Vera Pécsi
The Standard Electric Trial
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The Standard show trial
In the summer of 1949, Vogeler pressed his American principals several times, indicating that the Hungarian government started talks also with the Philips company. The telegramme in reply from New York read: "Desirable you go to Budapest and stay there for next several weeks if necessary to keep things tranquil. Pending action here on proposed agreement which we using every endeavour to expedite." Vogeler arrived in Hungary on 30 September 1949, a couple of days after the verdict in the Rajk trial was delivered. László Rajk, former minister of the interior and then of foreign affairs, was sentenced to death for the trumped-up charges of espionage, disloyalty, and the promotion of the imperialist powers' war designs. For those involved in the Standard affair, the only question that remained unanswered realistically must have been that of timing—when they were to be dealt the role of scapegoat in the failure of signing the agreement.
Executive manager Imre Geiger was being closely watched by the ÁVH. His close colleagues were told to inform on him, he was being shadowed, his telephone was bugged and his mail was read. The Hungarian delegation at the talks was led by Zoltán Radó, who had fled the country because of persecution and returned from Britain only after the war. Easily suspected as an agent, his name was mentioned in the Rajk trial too. Sanders and Vogeler were under surveillance by counter-espionage agents. "Outside observation was being employed aggressively, and Sanders and Vogeler discussed phenomena related to their surveillance more than once," an operative report says about them. Vogeler informed the American mission of their being observed, and also made a complaint to Zoltán Radó. The American commercial attaché advised him to leave Hungary immediately; Radó said it was a warning that time was running out for the signing of the agreement. Both were right.
On November 1949, Zoltán Radó was arrested. Those in charge of the surveillance of Imre Geiger knew that he and his family were about to leave the country. His intention to defect was taken as an admission of guilt, and he was arrested on the border on 10 November. Vogeler attempted to leave 'legally'. On 17 November, he 'sent messages' to his observers, by phone, at a factory meeting, and in a letter to Secretary of State Sulyok, to the effect that, as the decision was taken in Washington, the ISEC management were expecting him in London "for discussing questions of detail, collecting documentation and authorization in writing and briefing". On 18 November he left for Vienna, driven by his chauffeur who had earlier been recruited by the ÁVH. He too was arrested at the border and taken to the ÁVH headquarters at 60 Andrássy út, Budapest. On the 21st, Sanders was also detained.
On 29 December 1949, a government decree was issued on the nationalization of factories employing more than 10 persons and those still in foreign ownership. Speaking at a mass rally, Ernő Gerő, second only to Rákosi in the Communist Party leadership, said—and these words could indeed be taken as draft indictment for the Standard show trial: "We are talking about huge companies, such as Standard, the Telephone Company, Shell, Vacuum, First Hungarian Thread Works, and the Budakalász Textile Mill. Through the owners and management of these companies, foreign imperialists used them mostly as front organizations for building up a spy network and carrying out actions of sabotage. We have seen this in the MAORT case and more recently in the case of the Standard, which is now being nationalized."
All in all, 24 persons were arrested and another 80 interrogated as witnesses or experts during the trial. The first testimonies were about the post-war difficulties Standard had sustained—belated supplies, scarce raw materials, the lack of production documentation, the unsatisfiable Russian and Yugoslav claims, financial difficulties, and the disputes with state agencies. The defendants submitted that the Americans had participated in company management since 1928 (!) actively and since 1935 (!) had reported to the ownership in regular monthly reports on economic and political events with a bearing on the production and marketing potential. Neither did they deny having exchanged production documentation, designs of the communications networks made on government commission. This was frequently done through the legations as postal services were both slow and unreliable. During the war, Sanders was an officer in the British army and was stationed in Budapest as a member of the Allied Control Commission afterwards. He joined the company after demobilization. As his CV revealed, Vogeler had attended the US Naval Academy at Annapolis for three years. These were reasons enough to take them for professional spies.
Among the documents in the court files there are interrogation plans. "To support, based on the interrogation and the outside investigation, Sanders' activities as intelligence agent while in Hungary with the British mission. To uncover, e.g., and question him about his spy contacts, the owner of the Éva Café in Székesfehérvár, etc. We shall get Sanders to copy in English the final version of the notes, which are to be submitted to the court, then get him to read them out to 'compare' them to the original, and make a recording of them." In his writing, György Szöllősi admitted that "No written evidence of Vogeler's activities is available, nor can we expect to have access to such. It is imperative that we strengthen the sense in him that any improvement in his situation can only be expected from himself, separated from his commissioners and the powers behind them. He needs constant attention. This is the only way we can expect him to behave tolerably at the trial." Ervin Faludi, a major in the ÁVH, wrote as follows: "We succeeded in making Radó believe it is favourable for him to be charged in the Standard case, rather than the London spy case. I have sketched the political significance of the Standard case for him, and of his testimony relating to it, in broad outlines. It is to be decided if the negotiations conducted between the Standard concern and the Hungarian Government and their delay should figure in the trial and if so, from what angle. This calls for further instructions, for based on the interrogation of the detainees, no precise information can be gained as to whether the Government's economic policy had anything to do with the negotiations dragging on."
In 1970, a strictly confidential report on the Standard affair, for in-house use only, was compiled in the Ministry of Interior.1 It states: "No direct physical constraint was used in the procedure, though threat of it was made. In an indirect way, however, the long-drawn-out, exhausting interrogation, without any breaks, can be viewed as physical constraint employed against the defendants. [...] In order to obtain a confession, the defendants were told not to take either the court procedure or the expected sentences too seriously. They were told that the trial was meant for those outside, for public opinion, and that they themselves would be set free soon. [...] Around 20 November 1950, the head of the ÁVH, Gábor Péter, and his deputy, Ernő Szűcs, dealt with the major defendants. From then on, the majority of the defendants made depositions as they were requested to. Though the interrogators refused defendants' offers to make 'any confession', they actually took down even suppositions as facts. [...] An essential deficiency of the political investigative work showed in the way the investigators formulated the testimonies of the defendants. Minutes of the confrontations were drafted and typed up in advance, and the defendants and witnesses were made to sign them. [...] Due to the lack, or also weaknesses, of previous operative processing work, the majority of the defendants were put under the surveillance of the prison network."
The indictment was ready on 9 February 1950. The trial began on the 17th. Several versions for the open hearing were drawn up, and the final version was fixed at a rehearsal. Questions to be put by Judge Vilmos Olti and Chief Prosecutor Gyula Alapy were formulated in advance,2 just as were the replies by both the accused and the witnesses, as well as the sentences. Time for the assigned counsels was precisely measured out, as was the number of minutes in which the defendants could make their pleas, which had been written in advance. Before the hearing, the accused were issued clean clothes and ample provisions. The audience was admitted by personal tickets made out for numbered seats. Of the 106 seats, 40 were given out to ÁVH members, 20 to journalists, 2 each to the American and British legations, and the rest were distributed among trusted ministry and factory employees. ÁVH agents kept an eye on the audience at the trial and made a summary of the remarks they heard and also of the 'criticism' that appeared in the foreign press, and these were attached to the documents of the case.
Vogeler's and Sanders' detention and court trial received great publicity in the American and British press. A leader in the 20 February issue of The New York Times said that it was a theatrical production taking place in Budapest, with coached players. A BBC commentator, who watched the events for three days, gave an account of his impressions, saying that although Vogeler and Sanders spoke in English, the way they articulated their thoughts was almost unintelligible. The terminology they used, the commentator said, was totally alien to the spirit of the English language, and this showed that the texts had been written in Hungarian first and then translated into English. The AP correspondent posed the question: Was Vogeler forced to plead guilty by administration of drugs, torture or threats? The New York Post leader ended by ironically remarking that they treated Vogeler with mercy as he was forced to admit he was neither a Trotskyite nor an agent of Tito's.
On 21 February 1950, the Budapest Criminal Court sentenced Imre Geiger and Zoltán Radó to death and Robert Vogeler and Edgar Sanders to 15 and 13 years of imprisonment respectively. The others in detention, both the accused and witnesses, were sentenced in camera to several years of prison. On 6 May 1950, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and upheld the rulings of the first court. On 8 May, Imre Geiger and Zoltán Radó were hanged. Their farewell letters were attached to the trial documents.
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NOTES
1, The 50-page report is available for research in the Office of History, Budapest. Back
2, A note on the margin reads: "Comrade Rákosi wants to see the questions." Back
Vera Pécsi
an economic historian, taught at the University of Economics in Budapest between 1974–95 and was an editor of Hungarian Television between 1989–99. She was consultant to documentary films on the Standard Case (1990) and the MAORT Case (2000).
