October 6 – The memorial day of the 13 martyrs of Arad

The Memorial Day of October 6th is coming up, but does everyone know what we are commemorating on this day? One hundred seventy-three years ago, in 1849, twelve generals and a colonel of the Hungarian army were brutally executed in Arad to send a message to the Hungarians: they cannot rebel against the Austrian Empire. After heroically fighting for about a year, to keep the Parliamentary government of Hungary, most of them saw their end in a very humiliating way; they were hanged on a gibbet. On the very same day earl Lajos Batthyány, the first Prime Minister of Hungary, was killed in Pest as well.

The reason for this brutality, ordered by Julius Jacob von Haynau, allowed by the Emperor himself, was the Hungarian rebellion, which started in 1848 on March 15th. As the revolutionary wave of 1848 arrived in Hungary, Lajos Kossuth demanded to set up a Parliamentary government in Hungary. On March 15th, the youth of Budapest went out to the streets to demonstrate their demands. As they were marching from one place to another, the crowd grew and, in a few days, the whole country supported them.

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The Austrian Empire decided to step in only in September when they sent an army to redintegrate the governing system to their favour. About a year later, on August 13th, at Világos, Artúr Görgey surrendered to the Russians, who handed over the army to the Austrians.

On October 6th, the twelve generals and the colonel were lined up early in the morning for execution.

Haynau was “merciful” enough to let four of them being killed by bullets. Twelve soldiers stood up in front of them and started the volley. Vilmos Lázár, the colonel, Arisztid Dessewffy and József Schweidel generals died instantly. General Ernő Kiss got shot only in the shoulder, so three soldiers stood next to him and shot him in the head. The rest of the thirteen were killed by the rope, which was considered to be very humiliating death for soldiers. The news of the execution shocked everyone. It started a wave of protest, and Haynau needed to be removed from his position. Even the Russian Czar, who was an ally and also a far relative of Franz Joseph I of Austria highlighted his dislike of the way the executions were carried out.