Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2016 (28. évfolyam, 14-50. szám)
2016-09-16 / 36. szám
Now! You can broadcast your ideas on Truth and Freedom behind the Iron Curtain over RADIO FREE EUROPE! In Memóriám 1956: Radio Free Europe - The Voice Of The Free World In the era of Communism, the vast majority of the Hungarian audience could access to news only via the Budapest-based public radios (Kossuth and Petőfi) and the Radio Free Europe (RFE) operated from Western Germany. For the ordinary people, those three radio stations meant the primary - and consequently contradictory - sources of information for decades. Radios Kossuth and Petőfi were available across the whole country and despite the intense “jamming” activity by the Communist authorities, Radio Free Europe was also more-orless accessible almost every part of Hungary, but only secretly in private circles. From political perspective, Radio Free Europe played its most important role during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and in the 1980s. The roots of the “radio cold war”, however, go back to 1949, when the so-called “National Committee for a Free Europe”, a Western organization that included politically active Eastern European emigrants, established and an anti-communist broadcasting services in New York. Funded by the US government but headquartered at Munich’s Englischer Garten from 1949 to 1995, RFE was broadcast to Soviet satellite countries, while its partner station Radio Liberty (RL) targeted directly the Soviet Union. The two organizations were merged in 1976. In 1951 six Eastern and Central European RFE stations were established, including the Czechoslovak, the Hungarian and Polish ones. RFE stations were acting like they were the regular radio stations of the Eastern bloc countries. In most cases they operated with logical and well-structured program based on hourly news service and thematic magazines. RFE was listening and commenting the official Communist media as well, disproving and criticizing their claims and political arguments. It was also RFE’s mission to promote Western culture (modern lifestyle, arts and music) and national traditions (history, religion, folklóréi among compatriots living behind the Iron Curtain. In a way, RFE was a tool the maintain and preserve the civic foundations of the Socialist societies, which were seen as prerequisites for a future democratic transition. The Hungarian department of RFE started its experimental operation at the very beginning of 1950. The regular transmission was launched on 4th of August 1950 with Help Truth fight Communism...Join the Crusade Freedom RADIO FREE EUROPE ■ RADIO FREE ASIA O CfJBIUSBtO It tööft OÜTflßO* UHimiKS CGMfAKf AI. I FIUK UIIKE O daily two programs, while the official operation began only on 6th of October 1951. According to historians’ estimation, that time about half million Hungarian families had a radio device, which was eligible for accessing the transmission of RFE. The first head of. the Hungarian editorial group was Gyula Dessewffy, a former editor-in-chief of Hungarian journal “Kis Újság” and former MP of the Independent Smallholders’ Party that was destroyed by the Communists in the late 1940s. Besides him Gyula Borbándi, Andor Gellért and Géza Ekecs are considered as key figures of the Hungarian RFE station. From the very beginning, the Communists authorities continually tried to jam the radio, producing electronic sounds on the same frequencies to make impossible to hear the program being broadcast. During the hectic days of the Revolution in 1956 the Hungarian RFE broadcast was operating as spontaneously as the Revolution itself. Although before the uprising broke out, the Hungarian RFE did not told the Hungarian people to start a freedom fight, later they encouraged them to hold on indeed, suggesting that Western support was imminent. It was not the case at all, because the United States did not risk to provide military support for the Hungarians in order to avoid an even bigger military conflict with the Soviet Union. However, in the wake of the “Hungarian mistake”, several investigations were initiated by the US and West German governments against RFE. Although the Radio was cleared of provoking the uprising, a number of changes were implemented in order to transform RFE to a more professional, news-gathering and cultureoriented broadcasting service. As a result of this, in the 1960s and 1970s Radio Free Europe was rather known for its entertaining and colorful broadcast than its political mission. In Hungary, the most popular broadcast of the Hungarian department was the so-called “Teenager Party”, edited by László Cseke, who was known on the radio as Géza Ekecs. The Western hits inspired Hungarian youth to make their pop-rock revolution of their own and find their freedom in music and songs. RFE became once again historically important in the 1980s, when its funding significantly increased during the Reagan Administration and the broadcasts were expected to be more critical of the Communist regimes. In the 1980s, RFE also played important role in disseminating self-published anti-communist literature called “samizdat”. After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the democratic turn in Central and Eastern Europe, RFE has lost its historic significance. In Hungary, it ended • - *v broadcasts in 1993. historia.hu, DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. H102 W Hollywood, CA 90069 Spa, Hotel foglalások Kocsi bérlés Kedvezményes repülőjegy árak HAJÓUTAK BÁRHOVÁ A VILÁGON Hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 693-5320 1-888-532-0168 dunatravel@earthlink.net rubicon.hu, hoover.org, dia hungarytoday.hu wikipe-Szeptember 16,2016 AMERIKAI tfagyar Hírlap Fleeing communism for freedom in America Jeno Berta of Davenport fled from fighting and violence in his native Hungary when the Soviets took over in 1957. He now owns and operates a bar in Davenport. Jeno Berta was a 19-yearold Hungarian refugee on his way to Casper, Wyoming, in 1957 when his bus stopped in Davenport. He never left. The 79-year-old owner of Jeno’s Little Hungary, a bar on North Pine Street, could not be more proud of his adoptive home country even as his heart aches for the one he left behind. “There was so much hatred,” he said. Born in 1937 in a farm town of 50 families, Berta was a young boy when he witnessed the Nazi persecution of Jews and other disenfranchised groups. They were people who, he said, “never did anything wrong.” Even after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Hungary remained vulnerable. Berta said the Communist regime of the former Soviet Union occupied his country. All that changed after the Russians took power was the language and the uniforms, he said. After 11 years of the violent occupation, Berta decided to flee to neighboring Austria with three of his friends. But only Berta and one friend made it across the border, which included barbed wire fence and a guard post every 200 yards. He said it was hard to leave his homeland and harder still not to tell anyone or to say goodbye. “I never told my mom or dad, my brother or sister I’m leaving, because I don’t want them to worry about it if I’m going to make it or not,” he said. After spending months skipping across central Europe — from one refugee camp to another — Berta eventually reached the United States in March 1957. “On March 5, America opened its doors — ‘Jeno, it’s all yours,”’ he said, recalling the day he arrived in a military camp in New Jersey. Ellis Island had closed a few years prior. It wasn’t until he safely got to the United States that he wrote to his family back home. Berta became a U.S. citizen five years later, on Sept. 6, 1962. He delights in sharing the significant dates in his life. He worked about 30 years at Riverside Foundry in Bettendorf and opened his bar in 1989. Meanwhile, he married an Iowa farmer’s daughter, and they raised a son, also named Jeno Berta but with a different middle name, who became a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and lawyer in Bettendorf. Berta said he is the “luckiest man in the world.” He hopes new immigrants to the United States, especially those escaping violence and hardship, can have the same kind of access to opportunity he has enjoyed. He said he’s been in their shoes. “You heard about these immigration people coming in and all that,” Berta said. “Well, I tell you, I know they talk about the Mexicans and all that. I want to be honest with you. In 1956 — Nov. 12 — 1 wish America would have been our neighbor. I did the same thing.” qctimes.com Oscar-Awarded Stars On The Streets Of Budapest And In Countryside Of Hungary The second part of the Blade Runner is under capturing in Budapest with Harrison Ford and Jared Leto. The two Oscar-awarded nominee can be seen in unexpected palaces of Hungary such as in a bicycle shop in the capital or in a little village of the countryside. Harrison Ford decided to start his “get lost in Hungary” journey instead of sitting in his hotel room. The actor appears on Facebook posts at the Rácz Fogadó Restaurant in the village called Kisoroszi not far from Budapest, at the Gianni Restaurant of Budapest and in the Nella bike-shop at the Kálmán Imre Street in the downtown of the Hungarian capital. Perhaps he is planning to ride Budapest’s streets by night. Jared Leto also spend his time in Hungary until the shooting of the Blade Runner 2 goes on. On Instagram he posted a kind of rustic sunset of Budapest with block of flats in the background. Meanwhile Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche is visiting the north-eastern part of the country as she is a guest of honour of this year’s CineFest International Film Festival at Miskolc. hungarytodoy.hu AMERICAN Hungarian Journal The English Page of the Hírlap can serve as a bridge between the non-11 migai'ian-speaking members of the fam-I ily and the community. Use it to bring people together! Subscribe to the Hírlap! Advertise your business in the Hirlap! 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