Participants of history experience historic events differently—this was already exemplified earlier during the IWalk in the context of liberation versus occupation. The ‘56 revolution is no exception in that. Watch the recollection of Ferenc Kőszeg about ‘56.
Ferenc Kőszeg was born in 1939, in Budapest. Both his parents were dentists. His father died in labour service. During the Holocaust he and his mother were hiding in Budapest and they received false identification documents from Roman Catholic nun and civil rights activist Margit Slachta. After the war, he studied Latin and Hungarian Literature at Eötvös Loránd University. During the 1956 revolution he circulated flyers for which he was arrested in 1957 and spent two months in prison. In 1963 he became the editor of Szépirodalmi Kiadó (Literature Publishing), and in 1975 the editor of Europe Publishing House. In the Kádár-era he was active in the democratic opposition and took part in distributing samizdat literature. He was the founder of the Network of Free Initiatives, an organization established in 1988 and later was among the founders of the party “Alliance of Free Democrats”. He was a Member of Parliament between 1990 and 1998. After the fall of communism he was the founder and first president of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. The interview was recorded in 1999, in Budapest, Hungary.