The 70th anniversary for the 1956 Hungarian Revolution is in two days on October 23rd. The revolution began as a grass roots uprising with students and locals struggling to get Russia (then known as the U.S.S.R.) out of their country. This lasted for 15 days. Today’s modern wars such as we see in the Ukraine vs. Russia, are so much different than they were in the fifties. This was a time prior to social media, computers, and the U.S. was fearful of engaging with Russia and were involved with some other issues. This has been debated and discussed and available online by others.
In honor of the 70th anniversary, I wanted to share a historical fiction that I wrote about this time period. My reason for putting this book together is that I grew up with a refugee who was part of the Hungarian diaspora resulting from this revolution. Hungarians dispersed to various parts of the world, including: Canada, the U.S., other parts of Europe and even South America. This was not an easy transition as the borders were closed very quickly and they had to find ways to escape their own country. Again, this is a little different than how things are done today with modern communication.
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We three Leos’ have read your books which were handed down from one to another. First, it was Lia, who once was a little toddler that crossed the border from Hungary in 1956 with mommy and daddy. She was sick and they were granted passage on a plane to get her to America more quickly, I believe from an Austrian camp. Then it was her mother, Marika neni who read it next. Marika neni has told me her story many times of coming to this country. She was a woman I grew up with, who was like an aunt but more of a sister to my stepfather. Lia was our babysitter in my formative years. Marika neni and my stepfather met at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, when a group of refugees decided on Wheeling for their new home.
