8 October 2018.
László Eörsi
Statement:
The indifferent “West” did not help the Hungarians in 1956
Rebuttal:
Western governments and public opinion turned to Hungary with extreme sympathy and compassion for the Hungarians who had fled there as a result of the brutal military action of the Soviet Union.
Read more:
The Hungarian refugees of 1956-1957 were treated much more favourably than their predecessors or other European emigrants of the time. As a result of outstanding international humanitarian assistance, large numbers of refugees were successfully integrated into democratic societies. The total cost of this was in excess of $100 million (about $1 billion in today’s money), far more than the amount of money that went into the UN Refugee Fund, established in 1954 to help solve the refugee problem.
International jurisprudence at the time protected refugees from being sent back to countries where they were in danger.
The sources essentially agree that Western public opinion greeted the Hungarians who had fled the brutal military action of the Soviet Union with extreme sympathy and compassion, all the more so, that there could be no fear about their possible hostile activities, as there was absolutely no doubt about their anti-communism. The positive reception was helped by the increasing demand for labour: many of the young people, most of them healthy and well-educated, were able to start work immediately.
The extraordinary success of the reception of Hungarian refugees in the West was partly helped by propaganda. In the midst of Cold War rivalries and ideological struggles, it would have been a political and moral defeat for the West if Hungarian refugees had returned en masse from “the free world” because of problems of integration. Nevertheless, many of them chose to return home, and this way many of them brought about their own tragedy.[1]
László Eörsi
5October 2018.
[1] http://latoszogblog.hu/blog/menni_vagy_maradni_menekultkerdes_56_ban
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