When Philanthropy Mattered: Hungarian Refugee Programs and Cold War International Exchange

• In Event: The Imprints of Philanthropy: American Foundations in Eastern Europe during Communism

Abstract

The repression of the 1956 Hungarian revolution by the Soviet Union resulted in a massive influx of refugees to Western Europe and the United States. It is well known that such major actors as the United Nations, the NATO or the government of the United States invested a great deal in solving the crisis, and the Swiss or Austrian aid has also been well-documented. It is less recognized, though, that philanthropic organizations in the United States were also key actors in integrating refugees to Western societies. The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others, launched large-scale programs of support without which no state intervention would have been successful. Based on archival research in the Rockefeller Archive Center, this paper argues that the Hungarian refugee programs were not simply temporary aids in a critical historical situation but had further consequences for international relations. It not only increased attention to and knowledge of Hungary and the entire region, but also created networks between the various agents offering aid within the United States and in Western Europe, facilitated contacts between former émigré groups and new refugees, and contributed to developing protocols for dealing with refugees on a mass scale within the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. All this benefited the foundations in their future dealings with Eastern Europe when the political climate changed in the 1960s, and, again, after the 1968 crisis.

Author

• Tamás Scheibner, ELTE U of Budapest (Hungary)