Gergely Pongrátz ( b. 1932)
Pongrátz was born in Szamosújvár (Gherla), Romania, where his father was a lawyer and mayor of the town in 1940. He and his family moved to Hungary in 1945, where they farmed 13 hold (7.4 ha) of land in Soroksár (now the 23rd District). After agricultural secondary school in Bácsalmás, he worked as an agronomist at the Seregély agricultural equipment depot and then a fodder supply clerk for Szob District Council. In 1955, he became chief stockbreeder to Cegléd City Council, and in 1956, he went to work at Henyelpuszta State Farm. He joined the Corvin köz group of armed insurgents on October 26-7, 1956, where he and his brothers (Ödön, Ernő and Kristóf) soon won great respect and influence in the group leadership. During the ceasefire negotiations between the government and the rebels, Gergely Pongrátz appeared to be the most suspicious of the Imre Nagy government. He took over command of the Corvin köz group on November 1 or 2 from László Iván Kovács and had some influence over neighbouring groups as commander of the biggest unit of rebels. After November 4, the fight against the vastly superior Soviet forces continued for several days. (Corvin köz was one of the main points of resistance in Budapest.) Pongrátz resigned his command after the retreat and fled abroad at the end of November. He joined the Hungarian Revolutionary Council in Vienna, remaining active there and in Geneva until February 1957. He then moved to New York, where he worked as a security guard in a freight-car factory, and then to Boston, where he was a cleaner. In 1957, he was chosen in Chicago to be vice-chairman of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters Association. (He resigned the office in February 1982.) From 1959, he lived for twelve years in Madrid. Returning to America, he worked as an insurance agent and later had a pig farm in Arizona. He returned to Hungary in 1991, where he became Budapest chairman of the World Federation of 1956 Hungarians and then the '56-ers Association, and honorary chairman and later deputy chairman of the Association of Political Prisoners (Pofosz). He founded and runs the 'Pest Lads' Foundation.
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