The Round-Up (1966) Plot Summary Explained

Gajdar was identified as a murderer by an old woman among the prisoners, making him a target. The guards offered him a deal: if he could point to a man who had killed more people than himself, he would be spared from execution. Fearing for his life and seeing no other option, he agreed to betray other prisoners to save himself.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, an old woman singled out Gajdar as a murderer, marking him for the guards' attention.

• jános gajdar
• informant
• prison guards
• betrayal
• survival

The guards announced a plan to form a new military unit from former bandits and spread the rumor that Sándor Rózsa himself had been pardoned. The prisoners who had fought under Rózsa celebrated at the news, believing they would be freed along with him. This revealed their identities to the guards, who then informed them that anyone who had fought under Rózsa would still face execution.

Foreshadowing: The guards had been searching for Rózsa loyalists among the inmates but could not identify them.

• guerrillas
• trick
• pardon
• military unit
• sándor rózsa

The guards fabricated a story that Sándor Rózsa had been pardoned and invited former guerrillas to join a new military unit. When the prisoners celebrated this apparent hope for freedom, they inadvertently revealed their identities as Rózsa's former fighters. The guards then announced that while Rózsa was pardoned, anyone who had fought under him would still be executed, turning the celebration into a grim prelude to their deaths.

Foreshadowing: The guards had been unable to locate Rózsa among the prisoners, leading them to devise a scheme to find his supporters.

• pardon
• execution
• deception
• hope
• guerrillas

After Gajdar turned informant and betrayed several prisoners by naming them to the guards, he became an outcast among the inmate population. The other prisoners viewed him as a traitor who had sold out his fellow guerrillas for his own survival. One night, while in solitary confinement, some fellow inmates murdered him, demonstrating the harsh prison code that punished collaboration with the authorities.

Foreshadowing: Gajdar's transformation into an informant had already marked him as an outcast among the prisoners.

• gajdar
• murder
• informant
• prisoners
• traitor

After Gajdar was killed in solitary confinement, the guards examined which prisoners' cells had been left unlocked during the night, indicating who had access to Gajdar's location. Using this information, they identified the suspects and began interrogating them specifically to locate Sándor Rózsa or his remaining supporters.

Foreshadowing: Gajdar's murder occurred at night while he was in solitary confinement, limiting access to only certain prisoners.

• guards
• suspects
• cells
• interrogation
• sándor rózsa

The prisoners who revealed they had fought under Sándor Rózsa were told that despite Rózsa's pardon, anyone who had served under him would still face execution. The false promise of pardon was designed to trick them into revealing their identities, after which they were condemned, making the celebration a cruel prelude to their deaths.

Foreshadowing: The guards proposed forming a new military unit specifically targeting former bandits, which attracted Rózsa's former fighters.

• rózsa fighters
• execution
• pardon
• guerrillas

After Gajdar's murder, the guards realized that only prisoners whose cells were left unlocked could have accessed Gajdar in solitary confinement. This narrowed down the list of suspects considerably, allowing the guards to focus their interrogation on those specific inmates who had the opportunity to commit the killing.

Foreshadowing: Gajdar was murdered while in solitary confinement, a restricted area within the prison.

• unlocked cells
• solitary confinement
• suspects
• guards

The prison staff were under pressure to find members of Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band, who were believed to be hidden among the general prisoner population. Since they could not identify the rebels by appearance alone, they employed a combination of mental pressure, physical torment, and cunning deceptions to break prisoners' loyalty and extract information about the guerrilla leaders.

Foreshadowing: The timeline shows that some of Rózsa's guerrillas were known to be interned among the prisoners but remained unidentified.

• torture
• psychological
• guards
• rebels
• interrogation