When the 1956 Revolution was crushed, Nagy?s fate was sealed. At a secret trial in June of 1958 he was tried and then hanged. But his burial place remained a secret.
In 1988, Colonel József Pajcsics, who was then deputy-director of the Interior Ministry?s Department of Investigation, was ordered to find Nagy?s final resting place. Pajcsics told the conference about his search.
Research revealed Nagy was buried in a mass grave with other martyrs of the revolution in the courtyard of the Kozma Street Prison. Old furniture was placed over the grave. In February 1961, the bodies were exhumed and taken to ?parcel 301? in the Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery on the outskirts of the capital. In the cemetery?s records, the remains of Nagy are falsely entered as those of a woman called Piroska Borbíró, Pajcsics told the conference.
But a search for the grave at parcel 301 revealed little. ?It was a big jungle,? Pajcsics said.
Only after receiving permission to examine the records from Nagy?s trial in the secret state archives did Pajcsics find the key to the search: the so-called ?Hornet?s Nest? file. The file contained two maps and a hand-written note which revealed the location of the grave.
In April 1989, the exhumation of Nagy and his company began. As a sign of disrespect, their bodies had been buried face down and their hands tied with wire. Many of the bodies were unidentifiable, Pajcsics said. However, Nagy?s body was identified by his specially-made dentures.
In June of 1989, Nagy was given a proper funeral and reburied at the same site.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
