Ferenc Völgyesi

Ferenc András Völgyesi (11 February 1895, Budapest – 3 July 1967, Uccle ) was a controversial Hungarian physician, psychiatrist and hypnotist who published dozens of articles and books, had a prosperous private practice, and gained fame in Hungary and abroad. Völgyesi, along with Ara Jeretzian, established a medical clinic during the latter days of World War II credited with saving the lives of approximately 400 Jews. Völgyesi also served as an agent of the Hungarian Secret Service, codenamed "Viktor", starting in 1962. His father was the owner of the Zöldvadász restaurant and the Trieszti nők pub in Budapest. After his death, Völgyesi's mother ran the establishments, and invested in apartment houses. Völgyesi was Jewish but in 1938 Völgyesi and his family converted to Lutheranism.

Völgyesi claimed that at the age of 17 he first discovered his ability to hypnotize. He hypnotized an 18-year-old girl who remained catatonic for three days.

Medical training and military service Völgyesi started medical studies in 1912 at the University of Medicine in Budapest. Völgyesi received his medical degree in 1917 and soon after established a successful private practice, which was initially shared with the celebrated lay hypnotist Alfréd Pethes. In a letter written in 1944 requesting exemption from anti-Jewish regulations, he asserted that he had incited the paramedic corps against the Communist regime, was sentenced to death, but managed to flee to Transdanubia, and volunteered to the Hungarian National Army, led by Miklós Horthy, becoming Chief Paramedic of the Szombathely and Budapest Artillery Corps. In the interwar period, he served as an assistant physician at the Departments of Neurology and Orthopedy of the Szt. János Hospital. After obtaining a certificate in medical forensics in 1927, he also served as a forensic expert.

Hypnosis Practice Initially Völgyesi focused his practice on treating trauma from the recent war. But he discovered, to his surprise, that the "victims of so-called peace" were as numerous as the victims of war.

During 50 years of medical practice Völgyesi's writings were widely published and reprinted, with 250 articles and 25 books in Hungarian, English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. According to him, between 1917 and 1963 he treated more than 62,000 patients, using hypno-suggestive therapy more than 800,000 times. However, his broader fame came from his experiments in animal hypnosis rather than with human subjects, an important aspect of hypnosis research largely forgotten by historians.

In 1939 the photographer Andor Fischer filed a lawsuit against Völgyesi, claiming that Völgyesi did not pay for the photos that Fischer was hired to take of hypnotized animals. Fischer further asserted that the photos were copies of drawings of hypnotized animals, or photos of animals that were not hypnotized. The photo of the bear, for example, that Völgyesi claimed had hypnotized, was, according to Fischer, actually taken in a Hungarian circus after the chained animal had been tortured, and the chains were subsequently erased from the photo. The court denied Fischer's claims.

Hungarian newspapers during this period of time made reference to Völgyesi's academic relationship with Göring. Between April and November 1944, he did labor service at the Szt. János Hospital but soon established his own clinic at his apartment.

Yellow Star House at 1 Zichy Jenő Street In late 1944 the Nazi-allied Arrow Cross Party took control of Hungary and accelerated efforts to round up and deport Jews. Völgyesi co-led the conversion of an apartment building at 1 Zichy Jenő utca in Budapest, where Völgyesi and his family resided, into a medical clinic staffed by mostly Jewish doctors and nurses. The clinic took in all patients in need of care, including Jews, Arrow Cross soldiers, and (later) Russian soldiers. While the effort was mainly led by an Armenian-born Christian named Ara Jeretzian, who obtained false and real permits at great personal risk to operate the clinic in defiance of official orders to resettle all Jews in another part of town, Völgyesi also played a key role, and put himself and his family at great risk. Völgyesi's reputation as a world-famous psychiatrist helped to keep the clinic from being shut down by the authorities. In 1949, Völgyesi was criticized in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Hungary for his allegedly unscientific methods, and was expelled from the Trade Union of Physicians. However, he was quickly readmitted. According to Margit Balogh's monumental biography of Mindszenty, the story of Mindszenty's hypnosis by Völgyesi was made up László Sulner, a handwriting expert involved in the trial. Sulner presented his claims of using hypnosis and drugs on Mindszenty to the US Consulate in Austria, who were suspicious of the allegations. Later, Sulner published the story in the Chicago Sun-Times. A document from the Radio Free Europe archives dated 1956 claims that Völgyesi "prepared" Mindszenty for the trial. Völgyesi's wife was reported to have complained that Völgyesi's colleagues cut off social contact with them as a result of his role in the Mindszenty trial.

The Hungarian Secret Service began conducting surveillance on Völgyesi not later than 1957 (codename "Charlatan"), and continued to do so until at least May 1963. Starting in 1962, Völgyesi, codenamed "Viktor," agreed to participate as an informant to the Hungarian Secret Service. Völgyesi was asked or offered to spy on a variety of people with whom he had family, professional, and social ties, such as his sons-in-law (one of whom was a language interpreter for the Cabinet of the European Common Market in Brussels), his patients (including the First Secretary of the Austrian Embassy in Hungary), "American millionaire" Bruce Gelb, and economist and art historian John Michael Montias. Volgyesi's primary motivation for agreeing to spy for the regime was to obtain permission for him and his wife to travel abroad, as all three of their children had emigrated from Hungary. Völgyesi also co-led spiritualist circles aiming to convince patients to choose specific surgeons to perform operations in exchange for large payments, warning that the patients would otherwise die. He also, it was claimed, attempted to contact deceased Nazi leaders from the spirit world, to ask for regime change in Hungary.