Mária Jassó Personal Papers Accessible at the Archivum

Independent student march on March 15, 1972 (Facebook/ÁBTL)

 

 

Fifty years ago today, on March 21, 1973, 19-year old Mária Jassó was arrested and incarcerated for a month because of the “disorderly conduct” she committed on March 15 in Budapest, Hungary. For the harm suffered then, she claimed compensation once it became possible following the 1989 regime change; her request was rejected. Mária Jassó’s police and post-1989 compensation files are available for research at the Blinken OSA Archivum.

 

 

On March 15, 1973, Mária Jassó and her former classmates attended the state celebrations of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 at the Hungarian National Museum and then at the Petőfi statue. “From the crowd there, a group of about 100 people broke off, and headed toward Pesti Barnabás Street. Mária Jassó joined this group by running after it . . . They behaved in such a way as to attract the attention of others. They did not stop their blatant, antisocial behavior, so at the intersection of Münnich F. Street and Arany János Street, the police ordered the group to disperse. Mária Jassó did not comply with this order, so the police officer on duty brought her to the police station; after an ID check, she was released,” recounts the decision of the Budapest District 8 Police Dept., which Mária Jassó kept among other documents related to her case.

The Mária Jassó Personal Papers are now available for research at the Blinken OSA Archivum. The new fonds provides insight not only into the history of Kádár-era repression, but also into the history of reparations after the 1989 regime change. After her police stop on March 15, Mária Jassó, 19 years old in 1973, was arrested on March 21, and sentenced to 30 days in prison for “disorderly conduct.” Jassó preserved, and now donated to the Archivum, the decisions and minutes of her police case, as well as other documents, such as a related report for the Central Committee. Her case, however, did not end there, and neither does the collection; in 1992, Jassó submitted a claim for compensation to the National Office for Damages and Reparations, set up following the 1989 regime change. Her claim was rejected on the grounds that the “harm remained unproven due to a lack of official papers.” The fonds contains the absurd, bureaucratic correspondence with the authority and her appeal against its decision. In order to prove the harm she suffered, Jassó undertook a personal research, the resulting copies of archival documents are also part of the collection.

“The use of severe reprimand as disciplinary sanction is certainly justified by the offense committed. . . . At the same time, her young age and the sincere remorse she showed also justify not imposing more drastic punishment, since the sentence she had served in detention in Pálhalma had an extremely traumatic and educational effect on her anyway,” notes the 1973 decision of the workplace disciplinary proceedings against Jassó. While researching and placing the documents in a historical context, it is worth considering the human dimension of her case. The fonds also includes the deeply personal correspondence between Mária Jassó and her parents during her incarceration.

The fonds HU OSA 472 Mária Jassó Personal Papers are available in the Research Room of the Archivum.
The collection was processed by Archivist Márk László-Herbert, who also produced its Finding Aids.

Tomorrow, we launch our program series Petőfi Mirages (only in Hungarian), addressing, among other aspects, the Kádár-era commemorations of March 15! On March 22, at the opening event, András Mink (Research Fellow, Blinken OSA Archivum), will discuss Petőfi’s political memory with István Margócsy and Péter Csunderlik. The full program is available here! Further events of the series related to the Jassó case include a discussion on the Revolutionary Youth Days with Péter Apor and Orsolya Sudár on April 12, and the screening of the film Petőfi ‘73 on May 17.

(Photo: Independent student march on March 15, 1972. Facebook/Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security)