Povl Bang-Jensen
Povl Bang-Jensen (6 April 1909 – 25 November 1959) was a Danish diplomat who refused to hand over a list of eighty-one witnesses to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 to his UN superiors because he considered that if their identities were turned over to the UN Secretariat, they would be leaked to the Soviet Union, and reprisals would be taken against their relatives in Hungary.
He was found dead of a gunshot wound with the gun in his hand and suicide note in his pocket a park in Queens, New York City, on 26 November 1959 (Thanksgiving Day). Some analysts exclude suicide in spite of the results of the FBI report; for example, the fatal gunshot wound was located on his right temple, but Bang-Jensen was left-handed.[1]
His body was incinerated and buried in Denmark. A tombstone was placed in Budapest in Plot #301 of the New Cemetery of Rákoskeresztúr, among those for who he fought.
His story is presented in a book by DeWitt Copp and Marshall Peck, "Betrayal at the UN, the story of Povl Bang-Jensen" New York : Devin-Adair Co., 1961, and in a Hungarian documentary, The Bang-Jensen affair (A Bang-Jensen ügy, 2008), directed by András Surányi.
References
- ↑ Ádám, Kolozsi. "Az ENSZ kínos kis '56-os titkai".