Hungary’s Forgotten Heroes

By Catherine Eva Schandl, M.Ed.

In 1944, Raoul Wallenberg’s Swedish Embassy was located on Minerva Street, next to Kelenhegyi Street in the Buda side of Budapest.

Karoly William Schandl’s home was separated from the Swedish Embassy by a double lot. He lived at 16-18 Kelenhegyi Street. Unbeknownst to the neighbours, Karoly, a young Hungarian lawyer, was secretly working for British intelligence with his friends. He was a messenger who helped deliver escaped Allied prisoners of war to the Allies, via the Tito partisans, along with a monthly report for the “the Center.” His good friend Gabor, also a lawyer and an old school friend, had been trained by the British and then parachuted in from Bari to lead the group. While in high school, they had all been in the same Boy Scouts club and, as Karoly later wrote in his memoirs “It was the Boy Scout spirit that survived, even after the dissolution of the Boy Scout organizations.” Like Karoly’s legendary neighbour, Raoul Wallenberg, they were determined to defeat the Nazis.

In his upstairs apartment, across from the Swedish Embassy, Karoly was hiding a Jewish school friend, C.L., disguised as a Paulist monk. The fathers and brothers of the Cave Church down the street had provided the disguise. Karoly’s friend was never discovered by the Nazis, who searched the premises more than once. They never found the secret closet where C.L. was hiding. There were secret resistance meetings held in Karoly’s apartment, but the Nazis were unaware of those as well. They were also unaware that Karoly’s mother, Terezia, was hiding Jewish Hungarians as “helpers” at the charities on whose board she served. The Schandl villa was a very busy place back then.

In early December 1944, British intelligence ordered Karoly to escort a young Dutch lieutenant, G. Van der Waals, across the Russian lines, to the Red Army, along with a message. Van der Waals had been working for Raoul Wallenberg, and had created hundreds of fake IDs for those who needed to escape the Nazis. According to the order, the Dutch lieutenant was supposed to be forwarded to the Intelligence Service, and Karoly would be forwarded to the newly formed anti-Nazi Hungarian government. But the NKVD had other plans. They arrested both Karoly and Van der Waals and handed them over to SMERSH, who transferred them to the Lubyanka prison, then Lefortovo. A few years after their “arrest,” much to Karoly’s horror, G. Van der Waals perished. Karoly remained imprisoned in the Soviet Union.

At some point during his captivity in the Lubyanka, Karoly communicated through the prison wall, using Morse code, with his famous neighbour, Raoul Wallenberg. Sadly, the communication ended almost as suddenly as it had started.

In 1950, Karoly was transported to Vladimir prison, where he was secretly held in the “special section,” in solitary confinement. Two other members of his resistance group met with the same fate.

Karoly was finally freed in Hungary in September 1956, after almost 12 years in the notorious Lubyanka, Lefortovo, and Vladimir prisons. He soon learned that his friend C.L. had managed to escape to Australia, but the news about Gabor was tragic. According to Karoly’s contacts, the NKVD had arrested and murdered Gabor, the leader of his group, years earlier. Their entire group had been betrayed.

Following the Hungarian revolution of 1956, Karoly fled, as the Red Army was looking for him again. He made it to England and tried several times to speak to someone at Whitehall about the Soviet prisons and his group’s betrayal, but no one was willing to listen. “They acted as if they would be afraid of me,” he later wrote.

Karoly then left England for Canada, where he became a university professor, married, and raised a family. He passed away in 1990, weeks before the Soviet troops pulled out of Hungary.

Karoly’s true story is told in “Sword of the Turul” (Lulu Press), which was written by his daughter, Catherine Eva Schandl. The book includes excerpts from his memoirs.

Catherine Eva Schandl was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Hungarian parents. She obtained a B.A. Honours in French Studies at York University (Glendon College) and a Master of Education from the University of Tasmania. Catherine is a freelance writer who also teaches in the Spring / Summer English Language program at York University. She is the former Ontario / Quebec representative for the Association of Theatre Movement Educators and holds a black belt in taekwondo. She currently resides in Toronto.