Interview with Edmund Stephen Anthony Joseph Watterich

1983348204
Use this audio under Non-Commercial licence

Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
By embedding this audio file you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non-Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. For this item, that is:

© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Embed

<iframe src="https://www.iwm.org.uk/embed/?id=80017623&media_id=93364" height="430" width="480" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
1410291848
Use this audio under Non-Commercial licence

Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
By embedding this audio file you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non-Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. For this item, that is:

© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Embed

<iframe src="https://www.iwm.org.uk/embed/?id=80017623&media_id=93365" height="430" width="480" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
2010835879
Use this audio under Non-Commercial licence

Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
By embedding this audio file you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non-Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. For this item, that is:

© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Embed

<iframe src="https://www.iwm.org.uk/embed/?id=80017623&media_id=93366" height="430" width="480" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
665331580
Use this audio under Non-Commercial licence

Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
By embedding this audio file you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non-Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. For this item, that is:

© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Embed

<iframe src="https://www.iwm.org.uk/embed/?id=80017623&media_id=93367" height="430" width="480" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>
307524150
Use this audio under Non-Commercial licence

Embed this sound recording for online use under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence
By embedding this audio file you agree to the terms and conditions of the IWM Non-Commercial Licence, including your use of the attribution statement specified by IWM. For this item, that is:

© IWM

Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. Digital files of films and sound recordings are available at cost depending on intended use.

Embed

<iframe src="https://www.iwm.org.uk/embed/?id=80017623&media_id=93368" height="430" width="480" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Description

Object description

Hungarian student during Hungarian Uprising in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 10/1956-11/1956

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Hungary, 1937-1940: family; education. Recollections of period as schoolboy in Hungary, 1940-1948: sight of Jewish civilians wearing yellow Star of David in Budapest; family move into convent; behaviour of Soviet Army troops, 1945. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Hungarian People's Republic, 1949-1955: problems of trying to practise Catholicism; middle classes' loss of property under Communist regime; deportation of factory owners as 'class enemies'; impossibility of resistance under General Secretary of Hungarian Working People's Party Matyas Rakosi's regime; danger of disappearance for joking against regime. REEL 2 Continues: move to Budapest, 1948; attempt to promote Communist ideology through school system; question of whether middle class children could go into secondary education; nature of education and requirement to learn Russian language; authorities' initial rejection of his application to obtain university education, 1955; employment with other 'class enemies' on sewage farm in Sarkad, 1955-1956; acceptance to University of Budapest, 9/1956; family's standard of living pre-1956; consequences of father's refusal to move to Szeged to work; degree to which Communists won over Hungarian population; work norm system; impossibility of travel to non-communist countries. REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of period as student during Hungarian Uprising in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 10/1956-11/1956: listening to Western sponsored radio stations; role of Western sponsored radio stations; background to uprising; student march to Bem Statue, 10/1956; appearance of flags with Communist symbol cut out of centre; demand for Imre Nagy to appear in Parliament Square; degree of organisation to demonstration and how it grew; demand for Imre Nagy to speak; sight of Soviet Army tanks firing into buildings in Kalvin Square; withdrawal of Soviet forces, 28/10/1956; volunteering to join street patrols to keep order. REEL 4 Continues: belief in success of uprising and sense of exhilaration in Budapest, 10/1956; return of modern Soviet Army tanks, 4/11/1956; initial Soviet casualties; burying automatic weapon for potential future use; visit to Kilian Barracks area and sight of human remains; sight of lorry full of Soviet dead; hearing name of Janos Kadar for first time; work of Budapest Fire Brigade in putting out fires started by Soviet Army tanks; decision to leave Hungarian People's Republic, 11/1956; journey to Austrian border; crossing into Austria, 11/1956. Recollections of period in Austria and GB, 1956-1958: reception by Austrians, 11/1956. REEL 5 Continues: first impressions of the West; offer of Austrian countess to pay for education of Hungarian students; plans to go to West Germany; move to GB; initial accommodation in Crookham Barracks; help obtained from University of Cambridge professor to resume his education.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), 1945-1989 (content), 1945-1989 (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Watterich, Edmund Stephen Anthony Joseph (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1999-01-28
Dimensions: whole: Duration 140, Number Of Items 5
Catalogue number: 18198

Object associations

Our collections information

We have over 1.7 million object records online, and we are adding to this all the time. Our records are never finished. Sometimes we discover new information that changes what we know about an object, such as who made it or used it. Sometimes we change how an object is interpreted. We sometimes make mistakes in our spelling, transcription or categorisation, or miss information out of our records.

Read more about our collections and the information we hold. Developing our collections information

If you have concerns about the language in this record, or you have information to improve it, please share your feedback.

We receive a lot of comments and can't respond to each one, but we do read them all and will respond where we can.