Ferenc Schlaffer

„Pornóapáti was near to the border line, to the frontier between Hungary and Austria. This is why the village was closed between two wires… how could I explain it better… the inhabitants of the village were living between two fences of wire. The village was separated and protected by an electric fencing against those who arrived from the outside, that is against those Hungarians who came one at a time towards the west. Q.: That is to say that those who lived to the east of Pornó, Pornóapáti, coming there they met an obstacle before arriving to the village. A.: That’s correct. There was an electric guard. Q.: So there was an electric borderline. A.: Also here, at the railway station in Szombathely, there were patrols of the border guards. They asked documents, they controlled the number of the identity cards. There were identity cards with number 1, 2 and 3, you know. Number 1 was given to those who lived in Vas county very close to the frontier. Pornóapáti for example was in this region. Then Szombathely or Nára were number 2. Farer you lived in the country, the bigger number you had on your passport. If somebody wanted to come to Pornó to visit somebody, or for else, he had to ask a permission at the Ministry of the Interior… Q.: Was it an entrance permission? A.: ... yes, it was, to the place where he wanted to go near the border. Sometimes the permission was given, sometimes it was denied. The person who asked it was always strictly controlled, for what reason, for which point he wanted to enter the zone. To visit relatives, which relatives, when and at what time? Thus it was a difficult situation if somebody who lived in Hungary, a Hungarian citizen who was living farer from here, let’s say, wanted to come here. Q.: And those who entered the zone, for example, to visit relatives in Pornóapáti, was usually controlled in the territory of the village? A.: Certainly. But not only the outsiders, also local people of Pornó was obliged to have his identity card with his 500 meter-permission in it with him to every where he went in the village, if he went to the field to work, to hoe. You had to have it in your pocket or in your bag in case you had to show it, to proof you were a local inhabitant. Q.: Let’s return to the border structure. So there was a border defence line to the east of the village, it was an electric one, and the other one you had to cross, you said, it was a simple wire fence that years, if I’m right. A.: Yes, it was a wire fence… it wasn’t a big obstacle anymore then. You could well see in the Iron Curtain Museum what sort of defence systems were in general, but that part of the frontier where I lived there weren’t either mines or anything else, because it would have caused danger for the foreigners who lived very close, just on the other side of the border. Q.: If there had been an explosion, also foreigners would have been wounded, am I right? A.: Exactly. Because a mine could have had such an impact that it could have broken every windows and everything. But not only, Austrian citizens could have been wounded easily. So mines couldn’t be used there.”

„After my work shift I returned home, I handed my wage over to my Mum, and then I decided it was the day to… Q.: To leave. And did you mention it to your mother? A.: No, I didn’t. Q.: Did you go home, did you give her your money and..? A.: Well, I said simply that I was leaving but I didn’t add that I was leaving the country. Q.: Did you go straight to the border line? A.: First I took my bike, then I got it off and… in the meantime I met my sister and her young daughter, and then I turned to go to the border. Q.: Where did you cross it? A.: In Pornóapáti between the Hungarian custom house and the station where the Austrian custom officers were. Q.: Weren’t there any patrols? A. : There were, certainly there were, but for those who had borned and lived there it wasn’t a problem where and when there was any chance to leave the country across the green border. Q.: So you knew the border defence structure, didn’t you? A.: Right, how could we not know it?! We was living there, I had been born there, I saw the defence system for eighteen years. Q.: Was it really so simple? Did you just go there and..? A.: Yes, I went there, I climbed up to the wire fencing and I crossed it. Q.: Didn’t it give a sign of alert? A.: No, it didn’t. It was a simple wire, it was an ordinary wire… of which usually fences are made at family houses. Q.: Did you look around to see where the guards were or did you just climb up? A.: I knew well where they were. There were some of them also in the wooden tower. Q.: Could they see you? A.: Yes, I think they could if they had turned into that direction, but... Q.: Did you check where they were looking at? Didn’t you fear of being shot at? A.: I was sure they didn’t shoot at me because I was exactly the custom house and they would have shot in it. Q.: You crossed the border very quickly then, didn’t you? A.: Yes, I did. Q.: Did it happen in some seconds? A.: Right, it was an event of some seconds. A young boy climbed up to the fence and he jumped over to the neighbours’. It happened simply like that.”

„After leaving the industrial school I continued to work at my place, but it wasn’t a long time I worked here in Hungary because I had decided even before to leave my country, this one, Hungary. Q.: When did you have this idea at the first time? A.: I had this in mind as early as when I was a child... This was a country where I shouldn’t have been born, I didn’t want to serve this country, it is simple like that. Q.: Did you tell your parents that you were leaving? A.: No, obviously no. How could you tell such a thing? What sort of parents did let their child leave? Q.: And have you thought about it wether it worthed or not to leave Hungary? Had it a positive or a rather negative influence on your future? How do you consider it? A.: Well, if I reconsider it I have to say that I made quite a lot of money at home when I left, I earned more than my father. In the first month for example… Q.: Why, how much did you earn? Do you remember? A.: I made some 2000 forints per month. Q.: As a roofer? A.: Certainly, I was a roofer. But to compare, my father earned only 1500 forints a lot of years later. So my wage wasn’t at all bad in Hungary. I might even to achieve something, to possess something in Hungary, too. I don’t say I didn’t have any possibility, but… I felt deep sorrow for having been deprived of everything we used to have. Q.: Thus didn’t you regret that you had left Hungary, did you? A.: I didn’t regret it at all, I don’t think about it, now my life is this, in the long run.”