Family Members Archives - Freedom Fighter 56

Mária Szodfridt – The Story of My Husband: The Terrible Years Before the Revolution

Szabadságunkat köszünjük nektek, 56-os hõsök” “For Our Freedom We Thank You, Heroes of 1956” These are the words engraved on the stone monument on the grounds of the Philadelphia & Vicinity Hungarian Sports Club. The Club’s membership dedicated it on…

Endre Szentkiralyi – My parents fled in 1956

Family Members

When I was growing up, it seemed to me that all of my parents’ friends had done time in jail in the old country. For political crimes, not theft or burglary. They didn’t all do time, of course, it just seemed that…

Eszti Pigniczky – Storyline for scouts

Family Members Inspired Creativity

After the Second World War, the Communist regime in Hungary banned, among many other institutions, the scouting movement. Hungarian scouts reorganized in exile, first in Western Europe, then in other countries where Hungarians fled. Since 1951, Hungarian scout troops have been meeting…

Réka Pigniczky JOURNEY HOME: A Film About My Father

Family Members Inspired Creativity

Whenever the kids at school teased us about our funny names and our parents’ accents, we shot back: “Leave me alone, my dad was a freedom fighter.” That shut them up, at least for a while. My sister and I want our…

John Petocz Jr. Memories of my father and uncle

Family Members

My father supported the movement, as his brother did but I don’t believe they were actually involved in the fighting. They both left their village of Inota, Hungary, in 1956 during the uprising to come to America. My dad always recalled…

Kathy A. Megyeri – The Effects of ‘56 on an American Spouse

Family Members

As the wife of a Hungarian Freedom Fighter, 1956 has had a profound impact on my own life. Since Budapest has been our yearly destination for as long as I can remember, I’ve become more immersed in that event than many others.…

Andrea Lauer Rice – Passing on the Legacy of 1956

Family Members Inspired Creativity

Print version Although I always knew that I was Hungarian-my family traveled back to Hungary every two years or so after I was born-I only really came into my Hungarian identity, the true spirit of it, much later in life. It is…

Erika G. Kisvarsányi – In the Light of the Moon

Family Members Inspired Creativity

Print version I am an ancient Hungarian pagan Thundering along on horseback, with my sword held high With intense devotion to forgiving Mother Earth, Mother Sun I praise the spirit of the Universe I am a disciple of Istvan Thundering along…

Miklós and Mária Hitter The Price of Freedom

Adult Eyewitness Family Members

Print version Cegléd – 1956 November 24 to December 1 Our dear Children, The past few days, and most likely many more days to come, are grief-laden for us. And probably today’s gray sky will never clear up completely for us. So…

Marta Fordos The Effects of 1956 Across the Ocean

Family Members

NOTE: This submission was created by using the online survey attached to this website. The survey consists of suggested questions to answer or ask family members to create a personal historic record of 1956 and discuss its effects on’56-ers and their family…