1956 Hungarian Revolution in Photos

These pages offer an audio and visual glimpse of the heroic fight for liberation in Hungary during the 1956 Revolution.

Some photos have a larger version. Click the photos for the larger image. Click [here] to send us photos!

* Note: AHF believes that all pictures shown below are in the public domain, if there are any issues please contact us to discuss.

Students demonstrate at Polish General Bem statue "Announcing Strike and Fight!

Stalin dragged through the streets of Budapest

Stalin's Head on the Streets of Budapest Stalin beheaded

Secret Police (AVO) opened fire on student demonstrators as they attempted to gain access to state controlled radio to read ther 14 points for democratic reform. This turned the revolution bloody.

Hungarian troops defected in droves to help in the fight for freedom. Seen here, a Soviet medium tank.

A Hungarian Freedom Fighter keeps watch on the streets of Budapest in 1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighters with captured Soviet tanks

Hungarian's celebrate on captured Soviet tank Hungarian Youth Take Russian Tank

Hungarian helping a wounded Russian soldier. Many Russian troops defected to the Hungarian side. After the week of freedom, KGB head Yuri Andropov supplemented troops with Asian Soviet forces who were not sympathetic or aware of the rebellion. An outspoken critic of Soviet Tyranny, Cardinal Mindszenty was forced into exile at the US Embassy in Budapest

Prime Minister Nagy with supporters Prime Minister Imre Nagy with his Cabinet

Men, women, and children took part to fight for freedom A Soviet T-54 in Freedom Fighter service

Destruction at the Killian Barracks - site of intense fighting US Marines visit Freedom Fighters after brief victory over Soviet troops. See here are Sgts. Comer and Bolick, and Sgt. Ed Parauka, kneeling

The Honor System! Public money collections for those in need 1956 - Portrait of a Freedom Fighter

Hungarians fly the colors proudly during week of apparent victory over Soviet forces A "peaceful" scene at the Corvin Koz, site of fierce battles. The  Soviet Union made public promises to withdraw from Hungary. They would return with 5000 tanks and 200,000 troops!

Budapest Streets in chaos and destuction

Our Russian "Friends" and "Comrades"

Russian tanks at the Hungarian Parliament Prime Minister Imre Nagy's final appeal for help - it never came. He would be dead within days.

Hungarian refugees cross into Austria Hungarian refugees arrive in Canada

A soldier of the free Hungarian Republic peers through the revolutionary Hungarian flag Scene from the film "Journey Home" reenacting scenese from 1956 in a now free Hungary

AHF would like to thank the 1956 Institute, Dr. Paul Szilagyi, Sgt. Ed Parauka of the US Embassy Marine Guard in Budapest, and others who assisted in the collection of these photographs.


The demonstrators marched carrying signs (a felvonulás jelszavai):

  • Lengyelország példát mutat, kövessük a magyar utat!
    (Poland gives us the example, let us follow the Magyar Path!)
  • Munkás-paraszt gyerekek, együtt megyünk veletek!
    (Worker-farmer children, we go forward together!)
  • Új vezetést akarunk, Nagy Imrében bizalmunk!
    (We want new leadership, we trust in Imre Nagy)
  • Nem állunk meg félúton, sztálinizmus pusztuljon!
    (We won't stop halfway, let Stalinism rot and die!)
  • Szovjet sereg menjen haza, Sztálin-szobrot vigye haza!
    (Soviet troops go home, take the Stalin statue home!)
  • Függetlenség, szabadság!
    (Freedom, Independence)
  • Rákosit a Dunába, Nagy Imrét a kormányba!
    (Rakosi to the Danube, Imre Nagy to the government)
  • Ruszkik haza!
    (Russians go home!)
  • Vesszen az önkény, éljen a törvény!
    (May tyranny lose and long live the law!)

Translations by Bryan Dawson-Szilagyi - please send any corrections to bryandawson@americanhungarianfederation.org

1956 Hungarian Revolution in Audio and Visual Files

  • 1956 Video: Five Days of Freedom in Budapest: "Budapest is in revolt. With uncontrolled fury, crowds set fire to Russian flags... The impossible has happened. A handful of heroes has shaken the communist world to its foundations." (5.2 Mb)"Five Days of Freedom in Budapest" - "Budapest is in revolt. With uncontrolled fury, crowds set fire to Russian flags... The impossible has happened. A handful of heroes has shaken the communist world to its foundations." (5.2 Mb)
  • 1956 Video: "News Magazine of the Screen" presents "Flight from Hungary" in early 1957 featuring video taken after the brutal Soviet re-occupation. "This is battered Budapest under the brutal Russian boot, Soviet tanks roams the streets under the ruins they laid as communist secret police hunt down heroic Freedom Fighters. 25,000 Hungarians are dead." A fascinating video, it also includes news about the Suez Crisis and more glimpes into life during this time."News Magazine of the Screen" presented "Flight from Hungary" in early 1957 featuring video taken after the brutal Soviet re-occupation. "This is battered Budapest under the brutal Russian boot, Soviet tanks roam the streets under the ruins they laid as communist secret police hunt down heroic Freedom Fighters. 25,000 Hungarians are dead." A fascinating video, it also includes news about the Suez Crisis and more glimpes into life during this time. (ATTN DIAL-UP USERS: this file is 62 Mb)
  • 1956 Video: BBC News ReportNovember 12, 1956 - BBC News Report: Smuggled Video (no audio)
     
  • 1956 Video: BBC Panorama Special: Mikes reports from the Austrian frontier: "We found the Rebels confident that their fight was nearly won. The long road to Budpapest was in Hungarian hands..from the Red Army there was no sign."October, 1956 - BBC Panorama Special: Mikes reports from the Austrian frontier. "We found the Rebels confident that their fight was nearly won. The long road to Budpapest was in Hungarian hands..from the Red Army there was no sign."
  • AUDIO: October 23, 1956 - Free Hungarian Radio broadcast about the "mass demonstrations" in Budapest. This was the beginning as students stormed the formerly state-controlled radio. (in Hungarian) October 23, 1956 - Free Hungarian Radio broadcast about the "mass demonstrations" in Budapest. This was the beginning as students stormed the formerly state-controlled radio. (in Hungarian)
  • November 6, 1956 - George Urban interviews Oakshott, a Britain recently returned from Hungary about what he witnessed. "We saw tanks manned by 14-year-old children."November 6, 1956 - George Urban interviews Oakshott, a Britain recently returned from Hungary about what he witnessed. "We saw tanks manned by 14-year-old children."
  • AUDIO: Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy makes his appeal to the West days before his execution. "At dawn today, Soviet troops attacked the capital with the intention of overthrowing the legitimate government of Hungary. This communication is made to our people and to the whole world." Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy makes his appeal to the West. It fell on deaf ears, the Russians returned, and he was executed. "At dawn today, Soviet troops attacked the capital with the intention of overthrowing the legitimate government of Hungary. This communication is made to our people and to the whole world."

Memorials Dedicated to 1956

"October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations. It was a day of courage, conscience and triumph. No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man's desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required."- President John F. Kennedy,
on the first anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution.

  • Denver, Colorado - statue and "Hungarian Freedom Park"
  • Toronto, Ont - statue and park
  • Erie, PA - Memorial and square (Thanks to v. Juhasz Ferenc, AHF, VP)
  • Bridgeport - Statue
  • Fairfield, CT - Memorial plaque in Town Hall (2003)
  • Berkeley Springs, WV - plaque, cemetery, and church (TX to Mrs. 'Sally' Gyorik, Ft Vitez Baan OFP)
  • Boston, Mass - Liberty Square statue and square by George Hollosy
  • Los Angeles, CA - statue by Arpad Domjan (1966)
    (TX to Czene Ferenc and LA Hungarians)
  • New York - Plaque at East River/92d Str
  • Passaic, NJ - statue
  • Lorantffy House, Akron, Ohio 1956 - Plaque
  • North Olmstead , Ohio - Plaque and cemetery (Thanks to Dobolyi Arpad & Juhasz Ferenc AHF VP)
  • New Orleans, LA - plaque
  • Loraine, Ohio - Statue under construction
  • Miami, Fl - First Hungarian Church Stained Glass Windows
  • Camp Kilmer - plaque now in New Brunswick, New Jersey
  • Cleveland, Ohio - Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty statue and square
  • New Brunswick, NJ - Mindszenty statue and square
  • Miami - Mindszenty Str. (27th Str) NW (TX to Tarr Sandor, Honorary Consul)
  • Budapest - statue/plaque at the Chain bridge in Buda by Ocsay Karoly
  • Korvin koz - statue of the young freedom fighter
  • Eger - Memorial to 1956
  • Budapest, Prime Minister Imre Nagy Gravsite and Memorial
  • Budapest, Szena Ter
  • Budapest, II kerulet; Manheimer Statue
  • Budapest, XIII kerulet: Park of Statues: granite obelisk
  • Budapest, XIII kerulet: Park of Statues: Plaque of the martyrs (2000 Oct. 23)

Hungarian Freedom Park in Denver Colorado and its memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

The 1956 memorial in Toronto, Canada

Gyuri Hollosi's memorial to 1956 in Boston's Liberty Square

 

 

 

 

 

AHF's Lajos Bartucz at the Passaic NJ Memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Stained Glass memorial to 1956 at Miami's First Hungarian Church of Christ

1956 Memorial in Eger, Hungary

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution Memorial at Szena Ter in Budapest

 

 


Albert Camus' Stirring Letter to the World:

"The Blood of the Hungarians"

I am not one of those who wish to see the people of Hungary take up arms again in a rising certain to be crushed, under the eyes of the nations of the world, who would spare them neither applause nor pious tears, but who would go back at one to their slippers by the fireside like a football crowd on a Sunday evening after a cup final.

There are already too many dead on the field, and we cannot be generous with any but our own blood. The blood of Hungary has re-emerged too precious to Europe and to freedom for us not to be jealous of it to the last drop.

But I am not one of those who think that there can be a compromise, even one made with resignation, even provisional, with a regime of terror which has as much right to call itself socialist as the executioners of the Inquisition had to call themselves Christians.

And on this anniversary of liberty, I hope with all my heart that the silent resistance of the people of Hungary will endure, will grow stronger, and, reinforced by all the voices which we can raise on their behalf, will induce unanimous international opinion to boycott their oppressors.

And if world opinion is too feeble or egoistical to do justice to a martyred people, and if our voices also are too weak, I hope that Hungary’s resistance will endure until the counter-revolutionary State collapses everywhere in the East under the weight of its lies and contradictions.

Hungary conquered and in chains has done more for freedom and justice than any people for twenty years. But for this lesson to get through and convince those in the West who shut their eyes and ears, it was necessary, and it can be no comfort to us, for the people of Hungary to shed so much blood which is already drying in our memories.

In Europe’s isolation today, we have only one way of being true to Hungary, and that is never to betray, among ourselves and everywhere, what the Hungarian heroes died for, never to condone, among ourselves and everywhere, even indirectly, those who killed them.

It would indeed be difficult for us to be worthy of such sacrifices. But we can try to be so, in uniting Europe at last, in forgetting our quarrels, in correcting our own errors, in increasing our creativeness, and our solidarity. We have faith that there is on the march in the world, parallel with the forces of oppression and death which are darkening our history, a force of conviction and life, an immense movement of emancipation which is culture and which is born of freedom to create and of freedom to work.

Those Hungarian workers and intellectuals, beside whom we stand today with such impotent sorrow, understood this and have made us the better understand it. That is why, if their distress is ours, their hope is ours also. In spite of their misery, their chains, their exile, they have left us a glorious heritage which we must deserve: freedom, which they did not win, but which in one single day they gave back to us. (October 23, 1957)

AHF dedicates this work
to the memory of all our comrades who passed during those faithful days of October, 1956.

- Read this in German, Hungarian, French, and Spanish on this AHF member site, the [American Hungarian Museum]


Copyright (c) 2005. The American Hungarian Federationtm.  All rights reserved.