Please join us as we ensure the spirit of 1956 is captured through your stories and passed on for future generations. We are looking for your most vivid memories of the 1956 Revolution. The suggested length for submissions is 1-3 pages, if possible.
There are several ways to submit your story. The interview guide (below) is designed for easy online submission and suggests questions for you to answer or to ask family members who participated in those heroic days. If you would like to send a separate document, click on the e-mail button to the left and send us a file directly. And finally, you may download the interview guide to fill in by hand and mail it to us.
Once your submission has been received, you will receive an e-mail confirmation. Thank you for your participation!
To research more about the 1956 Revolution, link to any of the following educational sites or look into the independent projects commemorating the Revolution listed below.
Educational Resources
http://www.rev.hu/
The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution has a variety of resource material about the Revolution, including a detailed day-by-day history of events, a photo archive, oral histories and more.
http://www.rev.hu/sulinet56/online/naviga/index.htm
This is a special site created by The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution for use on sulinet (the Hungarian school network), with a day-by-day description of events.
http://www.terrorhaza.hu/
The House of Terror Museum is a monument to Hungarians who were held captive, tortured or killed in this building during the two bloodiest periods of communism and fascism. “The Museum…intends to make people understand that the sacrifice for freedom was not in vain.”
http://kincsestar.radio.hu/jeles/jelesokt.23.php
Listen to actual broadcasts from Hungarian Radio from 1956. In addition to accessing broadcasts from the archives, this site is filled with photos and detailed information about the events of the Revolution.
http://www.1956.lap.hu
This Hungarian-language site provides a somewhat eccentric list of nearly everything relating to 1956.
http://www.hungaria.org/1956
This link provides access to information and books on 1956. These include: Testament of Revolution by Bela Liptak, information from two well-known Hungarian historians focusing on 1956, Csaba Bekes and Janos Rainer, and Budapest Exit, by Csaba Teglas. Hungaria.org is a bilingual online resource.
Projects Relating to 1956
http://www.56films.com
Journey Home (Hazatérés) is a documentary film by Reka Pigniczky. A journey by two American women to bury their father’s ashes in Hungary becomes a quest to discover what he did as a freedom fighter during the Revolution of 1956, and how it changed all of their lives forever. The film premiers in 2006.
http://www.klaudiainc.com/pages/UPCOMINGproject.html
Torn from the Flag is a feature-length, English-language documentary film about the significant global effects and international participants of the Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight of 1956. The film is being produced by Klaudia Kovacs and will be released to honor the 50th anniversary of the Revolution.
http://www.szablya.com/helen
Helen Szablya’s work on 1956 includes: The Fall of the Red Star, a book for all ages on 1956, and Hungary Remembered, an oral history drama. Helen and her family escaped in 1956. (Her amazing story can be read on the 56 Stories page of this website.)
http://www.1956.hu/arcok/arcok6.html
Csete Ors’s book on the faces and biographies of 1956 freedom fighters who were sentenced to death. Members of the Hungarian American Coalition were the primary sponsors of this project.
As proud Hungarian-Americans, we are collecting your stories of 1956 to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of this heroic time. Your story will help ensure the spirit of 1956 is captured, and will provide a credible and complete picture for young people learning about this event today.
Second generation Hungarians and families of ’56ers, hearing the stories of heroism from their loved ones, have also been deeply inspired by these events and many times greatly influenced. It is for this reason that we created a separate section for the reflections of Families of ’56ers.