Accepted Abstracts -- 2022

A French Diplomatic Initiative: the Revue de Hongrie (1908-1931) (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Close examination of original documents reveals a cluster of historical events, statements, and decisions that plausibly lead from the founding of the Revue de Hongrie in 1908 by Vicomte Joseph de Fontenay, French consul in Budapest (1905-1912), to Trianon. I present these documents inductively in their historical context and draw a possible inference, suggesting a case of influence or impact. The paper highlights one thread in the complex tapestry that links the history of the Revue de Hongrie to French behavior at the Peace Conference. These documents also illuminate an important aspect of the history of the Revue de Hongrie, a Hungarian journal written entirely in French, edited and owned by Vilmos de Huszár (my grandfather). From its conception the governments of France and Hungary supported a common goal of cultural exchange. Politics, however, soon intervened. When Huszár arrived in Bern, Switzerland, in the summer of 1916, as a diplomat for the monarchy, he was shocked to discover the negative image the Entente press had painted of Hungary and the extent to which world opinion accepted this portrayal. During WWI the Revue represented Hungary and the empire, participating in a propaganda war that Huszár called “literary lead poisoning.” For the rest of his life, Huszár fought on the pages of the Revue for his ideals of truth, justice, and peaceful coexistence.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Marguerite DeHuszar Allen received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She developed her theory of the earliest Faust Books as formulaic fiction in her book The Faust Legend: Popular Formula and Modern Novel (1985), updated as a book chapter in The Faustian Century (2013). Her articles include a review article on the Holocaust in Hungary. She has written articles about her father and grandfather: “The WWII Diary of a Former Refugee in US Military Intelligence” (2017) and a history describing the founding of the Revue de Hongrie (2014). In 2008 she was a Fulbright Research Scholar in Hungary. She has taught at Loyola University of Chicago, Princeton, and Northwestern.

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Vacated Throne: Eghia Hovhannesian and the Campaign to Restore Gödöllő (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Today’s town of Gödöllő, an easy 30km suburban train ride away from Budapest, is notable for its university, its industries, and above all its stately Royal Palace. During the Comprise Era (1867-1918), however, it was also a flourishing vacation spot for monarchs and commoners alike. Queen Elisabeth made it her Hungarian retreat, helping cement her popularity as a Magyarophile. Its shady woodlands and adequate distance from Budapest—not to mention the presence of the Habsburg court—made it a handy (if underdeveloped) destination for bourgeoises fleeing the choked environs of the industrializing metropolis. But the war and regime change extinguished a seemingly brighter future for Gödöllő’s tourist trade, leaving it, in that regard at least, another casualty of 1918. This paper explores the interwar effort waged by a handful of local personalities to restore Gödöllő’s place in the sun. Led—or at least most loudly proclaimed—by the lawyer Eghia Hovhannesian, the campaign sheds light on the intersection of tourism and post-imperial politics. For Hovhannesian and his cohorts, the revival of their town went hand-in-hand with the “resurrection” of Hungary, their fates entwined in the same vision of combat of Good against Evil. The prevailing forces that drove the national tourism industry, though, did not feel likewise about Gödöllő as a site of salvation.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Andrew Behrendt (PhD, University of Pittsburgh) is Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the Missouri University of Science & Technology. He specializes in Hungarian and Austrian history in the post-1867 era, particularly on the topics of tourism, moviegoing, and cuisine. This presentation is part of the ongoing conversion of his dissertation into a monograph.

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Escape from Fear to Freedom: Social Sisters as Refugees (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Margit Slachta, or Sister Margaret Slachta, as she was known in the United States, was reburied in the Fiumei Úti National Cemetery in December 2021. The first Hungarian female MP founded the Sisters of Social Service in 1923, which played a significant role in the rescue efforts of about a 1,000 Jews, and in the resistance to Nazi ideology. The SSS started to expand internationally already in the 1920s, and Sister Margaret visited the foundations overseas three times. She was forced to go into exile in 1949, and the paper wishes to examine her activities during her exile in the U.S., as well as how some of the sisters became refugees themselves in 1956, and what happened to them. Sister Margaret died in Buffalo, NY in 1974, and she received a memorial plaque in the Alba Regia Chapel in Berkeley Springs, WV by the Hungarian Freedom Fighters Federation. Although she wasn’t as active as before in Hungary due to her failing health, she was still a respected figure among American Hungarians, and her legacy finds its proper and adjusted place in our collective memory.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Nóra Deák is a PhD candidate in American Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Her research topic is the reception, registration, and resettlement of the 1956 Hungarian refugees in the United States. She graduated as an English-Russian high school teacher in 1990 in Debrecen, then received an LIS MA degree in 1997 in Budapest. She has been working as Head of the Library at the School of English and American Studies, ELTE, in Budapest, since 1995. Her research was supported by a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholarship at the American Hungarian Foundation, and by Rutgers University Libraries during 2014 and 2015 in New Brunswick, NJ. She participated in the Mikes Kelemen Program in 2017/18. She is currently one of the participants of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) project called The Post-1956 Refugee Crisis and Hungarian Émigré Communities During the Cold War.

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A jelenkori magyar társadalmat érintő migrációs folyamatok (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
A népvándorlás központi témává vált Magyarországon is az elmúlt évtizedekben. Jelentőségét az emigráció gazdasági és népesedési folyamatokra gyakorolt hatásaitól, az agyelszívástól, a fiatal, képzett munkaerő külföldre vándorlásától való félelmek mellett tovább fokozta a 2010-es évek közepén felerősödő menekülthullám. A kivándorlás mellett a bevándorlás kérdése is meghatározó lett a magyarországi migrációs politikában. Ezzel egyidejűleg a „migráns” kifejezés minden eddiginél tágabb és érzelmileg túlfűtöttebb jelentéstartalommal terjedt el a hazai köztudatban. De ki a migráns valójában? Kik, honnan, mikor és miért jöttek Magyarországra? Mennyien maradtak itt? Mit jelez a számuk és a teljes népességen belüli arányuk nemzetközi viszonylatban? Hogyan alakult a magyarországi bevándorlás mérete és szerkezete a rendszerváltástól napjainkig? Mikor, hányan, hova és miért vándoroltak el Magyarországról? Közülük mennyien tértek vissza? A jelenkori magyar emigráció milyen szociodemográfiai jellemzőkkel bír? Milyen a kivándorlók kor és nemek szerinti összetétele, családi állapota, végzettsége? Melyek a legfőbb elvándorlási és visszavándorlási szándékot meghatározó vonzó és taszító tényezők Magyarországon? Előadásomban ezeket a kérdéseket járom körbe azzal a céllal, hogy a meglévő hazai és nemzetközi statisztikák, valamint a témában releváns kutatások eredményeinek másodelemzése révén átfogó és strukturált képet nyújtsak a jelenkori magyar társadalmat érintő migrációs folyamatokról. A bevándorlás, kivándorlás és visszavándorlás ismertetése során külön kitérek majd a 2010-es évek közepén tapasztalt menekülthullám következményeire, az évtized végére felerősödő ukrán emigrációra és annak kárpátaljai vetületeire, valamint az egyszerűsített honosítási eljárás népvándorlási adatokra gyakorolt közvetett hatásaira.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dániel Gazsó, PhD, was born in Budapest. He completed his studies in social and cultural anthropology at the University of Granada (Spain). Since 2015, he has been a research fellow at the Research Institute for Hungarian Communities Abroad. Since 2018, he has been a lecturer then research fellow at the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies of the University of Public Service in Budapest. He is also co-editor of the scientific journals entitled Kisebbségi szemle and Hungarian Journal of Minority Studies. His research topics are concerned with diaspora studies, migration, national minorities, kin-state policies, interethnic relationships and nationalisms.

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The Reception of Hungarian Migrants in Belgium in 1956 and 1957. Refugee Camp, Social Organizations and Charitable Individuals (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Participating in the international surge of solidarity, Belgium opened its borders, society and work market to about 7000 Hungarian refugees in the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution in 1956. The Belgian government set up five refugee camps in former military barracks and entrusted five civil society organizations with one camp each. These organizations were responsible of the management of the camps, of seeking housing for the refugees and assisting them in finding a job. One of these organizations was Caritas Catholica Belgica, the Belgian branch of the international Catholic humanitarian organization, Caritas Catholica, which has been active in Belgium since 1932. Caritas had close association with the political party Catholic Union of Belgium (CVP/PSC) and was assigned a camp near the southeast Belgian town of Tongeren. This refugee camp opened its doors in November 1956 and received hundreds of Hungarians from the first refugee transports. With the mediation of Caritas and the assistance of the Belgian public, the migrants managed to restart their new lives within a relative short period in Belgium. Present paper aims to give an idea about the reception of the migrants in the camp. It will explain how the employees and volunteers of Caritas organized themselves and the camps to accommodate the refugees. Through the case of one individual refugee it will also describe the migrant’s trajectory and experience.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Vera Hajtó is a social historian. She received her PhD in History from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium in 2013. The manuscript of her thesis, entitled „Migration, Childhood and Memories of the Interwar Belgian-Hungarian Child Relief Procject”, was published by the University Press Leuven in 2016. As a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of History, she is currently engaged in the international CELSA research project ʻÉmigré Europeʼ on the networks of Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Slovakian migrants in the Low Countries. Her research interest lie in the field of social and cultural history, migration, the history of childhood, gender and postmemory.

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Recollect, Reconnect, Reunite: The Story of a Hungarian Junior Basketball Team (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, members of a female basketball team from the 1970s had a virtual meeting in April 2020 lieu of their quarterly in-person reunions. The former teammates shared what they were doing during quarantine, lamented over postponed weddings, and announced the birth of their grandchildren. What political and cultural conditions sparked the creation of the community, and what are the experiences that bonded them together in this way? In the first of its kind within the Eastern Bloc context, Emese Ivan and Johanna Mellis are conducting oral histories with Hungarian female athletes who belonged to a single basketball team during their teen years under socialism. Beginning in childhood, the athletes developed a lifelong bond and received plentiful sporting opportunities while playing for a highly successful female coach at the Központi Sportiskola, the Central Sports School in Budapest. As the authors argue, however, female athletes still faced considerable gender discrimination due to the patriarchal character of the Hungarian sport leadership and the connections-based nature of the socialist state more generally. The presentation will also reflect on how the women’s memories and experiences of their time full of dynamic opportunities and a rich community contrast with an outsider’s perspective of a doping-obsessed regional sport system under a broader harsh, unjust socialist Bloc.




Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Emese Ivan PhD (Kinesiology); MBA
Associate Professor of Health and Human Services
Senior Associate Dean
Collins College of Professional Studies
St. John’s University
ivane@stjohns.edu

Her research interest is in the areas of creativity and innovation in the sport-health-media complex and the international and comparative analysis of women sports in the late 20th century.

Johanna Mellis PhD (History)
Assistant Professor of World History
Ursinus College
jmellis@ursinus.edu

Her research interest is in the areas of world/global history, Central European history, oral history, the history of sport and memory studies

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Book Roundtable Proposal: A Thorn in the Rosebush: The American Bartók Estate and Archives During the Cold War, 1946-1967 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
I'd like to propose a book discussion of musicologist Carl Leafstedt's newly released "A Thorn in the Rosebush" ( Helena History Press 2021)

This book opens up new perspectives on the history of Béla Bartók's music in the 20th century. It joins a growing literature on music and the Cultural Cold War. It draws inspiration from a trove of historic correspondence discovered in Massachusetts in 2010, written by Béla Bartók's executor and trustee, Victor Bator. Bator, an accomplished Hungarian-American businessman, had been personally appointed in this role by the composer. Epic transcontinental legal battles dragged on for decades fending off challenges against the estate by Hungarian government attorneys eager to wrest Bartók's legacy from New York City and return it to Budapest. This is the story of one man's battle to keep the American Bartók Estate and Archives from falling into Communist hands during the Cold War.

The author introduced his research on this topic at an AHEA conference in 2016. We are pleased that at our 2022 conference we will be able to introduce this masterly piece of historical scholarship to AHEA members and the greater reading public.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Roundtable members to be announced.
Chair: Peter Laki, Bard College

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Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Appearance and Reality

Type of Abstract (select): Book Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The two-volume Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Appearance and Reality, published by Helena Historical Press in the United States, provides an insight into the problem of anti-Semitism in Hungary on both a historical and contemporary basis as seen through the eyes of Hungarian Jewish leaders, international NGO's, academics from Israel and the United States, and the Hungarian government. Volume One reflects the speeches given at the Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Appearance and Reality conference which was held in 2021 as well as a selection of original academic articles. Volume 2 is composed of in-depth interviews with Jewish leaders from across the spectrum of Hungarian Jewish life.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Prof. Jeffrey Kaplan, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, has published 25 monographs and anthologies and over 150 academic articles, anthology chapters and studies. His work focuses on cultural and religious history, religious violence, and religious terrorism. He has taught and researched all over the world and is currently the Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest.

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Az ENSZ Menekültügyi Főbiztosának Hivatala és az 1956-os magyar menekültek (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Az ENSZ Menekültügyi Főbiztosának (UNHCR) Hivatala, amely napjainkban hatalmas globális szervezet, 1950-ben mindössze 34 alkalmazottal alakult meg a második világháború nyomán elűzött európai személyek (DP-k) problémájának megoldására. A szerző rámutat arra, hogy az UNHCR részvétele a magyar menekültek megsegítésére szervezett nemzetközi humanitárius akcióban jelentősen befolyásolta későbbi történetét, és hozzájárult globális intézménnyé válásához. A nemzetközi levéltári kutatásokra alapozott előadás először bemutatja a szervezetnek a levert forradalom után elmenekülő magyarok érdekében végzett tevékenységét, majd nemzetközi elismertségének alakulását az akcióval összefüggésben, végül pedig azt, hogyan növekedett ennek következtében nemzetközi mozgástere.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Kecskés D. Gusztáv a Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Történettudományi Intézet tudományos főmunkatársa. PhD doktorátusát a nemzetközi kapcsolatok története tárgykörében 2003-ban a Sorbonne Paris III Egyetemen és a Pécsi Tudományegyetemen szerezte. Széleskörű kutatásokat folytatott a nagyhatalmak és nemzetközi szervezetek levéltáraiban. Könyveket publikált a magyar‒francia kapcsolatokról, Franciaország Kelet-Európa politikájáról, Magyarország és az ENSZ viszonyáról, a NATO történetéről és az 1956-os magyar menekültek nemzetközi befogadásáról.

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Diasporization and Integration Patterns of New Hungarian Emigrants in the UK and Austria (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The focus of scholarly approaches to post-1990 emigration from Hungary has dominantly been on the quantitative aspects: multiple research projects have aimed to quantify the scale of emigration, and to analyse the geographical location and basic socio-demographic indicators of the newly emerging Hungarian diaspora (Blaskó-Gödri 2015, Hárs-Simon 2015, Sík-Szeitl 2016). However, there is limited qualitative data available about the new emigrants. To fill this research gap, a small research team at the Institute for Minority Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences has been working on a project since 2018 that aims at the qualitative exploration of the largest new Hungarian diaspora groups. The research team conducted 60 semi-structured interviews in two main destination countries for emigrants, Austria and Germany, with Hungarians who moved to these countries since 1990. The main focus of our research was to capture if and how new emigrants are forming into a diaspora community. In this paper I attempt to unfold how Hungarian emigrants negotiate belonging and identity (and identity change) in the context of their emigration. By analyzing the interviews carried out with Hungarian individuals living in the UK and Austria, I point out patterns of diasporization and patterns of integration, and highlight some significant socio-economic factors that considerably affect these processes. I also address the question of whether dense transnational networks affect the chances of integration or rather the chances of diasporization of emigrants.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Eszter Kovács completed her PhD at Pázmány Péter Catholic University’s Doctoral School of Political Theory (Budapest) in 2018. She holds master’s degrees in International Studies (from Corvinus University of Budapest) and in Nationalism Studies (from Central European University, Budapest). Currently she is a research fellow at the Institute for Minority Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences. Her research interests include migration, diaspora communities and diaspora and kin-state policies.

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Medical Status of the 1956 Hungarian Refugees (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1956 almost 200,000 Hungarian left their homeland. In the '50s smallpox and polio were serious diseases, do all countries that sought to help Hungarian refugees had to reckon with their medical condition. Since the discovery of the New World, migration is connected with the transportation of dangerous viruses. Because of this, Hungarian refugees were vaccinated before transportation to the United States or had to prove their health with an X-ray of their chest. The presenter used American and Australian documents to examine the medical condition of the Hungarian refugees and the medical issues associated with their reception. Many pregnant, handicapped, and sick people were among the refugees. In Camp Kilmer, the U.S. Army wrote a very detailed medical statistical report about the refugees. This constitutes a great source about the medical condition of the almost 30,000 Hungarian refugees who came through Camp Kilmer. Australia used a camp, called Bonegilla, for the quarantine of Hungarian refugees. Hopefully the presentation relates how migration and associated infections were handled in the past and how we could learn from this for our future.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am a PhD-student and High School Teacher (History-IT) of University of Pécs. I write my dissertation about the Governmental Reactions to the Hungarian Revolution in the U.S., Canada and Australia. I have published a book about 1956 Hungarian refugees in Graz. I am a two times Countrywide Scientific Student Conference (OTDK) winner and Pro Scientia Gold Medalist. I have participated in conferences in Canada, France, Hungary. I did researches in Canada, Australia, United States of America, Austria, Sweden.

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History and Memory; the Statues of Washington, Kossuth, and Bandholtz and What They Teach Us (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Public statues as physical representations of our collective memory convey complex messages about a community’s conceptualization and construction of its past and present—reflecting a certain set of values, ideas, and ideals, as well as their broader political, social, and cultural implications. The presentation proposes to discuss the histories of three respective ‘memory sites’ including George Washington’s statue in the City Park, Budapest supported by the American-Hungarian community in 1906, the monument dedicated to the Hungarian freedom fighter, Lajos Kossuth in 1928 in New York, and the statue honoring US representative of the Inter-Allied Military Mission in Hungary, General Harry Hill Bandholtz in Budapest to analyze what they may teach us about the history of Hungary during the period between the world wars, as well as about important aspects, concerns, and issues of American-Hungarian relations of this era with special focus on the revision of Hungary’s post-World War I borders.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva Mathey, assistant professor at the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen, teaches American history and culture. Her special fields of research include American society and political culture during the period between the world wars, Hungarian-American relations with special emphasis on the interwar years. She earned a PhD in American Studies from the University of Debrecen in 2012. She has published articles both in Hungarian and English in journals such as, for example, Aetas, Eger Journal of American Studies, Hungarian Studies Review and Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, and AMERICANA. Her monograph on Hungarian revisionist efforts toward the US was published by Debrecen University Press in 2020.

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Unitarians in Háromszék Seat in the 17th Century Transylvania: Between Conventional Rhetoric and Reality (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Unitarian church historiography is going through a paradigm shift. In the light of
these changes the recent paper tries to break down the conventional rhetoric that took shape
around the topic of the forced conversion of the Unitarian congregations in the 17 th century in
Háromszék. At the beginning of the reign of Gábor Bethlen the Protestants in Háromszék seat
(Unitarians and Calvinists) were living together in a distinctive symbiosis. The congregations
were allowed to freely elect their ministers and teachers. It was not unusual that a
congregation had a Unitarian minister and a Calvinist teacher, or vice versa. The members of
these villages were living in an apparent peace. The elimination of this integrated Protestant
institution and the denominational segregation arose in 1619 during the visit of the Calvinist
bishop János Keserűi Dajka. The Unitarian church historiography held for centuries that
60–72 Unitarian congregations were converted to Calvinist confession in Háromszék seat.
The audience will see that in reality there were altogether 70–71 Protestant congregations in
Háromszék. Analyzing the minutes of the investigations ordered by Katalin Brandenburgi in
1630 it is evident from the testimonies of the witnesses that only 14 congregations had a
Unitarian past. Due to these outcomes we must reconsider the conventional rhetoric that the
notorious Calvinist bishop János Keserűi Dajka converted the Unitarian Háromszék to
Calvinism.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I am archivist at the Unitarian Headquarters in Kolozsvár. After finishing my Unitarian
theology training in 1995, I was appointed Assistant Minister at the First Unitarian Church in
Kolozsvár where I served for nearly two years. I have received subsequent formal archival
training in Debrecen (1996–97). In 1999, I was ordained a unitarian minister. Between
2018–2019 I was a Balázs Ferenc scholar at the Starr King School for the Ministry in
Berkeley, California. In 2020 I defended my doctoral dissertation at the University of Szeged Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Hungary and I received the Ph.D. degree.

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Az 1956-os forradalom után szülő nélkül menekülő kis- és fiatalkorúak története (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
My lecture deals with a rather neglected aspect of international migration: it is about those young people and children who left Hungary in 1956 without parents. They were under 18 when they crossed the Austrian and Yugoslav borders. Their number was about 10-13,000 people, which made up more than 5% of the approximately 200,000 refugees from Hungary. This lecture compares how these young people were treated in Austria and Yugoslavia: how they were housed, how they received education, how they were able to travel to other host countries or return to Hungary. The different handling of the Austrian and Yugoslav authorities depended mainly on their interstate relations with Hungary and on the ratification of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The Yugoslav-Hungarian cooperation on repatriation worked better. This is reflected in the high number of young people returning to Hungary (15-20%). Cooperation with Austria was not without problems. The Austrian authorities played for time. According to the Austrian interpretation of law, young people from the age of 18 were allowed to decide on their future home country alone, without their parents. As a result, only about 8% of young people returned to Hungary.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. habil. Ibolya Murber is Associate Professor at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE BDPK) in Budapest/ Szombathely She earned her Ph.D. from ELTE in 2005, and completed her habilitation at ELTE in 2013. Between 2001 and 2004 she served as an archivist at the Hungarian National Archives in Budapest, and between 2007 and 2016 was a faculty member at the University of West Hungary in Sopron. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Vienna and Saarland University, in 2019–1920 held an OeAD Richard Plaschka Fellowship in Vienna, and in 2021–2024 holds a János Bolyai Fellowship of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on twentieth-century history, and is centered primarily on diplomacy and international relations, Central European migration, and Austro-Hungarian relations.

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The World Council of Churches in Hungary, 1956: Catalyst of Revolution and Flight? (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The World Council of Churches (WCC) brings together many Christian churches seeking to express their common faith. In 1954 a Hungarian delegate invited the WCC to convene its periodic Central Committee meeting in Hungary, and it took place there July 28-August 5, 1956 following preparatory meetings outside Hungary and with the Hungarian authorities. The 200 attendees included 90 committee members but also many East European guests from Hungary and neighboring countries. In Hungary, WCC leaders engaged discretely with the authorities about the repression of religion, including the fate of Cardinal Mindszenty (though Catholics were not members of the WCC) and Lutheran Bishop Lajos Ordass. During the meeting the delegates debated and promulgated resolutions on “Proselytism and Religious Liberty” and “The Churches and the Building of a Responsible International Society.” The final text of the latter resolution concluded with a statement supporting free movement of populations that anticipates the flight of refugees after the Revolution. During the Revolution, Mindszenty and Ordass were restored briefly to office and the WCC expressed its support for the Hungarian people’s desire for freedom. Later, Communist authorities asserted the WCC helped provoke the Revolution, a charge the WCC denied. In historical perspective we must question both the Communist charges and those of Christian conservatives that the WCC was soft on Communism. The fact remains that the WCC leadership was largely West European and American, and it played a major role in the reception of Hungarian refugees. Sources include the WCC Archives in Geneva.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
James P. (Jim) Niessen earned his Ph.D at Indiana University with a dissertation on religion and politics in nineteenth century Transylvania. He has published several studies on the Romanian and Hungarian national movements. After supervising the digitization ten years ago of a portion of the records of the President’s Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief, he shifted the focus of his research to the reception of the 56ers and has published various studies on this topic in Hungary and the US. Since 2001 he is World History Librarian at Rutgers University. He served two terms as President of AHEA in 2014-18.

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Legacy of Margit Slachta, a Pro-Active Social and Political Representative of Modern Catholic Thinking (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Margit Slachta’s reburial in December 2021 has given a new impetus for historians to reconsider her activity and role in modern Hungarian history. For decades in state socialist Hungary, her personality was put into a false interpretative scheme, which showed her as a representative of the “clerical reaction”. Contemporary historiography still owes her a great debt to present her true legacy based on new primary historical sources. The lecture strives to give a contribution to this endeavour. After an overall survey of Slachta’s manifold activities as Catholic social activist, “Christian feminist”, a founder of a modern women’s order, a rescuer during the Shoah, it will focus on her political activity as the first woman MP in the history of Hungarian parliamentarism. Slachta was a representative in three parliamentary cycles: first after World War I and twice after World War II, which made her a stakeholder during these highly significant periods of Hungarian history. That’s why, beyond her church historical importance, Slachta’s legacy shall find its proper stand also in the social and political history of the country.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva Petrás (PhD) studied at Pécs University with specialization in history and English, and subsequently received her MA degree in modern history at Central European University. She obtained her PhD in history at the European University Institute in Florence in 2003. Between 2009 and January 2020 she worked as a researcher in the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL), Budapest. Since February 2020 she works as a research fellow of the Committee of National Remembrance (NEB). She is also a member of the “10 generáció/10 Generations” – “Lendület” Research Project of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Where is Home? The Identity and Language Use of Hungarian-American Ethnic Return Migrants (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper explores a topic that has not yet been well-researched, that is, the “return” of second and third-generation Hungarians to the ethnic homeland. My presentation will focus on a qualitative study that formed part of my Ph.D. dissertation. It involved 10 participants who were born or raised in New Jersey and who decided to return to Hungary for an indefinite period of time. My informants were either born in New Brunswick or grew up in the Passaic community; nevertheless, all of them had a strong connection to New Brunswick. Based on this case study, I will try to answer the following research questions: what means “home” for these returnees, and to what extent could they integrate into the homeland? Did the participants experience a shift in their ethnic identity? Was there any change in their language use, especially in the family, with their children? My findings fit into the scholarly literature on diasporic return migrants and point to the general disillusionment that people experience upon moving to the land of their ancestors.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Katalin Pintz received her MA degrees in American Studies and Italian Language and Literature at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 2010 and 2014. In 2010 she was a recipient of a joint scholarship granted by the Foreign Ministries of Hungary and Italy to examine the sociolinguistic aspects of the dialect spoken in Padua, Italy. In the same year, she began her doctoral studies at the American Studies program of ELTE. She has taught courses in American History and Civilization at ELTE and Károli Gáspár University. In September 2021, she defended her Ph.D. thesis on the identity maintenance and transnational relations of Hungarian-Americans living in New Brunswick, NJ.

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Rubik’s Cube: Simulations of Migrant Integration Models in Hungary (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Since 2010, the European Union has faced uncontrolled migration. The migration crisis of 2015 showed that Member States are generally lacking solidarity and a single policy on migration. Instead of solidarity on the matter, this activated right-wing parties and the rise of nationalism as a consequence. Despite the fact that the problem of migration is still quite acute, it is important to note that from its prevention, the focus of research in migration studies is shifting to a specific solution to the already existing problem, a phenomenon in objective reality. In this study, the case study of Hungary and the ethnic mosaic is taken. Using existing national identity theories, the author experiments with models of integration and, las with a Rubik’s cube, offers different solutions to the problem of migration in Hungary.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ekaterina Popova is a Ph.D. student in Public Administration at National University of Public Service with an academic background in International Relations and Journalism. The author primarily focuses on empirical research of immigration, nationalism and adjacent topics.

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British Refugee Aid after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Drawing on new archival research, this presentation will explore who were the most important non-governmental actors in refugee aid in the UK. In addition to acknowledging the prominent role of the British Red Cross, the presentation aims to draw attention to institutional and individual actors who have received less attention in previous research, but without whom the process of relief and integration would have been much more difficult. The presentation will focus on both international INGOs and organizations that have limited their activities specifically to the UK. Among the former, the focus will be on the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam), which was set up during the Second World War to eradicate poverty but which over time expanded its charitable activities to other missions. Various women's organizations, such as the British Federation of University Women (BFUW), were also actively involved in helping Hungarian refugees, with the specific aim of supporting women intellectuals. Last but not least, attention is also drawn to social actors who, because of their high social status (in the political arena or among the aristocracy), were in a position to intervene personally on behalf of the refugees and to bring the Hungarian cause to the attention of the English elite. Through these various institutional and individual actors, the lecture aims to shed new light on the development of British reception policies and related social practices.

I propose to place this presentation in the same section as the presentations by James Niessen and Gusztáv Kecskés.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tamás Scheibner (MA in Hungarian Studies, ELTE, 2003; MA in History, CEU, 2006; PhD in Comparative Literature, ELTE, 2012) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the ELKH Research Centre for the Humanities and Associate Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies and Hungarian Literature at ELTE University of Budapest. He is currently the principal investigator of the project "The Post-1956 Refugee Crisis and the Hungarian Emigration" and co-editor (with Gusztáv Kecskés) of a handbook on the subject. He formerly held visiting positions at Aarhus University, the University of Vienna, Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität), Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the University of California, Irvine, and was a Fulbright Fellow at Stanford University. In 2013/2014, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania. His more strictly historically oriented projects include the history of émigré communities and international organisations during the Cold War.

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New Sources on the Fate of Hungarian Prisoners in Soviet Captivity (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The COVID-affected year of 2021 brought a breakthrough in the research of the history of Hungarian prisoners and civilian internees in Soviet captivity. In 2015 Hungarian government declared that year and the following year as the Year of Remembrance of Hungarian Prisoners in Soviet Captivity during and after the Second World War. Since then, the story of the prisoners has attracted the attention not only of historians but also of the general public. The Hungarian National Archives purchased copies of 682,000 personal files of Hungarian prisoners from the Russian National Archives. Each file contains personal details of the prisoners, the places of captivity in the Soviet Union, and the date of repatriation or death. The Hungarian National Archives made this unique resource available online in February 2021, digitised and accessible to all. The proposed presentation will tell, how this new source has impacted research on the history of Hungarian prisoners in the Soviet Union in general and the longstanding debate on prisoners statistics in particular. It will also talk about the debates on memorial politics on the issue of POWs and civilian internees. The paper will also point the contradiction that, while the government commemorates the Hungarian victims of the Soviet forced labor camps years after year, it blames mainly the Western powers for their tragic fate.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tamas Stark received his PhD from the Eötvös Loránd University in 1993. From 1983 he was a researcher at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2000 he was appointed a senior research fellow. In 2014 he was Fulbright visiting professor at the Nazareth College in Rochester NY. His specialization is forced population movement in East-Central Europe in the period 1938-1956, with special regard to the history of the Holocaust, the fate of prisoners of war and civilian internees and postwar migrations. His main publications include: Hungarian Jews During the Holocaust and After the Second World War, 1939–1949; A Statistical Review ( Boulder CO, 2000), Magyar foglyok a Szovjetunióban (Budapest 2006) and „...akkor aszt mondták kicsi robot” – A magyar polgári lakosság elhurcolása a Szovjetunióba korabeli dokumentumok tükrében. (Budapest 2017).

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Fates and Heterotopias: Resistance, Retaliation and a Historic Turning Point in the Sopronkőhida Prison 1944–1945 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In times of crisis and transition, such as were the last years of World War II, it seems that everything is falling apart: political systems are collapsing, the fabric of society is torn apart, resistance and retaliation emerges, masses of people are forced to move away from their homes against their will. But is it possible to locate a geographically existing space in the tragic and dramatic turmoil which represents the crystallization of an era, hence provides the intersection of historical periods that is researchable and revealing to the historian? My paper attempts to integrate traditional historical methods from space theory, based on Michel Foucault’s heterotopology, and demonstrate how the Sopronkőhida prison has become such a historically essential space in 1944–1945. Firstly, the Court Martial of the Chief of the Hungarian Royal Army’s General Staff occupied the prison at the end of 1944 and operated there until March 1945. The court martial brought those to trial there who were arrested for high treason, including resistance. Four former prime ministers, many military officers, civilians, resisters, partisans and priests were held in the Sopronkőhida prison until they were relocated to Germany. Subsequently, a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp was established in Sopronkőhida, in which tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers were detained and deported to the USSR. The dramatic turnaround of Sopronkőhida simultaneously symbolizes the fall of persons representing an era, the rise of others, and the loss of the sovereignty of the individual and society during totalitarian regimes.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Domokos Szokolay is a research fellow at the Office of the Committee of National Remembrance (NEB). He is an ABD PhD student at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. His research focuses on the transition period of 1944-1945, with special interest in resistance and retaliation.

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“Coal Dust Absorbs our Tears:’ The Hungarians of Appalachia, 1880-1928” (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper demonstrates that immigration and labor historians have yet to explore the role of Hungarian immigrants in the factories and coalfields of Appalachia, defined for our purposes as West Virginia, southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky and several eastern counties in Ohio. Neglect of the topic is noteworthy since the earliest immigrant coalminers in the southern Appalachian coal mines were Hungarians, and Hungarian laborers dominated some of America’s largest coal mines, including the massive US Steel facility in Gary, West Virginia.
A handful of scholars such as Julianna Puskas were aware that Hungarians worked the mines and factories in the Appalachian region, but she was apparently unaware of the numbers involved. Indeed, by 1906, a second Austro-Hungarian consulate was deemed necessary in West Virginia to grapple with the seemingly endless volume of issues encountered there by Hungarian laborers.Puskas rightly indicated that most of the Hungarians who went to work in Appalachia lived in boarding houses and eventually left the region to return home or to secure better jobs in the US North and Midwest. Yet Hungarian migrants tended to live in boarding houses in other regions of the US where they exhibited a similar transience. This paper will demonstrate that a surprising number of Appalachian Hungarians settled in this uniquely southern region of the US, reared families, and played a vital role as an important civilizing agent in their communities.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
A graduate of the University of Virginia (PhD and MA), Turley has received four Fulbright Awards including a Lectureship at the University of Szeged in Hungary, the Alumni Initiative Fulbright, and two lectureships granted under the Fulbright Specialist Roster program. In September 2011, the University of Szeged faculty awarded him the Pro Facultate Philosophiae Medal for his work in securing an ongoing exchange program with West Virginia University. A member of the Graduate Faculty in History at WVU, Turley recently served a Fellowship with the Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies in Budapest, which supported his research on this topic.

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Possibilities for a New Social Model? Vid Mihelics' Forgotten Work and the Social Question (1921-1944) (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
One of the most important terrains of the European search for new ways in politics between the two world wars was the debate on the reorganisation and tasks of the state and, within it, of the economy and society. The proposals for solutions were many and varied, but this topic dominated the academic discourse in the 20s and 30s in many regards. The thinkers who sought answers (economists, philosophers, historians, sociologists, ecclesiastics) could build on a number of early predecessors, going back as far as St Thomas Aquinas's 'organic view of society' and later embodied in the economic and political theory of Jesuit solidarism. The common feature of the theories of our period was that they approached the construction of the state not from the point of view of the individual, but from the point of view of social groups. A prominent exponent of these ideas in Hungary was Vid Mihelics, who from the very beginning devoted his journalistic, scientific and political activities to the Hungarian Catholi,c revival. After his upbringing in the Cistercian Order, he worked continuously as a journalist, and his interests increasingly focused on social issues and the social teaching of the Church. His writings were also centred around these themes, seeking solutions through the ideas of Christian humanism, which for him was 'the inalienable essence of true Europeanism'. This lecture aims to summarise and present this ideas and thoughts on state, politics and society.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Krisztián Zachar, Phd, habil. is a Hungarian historian, associate professor, head of the Department for International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Public Service, Budapest. His major field of research is the history of the 19th and 20th century in Central Europe, the history of advocacy organisations, e.g. chambers, the theoretical background of social partnership, the catholic social thought and the history of international relations. In previous years he participated in several Hungarian National Science Research Projects (OTKA) and was the leader of the OTKA-research group „Economic and social reform-concepts and social models in the interwar period”.

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