?It is uplifting to know that even though there were no special links between Wroclaw and Hungary at the time, workers and students in Wroclaw erected Hungarian flags and continually monitored the events in Hungary and publicly reacted to them, protesting against the Soviet army?s crushing of Hungary?s fight for freedom,? Sólyom said.
?This memorial plaque is a common gesture should please Hungarians and Poles in equal part. It is an expression of friendship and its confirmation for the future,? he added.
The residents of Wroclaw collected almost 200 litres of blood and 2 million zlotys for the Hungarian revolutionaries in 1956. Many offered to travel to Hungary to care for the injured, while others said they would take in Hungarian children.
The plaque was inaugurated in Grunwald Square, where a sign was hung in 1956 that read ?Down With Military Intervention in Hungary?.
The inauguration was attended by about a hundred people, among them Wroclaw mayor Rafal Dutkiewicz, director of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw János Tischler and the former and current Hungarian ambassadors to Poland, Róbert Kiss and Ákos Engelmayer, respectively.
The plaque was the initiative of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw and was paid for by the city of Wroclaw.
Director Pál Erdőss?s film Lads of Budakeszi was shown in a local cinema on Monday evening. The film, about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, is based on the autobiography of the historian, poet and former consul general in Krakow István Kovács.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
