Hostage Opera is based on actual events of 1973.
On a Sunday night, January 7, 1973, two boys took 14 female students hostage in one of the bedrooms of the high school girls' dormitory in Balassagyarmat, with weapons stolen from the commanders’ vault of the local border guard district. The father of the two hostage takers - 18-year-old András Pintye and his 17-year-old brother László - was the party secretary of the border guard district between Szob and Miskolc and belonged to the political elite of the area. Their mother was a personnel officer, to use a period-accurate term, a cadre of a large factory. The parents cared little for the boys, who soon gained a dubious reputation in the town, they had a privileged life in the state-socialist city.They did not know the true nature of the system, since they believed the state-propaganda, that “in socialism, human life is the utmost value”. They naively thought if they threatening any lives, the authorities will let them leave the country.
At first, the girls thought that the boys' hostage-taking was a joke, but they soon had to realize that the two armed men were more serious. In the initial confusion, four girls leftthe closed building through the exit behind the toilets and immediately went to the police. The police officer on duty did not take the incredible story seriously, and only after the girls had cried and begged were they willing to send a patrol agent to the scene. The police first tried to break down the door but were met with a hail of gunfire. The hostage takers told them that if they did not leave, they would execute two girls. The city was soon overrun by uniformed police officers and undercover detectives. The action was taken out of the hands of the local authorities, the heads of internal affairs took control, who constantly reported to the country’s leaders, including János Kádár. Snipers were placed in the buildings opposite the dormitory.
The hostage takers came up with demands that nobody could take seriously:
"1.) You have 10 minutes to send us 6 handguns.
2.) You have 25 minutes to send a curtained bus to the entrance of the dormitory, with 2 drivers.
3.) You have 28 minutes to bring us 6 rifles, 30 hand grenades, 1 handheld transmitter, and 2 rubber batons
If you duly comply with these demands, we will let the girls go.
Get us one million dollars. One hundred thousand West German marks, 400,000 Swiss francs, and - so that nobody thinks the money is stolen - a statement signed by the country's first person should be attached to the banknotes, proving that the money was given voluntarily.
Otherwise, after 10 minutes, we will execute half the girls!
If you don't fulfil our demands, we will continue the executions."
The second day, István Samu, the chief physician of the psychiatric and neurological department of the Balassagyarmat hospital, was volunteering to mediate between the two hostage takers and the authorities. The chief physician, who would today be called a hostage negotiator walked in and out for two days, delivering the news - as long as the authorities allowed it. He even did not know, that the paper box he took with him was bugged, so the authorities heard him saying the truth about the regime. He was not allowed to talk to the boys after the third day.
As the days passed, both the girls and the same age hostage takers became more tired.. The snipers were aiming their guns at the windows for two and a half days. The older boy decided not to surrender, so after five days of negotiation, starving, drinking rusty water from the heating system, but also having moments of lough, singing and dancing, or even telling jokes. He felt to end the situation in an easy way. Opened up the window. He was immediately shot. His brother cried for help and surrendered. András the older brother left his friends five days earlier with this sentence: Either a suitcase full of money, or a belly filled with bullets.”
During the five days of the hostage crisis, not a single article appeared in the newspapers, Balassagyarmat was hermetically sealed off from the outside world. It was not until January 13 that the first, identical notice was published on the backpages of all newspapers, without mentioning, that the boys father was a high rank officer of the party. That same year, the 17-year-old László Pintye was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and four friends of the boys - who knew about the plan, but decided not to take part in it - were sentenced to 8 months to 4 years in prison.