The unbelievable story of the only black Hungarian soldier of WWI

Did you know that a black soldier fought on the side of Hungary in World War I? Even the name of the hero of these conflicting stories is not known for sure, and his existence was forgotten already during the war. However, one thing is certain: he fought on the side of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy of his own free will.

The only black Hungarian soldier

The world-changing First World War, which ended in South Africa, radically redefined the image of Hungary. The disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Trianon peace treaty meant that Hungary’s important role in world politics disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The Monarchy, which lost 1.2 million soldiers in the war, witnessed countless sad, interesting or even strange stories during the war. According to 24.hu, for instance, immediately after the battles started, the Hungarian hussars of the army had to attack the machine guns with swords. The next year, a slapable Italian puppet was erected on Margaret Island. In the streets of the capital, they tried to persuade the population to help identify the enemy spies by putting up wall hangings.

These stories have been surfacing as the centenary approached. However, there has been little mention of the only black soldier in the Hungarian army, even though the man surrounded by conflicting legends certainly existed and proved his worth on the battlefield, 24.hu writes.

The first mention of the soldier

The first mention of the black soldier appeared in the Pesti Hírlap newspaper barely four months after the Sarajevo assassination and three after the declaration of war on 28 July against Serbia. A very short text entitled The Dark-Skinned Wants to Go to War (A szerecsen harcba akar menni, available in full HERE) reveals that Perris Simon had come to Berlin from somewhere in Congo, and from there, he was taken to Pest as a child, from where he ended up in Oradea.

The “black-skinned, grinning lad in the red livery” then became a doorman at a cinema in Oradea, and “speaks Hungarian like a Bihar-county magistrate, not to mention his swearing”, the short article reads.

Perris Simon was a “sad man”

According to the article, however, Simon’s life was far from perfect. “Since the world has been at war, the cinema doorman [corrected to a non-offensive term – ed.] has been a very sad man, and more than once, the grinning lad has been caught crying bitterly, burying his black head in his hands”, as he envied those who went to war or returned from it injured, but was never allowed to be a soldier. He did not have Hungarian citizenship, so after unsuccessful attempts at various levels of the army and in the conscription offices, he wrote to the Minister of Defence to help his cause.