Magyar Hírek, 1988 (41. évfolyam, 1-22. szám)

1988-10-07 / 19. szám

HE WORLD FEDERATION OF HUNGARIANS Audiense of the 3rd Native Language Congress in 1977 ness, will and traditions of genera­tions.” The four hundred delegates of the World Congress went from the open­ing ceremony to the Royal Palace, where they paid their respects to Rear Admiral Miklós Horthy, the Regent. The post Second World War period Great Masses left the country after the Second World War. That polit­ically motivated emigration has con­siderably re-shaped the image of the traditional Hungarian diaspora abroad. The reorganization of the World Federation began right in the spring of 1945. Tivadar Ács was appointed to head temporarily World Federa­tion of Hungarians and the Office of Emigration and Resettlement. József Nagy, First Secretary of the World Federation was appoined to assist him. Following the amalgamation of the Social Democratic and the Com­munist Parties the political leader­ship paid less and less attention to the World Federation. The nationali­sation of voluntary organizations had begun. The minutes of the 20 March 1950 meeting recorded that some of the members of the presi­dential council discussed this. Pál For­gács, for instance, remarked that: “Provided the World Federation is needed its duties and the suitable composition of the executive should be concretely determined.” Tivadar Acs got to work with the full support of his party, the Social Democrats. The Federation already had its own information medium called Dunai Kurír. The field of op­erations also grew: the Federation maintained contact with Hungarians in about fifty countries. They settled litigation for Hungar­ians living abroad in Hungary, sent reports of recent legislation and the cultural department handled also the subscriptions of newspapers and journals, and the dispatch of books. The Federation also acted on behalf of clients to obtain passports and documents, tracked down relatives in Hungary and controlled the dis­tribution of gifts. On the 14th of October 1945 the medical section of the World Federa­tion of Hungarians was called to life with the objective of building and maintaining international medical contacts. Professor József Frigyes, was elected chairman of the medical section. The coalition of the democratic parties provided a basis for the new organizational framework. Propaganda dressing up as infor­mation emerged at the time as the most important objective of the World Federation and this was plainly stated in a report of the Gen­eral Secretary: “We consider that the objective of the World Federation of Hungarians is to engage in propaganda activity amongst the hundreds of thousands of Hungarians in imperialist coun­tries, to indirectly popularise the ob­jectives of the peaceloving nations led by Soviet Union and to serve the cause of peace, socialism and prog­ress with all the means available.” The Cold War, the policy of isola­tion made genuine contacts impos­sible, indeed, mistrust of people liv­ing in the West paralysed even the activities of the World Federation in assisting the repatriation of people. Contacts were maintained almost ex­clusively with oldestablished left­­wing organization’s in Canada and the United States but even these de­clined to a minimum with the deep­ening of the political crisis in 1955— 56. After 1956 About 200,000 thousand people left Hungary in 1956-57. In the activities of the World Fed­eration which was reorganized in 1958-59 - the stimulation and help­ing of repatriation still had an im­portant role for a few years. Besides that, however, the more general advi­sory and information service was de­veloping. The next significant change fol­lowed the 1963 amnesty, which re­pealed the penal clauses refering to “unauthorized crossing of the fronti­er” thus making things easier for those, who were thinking about re­patriating. Of those, who left in 1956 some 50,000 returned to Hungary. The same decree also made visits to Hungary possible. In his report Ottó Beöthy, the General Secretary, talked of a quali­tative turning point in respect of atti­tude and style of work at the June 1963 meeting of the executive. In harmony with that he requested members of the executive to “assist the cause of Hungarians abroad in their own sphere of work." He also emphasised the importance of infor­mation mentioning, for instance, that the achievements of Hungarians, who made a name for themselves in foreign lands are hardly known in Hungary. He also mentioned that the history of one hundred years of Hun­garian emigration was still waiting to be written. The executive decided to institute the Medal of the Executive of the World Federation of Hungar­ians. They expressed the principle that: “...contact must be established with every section of Hungarians liv­ing abroad irrespective of differ­ences in world outlook, religion and generation, so long as they welcome such contact and do not show enmity to their old country”. The following statement of József Bognár, Presi­dent of the World Federation de­monstrated the changed outlook and style of work: “...our contacts with Hungarians abroad cannot be im­agined in such a way that we give on­ly, and they receive only. Indeed, we can learn much from the human ex­amples provided by a large section of Hungarians living abroad.” The number of people visiting the old country increased from year to year as did also the number of those, who correspond with the World Fed­eration and visit its headquarters. This was the time, when the World Federation began to organize Hun­garian round-trips for groups of Hungarian associations abroad. Or­ganising holidays in Hungary for Hungarian children in foreign coun­tries emerged in the wake of a re­quest by the executive to Hungarians abroad for helpful suggestions. At one of the 1966 meetings of the executive the writer Pál Szabó, rec­ommended that: “contact should be established with the young genera­tion of writers of Hungarian origin, who grew up abroad.” Even if only years later, the idea came true. The idea of publishing school-books teaching the Hungarian to children of Hungarians in Western countries, to those “who endeavour to become acquainted with the Hungarian lan­guage and literature approaching that from a foreign - mainly English - language” also emerged back in 1966. That was also the year when the presentation in Hungary of the works of Hungarian artists living abroad was first proposed. An important step was taken also in respect of the history of Hungar­ian emigration. An announcement was made at a 1966 meeting of the executive that the Institute of Histo­ry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was requested to take charge of the project. The presidium of the World Fed­eration increasingly based its work on experiences gained “on location”, amongst Hungarians abroad. Mem­bers of the executive gave regular re­ports on their journeys and meetings with Hungarians in far-away lands. Thanks also to these personal con­tacts lasting relations have devel­oped with more and more Hungar­ian associations. The establishment of a cultural committee in 1968 to help the Executive of the Federation facilitated the start of the native lan­guage movement. Scholarships enabling Hungarian children and children of Hungarian descent to study and practice their native language in Hungary were ini­tiated at the March 1968 meeting of the Executive, which also discussed the idea of organizing specialised conferences. The First Native Language Con­ference was convened the following year and the specialised conferences came true in the late seventies. On the 50th jubilee celebration: Pro­fessor József Bognár, president of the Presidium of the World Federation of Hungarians, with an ornamental al­bum presented by the 100 years old Hungarian Association of Graz (Aust­ria) PHOTO BY VIKTOR GÁBOR

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