Milestones – The Story of an Exhibition!

For almost three weeks, we have been actively working on a portrait photography exhibition about Hungarians who emigrated after the 1956 revolution.

The time has come to summarise what we have accomplished so far.

The title of this blog already gives away our main goal:

“The story of a 1956 portrait and life-story exhibition in New York.”

To explain why this matters so much to us, I need to go back several years in my own life.

Sadly, my grandparents are no longer alive.

Only afterwards did I realise how valuable it would have been to record all the stories they used to tell and preserve them for future generations.

What they experienced represents an incredible source of knowledge and life experience.

Most of us do not truly know what war means.

Or what it means to rebuild everything from nothing.

Some people do, of course.

At first, I was thinking only about a 1956 portrait exhibition here in New York.

By now I know New York relatively well.

I had already organised a photography exhibition at the Hungarian House of New York, where I received enormous help from its director, Ildikó Nagy, and from Hungarians living here.

Almost a year ago, I contacted Ildikó again with the idea of a portrait exhibition about 1956.

She developed the concept further with great precision, and we began building a plan together.

In May, I also had the opportunity to introduce myself personally to Ambassador Ferenc Kumin, Consul General of Hungary in New York.

After discussing the idea with Ildikó, he included our planned event among the official New York programmes commemorating 1956.

When I arrived here on 12 September, many questions were still open.

How exactly would we make the idea happen?

From the beginning, we felt that portraits alone would not be enough.

We thought that, if possible, we should bring a videographer and a journalist as well.

The idea was to visit people who still strongly identify as Hungarian, who preserved the language and who had lived exemplary lives.

We wanted to document their stories in several forms.

Unfortunately, that original plan did not work financially.

In the end, I came alone.

We simply could not finance six weeks of accommodation, food and travel for two additional people.

But sometimes help arrives from an unexpected direction.

From 1 September, journalist Gergely Szilvay began a nine-month scholarship placement at the Hungarian House.

On 13 September, the “Milestones” project team was born. :)

We redesigned the exhibition because three professionals could immediately achieve more than we had originally imagined.

As project leader, Ildikó Nagy organised the interviews and logistics.

Both she and Gergely Szilvay are also preparing written material for the exhibition.

Beside every portrait there will be a short introduction and a story about the person shown.

We photograph each participant with an object that carries strong personal meaning.

It might be a relic connected to 1956.

Or something representing later success:

A book.

A newspaper article.

A photograph of a dream that eventually became reality.

We travel a great deal because New York State is large and most interview subjects do not live in central Manhattan.

At the same time, we have not abandoned the idea of a documentary film.

I place my camera on a tripod and record the conversations, which often last three or four hours.

That way the full material can also remain for future generations.

We will publish the strongest stories separately for each participant.

Gergely Szilvay is turning the interviews into articles that will probably begin appearing on Mandiner from next week.

You have already been able to glimpse several interviews live.

The conversations with István, Zoltán, György and Éva can be viewed through the links on their names.

The project does not end there.

After the first two interviews, we realised that the stories were so valuable that, if the same quality continued, it might be worth turning the interviews into a book for the next anniversary.

That may sound ambitious.

But believe me, we know what we have taken on.

And I feel we are moving in the right direction.

Only twenty-one days remain until the opening.

Yesterday we already walked through the Hungarian House and began planning how to present the exhibition as beautifully as possible.

We are also asking interview participants for personal relics.

These will be displayed in a glass case beside the exhibition.

Some examples are the personal items visible in the photographs above.

Refugees received objects like these from the US government when they arrived in 1956.

One of our interviewees has an enormous archive.

I selected a few pieces from it for this blog.

Enough for the “short” introduction.

I would now like to summarise some of what we heard during the first eight interviews about emigration.

The 1956 revolution was driven largely by young intellectuals dissatisfied with the political system.

Their sense of freedom lasted only a short time before Soviet forces moved in.

Intellectual families were persecuted.

People had few real choices.

They were threatened that any attempt to escape could place their families in danger.

If they stayed, however, they risked imprisonment, loss of livelihood and complete dispossession.

Many believed the only realistic way out led through Austria.

A great number left by train.

According to several stories, train crews sometimes stopped in remote areas before checkpoints and warned passengers that this was effectively the last opportunity to get off without Soviet control.

There was often no actual station.

People simply left the train.

A guide then pointed toward the border.

And everybody started moving.

The terrain could be marshy, muddy and full of rough fields.

People crawled or moved carefully for several kilometres because border control had already become dangerous.

Many died during these crossings because guards fired at movement, sometimes using tracer ammunition.

Nobody knew exactly where the border lay.

People simply hoped they were moving in the right direction.

They carried little.

Many had sold or given away most of what they owned in order to finance escape.

Those who crossed into Austria were often immediately given food.

Volunteers patrolled border areas and helped fleeing Hungarians.

Through these stories, we learned a great deal about the humanity shown by Austrian civilians and aid workers.

Refugees were often housed in schools for the first nights.

They received clothing.

Then they had to decide where they wanted to continue their lives.

As today, immigration was limited by quotas.

Not everyone could go to the United States.

Many continued to Germany, Canada and the USA.

Within weeks, a large proportion found work.

Many of the emigrants were educated Hungarians.

Most spoke at least one foreign language, though relatively few spoke English confidently.

Families often travelled by plane.

Single people frequently crossed by ship.

Ships and aircraft kept arriving continuously.

We have a great deal of information about what it meant to arrive in different cities.

But let me focus on one specific moment:

The arrival by ship in New York.

What did people feel when they first saw the Statue of Liberty?

Almost everybody described a strange mixture of intense homesickness and enormous excitement.

Many could not speak English.

The strongest source of courage was the belief that nobody could hurt them here anymore.

For many, this was also the first moment when reality fully arrived:

There was no longer a simple way to go home.

Around that time, Hungarian organisations were formed in New York to help the refugees of 1956.

We also interviewed the president of one such organisation.

Some of these groups were established by Hungarians who had already emigrated in 1948.

They went to ships and airports to meet new arrivals.

They helped Hungarians settle.

Then similar communities were built in other cities and states.

I want to pause here.

Sadly, Hungarians today do not always appear particularly united around the world.

That is one reason these stories feel so important.

The elderly people we are interviewing are still remarkably youthful in spirit.

There is a great deal to learn from the way they supported one another.

Returning to their experiences, people with technical or scientific backgrounds often found work especially quickly.

Even then, integration was difficult.

Wages were low.

Housing was basic.

Perhaps that is why owning a home became such an important first goal for so many.

It usually took years of hard work.

But a sense of security gave people strength.

Their shared past and shared fate created strong bonds.

Many interviewees told us they feel extraordinarily fortunate.

They hardly dare imagine what their lives might have become if they had stayed.

Of course, there must have been conflicts among them too.

But that was not what interested us, and nobody focused on those stories.

Another recurring difficulty involved proving qualifications.

If someone had left without a diploma, obtaining documents could be complicated.

Still, in many cases, certificates were eventually sent from Hungary by post.

People corresponding with foreign countries were monitored.

Communication often had to be discreet or secret.

We have one particularly good story about helping a young woman escape.

I think readers will enjoy it.

Most emigrants could not return home until after the political transition decades later.

Many still feel homesick today, especially those with relatives in Hungary.

Their children generally learned Hungarian.

Whenever possible, families returned to visit.

With grandchildren, however, maintaining the language became much more difficult because younger generations often formed relationships with Americans and English naturally became dominant.

The photograph below also has an important story behind it.

You will be able to read that soon. :)

These conversations are not easy.

We touch on many subjects that remain emotionally sensitive even today.

That is why we will not publish the complete interviews in video form.

But the strongest and most meaningful stories will definitely be shared.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.