Escaping the Political Police in Communist Hungary
Harrison Lewis was born in Amarillo, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles, California before joining the Foreign Service in 1930. Serving in Hungary shortly after World War II, Lewis was informed that Stephen J. Thuransky – a U.S. citizen – had been imprisoned for criticizing Hungary’s Communist government. Lewis confronted the Hungarian authorities and heroically rescued Thuransky from a Hungarian jail, enabling Thuransky and his family to travel safely to the United States.
Communists methodically seized power in Hungary in the years following World War II aided by the Soviet occupation at the war’s end. “The secret police were at work everywhere,” Lewis recalled, “and the nights were continually pierced with screams.” Although they were immune from arrest, even diplomats felt the watchful eyes of the Communist regime observing their actions: “Our every movement was watched, our telephones tapped, and records were maintained of all Hungarians who had the temerity to be seen with us.”
“Our every movement was watched, our telephones tapped, and records were maintained of all Hungarians who had the temerity to be seen with us.”
Harrison Lewis
Communists methodically seized power in Hungary in the years following World War II aided by the Soviet occupation at the war’s end. “The secret police were at work everywhere,” Lewis recalled, “and the nights were continually pierced with screams.” Although they were immune from arrest, even diplomats felt the watchful eyes of the Communist regime observing their actions: “Our every movement was watched, our telephones tapped, and records were maintained of all Hungarians who had the temerity to be seen with us.”
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One fateful weekend in August, 1947, Lewis was left alone and in charge of the American Legation in Budapest. Lewis arrived at the office to find the daughters of Stephen Thuransky, a naturalized U.S. citizen, waiting for him. “Their father,” Lewis reported, “had been arrested the night before by the Communists… in the small town of Balassagyarmat.”
After verifying Thuransky’s citizenship status, Lewis raced the eighty miles north to Balassagyarmat. While waiting at the jail to see Thuransky, Lewis learned from the chief of police that the offense for which Thuransky was detained was the use of an obscene name in reference to Hungarian President Zoltán Tildy. Lewis lobbied for Thuransky’s release to no avail, but the American diplomat was able to secure a promise that the prisoner would be transferred to Budapest that evening.
Lewis and his driver from the Legation, Lotsy, spent hours that night inside the foreboding Nehézség jail in Budapest where Thuransky had been transferred, demanding his release. Eventually, a voice called his name from outside the jail – a voice Lotsy identified as Thuransky’s wife.
“With that, I ran from the room, down the long hall, taking off my glasses as I went, and out through the dark entranceway,” Lewis recounted, and saw the Legation car with someone’s legs hanging out the back door. “I crawled in the car and found Thuransky lying with his back flat on the floor. He was apparently injured and unconscious.”
Later, Lewis would learn that the guards had attempted to sneak Thuransky past him and move him to another jail. Mrs. Thuransky, however, had remained outside with the vehicle. Seeing her husband in handcuffs, she had attacked the guards with such passion that they stood and watched “transfixed as in a photograph” as Lewis arrived on the scene.
From that point on, Lewis’s instincts took over. Bystanders watched silently as Lewis folded Thuransky’s legs into the car and closed the door behind him. With Mrs. Thuransky back in the car, Lewis said, “Let’s go, Lotsy,” and they “tore through the dark streets of Budapest” back to the American Legation. Thanks to Lewis’s bold actions, the Thuranskys were shortly reunited with their daughters and, a few days later, flown out of Hungary in a Legation plane on their way to the United States.