The Drama of Endre Fiala, Former Director of the Teacher Training Colleges in Jászberény and Zombor (1941–1949)

Abstract

This study, written in a documentary-narrative style, presents the life of Dr Endre Fiala, who served as director of the teacher training institutes in Jászberény and Zombor from 1941 to 1949. It provides a picture of the director's effective pedagogical work, guided by humane Christian principles, his historical views, and his commitment to equality among people at both institutions. It also presents Endre Fiala's socially sensitive, selfless, exemplary work as a municipal chief clerk, followed by the circumstances of his innocent persecution, internment, and beatings, and finally his relentless and unsuccessful struggle against his colleagues to obtain the position of director in Jászberény, as a result of which he spent the rest of his working life as a trainee teacher and then as a primary school teacher.