Rooster on the Roof

by Ivan Szendro

The rooster has two contrasting symbols in this story. In this Hungarian folk song from Szatmár-Transylvania, which was also deeply rooted in the Jewish folk tradition of the 18th century, the rooster symbolizes love longing. It is in the religious spirit of the Song of Songs.

At the same time, the rooster feather also symbolized the iron-fisted gendarmerie in the world of the Hungarian village, whose members helped the Nazis deport the Jews in 1944.

The son of the mayor of the village of Nagygéc and the daughter of the tenant of the castle near the village, Grossman, were born into two very different families. One was from Christian parents; the other was from Jewish parents. The fear of the returning spirit united all the inhabitants of the village.

The monster was called Hayno.

The haunting story of General Haynau, or Hayno as the villagers called him, the returning ghost, was not as incredible as it might seem at first glance. The executioner of Arad, the destroyer of the 1849 revolution, after retiring, bought an estate in this small village of Szatmár, Nagygéc. He spent only three years here in his infamous castle, but that was enough for the residents of the area to spread horror stories about him.

They widely believed this story, regardless of religious denomination.

Snowstorm in Nagygéc

The story begins in the early 1920s.

In a poor village cottage, a young woman awaits her husband’s return. But in the harsh snowy weather, her husband does not arrive.

(In 1970, an old woman sits on a chair in front of her house and tells a story from fifty years ago).

The old woman looks far away.

(The story depicts even events that happened a long time ago).

“My husband must have had something to do with it. Hayno first came to us late at night, during a big storm, in the form of a big white dog. But first, he walked around the house three times. Then, he knocked on the window for the third time.

Hayno talks in the form of a dog who is struggling with the harsh snow in the stormy wind. He knocks on the window from outside.

‘Let me in!’

“But I didn’t open the door for him. Oh, I was terribly afraid: Oh, my good God, it must be the Hayno.

“Hayno continues, ‘Then I’ll come in myself!’”

The old woman was full of fear.

“Then the terrible monster entered the house through the window. He shook himself and immediately stopped in the middle of the kitchen in a snow-white officer’s uniform.

“Hayno then spoke: ‘I is the owner here! I have just returned from America. I worked in the mine and earned a lot of money there.’

The old woman opens her eyes widely:

“And he put the many banknotes down on the table.

Hayno went on: ‘Then I went to the Golden Bull Hotel. I had a good time there. I mopped the floor with champagne. Now I am here to give you the other half of the money if you come with me.’

“And Hayno jumped into bed in fulldress.”

She is already shedding tears and says: “Oh, my God! Then I started to cry. I dropped pearls because I didn’t want to be with him. Then, my husband finally arrived. Then he jumped into the bed as well.

“He said, ‘Oh, my soul, come to me, hey-hey!’

“My man was shouting.” The Old Woman pulls her mouth to the side:

“That evil soul thought for a moment. He just put the wad of banknotes back in his pocket, and before we knew it, he was out of the house.”

The case of Ferenc Papo on the Szamos Bridge

A young man told me this story in 1970.

The village lad tells it as if it would happen right now: “Uncle Ferenc Papo was a clairvoyant-shaman. He knew a lot of things that a simple-minded person could never have thought of. He knew a lot about Hayno. Uncle Papo could tell us all about it.”

(What the young man tells is all shown in the story).

The village lad speaks out: “The Clairvoyant-Shaman did not live in the village. He just lived out in the field in a small hut dug into the ground. That is how he guarded the forest. One evening, Papo was walking across the Szamos Bridge. No one nowhere was there — a cart came towards him, but no horse was tied to it, and no one was sitting on it.

“But then the old man saw a big white dog under the cart. The HAYNO was jogging under it, but so white, in dog form. Then the monster was shouting: ‘I HERE IS THE OWNER!’”

The village lad copied the old man’s movements.

“Then Papo took a big stick, hit it on the cart pole, and chased the Hayno into the darkness.

“Papo Shaman said, ‘Hayno, get out of here!’

“Then Hayno, in dog form, pulled his tail and ran away, howling.”

How Samuel Grossman rented the Haynau Castle

Sometime in the early 1920s, Mr. Grossman arrived in Nagygéc with his wife, Rebecca, and two well-packed carts of belongings.

The Zeev Benjamin Schwartz, the well-known rabbi of the village, took them first to Kis-Géc. The castle was just a stone’s throw from the village. It had been standing there empty for a long time.

Grossman downplayed the importance of the Castle: “This Hayno Mansion is certainly neglected. No knowledgeable person had been here for years.”

Grossman and his wife thoroughly inspected the ‘Hayno Castle’. The rooms were unkempt. Some of the rooms cannot even be entered. They cannot find the key to them. The cellar is musty and difficult to find. They can’t even get into the attic because someone had previously covered the entrance with a makeshift wall.

Rabbi Schwartz explained, “That’s why it’s so cheap to rent it. There are all kinds of rumors circulating about this House. Think it over carefully.”

Finally, Samuel Grossman and Rebecca, after a long deliberation, decided.

Grossman said, “If it’s so cheap, we’ll just rent it.”

Barely a year passed. Rebecca is expecting.

Mrs. Schwartz, the midwife, arrives from the village, but the birth is not an easy one, as the two babies try to decide which one will come out first. Rabbi Schwartz’s wife would help her to hook a rooster on the woman’s arm, but Rebecca doesn’t feel it necessary.

“No need for that.”

Two twins are born: the boy comes out first, then the girl, facing the sky.

Grossman declared, “I’ve never seen such a beautiful baby. She will be my little princess!”

These were the twins: Pali and Ilona.

The Stormy Night

Seven years later, Samuel, one night, realizes why the Castle has stood empty for so long. A huge snowstorm rages over Nagygéc, and the frantic wind slams the heavy gate of the castle. Samuel is already sleeping the dreams of the righteous by the side of Rebecca, when an unpleasant chill overtakes him.

Grossman asks, “What could this be?”

He jumps out of bed, puts on his winter coat, grabs his rifle, and, holding a lamp, rushes out to close the wide-open main gate.

Grossman calls, “Hey-hey!”

The ferocious wind sweeps the snow into the entrance hall.

His son, Pali, who is 7 years old, secretly follows his father behind the curious servants. Suddenly, the Ghost of the Hayno appears in the open door.

A servant replies, “And what kind of Boogeyman is this with this enormous staff?”

Hayno stands there with a long, sharpened mustache, in a snow-white, last-century general’s uniform. In the obscure corner behind the gate, a tall staff was standing. And who knows how long it had been there, but no one throws it out. Holding the huge stick in his hand, the Ghost roars along with the blizzard.

Hayno shouts, “Mr. Grossman! I is the owner here! “

The new tenant, with trembling hands, petrified, is unable to fire his rifle.

Sure-as-sure, Grossman sprinkles salt on the four corners of the gate entrance.

A Motto for a Life

Pali’s mother, Rebecca, lets the little boy into his parents’ bed to calm him down: “All ghosts are just silly fantasies, which superstitious people usually make up.”

She includes her husband on the list of such people. On the woman’s left side, the beautiful little Ilona is already sleeping the dream of the righteous.

For Pali, this saying “Hayno is deeply engraved in Samuel’s mind, but the people of the village are happy to listen to the terrifying-sounding horror story from the anecdotal Jewish new owner.

A Visit to Mayor Gaál’s Kitchen

A few weeks later, as the weather has turned for the better, tenant Grossman visits the village mayor’s house with his son Pali, and brings not very encouraging news.

Grossman warns his son, “Not a word about us meeting a ghost!”

Pali leaves it to his father: “As Mama always says; it’s all nonsense, … right?”

As they enter the Mayor’s House, Samuel greets Gaál. “Good morning, Mr. Mayor! He’s my son, Pali. The grandson of the late Hayno wrote to me that he and his wife are visiting here from Vienna this summer to see the rented castle and the estate. They even want to visit the church.”

The mayor is not very enthusiastic about the news.

“Well, that’s all we needed!” he mutters under his breath. His wife, Julianna, is not too enthusiastic about the Hayno couple’s visit either.

“Oh my God! That’s all we need!”

The Old Canine

There was another little boy in the mayor’s kitchen, Feri, the younger son of the Gaáls. He might be the same age as the Grossman boy.

As the adults start talking, Feri says to Pali, “Come out to the backyard. I’ll show you a secret.”

An old canine is napping at the end of the garden. Feri breaks a large stick, sneaks up behind the old dog, and as he jumps over it, he hits his balls.

“Wow! Out! Get out of here!”

The old dog snorts back, then walks on very lazily and lies down in the mud again. Pali watches the indecent peasant joke with his mouth pulled back.

Then they play the other way around with a puppy.

Pali says, “Come here, you little puppy!”

Feri asks the boy from the castle, “Didn’t you see the Dog-Headed Girl in your house?”

Pali answers with his mother’s words with a saying that is valid for all of our times: “Ghosts are all foolish imaginations. Superstitious people invented them.”

The Strange Couple’s Visit to Nagygéc

The weather is turning to summer. In the church, the Reverend carefully warns everyone not to cause any trouble.

“I don’t want any headaches on this day.”

The people listen to the Reverend in silence.

A villager whispers, “Here they come, that the devil may eat them.”

The grandson of the Baron Julius Haynau arrives with a great parade with his wife to the village. Both are a strange couple. They drive in a polished carriage, with a parade coachman. They are accompanied by servants, with gray greyhounds in their wake.

The people stare at them with frowns.

The grandson, with his perky mustache, is a spitting image of his grandfather, the former Baron. His wife is a strange-looking creature, covering her face with a light black veil.

“Schauen Sie, wie arrogant diese Bauernuns ansehen!”

(Just look at how arrogantly these villagers stare at us.)

The service takes place in an unusual silence. Everyone in the village feels uncomfortable.

The people exchange only whispers with each other.

“How could they not go to hell!”

“They belong there!”

After visiting the church, the carriage rolls away with its passengers towards the mansion, which is only a stone’s throw from the village.

This is how the castle residents wait for the guests.

In front of the Great Gate, the Grossmans are preparing to receive the ‘uninvited’ visitor. Samuel instructs the servants “to smooth out all the needs and gritty things.

He has a Hungarian appearance — mustache, boots and a long-stemmed pipe in his mouth — but a yarmulke on top of his head.

In the meantime, he tells a story about the former Hayno to his audience, seething. “This is where Hayno killed the Thirteen Martyrs. Here in this castle.”

He spits angrily on the ground, like a real peasant. An older servant encouragingly gives him support.

“They were all put away here, down in the cellar, in the former scythe-prison.”

Lunch

The Haynau couple arrive in a well-groomed carriage, accompanied by their dogs. Samuel Grossman and Rebecca, and Pali, and the beautiful little Ilona, with the servants behind them, all lined up to greet the guests.

“Have a good day!”

“I wish you all the best.”

The grandson and his wife also offer greetings.

“Einen schönen Tag noch.”

“Ich wünsche Ihnen alles Gute.”

Pali and Ilona respond, “We kiss your hand!”

During lunch, everything would have gone well if the curious Pali had been able to control himself and not peek to see the woman’s veiled face.

Pali is mumbling in a low voice, “Well, she has no dog’s face, it is not there!”

The wife of Hayno’s grandson asks curiously, asking, “Was sagt das Kind?” (What does the child say!)

“Dass du kein Hundegesicht hast!” (That you really don’t have a dog’s face!) Hayno’s grandson responds rudely.

After the meal, the two men sit down to discuss the affairs of the estate, but the stubborn Grossman proudly contradicts any suggestion that the Hayno grandson makes.

“Entschuldigen Sie, aber das ist meine geschäft!” (Excuse me, that’s my business.)

To this, the grandson of the ‘Hayno’, to the amazement of Grossman, instructs the tenant with a frightening saying. It sounds like the ghost itself is saying it.

“Mr. Grossman! I is the owner here.”

What’s behind the door?

A young maid approaches the guest room, with a towel and a bucket of water in her hand. Suddenly, the ‘grandson’ shouts from the inner room.

“AUS! AUS! (Out, out!)” he orders the dogs.

A pack of greyhounds, tails tucked between their legs, runs out of the inner room. The surprised maid would have stepped back, but the quarreled woman angrily calls out to her.

“Warten Sie eine Minute! Schau, was mir dieses Bauerntier angetan hat!” (Wait a minute! Look what this peasant animal has done to me.)

She means her husband, not the dogs. The angry lady shows the servant girl the black and blue-green spots on her shoulders and chest.

The young maid with an open mouth falters. “Oh! My Jeezus Maaaria!”

Another case of the Hayno-woman

Pali shows his pal around the castle-lake, a secret. “Come on, I’ll show you something interesting.”

“So what?”

Together they lie in wait for the guest-woman. As she basks naked in the protection of the bushes around the castle lake, in the company of her dogs, she doesn’t even have a veil on.

Pali remarks, “You see… she doesn’t even have a dog’s head.”

Two servants walk towards them, and they chase the children away.

One guy mockingly says, “Mr. Grossman!”

“I is the owner here!” the other responds.

Then, chasing away the frightened little guys, the big boys start stalking the lady, emphasizing the words.

“May the devil eat her flesh!

Seven years later

On a traditional Easter Monday, the village boys go around the village to pour water on the girls, who are about to get married.

The handsome fourteen-year-old Feri, in a crisp white shirt and with colorful ribbons on his hat, leaves his parents’ house, jumps onto one of the carts and together with the others drives the wagon around, singing gaily. To the tune of ‘The Rooster Crows’, they wish the girls all the best and a happy marriage.

“Hear the rooster crow,

Soon the dawn will glow

In green forests, in lush meadows,

Walks a bird below

What a bird, so fine!

What a bird, so fine!

Green feet, blue wings,

She waits for me,

This lovely bird of mine.”

Then they go to the castle to greet the maids there. In the courtyard, the young men are watering the girls with buckets, shouting loudly.

The “worldly beauty” Ilona is stepping through in a silky, rustling, city-looking dress, with her brother. Feri really likes Ilona, and in this uplifting moment, he asks her: “Miss Ilona, a little Easter watering?… can I come for a spin!”

Pali Grossman (with glasses on his nose, a fluffy moustache underneath) answers with pedantic reservation, “Well, that’s not very customary for us.”

Papa Sam, with benevolent liberalism, makes a new judgment, wearing a yarmulke on his head.

“You can do it — just save the water!”

Here came a cordial moment. Feri carefully tries to pour a few drops of water onto the top of Ilona’s head.

“Like this?”

In keeping with Hungarian Easter customs, the girl rewards him with a painted Easter egg, to the boy’s amazement.

“I give a gift for a gift.”

The twins are going to high school

At the end of the summer, fourteen-year-old Pali and Ilona go to Debrecen to start school. They have to do all this under the watchful eye of their father, with a courtesy visit to the Plaster Statue of the Fallen Heroes.

Grossman says with a strict father’s responsibility, “Well, let’s stop here for a moment. Ye get to say goodbye nicely to your little village.”

The twins stood in front of the memorial statue set in plaster, respectfully saying goodbye to Nagygéc.

“Goodbye Nagygéc!” Pali says.

“See you in four years!” Ilona agrees kindly

Suddenly a cart rumbles into Heroes’ Square, loaded with straw, and on top of the cart sit the mayor’s elder son, István, with his younger brother Feri, returning from the fields. Feri, the sun-shined young man in a worn summer shirt, jumps down to the street well.

“I’ll go for some fresh water!”

He drinks, watching the well-dressed, lucky Grossman twins with envy. Ilona, in parting, kindly reminded him of the Easter watering.

“Feri, do you remember the Easter water…?!”

“The Easter water?” Feri clumsily repeats.

Ilona sweetly says again, “We’ll meet in four years?!”

Then Feri’s eyes follow the Grossmans’ sand runner, like a picture from a disappearing fairytale book.

Four years later

Pali is eighteen years old, recently returned from Debrecen. He visits the Village Mayor’s house on behalf of his ailing father.

“My father would like to ask permission to exhume the bodies of revolutionary heroes scattered in the fields around the Castle, who were killed by General ‘Hayno’, almost a century ago. On March 15th, he would like to rebury the remains of the heroes in the cemetery with due respect at his own expense.”

At that time, the message-bringer Pali meets Feri again, his childhood pal, but the friendship between the Mayor’s son and the Grossman boy has already ended. Feri’s brother, István, has been drafted into the army. The Gaál’s son greets his former buddy coldly.

“Good day.”

“Good morning.”

“Please convey our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Grossman on behalf of the entire village…” Julianna gratefully interjects.

Mayor Gaál adds, “We thank him for his generous patriotic donation.”

Debrecen Beauty Contest

The final of the annual Beauty Contest is held in Debrecen, at the Gulden Bull Hotel. In the morning there is a “patriotic lads party” at the hotel, but in the evening the “Crain-Feathers” also get a place at the Beauty Contest.

“Crain-Feathers” were the young fascist groups at the time.

The Director of the Competition announces: “… and the winner: Ilona Garami, from Nagygéc!”

The audience is greeting the Celebrant with great applause, who carefully hides her real name during the advancing anti-Semitism.

“Hooray! Hooray!”

After the competition, only a few waiters take away the used plates and chairs. Ilona and Feri meet again in the quiet hall.

“Congratulations on your victory!”

“Ilona Garami? Does that sound like the name of a film heroine? Will we see you as a Star, in movies soon?”

“These days, this name sounds better to the public than Grossman!”

Feri would love to give the winning lady a kiss on the hand! Ilona is a little withdrawn, but not reluctant, and lets him do it.

“Oh, the Easter ‘rooster’ Feri!”

At that moment, the pals from the Hotel break the calm conversation with a song.

The Crane-Feathers lads get into a martial mode.

“Who knows when my two arms will embrace you?”

“Who knows when I will kiss you?”

“Hey, pal, Feri, won’t you come to the pub?”

With that, they put an end to the intimate conversation.

Ilona says, “Come on! Please! All the best, Feri!”

Exhumation of the Heroes of the Revolution

In the forest surrounding the castle, the sickly Grossman leads the search for the bodies of the soldiers. A large group of people helps him.

“Let’s find the bodies, the remains of clothes, what is left of the fallen heroes. I ask everyone to examine the soil and the clods thoroughly.”

The event excites everyone present except his son, Pali (who wears a Hungarian mustache and glasses).

He mutters, “I’ve had enough of the old man’s feverish mantras and the terrifying ghost stories.”

Grossman says maniacally, “Hayno kept the Dog-Headed Girl here in the castle, in the Bloody Room. And here the Judge of Blood executed his victims in the underground cellar! He walked through the water and the forest with his ladder-jumping staff!”

Pali has had enough. “How many times do we have to hear all this?”

In the foggy, darkening forest, the ghost of HAYNO appears in a uniform before the terrified villagers and the almost unconscious Grossman.

“Mr. Grossman! Here I is the owner!”

“Get away from me!” The sickly old man almost collapses from the shock.

Pali tries to get his father to his feet, and in the meantime, he shouts angrily in his ear, overcoming his father’s fear, or perhaps his own fear of Hayno.

“All ghosts are just stupid fantasies!”

Papa Sam can barely stand up, but with a trembling mouth he warns his son, “Speak to your father with respect!”

The Kiss

In the village, in the Kaufmann Shop, the “Crane-Feather” kids spend their time here, among them Feri.

Eighteen-year-old Ilona enters the shop. The girl drove the sand runner herself to take some medicine to her father.

“Good day to everyone,” she says.

The Crane-Feather lads answer, “Good morning.”

A newspaper article on the bulletin board, accompanied by a pretty photo, advertises Miss Ilona Garami, winner of the Debrecen Beauty Contest.

The local boys all stare at the “star”. And they watch as the girl orders the medicine: the George-tea Mixture for her father.

“Is Miss Ilona back from the town?”

“My father needs me.”

Kaufmann politely asks: “How is Mr. Grossman.”

“Quietly. Thank you for your question, Mr. Kaufmann. Well, all the best!”

When Ilona returns to the sand runner, a light rain is falling. “Oh, come on…?”

Someone should lower the roof of the car. Feri sets off with great determination, following Ilona.

“Let’s put on the rain cover,” he suggests.

The girl, remembering Easter, quietly mentions, “Mr. ‘Rooster’ is coming again…”

They both sit under the rain-cover while Feri drives the sand runner.

As they leave the cemetery — crosses and old headstones on one side — Jewish tombstones on the other follow their path.

As we see them from a distance, under the protective blanket that bends over them like an umbrella, Feri and Ilona kiss each other.

The funeral of the heroes of the 1849 Revolution

On March 15, 1940, the Nagygéc Cemetery is decorated for the special ceremony. The entire village is around the freshly dug large grave. The local brass band plays the National Anthem, while the gravediggers slowly lower the coffins covered with the national flag into the common grave.

In the background stand two gendarmes with rooster-feathers on their caps. One of the village speakers, Pali Grossman, recalls the famous poem by Sándor Petőfi.

“The heroes are buried in a common grave,

“Those who died for you, holy World Freedom.”

The people of the village listen in mournful silence, many with tears in their eyes. Then, the richer and poorer families all line up to express their gratitude to the ailing Mr. Samuel Grossman, who listens to the entire ceremony sitting in a wheelchair. Unexpectedly, Pali begins a new poem.

“Pál Garami’s poem”

“Let’s go on, Patriots, forward!

Come on, heroes, only forward!

For I say, by our Sky,

Let’s drive out the foreigners

Who our Country did not ask here.

Beat him; he is not your father!

Cut him; he is not your grandfather!

All the Haynos! Get out of here!”

The villagers listen enthusiastically, with some astonishment.

Suddenly, a Crane-Feathered Boy mockingly mentions, “Who could this Paul Garami be, Mr. Pali Grossman?”

Pali proudly retorts, “I would be the author of the poem myself!

The audience’s appreciative applause prevents further unpleasant discussion.

Jewish Easter

It takes place on the night of March 30, 1944.

On the dark Main Street, a German officer’s car and a gendarmerie truck approach the house of the Village Mayor. The German officer and the gendarmerie officer knock on the window. Gaál opens the door in long underpants, and the soldiers enter the tamped-land kitchen.

“Guten Nacht!”

Julianna pokes her head out of the bedroom with her hair down.

The Gendarmerie officer barks, “Good evening!”

The officer hands Gaál an order: “The German authorities have sent you an order to be executed immediately. Read it and obey it immediately.”

Mayor Gaál reads the order aloud.

“Order to be Executed Immediately: All the Jewish residents are ordered to the Main Square within two hours. Each family is to have a wagon ready to leave the village. No one is to take more than one package with them. The residents are not to accept or give anything to them, for it is punishable by DEATH. The order is to be immediately proclaimed throughout NAGYGÉC.”

Julianna puts on a day dress and escapes through the back door onto the dark street to summon the village residents to the Main Square.

“Everybody on the street!” she orders.

The petty-judge walks the village with his drum and the announcement: “All the Jewish residents …”

In the quiet hours of the night, the lamps in the houses are lit. The sleeping residents wake up.

A villager asks, “What the hell is happening!”

A woman cries, “Good’s Heavens! Be with us!”

The carts begin to gather on the Main Square with the yellow-starred people.

It is Jewish Passover these days, and the Jewish people cannot eat bread made with leaven.

Julianna, knowing this custom, puts a bag of flour on one of the carts for the Jewish neighbor woman: “Here it is… just please, hide it …”

Other residents, following the example of the mayor’s wife, give little bags of flour to their yellow-starred neighbors: “Here it is… just don’t show it …”

The villagers are wailing, crying, “These are people too, just like us, all of us!”

Soon Grossman’s sand runner will arrive at the Main Square.

Soviet tanks and their guns can already be heard, not so far away.

Those who remember, even decades later, remember this:

A boy with a yellow-star says like an omen: “Now we wear the Yellow Star, soon you will wear the Red Star!”

In the sand runner, the sick Samuel Grossman lies in Rebecca’s arms. He doesn’t notice much of the commotion going on around him. Pali holds the reins; Ilona sits at his side, covered in a scarf.

The noise of the demonstration grows louder.

The gendarmes get off the truck.

They can barely keep the people under control.

“Oh, dear border of my native land,” Pali says

At this point, Pali Garami (Grossman) unexpectedly stands up, and asks the gendarmes for permission to speak: “Let me speak, with your permission, if possible, to tell the people to calm down!”

The Gendarmery officer replies, “Just briefly, briefly!!!”

Pali begins to quote the famous Kisfaludy poem (slightly modified).

“Oh, dear border of my native land,

Can I see you ever again?”

Decades later, those who would remember poor Pali this way.

The gendarme interjects, making a joke out of it all.

Officer: “You will see, you will see, just sit down!”

The nervous Nazi orders an immediate departure: “Vorwärts, komm schon, komm schon!”

The caravan of wagons full of Jews sets off, leaving the wailing inhabitants in its wake. They leave the cemetery and reach the village border.

Here, the gendarmes stop the inhabitants, raising their rifles! “Not further!”

The people stop on the road leading out of the village.

A Vision

In the sand runner, Grossman, who has half-come to his senses, asks for water.

In the silence, Feri steps forward from the crowd that has stopped and heads towards the Grossmans’ cart with a bucket of water.

A gendarme orders him, “Stop…”

When Feri continues on his way despite this, the Gendarme knocks the bucket out of his hand with the heavy butt of his rifle. Feri’s hand is bleeding, but he continues his steps after the rattling wagon.

“Uncle Sam, some water…”

Then the gendarme knocks him down from behind to the ground. Feri remembers that Ilona’s face looks down at him from the sand runner in horror. As we look at him through her eyes, we see Feri’s face in the mud in a Rooster-Feather’s shadow.

Like a Nightmare

Feri drags himself further along the signs of wheels of the sand runner. It seems that the ghostly sand runner, without horses, with the entire Grossman family, follows the yellow-starred carts, accompanied by gendarmes.

A white dog is trotting under the cart, growling.

Hayno says, “I is the owner here!”

Feri gets up like a fairytale hero; just like he did when he was a child, he breaks off a stick and hits the sand runner’s rod with the magic wand.

“Stand back, you!”

The old dog Hayno tucks his tail between his legs and disappears into the darkness amidst the explosions of bombs.

In Nagygéc 1946. The war is over.

Feri is working hard in the field, driving the plow, sometimes encouraging his horse. When behind him, on the plowed road, a neighboring farmer’s cart stops.

The owner of the cart greets Feri: “God willing!”

An almost incredible figure gets out of the cart.

It is Ilona.

Her face is pale, worn by time, but she still reminds us of the former Beauty Queen.

“I am the only one left alive. If I had known in advance what was waiting for us there, I would have died here. Everyone … the whole family has disappeared… I came to see how the Mansion is.”

Feri, without a word, turns to her, embraces Ilona, and they set off towards the former Castle. It is already visible from afar that only the remaining ruins are looming towards the sky.

Feri remarks, “There is not much left of it.”

The owner of the cart mumbles, “We have already received permission from the New System to demolish the infamous castle. We took out the windows of Hayno Castle after the war. The Dog-Headed Lord looked out of it, and now we, the peasants, can look out of it.”

Great Silence

The neighbor asks Ilona, “So where should we go now?”

Feri answers, “Would you take the plow and my horse to my parents’ house? Please! We’ll stay out here for a while.”

Feri and Ilona are left alone near the ruined castle. They look at what is left from a little further away. Then the two of them set off in silence towards the Gaál house.

On the night of May 13, 1970, the darkening evening lightens. Feri’s hand, bruised by the gendarme’s blow, and Ilona’s fingers embrace the face of their twenty-year-old beautiful daughter, Erzsébet, trembling with fear.

Erzsébet shouts, “THE RIVER BRINGS AWAY OUR VILLAGE!”

Subtitles

Will we ever rebuild?

Hear the rooster crow,

Soon the dawn will glow

In green forests, in lush meadows,

Walks a bird below.

What a bird, so fine!

What a bird, so fine!

Green feet, blue wings,

She waits for me,

This lovely bird of mine.

Wait, you bird of mine.

Just you wait, oh mine!

If God ordered me to thee

Then, sure, I will be thine.

References

Braham, R. L., United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, & Rosenthal Institute For Holocaust Studies. (2013). The geographical encyclopedia of the Holocaust in Hungary. Northwestern University Press.