Magyar News, 2006. január-május (17. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
2006-04-01 / 4. szám
A VISITOR OF HIGH HONOR George H. Walker, Ambassador of the United States of America, and his wife, visited the north-east comer of Hungary. Their first stop was at the Highschool of the Sárospataki Református Kollégium. Ambassador Walker was interested learning about the 475 year history of the school. He also had many questions in regard of the present state of the education there. He showed the most interest in the bilingual education, the Hungarian and English. Since the school belongs to the Reformed Church Mrs. Walker had many questions about the religious life and teaching at the highschool. An informal meeting with a group of students gave an insight of how they see the future, and their ties with the school at later times. At the end of the meeting Ambassador Walker said that he was very impressed by the students, their knowledge of the English language, also their broad interest in politics, the happenings in the world, and the global economy The visit was extended to the Rákóczi fortress with the Perényi staircase WARTIME SPOILS WERE TAKEN FROM THIS LIBRARY Were the Soviets occupying Hungary, or came as liberators? Were they winning over the nazi’s war machine? Were they oppressors of the Hungarian people? Did they come to save or rob? Did they know the value of what they were taking? What you have to know, that there was a man in Moscow, originally from Hungary, Igor Grabar, painter and art historian, who in 1943 put together a list of valuable cultural pieces that could be found in Germany, Hungary, Rumania and Italy. It added up to $70 million at 1945 prices. To collect these the Soviet organized special small groups of artists, art historians, financial and other experts. These were imbedded with military units, dressed as soldiers, and carried their special list, well Sárospatak was on one of the lists. This group knew exactly that for safe keeping the most valued pieces were stored in the indestructible vaults of two local banks. Besides paintings 172 irreplaceable books were taken away. Just as a short example, on of the books was a Bible. A very old Polish Bible that the Polish government offered two counties of territories in exchange for it. The Russians are giving back 134 of these, naturally Hungary already paid for them 1 million 425 thousand Dollars also covered the expenses ti to digitally copy every page. The list could go on. The books arrived at the Széchényi National library. Russian president with the governor of the voronyezs territory are coming to Hungary for this occasion. They might pay a visit to Sárospatak. Well, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany already claimed that all this was his personal doing. We would thank him, but we doubt it very much. 0W5. /tPOAOW In one of our recent issue of the Magyar News, January 2006, we ran an article on mathematician, János Kollár, on the occasion of being elected to the American National Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately we had the wrong photo. The one on the right is János Kollár. Page 3 I
