This interview was made shortly before the death of Júlia Rajk, widow of the prominent Hungarian communist leader, László Rajk who was executed in a show trial in 1950. Júlia Rajk spent much of the Rákosi era in prison, and she joined the Party opposition upon her release in 1954. She was a major spokesperson for the renewal of the communist movement in Hungary, and she supported Imre Nagy. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolution had been suppressed, she was deported to Snagov (Romania) together with Imre Nagy and others associated with Nagy’s political line. She was released in 1958, Nagy’s execution. She worked as a librarian and archivist until her retirement in 1974, but she was an outspoken opponent of the first secretary of the Party, János Kádár. As Júlia Rajk's biographer said in an interview, “She was the one [among others, one might feel necessary to add] who, like in a Shakespearean drama, continuously reminded Kádár-Macbeth that there was blood on his hands." Júlia Rajk remained a communist until her death, but she never stopped pressing for the rehabilitation of Imre Nagy and she maintained that the communist movement had to get rid of the elite who had taken it over. Considering that she was the mother of one of the most active members of the democratic opposition, László Rajk jr., it comes as no surprise that the regime did not allow anyone to do interviews with her. Péter Bokor nevertheless reached out to her, and he set up an interview in which they cover part of her life, beginning with her involvement in the anti-Nazi opposition and ending with the reburial of László Rajk in 1956.
The interview focuses more on László Rajk than it does on Júlia. It is clear from the conversation that Júlia Rajk was not aware that it was illegal for Bokor to do an interview with her. She repeatedly refers to János Kádár, saying that Bokor should ask Kádár about some detail, because he might have a better grasp of the events, since he had been present for some of the events (unlike her). At the same time, she makes no secret of her opinion of Kádár: she suggests that the entire Party elite should go, since they were seriously corrupt. She also considers the rehabilitation of László Rajk formal and insufficient, since, she claimed, the key point was not to name a street after him, but to draw the right conclusions and democratize the entire social structure. Otherwise, she contended, the communist system would always be founded on lies. Júlia Rajk voiced nonconformist opinions on a series of other issues as well, including the history of the communist Party in Hungary, but the most significant of her contentions were the views just outlined, as they profoundly challenged the legitimacy of the Kádár regime. The interview, of course, was not to be used in any documentary.
