Peredi László
Born 16 May 1943, Kassa. He attended elementary school before the Revolution. During the Revolution he was a freedom fighter at Corvin Alley. He was not prosecuted. Later he worked as a teacher. He lived in Budapest and received a disability pension.
In Csepel, in the space before the factory, we were standing together with the most beautiful girl in the world when a young man gave us each two bundles of leaflets and told us to hand them out to the workers leaving the factory. We looked at each other and knew that it was a great task that we can only accomplish together.
That was what happened, with the leaflets in one hand and holding our other hands, we happily handed out the leaflets to passers-by.
Later, the girl said she had to go home because she would get a beating if she was not home on time. So we separated. After a while, I reached the Csepel speedway, and suddenly a dumper truck came along. The driver must have seen I was walking along the road, a young boy, so he stopped and told me he would be willing to take me along to Boráros Square. "That would be great", I said, and that was how I got into town. Corvin Alley, where I ended up, is not far from Boráros Square.
What was terrible – perhaps only a few have talked about this – was seeing someone fall down after I pulled the trigger of my rifle. Was I a hero or a murderer at the age of thirteen? Even people over twenty had fits of crying after their first shot. People dream of those things to this day. When Russians climbing out of tanks were shot at from twenty-five windows at once, we were happy because we could say to ourselves, "Surely, it was not my bullet that hit him".
I realized that two-thirds of the population of Budapest should have been given medals for bringing us their last bit of food!
I saw that if someone ran out of ammunition, and if there were three of them there, they divided what was left in three parts. And that act perhaps may have cost his life to the one who gave of his own.
I came to know that they were taking care of us children because I was able to sleep in the number one loge on the left side of the cinema with two older boys. The older boys said, "This kid has to sleep there; he is a good kid."
It was practically impossible to escape from there. Hiding behind one door or the next or in the several basements there, perhaps. The Russians were hunting for us. Somehow, I was given a car that took me, along with two other wounded freedom fighters to the István Hospital. They cleaned my wounds there and burned my clothes. After the 4th of November the police came and put some wax on everyone's hands. The wax prints revealed who had held guns and used them. So, although I had high fever, the doctors washed me with everything, starting with petroleum, so I would pass the wax test. The police came; I passed the wax test – so I am still alive today.