(SANITIZED)WILHELM PIECK AUTOMOBILE FACTORY IN GYOR(SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A041000300001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 10, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTR/~L INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the 1;spionage Laws, Title
-E-C-R EmT
INFO.
PLACE &
~~.~: Gy~r
.,.. . ~. Li1. ~~ 4'40m0 story
DATE DISTR.
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NO. PAGES
1
REFERENCES
RD
~.fo-rm,::f~iou p~?.ed~.tes th'e Ol;tobea~Ngv~mber 1956 Hungarian revolto
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U~ne rt~me'r~ SIP several important personalities at the factory> A11 the
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~:~~Lm~e:~ i~:t" employees, products manufactured9 .and light-pla~:e flying and
-~?:~ e~.~at.o~oY~t~:e f~.ctory in .Gy re e report gives. information. on the
~'~~
r~pbrt concerning the Wilhelm.
STATE `,ARMY NAVY ~ AIR FBI AEC
(Note: Washington distribution indicated by "X"; Field distribution by "~'".)
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The whole Hungarian air force then consisted of 3b fir;hter planes of the
Messe;r.scrmidt 109 type and Focke ?~~u1f 190 type, as well as several reserve
p]_anes. ~`~J_l these planes were stationed at the Japol_ca airfiel_d,~located to
the nortr. of the Ball2tonmeer. The bombers (Junckers 87) were first stationed
at the a'.rfield at Budapest and later at that of Oyor. On 21 Mar. 194
the Veszprem airfi
an _ ve e e ~roun . personne
el.d, was bombed by the Russians
the air~'~ield had been partially evacuated
~c~ left . In the panic c Bused ~ by the bombing,
the remr-_nin~; personnel also fled.
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R~`olution
the revolution really began at the Franz ? ozse nzversl y in. ~ zeme ,
and that ll, days before th^ real revolt in ~zd.a?~est began. The rector of this
v.niversi-~~r was Desjd B~.ROTI, a brother of the above Lajos BAROTI. .The revolt
ber;an in C'~yor on 2/. Oct. 1956, thus one day after Buda_est. At 2x00 P.M.,
when the shifts were chan~in at the factory, none of the workers t~rent homey for
all T~rere craven into a spontaneous procession to -the city hall. The workers of
the other factories joined this procession. The ~,rhole city was a sea. of flans.
'~11 Soviet emblems were removed.? On the square an electrician from Budapest
(Horv~th`~) was giving; a speech, while the AUH agents stood in the midut of the
crowd in civilian c?.othing. `''~?en therJrocession went to the CP district
bui?_ding but the entrance to this buil~linm was bloclted by Russian. tams. [~fhen
Horvath as'?~ed in the name of the crowd irh.ether they wou?.cl receive a deputation
at t1~e district l~din?, the district commissioner Giza M11;4K0 appeared on the
balcony. The mob then screar.~ed that the red flans in front of the bui]_ding must
be taken do~,rn. ??.fter a dispute of about 3 minutes, the red flags were lowsrec~
and 2 Hu~~garian flags, with the red star in them, ~~rere run. up. However, the
crowd ~aa; not satisfied with this and demanded that the red stars be taken out
of the flr~s. !after some time, the red stars ?were cut out of the flags. Then
Ho_rv~~th 'and the 5 deleg~ tes from the crowd entered the building and presented
'r,he familiar 16 demands ~?rhich were drawn up by the Petoficlub in Budapest. Then
they as'{sd to have the Russir:n tanks removed. Giza Marlco replied that he could.
not give this order, since he had no authority to do so. He himself in fact had
not even asked for the tanks. The crowd then roared that the Russians ought to
disappear. This request tras then fulfilled. The tanks were spat upon but the
~`~~~~ ~.
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Russians dick not fire; they drew back into the taoods around Gyor.
??lhile Horvath and the 5 worker delegates were in the building, the crowd
taent in a procession to the local prison. They demanded the liberation of the
prisoner^ but this .taws rerused. `.When the doors of the prison Caere battered
with lamp posts which had been torn dotrn. At this momeht, 2 trucks arrived with
AVH people armed with machine duns who began to fire on the crota?~. As a result
of this, 14 were killed immediately. Because a Hera station was being built
across tY~e street from the station, by chance there Caere many loose stones
available. About 15,000 people pelted the trucks full. of AVII agents with
i.;rese stones and the AVH people sought refuge in the prison. The trucks were
then seized and the hand grenades which were in them Caere throy~n at the prison
after there had again been firing, on the crowd from the prison.Then there was a
general storming of the prison but most of -the AVH a~:erits Caere able to get out
of the prison through a secret door in the neighboring court house. After the
fighting had lasted about an hour and a half., the prison was occupied and the
prisoner:' set free . There were tt-ro AUH agents dead in the bui? d irk .
At about g:00 P.M. the Russian tanks came into the city again to occupy
and protect the buildings publics After a rather.c,ui~at night, next morning, cars
faith louc'speakers came into the city and drove around stating the people must
remain quiet and go to taork as usual. They were promised that the Russian
troop_ s taould then leave the city again. Originally, people paid attention to
this appeal but after they heard that the same night students had. been arrested
by the A?'H , bettaeen 10:00. and 11:00 the workers again left the factories and
went in a procession to the city hall to protest a~:ainst these arrests.
and,
The l.oca.l police commandant appeared on the steps, n probably to please the
crowd, hac removed all Russian emblems and insignia from his uniform. They
demanded that the students be set free and the barracks flung open so that the
Hunnarian soldiers could move freely among the crotad.. Soon a music corps came
out of the barracks, about 50 men strong and marching, without arms. However,
the c rowel tags not s atisfied with. this and demanded that all soldiers be set
free. Then the to:an commandant appeared ~on the balcony and said that all
soldiers Caere free to leave the barracks if they t?~ished. Then the crotad
demanded that the political prisoners all be set free taho Caere still in the AVH
building. A deputation from the crowd moved to the 1~.UH building to demand
this liberation, but they returned empty-handed faith the message that no one
would be freed. The people were not satisfied with this and in a procession
about L~0,000 people m?rched to the AVH building' udder the leadership of the city
commandant and surrounded the buildin;;. The buil_din~; had 3. stories above ground
and 3 stories belota ground. On the ground f1oo~~ and the first floor the ordinary
police had their offices; the rest of the floors were in use btT the .AVH. In
front of every trindow of the AVH floors there taws an agent posted with machine
gun and hand grenades.
The students who had been arrested were now set free but the people demanded
the complE:te surrender of the building as a sign that they meant things seriously.
As a sign of surrena~er, a white flag was to be hung nut. However, the AVH was not
rowdy to surrender. The city commandant then threatened to reduce -the building
to r ubbl~ if the AVH d.id not surrender in 3 minutes. Meantahile, the ordinary
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police had left the building and mingled with the crowd. After about 10
minutes, a white flag was stuck out of the 2nd. story. Then 200 to 300 people .
went into the building. The windows were thro?~ln open and the whole inventory -
includin~ arms and dossiers -thrown out. One AVH a;~ent had meanwhile committed
suicide ~ nd 5 or h were trampled to death by the crowd. The rest of these people,
about l,,0 of them, succeeded in fleeing via a secret underground passage. I~~an-
while, the city commandant had taken the ?rounded AVH agents prisoner and taken
them to the barracks. The crowd then demanded these prisoners for lynching' but
the city commandant decided that they ought to appear for trial to be sentenced
officially. By this d ecision he a]_~ hopdd to do the communists a good turn,
just in case the revolt came to a bad ending.
17 prisoners were freed from the AVH building. Among them was one, from
Budapest, ??rho race been a prisoner since 1946. He had been locked up i.ra a dark
cellar far l0 ,years and had become blind. He didn't even know where he was. .
Many instruments of torture were found.. They even found a case full of human
nails ?rr.~.ch had been pulled out. Also found photographs of the atrocities.
All the army officers were members of the party, including' the c ity commandant,
He h.ad chosen the side of the people purely to save his nec1C for he counted on the
help of the Russians. So his cooperation in the resistance was only a sh~?m. After
the revoJ_t People a~~ n went to work in the factories. Revolutionary councils
were set up in which communists ware included. Every factory had a revolutionary
council ~.nd.from this 3 delegates were chosen for the city council. Because the
car facto r;T ?aas far and a??ray the largest in G?Tor, ~ delegates were chosen from
this for the city council. ThP head of the delegation from the auto factory was
the chief engineer Jozsef VADAS: Chairman of the cite council ??ras Atilla
SZIGr~THY from the Small Farmers' Party.
In Gyor, 2 councils ?were set up, one for soldiers and one for civilians. 25X1
The chairman of the military council ?aas the head of tk?e local rolice, a certain
DOP~IATt (`;) . There ?were -the real traitors in this military council:
It was the aim that a mess~?ge f rom t he Gtl'or revolutionary
council to the chairman of the revolutionary council in Szeged, a certain Zoltan
PFi~.BIRO. In this message were ~ the 16 demands to the government in Budapest
but among other thinn;s it also contained the message that they ou^;ht to keep the
revolt in hand as much as possible in ore?er to prevent a. dispersion of effort.
In Gyor various small parties had already been set up and this worked against the
success of the revolt. The revolt in Szeged had really begun a week later so
that thee- could take steps in time still there. Szeged did not semen to have 25X1
any contact with other parts of the country.
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The revolutionary council in GySr had set t;p the following; prod?ram: Every
province was to send a delegation to Budapest and a central government Ttrould
. then be set un from these delegations. This was necessaxy because the P?a.;y
government t?ras not elected in a democratic way. They were terribly busy ~?rith
adminis~~rative plans but they could not carry these out because the Russians
meanT?rhilE: had returned. On ~. I~?ov. 195b the air`'ield. at GJTor was occt?pied by
the Rus~i^.ns and there was no more flying. Another pilot-courier eras a young
sport fl~rer{name-: unknown) from Miskolc s"rho worked in a large factory there.
He took various messages from Gyor to P~4is?solc and baclr.
During; the ret?olt, Laszlo SEBUK was (chief. This man
also ~~? e?~t to Rud~zpest to meet president N^,GY_. He tras t?ken prisoner in Budapest"
but during the fighting; ~_n the city he was able to gr t free and return to GS=or.
. ~ T '-` ~-. ~3
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\ ~1 ~' `` (' ~1tt
~:'i ... SGT ~~L~ ~~
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V i~.'CY ~ Yt~ il ?
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This SFBOK fled the country in Nov. 1956.
to the city . many people from the ne iTrborhood of Buda-
!! fter /~ Nov. the ~ again entered G or. Even the communists z,~ho had. fled returned
The Russian troops remained in the ~.aoods around Gyor until Lr I~?ov. 1956.
The troops iahich were there Caere meanti~~hi.J_e replaced by others (Kir~hez) .
nPSt fide by on their fliuht to the ?a~:st
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They even make steam-shovels (excavators) of 130 h.p. and diesel electric
locomotives of 1;.00 h.p. in the krane and locomotive section. Head of the factory
is Joase~' VADP.S who is r_ot a Harty member. H_e is_a very capable man and can't
be spared, Accordin~~; to re worts from Hungary, he has no?a been .arrested.
During t'ze revolution, Albert L.!1TLATOS stayed. in mast Germany. J ozsef VA.n!1S,
??rho then became deputy director was named head of all revolutionary factory
councils :i.n Gyor. Head of the auto section is Janos FtTRST. This section is
made up of a section of pullman cars a.nd freight cars. Many flatcars are made
here for transbor-tin~; tanks. They make 130 h.p. diesel motors at the locomotive
section, or used to, but they are no?a wor~.cinp; on a /~00 h.p: and a 600 h.n.
diesel enCine. Preparations for manufacture are .already in a far advanced stage.
~, They -n2'.ce cranes for the shipping' in~ustry.and for the army. These cranes
~~have one engine of 130 h.p. which takes care of the hoisting power end the forward
ovement. 1S0 pikes a year are manufactured and sent to Russia. Tares can
lifted ?with -these cranes, ?ahich have a propelling arm, and can be placed on
the railway cars, t~lhatever tools they need in the factory ^re manufactured
here. From 191.9 to 1951 they even, made wheels and frames for cannons ~accordirig
~o Russian models. They were intended chiefly .for anti-aircraft 10~ mm. duns.
hese ??rreels and frames are no longer made in Gyor.,, Various parts are manu-
~acturec elsewhere. The i~srrels for the cannon are made in a factory in Dios g;or.
Assembly of the cannon is done in the mountains around Dioshor. One finds most
a~ ?aeLl as the most heavy industry of all of Hungary in Miskolc and in `the
e~virone of tris city.
Auto section: Leader-engineer Janos F'~YRST (communist).
Cxane and locomotive section:. Leader - Giza MASZLAG (communist?)
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Txansnort section: Leader. head director -Jeno KAPU911~RI
communist)
Foundry section: Leader, engineer -Jeno BORS (non-party , also once ?son the
Kossuth prize.
Revision section: Engineer Sandor TSAGY (communist). First was airplane
mechanic, n ~ First chief of auto
section. demoted to
chief of revision sec ion.
Tool section: Leader-engineer -Bela PECSI.
Personne]_ chief ?~ras Lajos BEDOK (communist and had contact ??rith the AVH) .
Personnel. chief for the office personnel was Katalin LUCSKAI (communist,