Thirteen Martyrs of Arad

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The Thirteen Martyrs of Arad is the Hungarian term for 13 Hungarian generals who were tried and executed for treason to the Austrian Empire on 6 October 1849.

From 1848-49 the Hungarian people fought for their independence from Austria in a war of independence. Austria was able to defeat the Hungarian rebels only with the help of the Russians. Protected by the Austrian general Berger until July 1, 1849, the city of Arad (now in Romaniawas then captured by a group of Hungarian rebel generals, who made it their headquarters during the final stage of the revolution. The Hungarian rebels’ capitol was moved from Szeged to Arad. Arad was used as the base for the Hungarian rebels’ uprising for the rest of the insurrection. In Arad there were very few soldiers protecting the city and government from the Austrians.

At the time of the capitol’s move, Lajos Kossuth was the head of the Hungarian government. Kossuth was the foremost Hungarian revolutionary leader who sought Hungary's independence from Austria. He declared the Hapsburg dynasty invalid, and briefly led a provisional government (in 1849) until Russia interceded on Austria's behalf. The Hungarian rebel government and army were already in the final phases of losing the War of Independence to the Austrians. Kossuth relinquished total military and civil power to Artúr Görgey in Arad. Görgey, a Hungarian revolutionary general, fought the Austrians as a commander of the Hungarian Republican Army and distinguished himself as a strategist. Görgey captured the Austrian city of Buda when he was commander of the Hungarian army. Görgey forced Louis Kossuth to abdicate as leader of the Hungarian cause. It was from Arad that Kossuth issued his proclamation on August 11, 1849 addressed to “The Nation”. Görgey was in contact with the Russians throughout the war and was willing to surrender to the Russians because there was no longer a will amongst the Hungarian people to continue fighting. As dictator of Hungary, Görgey did surrender to the Russians rather than continue a lost cause. The fortress at Arad was recaptured by general Haynau and the Austrians shortly after the surrender of Görgey to the Russians at Siria (Világos in Hungarian), a small town close to Arad on August 13, 1849.

Arad was subsequently recaptured by the Austrians and thirteen rebel Hungarian generals were tried and executed on October 6, 1849 for committing acts of treason against the Austrian empire. The thirteen Hungarian rebel generals were hanged or shot in the head by order of the Austrian general Haynau. Haynau an Austrian general infamously remembered for his brutality. These men are known collectively in Hungarian as the thirteen martyrs of Arad. The names of the thirteen martyrs of Arad are: György Lahner, Lajos Aulich, János Damjanich, Károly Knezich, Károly Leiningen-Westerburg, Ernő Poeltenberg, Ignác Török, József Nagy-Sándor, Arisztid Dessewffy, Ernő Kiss, Vilmos Lázár, and József Schweidel. Kossuth was able to flea to America while Görgey was pardoned by the Russians and returned to Hungary where he lived in total obscurity until he died in 1916. The nation has come to regard the thirteen rebel generals as martyrs for prompting the ideas of freedom and independence for the Hungarian people. The lives of the thirteen martyrs have been idealized by all future generations of Hungarians. Arad is remembered on October 6 as a day of mourning for the Hungarian nation.

In 1918 Arad, along with the rest of Transylvania, united with Romania, a status confirmed in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon.