Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Hung(a)ry for justice: butchered in Budapest

By Jonathan J. Ariel - posted Friday, 9 July 2010


Siobhán: “It’s been close to seventy years. Why on earth are we bothering to hunt down an aged pensioner, just to prosecute him for … what?”
Liam: “That’s why.”

An exchange heard at a dinner conversation in a St Kilda bar, in Melbourne, June 2010, between two Gen Y’s, while watching the FIFA World Cup

When it comes to asking if some of our current laws (drafted a long, long time ago) serve any useful purpose today, Canberra legislators could do worse than heed an old Hungarian proverb: Jobb kétszer kérdezni, mint egyszer hibázni, which means “(that) it is better to ask twice, than to err once”.

Advertisement

Today he is an 88-year old pensioner, known as Mr Charles Zentai. But in 1944, it is claimed he was 23-year-old Hungarian Arrow Cross Ensign Károly Zentai (also known as Károly Steiner). And he is believed to be guilty of murdering an 18-year-old boy in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Last Friday he had his day in court. Actually it was one of many such days. And unless Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard intervenes or Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban takes time out from eating dobosh at Gerbeaud, one of Budapest’s finest cafes, Australians will never know the truth. And relatives of a tortured, beaten and murdered Hungarian teenager, 18-year-old Péter Balázs will never taste justice.

Furthermore Australia, for all its virtues will continue to carry an obscene moniker on its back: that, due to disinterest from a series of post war governments, Australia has become a safe haven for the most wicked of men, whose involvement in unspeakable crimes against humanity, including acts by Hitler’s Nazis (and their collaborators), genocidal maniacs from Cambodia, North Korea, Rwanda, and Sudan continue to pollute our cities. And our wholesale apathy is to blame.

The conduct of many such arrivals is, at the least, worthy of careful examination and in some cases, should merit incarceration, denaturalisation and extradition.

Last Friday we learned a few things. Few of them pleasant. We learned that an 88-year-old resident of Willetton in Perth, wanted for questioning in Hungary for the alleged murder and torture of the Jewish teenager during World War II, successfully appealed his extradition.

It was claimed that an officer of the Royal Hungarian Army, Ensign Károly Zentai was stationed at the Aréna Road military barracks in Budapest in 1944. In October of 1944, Hungary’s equivalent of Nazi Schutzstaffel the Arrow Cross, had assumed power and under the leadership of Fredrick Szálasi, was given free rein to ratchet up the maltreatment of the Jews.

Advertisement

Zentai’s fellow officer was Ensign Lajos Nagy. Both soldiers reported to Captain Bela Máder. After the war, Nagy and Máder were tried for the murder of 18-year old Péter Balázs. Both were found guilty, Máder in 1946, Nagy a year later. The former was sentenced to forced labour for life, while the latter received life imprisonment. Evidence tendered at these trials motivated the Hungarian authorities to charge Károly Zentai with the same crime but, by then he was in Germany, en route to Perth. Although he claims to have still been living in Hungary. Go figure.

Australian historian Ruth Balint recalls that at his trial, Ensign Nagy told of how, under the orders of Captain Máder, Ensign Zentai regularly went out on patrols to perform identity checks and herd Jews for interrogation. According to Nagy, Zentai already knew Péter Balázs, both having grown in Budafok, a village outside of Budapest. Károly was roughly five years older than Péter. Péter was surviving on his wits and false identity papers. On November 8, 1944, Zentai recognised the boy on a city tram and arrested him for the crime of not wearing the yellow star.

Following the arrest, the lad was taken to the Aréna Road barracks. Nagy and Zentai (allegedly) beat the young Péter to a pulp. At Nagy’s trial, several former prisoners testified that at least half a dozen of them were taken to Captain Máder’s rooms where they were shown a boy lying on the floor. It was clear that the boy was dying. The officers present confirmed the body on the cell floor was that of Peter Balázs.

Witnesses a plenty, according to Ruth Balint, described the brutalities endured while at the Aréna Road barracks. There are various references to Zentai’s regular participation in these beatings. One, Imre Zoltan, testified that in 1944, while in Budapest as a forced labourer, he was arrested and taken to the barracks “where at Béla Máder’s orders, Károly Zentai and Ferenc Érsek beat me up for hours with boxing gloves until I lost consciousness”. Other witnesses make similar claims concerning the pensioner from Perth.

On the night in question, November 8, 1944, József Monori, another officer assigned to the barracks, reported that he heard beatings going on behind closed doors; was woken up at around 11pm and told to harness a horse and carriage, where Nagy and Zentai brought down a corpse from the office, put it on the cart … and after a short ride to the banks of the Danube, the corpse was quickly dumped into the river. The three waited until the body sank due to the weights attached. The body was that of Peter Balázs.

Last Friday the Australian Federal Court found that the Home Affairs Minister's extradition decision was beyond his jurisdiction. After all, Hungary has not charged Zentai with anything. It merely wants to question him. Judge Neil McKerracher elaborated that a war crime was not “a qualifying extradition offence” for which Mr Zentai could be surrendered for extradition.

If the judge did not err in his decision then, Canberra, we have a problem. What will we do when, say, ASIO suspects that war criminals, say from Sudan - involved in the genocide of non Muslims - are living peacefully in Melbourne’s outer suburbs? Or former commanders of Myanmar’s forced labour camps are clicking up their heels in Sydney’s leafy upper north shore? Will Australia continue to offer a haven and archaic laws as a reply to a foreign government’s extradition request? Surely it’s time to renovate the law.

Unimpressed with the Home Affairs Minister’s behaviour, His Honour also found the Minister failed to properly consider that it would be "oppressive and incompatible with humanitarian considerations" to surrender Mr Zentai for extradition due to his age, ill health and the severity of sentence he faced. In short, even if Zentai could be extradited on the evidence presented, he shouldn’t be. After all, the message is clear: while age may not weary him, it will protect him from having to explain himself.

It was Baroness Thatcher who once articulated, "(that) if you have nothing else you have your principles." It’s advice Prime Minister Gillard would be wise to heed.

A leader, especially a new one like Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is beset by an array of issues, mostly domestic, with schools of sharks - from her left and her right - circling her office, smelling for the slightest hint of blood in the water.

Doubtless, Julia Gillard has principles too. Now, because she has been shoehorned into the Prime Minister’s office, it’s up to her to restore the electorate’s faith in Labor, starting by restoring our faith in a host of institutions, including border security, superannuation and our legal system.

Having addressed the first two in record time, she can now concentrate on the travesty concerning our legal system by focusing on Charles Zentai.

Media reports have been scant when informing the public on Charles Zentai. Unsurprising really. It’s true that some don’t give a hoot what happens to him. Then again, some are at a loss as to why His Honour found that the Minister of Home Affairs could not place the aged pensioner on the first plane to Budapest’s Ferihegy International Airport. To date, the Hungarians merely want to question Mr. Zentai. Must they elevate the request to a charge so that he can be extradited? Is the Australian law in this case too restrictive and thereby not serving the interest of justice? If His Honour was correct in his decision, should the existing law be changed and done so retrospectively? What is the downside and what is the upside of such a change?

What lessons are we teaching today’s young? What concept of justice are we handing down? What notion of memory are we transmitting to the next generation? After 70 years, is justice possible? Is it at all even relevant?

Atrocities, regardless of where and when they were committed, must be remembered. Because the burial of memory leads to contempt for justice. And contempt for justice can only lead to one place.

Play it again Adolf. Play it again.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

11 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Jonathan J. Ariel is an economist and financial analyst. He holds a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. He can be contacted at jonathan@chinamail.com.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Jonathan J. Ariel

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Jonathan J. Ariel
Article Tools
Comment 11 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy