With the opposition parties disbanded and the trade
unions became ineffective, the churches became the
communists' main source of opposition. The government had
expropriated the churches' property with the land reform, and
in July 1948 it nationalized church schools. Protestant
church leaders reached a compromise with the government,
but the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Jozsef
Mindszenty, resisted. He was arrested on December 26,
1948. Rákosi, head of the communist party and Kádár,
Minster of Interior, have already determined what
Mindszenty had to confess and Gábor Péter was given the
task of getting the confession from the Cardinal. The
accusation was that the Cardinal was actively working
against the democratic order of the Hungarian government,
he was a foreign spy, was involved in money laundering, he
supported the fascists (even though he was jailed by the
Arrow party) and was trying to organize the Habsburgs to
defeat the democratic government of the people. Mindszenty
of course denied these false accusations so the torture
began.
Mindszenty was taken to the headquarters of the
AVH, located at 60 Andrássy ut, and into the basement
cellar which had no heat (on December 26th). AVH police
tore off all his cloths while making fun of him and gave him a
striped outfit like what clowns used to wear to change into.
The leader of the interrogation (AVH colonel) told him that:
“You better understand that the confession is not what
you want to say but what we want to hear”
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