Századok – 1998

Tanulmányok - Soós Katalin: Ausztria és a magyar menekültügy 1956–57 V/1019

AUSZTRIA ÉS A MAGYAR MENEKÜLTÜGY 1956-57 1051 political causes, i.e., the fear from reprisal and the reestablishment of dictatorship. The first large camp that harboured them was Traiskirchen. There were altogether 257 camps in Austria in the given period. The tide of the wave took place on November 23 when 8.537 Hungarians crossed the Austrian border. The Austrian federal government granted the provisional right of territorial asylum for all Hungarian refugees. As it was beyond the possibilities of the Austrian government to provide for so many people, they opened banking account no. 6400 and invited the population of Austria and the whole world to contribute. At the November 27 meeting of the Austrian cabinet the motion of Chancellor Raab to spend ten million Schillings of the last phase of the Marshal Aid going to Austria for supporting the Hungarian refugees was accepted. Through the mediation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the Austrian government and the League of Red Cross Societies agreed in December, 1956 that the major refugee camps would be supported jointly by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Leage. At that time 25.000 refugees were involved, but their number soon rose to 35.000. On December 10 the number of Hungarian refugees in Austria culminated at 79.170. As early as November 5 the federal government of Austria sent a telegram to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UNREF inviting the whole world to help. On November 14 they addressed twenty governments in an aide-mémoire with the same purpose. The final solution was the transport of the refugees to various other European countries and overseas in the framework of ICEM. Up to April, 1958 180.288 Hungarian refugees left for Austria. The majority left the country in 1956-57. 151.309 of them were given shelter in other European countries and overseas. About 18.000 persons remained in Austria, and 7.722 returned to Hungary. The Hungarian Embassy at Vienna took great pains to assist their repatriation. The loss of over 180.000 people leaving Hungary as a consequence of the defeat of the revolution and war of independence of 1956 was a great loss also from demographic point of view. On the other hand, by assisting the insurgents and the wounded seeking refuge and, first of all, by granting them the right of asylum Austria behaved morally as a great power and won international recognition.