Tag #136306 - Interview #78490 (Katalin Kallos Havas)

In 1946 I was working in a co-operative called Victoria, I was knitting: I organized the housewives so they knitted at home. I took the orders at the co-operative and distributed the work, then I put together the clothes. There was a strait-laced communist there who declared that employing housewives was exploitation, therefore the co-operative shouldn’t do that. We had lots of orders, and somehow had to fulfill them. That’s why in 1947 I left the co-operative, got a license and worked this way for six months. I managed to finish the jobs I undertook at the co-operative, legally, declaring everything. That’s why in 1952, when the Party cleaned its ranks, I was excluded as a class-alien. They justified their decision by saying that in 1947 I had pursued an activity that exploited people. In 1956 they took me back saying there was no better communist than me.