The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

Transylvanian Lt. Iván Héjjas. 217 Prónay passed several times through Graz,
about 50 kms. from the Hungarian border in Styria, at the end of 1919. Here he
was notified that the Austrian border police had a large stockpile of weapons
and equipment in the village of Fürstenfeld, a mere 4 kms. from the Austrian-
Hungarian border. The depot was later commandeered by the Social Democrat-
Socialist armed workers’ unit, the Wehrmacht 218 (better known as the Reds)
and, in mid-July, prevented it falling into the hands of the Heimwehr, 219
Soviet troops captured him in Budapest on March 20, 1945 and took him away. The
Soviets sentenced him, on June 10, 1946, to 20 years of hard labor, on suspicion of
spying and sabotage, and sent him to a camp in Siberia. The date of his death is
unknown. He was rehabilitated on June 27, 2001 (based on “The rehabilitation of the
victims of political persecution” law, Russian Federation, dated 1991, October 18, 3. §
b). In: Vallomások a holtak házából [Confessions from the house of the dead]. Ujszászy
István vezérőrnagynak, a 2. vkf. osztály és az Államvédelmi Központ vezetőjének az
ÁVH fogságában írott feljegyzései. Ed.: Haraszti, György. Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok
Történeti Levéltára, Corvina Kiadó, Budapest, 2007, p. 425.
217 v. Iván Héjjas, born in 1890. During WWI, he fought on various fronts and
demobilized as a reserve airforce first lieutenant. He was a founding member in
November of 1918 of the Awakening Hungarians Association [Ébredő Magyarok
Egyesülete], later its co-president. During the Hungarian Soviet Republic, he was active
in counter-revolutionary organizing among the rural population, for which he had to
escape. He joined the Hungarian National Army in Szeged. After the fall of the
Commune, his company, later battalion (the so-called Héjjas detachment), settled
scores with Communists and Communist-suspects in the area between the Danube and
Tisza Rivers. He supported Regent Horthy during the two attemps by Charles Habsburg
IV to regain the throne. He was the other leading figure, beside Prónay, of the 1921
insurrection in Western Hungary. Between 1921 and 1922, he was the deputy military
commander of the Double Cross Blood Alliance [Kettőskereszt Vérszövetség]. From
1927 to 1931, he was the National Assembly representative of the riding of
Kunszentmiklós, in the Hungarian National Independence Party [Magyar Nemzeti
Függetlenségi Párt]. From 1937 to 1940, he was department counsel of the Trade and
Transportation Ministry, head of the Trasnportation Department (1940-1943), finally
head of the Aeronatical Section of the Transport Ministry (1943-1944). From 1938, he
was president of the National Race-protection Alliance of Hungary [Magyar Fajvédők
Országos Szövetsége]. After the First Vienna Award of November 2, 1938 (when the
Hungarian-populated parts of Northern Hungary, annexed to Czechoslovakia by the
Trianon Treaty, were reunited with Hungary), he fought as detachment commander (in
the Ragged Guard [Rongyos Gárda]) against the Czechs in Sub-Carpathia (1938-1939).
In 1944, he fled to Germany ahead of the Soviet Army, moving on to Spain. For his
actions in 1919, the People’s Court in Budapest sentenced him to death in 1947-1948.
However, he could not be extradited. He died in Vigo, Spain, in 1950.
218 Wehrmacht [Defense Force]. This unit is only related by name to the National
Socialist (Nazi) armed force of Germany, whose official name was the same, in
existence between 1935-1945.
219 Soós, 1971, op. cit., p. 86. Heimwehr: armed volunteer independent unit made up of
army officers of the former Monarchy (K.u.K.) forces, the first units of which were
organized in 1918 in Carinthia, Tyrol and Styria against the ‘un-nationalist’ forces, and
the defense of the borders of Austria. They were linked to the Greater Germany parties
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