It continues today as an association of the few remaining living veterans, with an additional goal of making original information and records about the Hungarian Royal Gendarmes available to the public in order to counter what the MKCsBK deems to be misinformation disseminated by the government during the years of communist rule.
[2] The gendarmerie was a militarily organized corps[3] entrusted with the public safety in the rural parts of Hungary, but in July 1914, the gendarmes started overseeing also over urban areas.
The government justified the increase in gendarmerie by the need to improve “public security”, restrain socialist agitation, control minority nationalists and strike movements, and stem (illegal) emigration to the West.
Some cases of gendarme shootings of mass protesters acquired notoriety; the shooting of 20 miners in Stájerlakanina/Anina on 20 January 1897, 20 Social-Democrat sympathisers shot in Elesd/Alesd on 24 April 1904, and the Černová massacre, which claimed the lives of 15 peasants on 27 October 1907, meaning that the ‘cruel’ Hungarian gendarmes became the targets of literary critics across Europe – from Norway (from the pen of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson) to Romania (where Octavian Goga staged the play “Domnul notar”) - which greatly contributed to the belief that the Hungarian state was oppressing national minorities.
After the Great War, this belief weighed heavily during the Paris Peace Conference, where participants argued for the dismemberment of historical Hungary, which was ultimately sanctioned by the Trianon Treaty of 1920.
The essence of the gendarmerie was the garrisons of five to fifteen gendarmes scattered throughout the countryside, and therefore they performed their duties quite independently, albeit according to strictly detailed regulations, issued by a special division under the authority of the Department of Interior.
The guarding of public safety and peace in the villages, as well as crime prevention and criminal investigations were exclusively the job of the enlisted gendarmes, while the officers were responsible for training, supervision, and communication with other authorities.
They actively participated in various sports (to the degree that several members were on the national Olympic team),[5] maintained a small library collection at each garrison (which was also available for use to the local villagers), and made reading and studying a regular part of their daily routine.
They also placed an emphasis on character training to become reliable, fair, moral, incorruptible, impartial and unbiased, in addition to being able to make fast, wise and firm decisions.
In addition to the excellent organization of the corps and the requirement for continuous training and self-education of all its members, the gendarmes were selected from the villages so they were quite familiar with the ways of the people and already had their trust and respect.
The gendarmes fulfilled their vocation to guard the public safety under each government, whether it was the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic,[16] the Horthy era, or the German occupation.
On its own, this political reason for the disbandment and ruthless persecution of a lawfully established corps would not have been acceptable in the eyes of the Allies, so the communists found a better excuse in the Gendarmerie's involvement in the deportation of the Jews.
[22] Even though in the cities mainly the police and other authorities were involved, the Gendarmerie's participation has been exaggerated and became the only factor considered in their evaluation, ignoring their internationally acclaimed excellence in crime control of the previous six decades.
[24] After the 1989 fall of communism, the Constitutional Court judged the collective verdict against the Gendarmerie unconstitutional, and against modern law to persecute any person who himself did not participate in any criminal acts.
The Court also found the verdict of 1945 unconstitutional because it dissolved an organization which was not created for the purpose of causing harm to others (like the SS was, for example), but rather to protect and aid the safety of others, a task which they indeed carried out with distinction for over six decades.
The Hungarian media remains strongly anti-gendarme, the written documents of the Gendarmerie are still not available, and Hungary still does not have a museum or permanent exhibit dedicated to the gendarmes despite the provision of materials by the MKCsBK in 2000.
On June 21, 1947, Pál Jegenyés, sergeant major and former garrison commander, along with six fellow gendarmes established the Magyar Csendőr Bajtársi Asztaltársaság (Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie Veterans' Table Organization) in Graz, Austria.
In 1949, the name of the organization was changed to the Magyar Királyi Csendőr Bajtársi Közösség (Hungarian Royal Gendarme Veterans Association, or MKCsBK).
Lieutenant General and former Commandant Lajos Folkusházy served as central director from 1950 to 1958, and made a strong effort to contact the Hungarian gendarmes worldwide to encourage them to go on with their lives under new circumstances, but still according to their oath and motto, “Faithfully, honorably, valiantly” (“Híven, becsülettel, vitézül”).
Several gendarmes, both officers and enlisted, provided the leadership of the organization over the decades, as their circumstances allowed, supporting each other in the work (therefore, there are overlaps in the years they served).
In their early years, the MKCsBK gave substantial assistance (money and care packages) to the gendarmes and their families in Hungary, who were stripped of their pensions and livelihoods.
They also provided manifold support to the gendarmes trying to establish a new existence in an unfamiliar country, needing to learn a new trade, a new language and new customs, while being severed from all their roots.
Soon, a large number of items and publications arrived from all over the world, and in 1970, the “MKCsBK’s Gendarme and Knighthood Museum and Archive” was established and placed into an MKCsBK-financed six-room apartment in Etobicoke, Toronto, Canada, which also served as Capt.
But as the Hungarian government was unwilling to spend any money on this project and the MKCsBK also lacking sufficient funds for it,[31] the process was halted in spite of the contract.
Therefore, after the Canadian museum was transferred to the Toronto Hungarian House, the MKCsBK asked its members in 1985 to send any material still in their possession to him for safekeeping and preservation for the future.
It reads: “To the memory of Hungarian Royal Gendarmes who died a heroic death in WWI and WWII.” They issued a commemorative medal for those present at the unveiling ceremony.
In order to acquaint the public with the true history of the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie and to correct the many distortions about them,[34] v. Gábor Kiss organized a yearly Gendarme Day Historical Conference in Florida (1994–2010), and developed a close cooperation with the Szemere Bertalan Magyar Rendvédelem-történeti Tudományos Társaság (Szemere Bertalan Hungarian History of Law Enforcement Academic Society, Dr. József Parádi, president).
In place of the Bajtársi levél, a quarterly Newsletter is sent out both via mail and email, both in Hungarian and English, to keep the connection among the members and to let all interested people know of new developments.
But their small number, scattered distribution, and age-related brittleness that prohibits photocopying makes them practically still unavailable to the public and to those desiring to perform historical research.
With the expert help of the Society's president, Dr. József Parádi, the bibliography is now extended and contains all gendarme books we are aware of, even though very likely a large portion, possibly about half of them, no longer can be found.