This volume focuses on the 1956 Hungarian refugee crisis, when 200,000 Hungarians
fled to Western Europe and beyond after the Soviet invasion. Although the number of
refugees was not outstanding by global standards, the book shows that the event had
a thorough impact on international refugee rescue policies worldwide and influenced
the development of the Cold War. It provides, first, an up-to-date synthesis of research
on Hungarian refugees, the responses to the challenges set by the migration crisis
in the host countries, and the activities of international organizations in refugee
aid; second, it offers new insights based on previously unknown archival sources;
and third, it opens new pathways for exploring historical trends in the study of migration
during the Cold War. By providing an overall picture of this central event in Hungarian
history, the book furthers our understanding of the historical roots of the currently
existing international system of institutions and contemporary migration policies.
The volume makes one of the most impactful refugee crises of the twentieth century
comparable to other twentieth-century and contemporary migration processes and contributes
to current research on historical population movements.
