The incredible story of the freedom fighter sentenced to death at the age of 21

Hungary’s leading politicians attended the funeral of Mária Wittner, a 1956 freedom fighter and former lawmaker of ruling Fidesz, in the Dunakeszi cemetery, near Budapest, on Friday afternoon. Wittner died on September 14, at the age of 85.

Aged only 19, she participated during the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution in the siege of the Hungarian Radio and tended to the wounded in Corvin Alley, the site of ferocious fighting. She was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds on November 4 as the Soviet Army overran the city.

Wittner was arrested in 1957 and sentenced to death a year later. She spent 200 days in prison before her sentence was reduced to life in 1959. She was released in March 1970, but was not granted an amnesty. She worked as a seamstress and cleaning lady until she retired in 1980.

Read alsoThe incredible story of the freedom fighter sentenced to death at the age of 21

Wittner took an active role after the 1989-90 political regime change and in the work of various 1956 organisations. From 2006 to 2014, she was a lawmaker of the Fidesz party. She wrote several memoirs of her role in the revolution and of her years in prison.