people, and they would drag people into the depths with whom they are no longer able to grow up.
As you write: “Because there is a fight. There's war. There is a struggle. Among the sovereignists, supporters of the nation-state, the kurucs, and the globalists, the traitors of the nation-state, the Labanks."
My great-grandparents from Budafoki, who were Swabians by the way, along with my great-grandfather, a proud master cooper, and my great-grandmother with an honest, fighting for everything attitude that is still defining to this day - of course, always believing in their Hungarianness, and also helping to build a church, were also "big families", raising five children. In all cases, they were the only ones I could relate to. I try, I have to try!
As you write: “They want this fight to be about the past. But not. This fight is about the present. And now, down on the floor, terrified, with my grandfather's fate on my back, I feel stronger to continue this fight."
As you write: "...one must continue on this road to avoid hell."
Yes, we take responsibility for our own decisions and actions. We can be proud of our family members, or we have to live in isolation, but as descendants of our ancestors, we can do nothing but stand up with honor in our own name, and maybe even those we don't even know can be forgiven.
Dear Zsolt! Thank you, thank you for writing this article - too! I'm not a writer like you, and I hope I've managed to avoid putting myself in the foreground, but I trust that this letter can be instructive for many, so I'm writing it in the form of an open letter, and of course using my name: József Kiss, Károly Kós laureate ny. landscape and garden architect.
Bp. 29.01.2024
József Kiss
Cover image: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák
(Readers' letters do not necessarily reflect the editor's point of view)
