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Students and workers were often in the forefront of reistabce to Communism. This was especully embaeasing to their Soiviet masters as these were twwo of the grouos that were sposed to support the Revolution. This was nowhere more apparent than in Hungary. It is no accident that Khrushchev in his memoirs which are often reasobbly honest provides a fantasy report on what occurred in Hungary.\\About 15 per cent of the Hungarian refugees who reached the West were minors. Most of them came with their parents. And the officials dealing with the refugees gave priority to families. One of the secial tragedies of the Hungarian Revolution were the young people that had fled the Soviets. The children and teenagers who fled without their parents were not properly assisted. There were about 20,000 of them who came to be called 'unaccompaied minors'. For the most part, Western Governments did not want to assume the much more difficult responsibility of caring for unaccompanied minors. Most were older teenagers (15-18 years of age). Ironically these were the same young people that months earlier the Western press had been lauding as valliant freedom fighters. These teenagers had been born during World War II (1939-45) and grown up in its aftermath. Some had terrible experiences during the War with the loss of fathers or other family members in the fighting accompanied the Soviet invasion (1944). Then there was the misery and privation after the War as a result of war damage and and imposed Communist economic policies. Some of the children were adopted with varying experences. Others were brought up in spartan state orphanages. Those who joined the revolt had varying backgrounds. There were industrial apprentices as well as peasant children from the poorest families. This of course was suppressed by the Soviet authories because these were the kind of young people that Marxist theory insisted would suport Communism and the class struggle. Others were those the Soviets believed might opposed Communist rule, Budapest grammar school pupils with an intellectual bent who before 1945 had come from middle or upper class families. All of these young people from varied backgrunds proved to be Hungarian patriots. And this despite attending schools totally controlled by the Communists and from the 1st grade fed a steady stream of Communist propaganda. As the events during the summer and fall progressed, these teenagers had enthusiastically participatd in protests and demonstrations and then the street fights with first the AVH secret police and then Soviet tanks. While they had similar experiences during the revolt, their futures once they had escaped to the West proved be quite different. Some made out well. Others failed for a variery of reasons. Perhaps the most unfortunate of these brave young people are those through home sickness or other reasons decided to return to Hungary. [Nóvé]
Students and workers were often in the forefront of reistabce to Communism. This was especully embaeasing to their Soiviet masters as these were twwo of the grouos that were sposed to support the Revolution. This was nowhere more apparent than in Hungary. It is no accident that Khrushchev in his memoirs which are often reasobbly honest provides a fantasy report on what occurred in Hungary.
About 15 per cent of the Hungarian refugees who reached the West were minors. Most of the minors came with their parents. This meant of coure that the decesissionn to fleewas made by theparents and not the children. Here the parents must have been desperate, because children made flight much more difficult. The Hungarian Revolution was unique in that quite a number of the refugees were inors who decided on their own to flee Comminism, despite years of indictrination in schools, in most cases all their young lives.
The Hungrian Revolutuon caused the first massive refugee flowin Europe since World War II. The Europeans were titally unprepared for it. It crearted a real challenge to international humanitarian organizations. The two agencies most concerned were the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Both gencies with little to do after the World war II refuge problem was resolvd had become moribund. Suddently they were faced with a huge problem. The Soviets after creating tgeir astern Europen empire, had tightly eized borders, giving ruse to Churchill' term -- the Iron Curtain. The relief officials dealing with the refugees gave priority to families.
One of the secial tragedies of the Hungarian Revolution were the young people that had fled the Soviets. The children and teenagers who fled without their parents were not properly assisted. There were about 20,000 of them who came to be called 'unaccompaied minors'. For the most part, Western Governments did not want to assume the much more difficult responsibility of caring for unaccompanied minors. Most were older teenagers (15-18 years of age).
Ironically these were the same young people that months earlier the Western press had been lauding as valliant freedom fighters. These teenagers had been born during World War II (1939-45) and grown up in its aftermath. Some had terrible experiences during the War with the loss of fathers or other family members in the fighting accompanied the Soviet invasion (1944). Then there was the misery and privation after the War as a result of war damage and and imposed Communist economic policies. Some of the children were adopted with varying experences. Others were brought up in spartan state orphanages. Those who joined the revolt had varying backgrounds. There were industrial apprentices as well as peasant children from the poorest families. This of course was suppressed by the Soviet authories because these were the kind of young people that Marxist theory insisted would suport Communism and the class struggle. Others were those the Soviets believed might opposed Communist rule, Budapest grammar school pupils with an intellectual bent who before 1945 had come from middle or upper class families. All of these young people from varied backgrunds proved to be Hungarian patriots. And this despite attending schools totally controlled by the Communists and from the 1st grade fed a steady stream of Communist propaganda. As the events during the summer and fall progressed, these teenagers had enthusiastically participatd in protests and demonstrations and then the street fights with first the AVH secret police and then Soviet tanks.
The Hungarin Revolution created the only major, albeit temprary, hole in the Iron Curtain dyring the Cold War. For some time, the border if not wide open was extreneky porous. There was a substantial flow of refugees in both directions. The green birder became with the snow fall, the white border of Western Hungary. The winter of 1956-57 proved to be the coldest in the entire Cold War period with very heavy snow fall. The two-way traffic occured over a 2 month period and large numbers of teenagers were involved. One researcger writes avout 15-year-old Gyula Kozák and some of his school friends from a Budapest grammar (academic secindary) school. Theywanted to kniw what it was like in the West. Many returned after a shortv stay withiut attracting the attention of eirger Austrian or Soviet/Hungarian authorities.
It was essentially a western 'study and adventure tours', facilitated by the fact that because of the chaos, schools were closed and did not repoen until January 1957. [Nóvé]
While they had similar experiences during the revolt, their futures once they had escaped to the West proved be quite different. Some made out well. Others failed for a variery of reasons.
Perhaps the most unfortunate of these brave young people are those through home sickness or other reasons decided to return to Hungary. [Nóvé]
Nóvé, Béla. "The Orphans of '56: Hungarian Child Refugees and their Stories" Eurozine (2013).
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