Troops that Never Arrived...

After a while, the sound of gunfire and tanks started to be commonplace in Budapest. Life before the ravages of war was becoming nothing more than a distant memory and my father, along with the rest of his countrymen, were starting to wonder if peace would ever prevail in Hungary.

On October 29th, 1956 Hungarians were given the possibility of hope. My father and his family sat around the radio listening to a broadcast on "The Voice of America" via London's BBC Free Europe Radio. The news sounded promising as they were told that Cardinal Mindszenty had been freed and was returning to Budapest. The days that followed were quiet...there was a hiatus from the constant din of gunfire...and the people were starting to feel somewhat optimistic. All of the prisons were opened and prisoners were set free. The Soviet High Command promised that they would soon retreat from Budapest. It truly seemed as though everything was headed in the right direction. Sadly, this "light at the end of the tunnel" would soon be extinguished. Before long, the people of Hungary got news that instead of retreating, the Soviets were moving in even more....new Soviet reinforcements had started to enter Hungary from Romania and the Soviet Union.

On November 2nd, Day of the Dead, the scene in the city was grim and heartwrenching. My father remembers with emotion, seeing thousands of women lining the streets holding candles in memory of their husbands, sons, fathers, uncles, brothers...all fallen heroes. Thousands of Freedom Fighters had lost their lives trying to regain hold of their country and yet more and more Soviet troops continued to pour into Hungary.

On November 3rd, my grandparents left their home in Dunaharaszti to visit my father and his sister in Budapest. Having the family all together felt like a blessing. That evening, they gathered once again around the radio to hear the speech Cardinal Mindszenty was to deliver to the nation. Would they be able to hold onto any glimmer of hope? After the speech, they sat and tried to analyze what they had just heard. It was with heavy hearts that they had taken in the fact that the Hungarian Uprising had taken place at what would turn out to be an "inconvenient" time....as across the ocean the American Presidential election and on yet another continent the Suez Canal crisis were taking place simultaneously. It seemed that the situation with the Suez Canal was more important and therefore British and French troops were sent to Egypt while Hungary was left flailing. No one dared asked what would happen next.

On Sunday, November 4th at 4 o'clock in the morning everyone was literally shaken out of bed by a barrage of explosions emanating from the Soviet artillery. My father and his family ran into the sitting room to check on each other and turn on the radio in order to find out what had just happened. At 4:30 a.m., the Prime Minister, Imre Nagy, announced in a worldwide address that the Soviet Empire had officially attacked Budapest to obliterate any last vestiges of freedom. This message was repeated in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The Freedom Fighters were sending their desperate appeal for help....my father remembers hearing the words "HELP! HELP! HELP!" coming from the radio as he sat next to it with his ear upon its side.

The news reported that the Peace Delegation which had been invited to the Soviet Headquarters in Tokol for discussion had been interrupted, disbanded and all members of the Peace Delegation arrested. Kruschev had decided that there would be no way he would let Hungary regain its freedom. Soviet helicopters began shooting all over the city and everyone was forced to stay in underground shelters. The heavy fighting continued for six days and the Freedom Fighters did all they could while waiting for the UN to send in peace keeping troops....troops that never arrived.