Description
Object description
Hungarian schoolchild in Budapest, Hungary, 1939-1949; civilian in Hungarian People's Republic, 1949-1951; student with University of Budapest in Hungarian People's Republic, 1951-1956; member of Revolutionary Students Committee during Hungarian Uprising in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 10/1956-11/1956
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Budapest, Hungary, 1932-1939: family; education. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Budapest, Hungary, 1939-1949: temporary presence of his parents in London, GB, 9/1939; parent's listening to British Broadcasting Corporation radio broadcasts during Second World War; briefly joining his Jewish father in Koloszvar after 3/1944; his father's experiences in Hungarian Army labour battalion; how his mother assumed false identity; period in Red Cross institution, 12/1944; walk across the city centre of Budapest, 12/1944; arrival of Soviet Army troops, 1/1945; witnessing rape of Hungarian woman by Soviet Army troops, 1/1945; stacking of dead bodies in city, 12/1944-1/1945; story of Soviet Army troops treatment of Jewish family from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, 2/1945; inflation in Budapest, 1945-1947.
REEL 2 Continues: attempts to obtain visa for GB, 1947. Aspects of period as civilian in Hungarian People's Republic, 1949-1951: attempt to get himself smuggled into Austria, 1949; arrest near Sopron; short period of imprisonment by secret police of State Protection Authority (AVH); political attitudes of his family during Communist regime, 1949-1956; attitude towards regime, post-1949; membership of youth organisations, 1950; degree to which he was prepared to resist regime, 1950; political position and outlook, 1950.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as student with University of Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 1951-1956: how he acquired as copy of writer George Orwell's book, '1984' (1948) and translated it, 1951-1952; architectural studies; political control at University of Budapest; effects of political relaxation, 1954-1955; how his attitude towards successes of Hungarian national football team was influenced by politics; question of resistance to regime being mainly passive; attendance of meetings of Perofi Circle, 1956; illicit listening to British Broadcasting Corporation radio broadcasts; arrest of his aunt accused of spying by association with American Air Attache, 1951.
REEL 4 Continues: arrest of uncle on charge of being 'a danger to the national economy'; other friends and relatives deported by regime. Recollections of period as member of Revolutionary Students Committee during Hungarian Uprising in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 10/1956-11/1956: changes in Hungarian Communist Party's approach to populace, late 1955; first possibilities of free speech; rapid change in political climate, 4/1956-6/1956; interest aroused by 'Literary Gazette', 7/1956-8/1956; student demonstration at Bem Statue in Budapest, 10/1956; his co-opting to membership of Revolutionary Students Committee, 10/1956; visit to Vienna, Austria with Revolutionary Students Committee to appeal to Indian Government on lines of non-alignment, 11/1956.
REEL 5 Continues: workings of Revolutionary Students Committee and political role he adopted in the West after 1956; his two days with Revolutionary Students Committee in Budapest, 10/1956-11/1956; political situation in Gyor and Trans-Danubian Council, 11/1956; attitude of industrial workers towards Hungarian Uprising.
REEL 6 Continues: achievement of Hungarian Uprising; estimate of regime in Hungarian People's Republic, 1948-1954.
