Transylvanian HVIM (Sixty-four Counties Youth Movement) leader Zoltán Szőcs sent a poignant letter from the Romanian prison where he had been detained for over 110 days, under terrorism charges. There is no end in sight for this staged criminal procedure, it is not known when they are to be released. However, it’s not him who needs encouragement, in fact he is the one who encourages those outside to endure! Written by a real Szekler, his letter is recommended to everyone, especially to those faltering in their faith. If all Szeklers had such faith, then Transylvania would have become independent long ago ...
Dear fellows,
We are all going through hard days and months but we must never lose our faith and hope.
Things you voluntarily give up on are lost forever. You will never be lost unless you’re weak, rootless and unworthy.
I am proud of my fiancée and my family for not breaking and for enduring all the suffering and thus getting stronger in faith, love and togetherness! It has given me huge power and strengthened my faith that we are indeed walking the right path laid out for us by God. The Lord is with those who put their trust in Him, who act in the good and righteous way, who carry the future of our nation on their forehead and tied to God.
I have been in this Romanian prison for 110 days. Life is not quite easy here but one day passes after the other. At present, I am locked up in a 15-squaremetre cell with two Bulgarians and a Gypsy, but we have had 6-7 people in this cell for weeks before. The toilet is also the shower, all included in the 15 square metres. Altogether 60-65 persons have spent time in this cell so far, 90% of whom were repeat offenders with such crimes as theft, money laundering, drug abuse, but two of them were convicted for murder. As always, a Szekler man shows his strength if necessary and gains respect. I had to acknowledge that I was deprived of all my rights, including my freedom. Here you have to wait for everything, we are locked up in the cell day and night, except three times a week when we can phone our families and go out to a 4 by 3 metre hole surrounded by a 4-metre high concrete wall, a place which is called the open air here. I named it “Cutie cu şobolani” (cockroach hole– the editor), even the wardens laugh when they hear it. I spend 90% of my time reading, I eat once a day and I do my push-ups. Each night I pray with our Bishop Áron Márton to the good God to help our family, help our torn nation so that Easter Sunday could follow the Good Friday of our torment!
Our fellow Isti is about 10 metres from here but I am not allowed to see him. We are discriminated quite much, they keep searching us, our packs and our beds, constantly looking for phones and bombs but they have never found anything, one night I might make one in my boredom. Thank God, Isti is fine, he endures. His faith is strong and he never gives up, and neither do I! Because the Lord protects those who fight for justice.
I believe in the prevalence of justice over injustice because God and justice are on our side. I believe in God, I believe in justice and I believe in Hungary’s resurrection!
There is an old saying: “Friends in need are friends indeed.” True friends that stand by you and your family in need are few. But the fellows, who we are, show their strength in the greatest of needs, they help the most in this situation when there are no excuses: all for one and one for all, hearts beat together.
A real fellow is not for one or ten years but forever!
Do not be afraid of the truth and God, do not let them break you. Draw strength from the fact that I am still in detention now but I have not been broken even though they keep threatening me with 15-25 years or life imprisonment, but I have not lost my faith and I will never give up because all torment has a point and an end!
We Hungarians were given an especially rich and colourful national heritage by the Lord God. If you throw this heritage away, you will become nobody but a pile of trash blown in the wind one way or another and eventually you will flee to the rest of the world.
Those who finally got intimidated do not owe me an explanation but to God since I am just a servant of God, too. For 10 years with unbroken faith, I have been serving my nation and my homeland which the Lord assigned to us and which our ancestors guarded loyally, sacrificing their blood. However, all of you must consider that many years from now when you are on your deathbed and your cowardice haunts you and wouldn’t let you rest for turning your back on your fellows and for denying God and your homeland, you will be begging for a merciful death to come. Cowards die a thousand times, men die only once. If you don’t dare to stand up for your family, fellow humans, friends, homeland and justice, you do not deserve to live. If you fail to take arms, you will die by arms.
My dear fellows, I thank you for all the help, the unselfish efforts and support as well as all the prayers you said for me and my fellow Isti. Let the good God pay you in kind.
My brothers and sisters,
Endure, do not lose your faith, walk the path of justice, serve God and Homeland. Walk our ancient land with your heads held high because you cannot see God unless your head is high. You must embrace our fate, the Hungarian fate and you must always be proud of being Hungarian. Raise our banner high, and advocate our nation’s right of the first-born for the Carpathian Basin. We must regain our national consciousness because we can only have this homeland if we are a nation. People who do not form a nation only have a dwelling place. A dwelling place gives you shelter but it does not give you protection.
Fellows,
Stand together now as you have never done before and, even in this trying situation, keep up your relentless efforts to accomplish the mission assigned to you by God: serve our nation and homeland! Love each other and take care of each other because love is from God and it gives you protection and the power to do good. Love is stronger than any weapon!
Endure, my brothers and sisters! We must work with all our might so that this land, which is just our dwelling place now, could be our homeland again. So help us God!
I am looking forward to your letters, see you soon, up for victory!
Let justice prevail!
Endure!
Bucharest, April 15, 2016