Looking Back: AHF since 1906

"In the Beginning" - Unity Between the Nations
by Bryan Dawson

In 1902 a movement started to build a Kossuth statue in Cleveland spearheaded by the "Szabadság" Hungarian language newspaper and its editor Kohányi Tihamér. The needed funds were raised within few short weeks. Some 60,000 people attended the unveiling, but there were no representatives from Hungary.

As a sign of unity between the nations, Hungarian-American leaders conceived an idea to place a statue of George Washington in Budapest.

The newly established AHF and its "Statue Committee" was organized and construction began on a site in Budapest's beautiful City Park (Város Liget). In 1906, several hundred Hungarian-Americans traveled to Hungary for the unveiling led by AHF's first President, Kohányi Tihamér. [read more]

"Justice for Hungary" - an Historic Flight
by Bryan Dawson

July, 1931, newspapers all over the world reported on the front page that two Hungarian pilots, Alexander Magyar and George Endresz (Endres), had crossed the Atlantic Ocean from the United States to Hungary in a Lockheed-Sirius airplane named "Justice for Hungary." The flight was intended to call attention to the dismemberment of Hungary after World War I. It was a spectacular success. On July 15, 1931, the trans-Oceanic flight left Harbor-Grace for Budapest on a non-stop flight of twenty-six hours. The historic flight took 26 hours and 20 minutes (Charles Lindbergh's flight in 1927 took six hours longer) and marked the first time that an airplane crossing the ocean had radio contact both with the starting and landing aerodromes. It was also the first time such a flight was used for political purposes. The pilots were received as heroes in Budapest.

Where did this idea come from? [read more]

AHF, Tibor Eckhardt, and the "Movement for Independent Hungary," 1941 - 1942: Seeking to extract Hungary from the Axis sphere - by Bryan Dawson and Katalin Kádár Lynn, Ph.D.

On the 31st of December 1940, the Amerikai Magyar Népszava, the most influential Hungarian language daily at the time, published a front-page editorial headlined “The Hour has Struck.” The editorial proclaimed that it was the “the historic mission of Americans of Hungarian origin to give voice to the cries of the silenced people of Hungary and to give their whole hearted effort to the liberation of their mother country which is clubbed into submission by the Nazi terror.”

The editorial called upon the American Hungarian Federation to unfurl the banner of a Free Hungary Movement without hesitation or delay. In January 1941 AHF 's Executive Committee sent a letter to President Roosevelt expressing the loyalty of the Hungarian-American populace and proclaiming,“The Executive Committee of the [AHF] as representative of the American citizens of Hungarian origin…consider it our sacred duty to lead a movement for the preservation of an independent Hungary for the freedom of it’s people.” [read more]

The 1907 Kohányi Szózat (Appeal)

“Amerika egy millió magyarja, nemcsak hogy követeljük, de keresztül is visszük azt, hogy Magyarország népének ugyanabban a szabadságban, ugyanabban az igazságban, ugyanabban a jólétben legyen resze, mint a mely szabadság, igazság, es jólét abban az Amerikában van amelynek lakósai, polgárai vagyunk.”

“We, America’s 1 million Hungarians, do not just demand, but will work to ensure that the people of Hungary may partake in the same freedom, the same justice, the same prosperity as we, citizens of America, partake.”
- Kohanyi Tivadar, AHF President, 1907

AHF 100 YEARS DISPLAY
(click on each image for a larger version)

AHF in the Beginning:
1906 and Budapest's
George Washington Memorial
[read more]

AHF and the "Justice for
Hungary" movement calling
attention to the tragedy of Trianon
[read more]

AHF, Tibor Eckhardt, and
the "Free Hungary Movement"
seeking to extract Hungary
from the Axis sphere
[read more]

AHF Honoring our
Heroes at the Arlington
National Cemetery

AHF and the Kossuth
Bust in the US Capitol

AHF as a watchdog for
human rights in Rumania

AHF as a watchdog for
human rights in Vojvodina
and the MÁÉRT movement

AHF as a watchdog for
human rights in Carpatho-Ukraine:
The Divided Village of Szelmenc

AHF relief efforts during WWII

AHF relief efforts during
the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Join Us Online!

• 1956 Portal - www.hungary1956.com - The American Hungarian Federation is helping to coordinate events across the country! Join Us!
• The 1956 Institute, (1956-os Intézet), headed by Dr. Janos Reiner, is a great site devoted to exploring the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in English and Hungarian.
• Magyar Radio Online - includes many audio files and an analysis in Hungarian: "Ki húzta meg a ravaszt eloször 1956. október 23-án?" "Who was the first to pull the trigger?"
• Time Magazine's gave Hungarian Freedom Fighters the title "Man of the Year" on July 1, 1957. "The Freedom Fighters filled the empty bottles with gasoline and corked them with table napkins, making what they called 'benzine flashes."
• The Hungary Page - offers information on 1956, the 1956 Olympics, the popular "Nobel Prize Winners and Famous Hungarians," resources on Trianon, Transylvania, History, Music, and more.
• Wikipedia - the free, online encyclopedia that allows readers to manage its content!
• The 1956 Hungarian Revolution Historical Documentation and Research Foundation in Hungary - a source for thousands of photographs from the period
• The National Security Archive at The George Washington University provides a wealth of information on the 1956 Revolution available for download in PDF.
• The 1956 Hungarian Revolution - a short chronology of events with pictures
• Pal Maleter on Wikipedia - the military leader of the Hungarian Revolution
• www.sulinet.hu has as site that transcribed many of the various speeches given before, during, and after the revolution - a fascinating chronology from Nagy to Mindszenty. (Hungarian)
• Az 1956-os Magyar Forradalom igaz története - in Hungarian. "What the history books left out." Published by the 1956 World Federation.
• Az 1956-os forradalom története Esztergomban - The Revolution in Esztergom (in Hungarian)
• Arcok és sorsok - a great site with photos and biographies of some 1956 Freedom Fighters
• Nagy Imre október 23-án: Nagy Imre október 23-án eleinte hallani sem akart arról, hogy a Parlamentbe menjen és szóljon a tömeghez. Ám mégis megtette. Döbbenetet érezhetett, amikor lenézett a Parlament ablakából, s akkor is, amikor kifütyülték az „elvtárs” megszólítást. Beszéde az alant álló ismeretlen erovel szembeni aggodalmát és szorongását mutatja.

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