Sport training at universities during the Kadar-era
Stáhnout obrázek
Péterfalvi Lajos. 1925, Szekszárd He wanted to be a chemical engineer, but since he has become a Hungarian champion in athletics he successfully applied to the Hungarian College of Physical Education in 1944. Due to the war he could not start his studies then. He served as „levente“, a member pre-militray youth organization. They were taken first to Western part of Hungary, to Zala county then to Austria. They were captured by the Red Army in Austria. The Soviets claimed that they would be taken to Budapest cleaning the city from the ruins of the war. Soon turned out that the Soviets lied to them and instead of taking them to the capital they were taken for „malenkíj robot“ in the USSR. They were brought to Romania and put on ships in Constanza. They were brought and forced to work in coal mines previously bombed by the German Army in the Don territory. Luckily, the German doctor of the lager took one young Hungarian medical university student as his assistant. Therefore he could manage to put the Hungarians into the hospital to spend one week monthly. It was very important because the food portions were larger in the hospital. He survived the Gulags and returned safe to Hungary in late November of 1945. His father worked in the state administration before the World War II. Due this fact he lost his status after the war and has been internated. He managed to take his father out from the internment camp by corrupting the leader of the camp with the gold heritage of the family. He started his studies at the Hungarian College of Physical Education in 1947 - in the very year when the communists transmitted the system from democracy into state party driven dictatorship. He recalls this year as the whole world has changed: from one day to the other instead of studing the history of the olympics they had to learn the tales and stories of wounded Soviet war heroes. He graduated in 1951 and became a trainer at the Technical University of Budapest. Sports were largly supported by the totalitarian communist state so they never had to struggle because of lack of subvention. They had good connections with other universities from the Eastern Block as well as with Western European universities. A day prior to Western departure their passport were given and they were told to contact the Hungarian Embassy immediately as they arrived. During these journeys the university sport team which he trained was being observed by Hungarian Interior Ministry. If there was a member in the team whose family member has already left the country then he or she was not allowed to travel to the West at all. He participated in the march organized by the technical university students on 23rd of October, 1956 which led to the revolution. He did not take part in the fights againts the Soviets since his wife was pregnant during the days of the revolt.