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Reflection: “Leave, or they’ll kill you.”

In November of 1956, my great-grandparents told my grandfather, Jozsef (16) and his brother Karoly (19), “Leave, or they’ll kill you,” they knew they had to flee their home in Hungary on foot.
While I was researching for my first book, Young Men Go West: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and One Teenager’s Risky Escape, I was blown away. Not only by the freedom fighters’ courage and pride, but also by the phenomenal support the refugees received. It pains me to know that a refugee crisis will never be managed with such enthusiasm or efficiency again.
Refugees all over the world have to make the choice to leave everything they know and love behind for the chance at survival. This is not a new phenomenon, and it happens even when the media does not cover it.
My grandfather was one of almost 194,000 Hungarians who fled in a few months after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 failed. Countries all over the world stepped in to help solve the refugee crisis and no other crisis of a similar magnitude has been managed as quickly or effectively, and it is unlikely to be replicated.
The Hungarian Revolution was fought between Hungarian freedom fighters and the Soviets who had imposed a brutal occupation on Hungary for 11 years. Students organized a protest on October 23, 1956, and within hours the Hungarian secret police had detained students for trying to use their freedom of speech and began shooting and killing unarmed protesters.
The freedom fighters waged guerrilla warfare on the Soviets and secret police for two weeks before the revolution was lost on November 4, and small pockets of the resistance held out until November 11.
Refugees began leaving in October, and the floodgate opened on November 4, when the Soviets began their total assault on Budapest. About 10,000 people made the snap decision to escape that morning, and thousands more would leave every day until the Soviets closed the borders in January 1957.
Parents told their children to run for their lives, praying they would make it over the border. People left loved ones behind, never to see them again. Some walked for 500 kilometers to get to Austria, some almost froze to death or got lost in the swamps near the border, and others were caught by the Soviets as they tried to escape.
This was the first refugee crisis that was witnessed in real time, and it shocked the world. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established in 1950 to facilitate refugee crises. It was only supposed to be a temporary organization, set to expire in 1958, but it is now an integral part of the United Nations.
In July 1956, the UNHCR’s High Commissioner died, and they had not filled the position again until December, but the senior leadership of the organization proved that they were completely capable of managing the crisis.
Within hours of the first refugees arriving in Austria, several countries and non-governmental organizations began sending aid. The French Red Cross sent a plane full of supplies to Vienna on November 7, and on their return flight they took a handful of refugees back. The next day, 400 refugees were sent to Switzerland, and President Eisenhower of the United States granted 5,000 visas for Hungarians to immigrate to America–but they would end up admitting over 33,000.
By November 9, hundreds of refugees were transferred to France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Sweden began resettling Hungarians immediately after the revolution began in October and advocated for other countries to do the same.
Nine European countries had taken 21,669 refugees by the end of November, and by the end of December 37 countries had taken 92,950 refugees.
174,285 refugees went to Austria and 19,688 went to the Former Yugoslavia, and within ten months, 78% of them had emigrated successfully, 4% were repatriated, and 17% remained in Austria or the Former Yugoslavia either as integrated immigrants or in a refugee camp. Almost 194,000 Hungarians, or 2% of the population, became refugees in a few months, they were from all walks of life, and highly educated.
Over 50% of the refugees stayed in Europe, and over 40% went to the Americas (Canada, the United States, and Latin America).
My grandfather, Joszef Kutnyak, was resettled in Portland, Oregon, USA, within three months of fleeing Hungary. He was 16, so he was placed in a foster home with a family that volunteered through their church to take in a minor refugee. Ordinary, working-class people took the initiative to donate, volunteer, house, and offer jobs to the refugees.
His story is not even one-of-a-kind, thousands of other refugees felt miraculously saved by the generosity of complete strangers.
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