World Honors Hungary’s 1956 Freedom Fighters As Magyar Shares Global Tribute (VIDEO)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief, reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Péter Magyar on Saturday shared video footage showing landmarks around the world illuminated in Hungary’s national colors, as international tributes continued to the heroes of the country’s 1956 revolution against Soviet domination, 70 years after the uprising.

“The whole world is dressed in red, white, and green in honor of the Hungarian freedom fighters. Pride!” Magyar wrote alongside the video, referring to the colors of Hungary’s national flag.

The footage showed buildings, monuments and public spaces illuminated in red, white and green in countries including Colombia, Malaysia, Poland, India, the United States and South Korea. In Colombia, even a towering statue of Jesus Christ was illuminated in Hungary’s national colors.

Among the scenes was a display of the Hungarian tricolor in New York’s Times Square, while other landmarks glowed in the colors of Hungary’s flag.

The video ended with a Hungarian flag waving against a nighttime cityscape and the words “Éljenek a hősök!” — “Long live the heroes!”

MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO 1956 HEROES

Another video shared during the commemorations featured historical black-and-white images of the 1956 revolution, accompanied by a song honoring those who sacrificed their lives for Hungary’s freedom.

The tribute, created by Hungarian songwriter and digital creator Gyulai Dániel, showed crowds gathering in Budapest, demonstrators marching through the streets, Hungarian flags hanging from buildings and scenes of destruction during the uprising.

Gyulai said he had written the song in memory of the revolution’s heroes and assembled a presentation using photographs from the period.

“Respect to the heroes,” he wrote, dedicating the musical tribute to the generation that confronted Soviet domination.

The lyrics recalled those who gave their blood for freedom and urged future generations never to forget their sacrifice.

HUNGARY’S 1956 REVOLUTION

“Because they gave their lives as heroes, and thus our hearts beat freely today,” the song declared, according to an English translation of the Hungarian lyrics.

The revolution began on October 23, 1956, with student demonstrations in Budapest that developed into a nationwide uprising against communist rule and Soviet domination.

Soviet forces crushed the revolution in November, killing as many as 3,000 civilians and forcing approximately 200,000 Hungarians to flee their homeland, many never to return.

Among those who narrowly escaped execution was Imre Mécs, a Hungarian freedom fighter sentenced to death in 1958 for his role in the uprising.

“Almost 400 of us were sentenced to death, and 233 were executed. At one point, 19 out of 20 of the condemned were being executed, so I didn’t think I would make it,” Mécs recalled.

FREEDOM FIGHTER REMEMBERS

Mécs, who died in 2023 at age 89, spoke to Worthy News’ Stefan J. Bos in 2016 about his experiences under communist rule and his hopes for Hungary’s future.

His death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment, and he was released in 1963. He later served in Hungary’s Parliament following the country’s first democratic elections after communist rule ended in 1990.

The international tributes followed Friday’s major anniversary commemorations in Budapest, where tens of thousands gathered outside Parliament to hear Magyar address the nation in historic Kossuth Square.

Fighter jets flew above the Hungarian Parliament, trailing red, white and green smoke, while European leaders joined ceremonies honoring the students, workers and ordinary citizens who challenged communist rule seven decades earlier.

“Since 1956, every Hungarian leader, and I repeat every Hungarian leader, must know that his power can never be more important than the freedom of his country,” Magyar declared.

EUROPEAN LEADERS HONOR HUNGARY

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the European Union’s executive arm, and European Council President António Costa, who chairs meetings of EU national leaders, were among foreign dignitaries attending the commemorations, which Magyar said attracted more than 40 international delegations.

The anniversary came six months after Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in parliamentary elections, ending Orbán’s 16 years of uninterrupted rule as prime minister.

Magyar has also pledged to preserve the memory of the uprising through a new museum dedicated to the revolution and the Hungarians who fought, suffered imprisonment or lost their lives resisting Soviet domination.

Reflecting on his encounters with surviving freedom fighters, the prime minister said their sacrifices had helped secure the freedom enjoyed by later generations. He stressed that remembering those who stood against oppression was essential to Hungary’s national identity and future.

That message was echoed in Gyulai’s musical tribute, which called on Hungarians to remember the fallen, while the international displays shared by Magyar showed how the revolution continues to resonate far beyond Hungary’s borders.

Seventy years after Soviet tanks crushed the uprising, the illuminated landmarks and images of the revolution’s heroes offered a reminder of the human cost of a struggle for freedom that helped inspire Hungary’s eventual transition from communist dictatorship to democracy and its membership in the European Union and NATO military alliance.