Anna Kéthly (16 November 1889 – 7 September 1976) was a Hungarian social democratic politician, second female member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

(1922-1948) and minister during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

. Her fellow party member Vilmos Böhm called her the "

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

of Hungarian politics".

Early career

She was one of nine children born into a poor family in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. At the age of fifteen she started working in a garment factory but soon found more appealing work in the editorial office of a women's magazine and this gave her the chance to further her education. In 1917, she joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party and became an active Party member. In 1919, Kéthly was elected onto a committee of the Party. In subsequent years she was a frequent contributor to the Party's newspaper ''

Népszava ''Népszava'' (meaning "People's Word" in English) is a social-democratic Hungarian language newspaper published in Hungary. History and profile ''Népszava'' is Hungary's eldest continuous print publication and as of October 2019 the last an ...

''. In 1922 Kéthly was elected to Parliament as a member of the Social Democratic Party, and represented her Party in parliament without a break until the

German invasion of Hungary Operation Margarethe (''Unternehmen Margarethe'') was the occupation of Hungary by German Nazi troops during World War II that was ordered by Adolf Hitler. Course of events Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Kállay, who had been in office from ...

in March 1944. After the German invasion, Kéthly left Budapest and lived in the country with false papers under an assumed identity. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Kéthly again became politically active and helped to reorganize the Hungarian Social Democratic Party and she was elected to the Party's Political Committee. In April 1945, she was elected a member of the Provisional National Assembly and in the general elections in November of same year, she was re-elected to parliament, this time as head of the Social Democratic faction, and was made Deputy Speaker of Parliament. Kéthly made frequent contributions of articles to Socialist papers and was active in maintaining contact with international socialist Parties in the West. In post-war Hungary, she was a leading opponent of her Party's merger with the

Hungarian Communist Party The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...

and in the internal power-struggle that ensued, in March 1948, she was dismissed from the Party and soon after she also lost her seat in Parliament and placed under house arrest for two years.

Arrest

In June 1950, Kéthly, together with several other members of the Social Democratic Party, was arrested by the Communists, who had in the meantime gained control of Hungary. In January 1954, after more than three years in prison, she was charged with spying and activities directed against the state and sentenced to life imprisonment. Following international pressure from Western socialist parties she was granted a pardon and released, but kept under permanent 'observation'.

Role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and life in exile

On 31 October 1956, following the revival of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party during the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, she became president of the Party. On 1 November she attended the Socialist International Meeting in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The following day, 2 November The Hungarian Government appointed her a delegate to the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

. On 3 November her Party nominated Kéthly for a ministerial position in the new coalition government of Imre Nagy but at dawn the following day, 4 November 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and she was advised to fly to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and appeal to the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of Hungary. Eventually she settled in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where she carried on writing and editing Socialist publications. In 1962 the Hungarian Supreme Court reviewed Kéthly's 1954 pardon and, ''in absentia'', imposed on her a three-year prison sentence for anti-state activities. Anna Kéthly died on 7 September 1976, in Blankenberge,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. In October, 1990, her ashes were returned to Hungary and laid to rest. She was fully rehabilitated on 7 July 1994, when the Hungarian Supreme Court annulled the 1962 verdict against her.

Movie

A movie about her life, ''Utolsó jelentés Annáról'' ("Last Report About Anna") premiered in late 2009. It was directed by

Márta Mészáros Márta Mészáros (born 19 September 1931) is a Hungarian screenwriter and film director. The daughter of László Mészáros, a sculptor, Mészáros began her career working in documentary film, having made 25 documentary shorts over the spa ...

Enikő Eszenyi Enikő Eszenyi (born 11 January 1961) is a Hungarian actress and theater director, recipient of Kossuth Prize (2001). She appeared in 1991's '' Paths of Death and Angels''. Selected filmography * '' Night Rehearsal'' (1983) * '' Eldorado'' (19 ...

plays Kéthly.

External links

United Nations Report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary, General Assembly, Official Records, 11th session, Supplement No. 18 A/3592), New York. 1957Official website of the
ocial Democratic Party (Hungary) (Kéthly's party)
Official website of the
Hungarian Social Democratic Party (a split of Kéthly's party which claims her legacy) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kethly, Anna 1889 births 1976 deaths Politicians from Budapest Social Democratic Party of Hungary politicians People of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 20th-century Hungarian women politicians Hungarian exiles