Private Gergely Berszán
I recently added this small 6 × 6 cm photograph to my collection. It depicts the graves of two fallen Hungarian soldiers somewhere on the Eastern Front. There were no notes on the reverse, and at first glance it seemed that the identities of the men—and the stories behind their sacrifice—had been lost forever. Fortunately, thanks to the excellent historical databases available today, it is sometimes possible to restore both names and histories to photographs such as this.
One of the soldiers was identified as Private Gergely Berszán, a native of the village of Gyimesbükk in Transylvania (today Ghimeș-Făget, Romania). He was born on 11 February 1919, only months after the end of the First World War. Within a year, following the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, his birthplace became part of Romania. Two decades later, the Second Vienna Award of 1940 returned Northern Transylvania to Hungary, and the 21-year-old Gergely once again found himself living within his native country's borders.
Exactly when he entered military service may never be known. The records fall silent until 18 May 1944, when Private Berszán was mortally wounded by a gunshot to the lung near the village of Markowka. He died at just twenty-five years of age. Two days later, on 20 May, he was laid to rest in a military cemetery beneath a simple wooden cross, his steel helmet placed upon it and a wreath laid in tribute by his comrades.
Without this small photograph, Gergely Berszán's grave might have remained just another anonymous wartime burial. Instead, through careful research, it once again bears the name of the young soldier who lies beneath it—a reminder that every forgotten photograph has the potential to restore a piece of history, and with it, the memory of an individual life.
