The UNHCR assisted many of the 200,000 Hungarians who fled their country in the throes of the 1956 Revolution to find new homes in 35 countries around the world.
The photographs, from the UNHCR archives in Geneva, show the start of the refugees? new life in Austria as well as their flight, UNHCR press officer Melita H. Sunjic told a press conference in Budapest. The images were taken between 1956 and 1962.
The photographs on the DVD are divided into eight chapters, arranged in chronological order. Each chapter is preceded by a detailed text introducing the images, Sunjic said, adding that all of the pictures? captions have been checked, corrected and expanded.
In autumn, the photographs will be displayed in an open-air exhibition at Budapest?s Corvin köz, one of the hot points of the 1956 revolution. The DVD will be distributed in Austria, Germany and the UK as well as in Hungary, Szilárd Szajda, who heads the Office of the Prime Minister?s 1956 Memorial Committee, told the press conference.
The Hungarian UN Society is also preparing a special collection of UN materials from the period, such as memos to the Secretary General and the text of decisions by the Assembly, said Ervin Gömbös, the society?s president. The original materials will be accompanied by historians? take on the events.
Some selections from the UNHCR DVD of photographs:
