Letters from Vienna #56
Ukrainians in Vienna
There are a lot of foreign cars in Vienna these days, mostly with Ukrainian number plates. Some are battered old Fords, parked in less expensive districts and some pristine, new four-wheel drives, maneuvering awkwardly, unsure of which direction to take. Some refugees seem hesitant, not certain how to get around town, others happy and relieved to be here, away from the evils of war, and others still: filled with contempt.
The Viennese response in turn has been a mixture of generosity, curiosity and indifference. A Russian-Austrian artist is collecting items and plans to furnish a house for Ukrainian refugees, there are calls for necessary items, such as baby foods, on social media and the government, much like 2015 or 1956, is providing much support. Unlike waves of refugees in the past however these refugees, many Austrians assume, ought to be fighting at the front.
The Displaced
The refugee has long been a feature of the European landscape. Tony Judt, for example, tells us in “Postwar”: “What was taking place in 1945, and had been underway for at least a year, was…an unprecedented exercise in ethnic cleansing and population transfer. In part this was the outcome of 'voluntary' ethnic separation: Jewish survivors leaving a Poland where they were unsafe and unwanted, for example, or Italians departing the Istrian peninsula rather than live under Yugoslav rule. Many ethnic minorities who had collaborated with occupying forces (Italians in Yugoslavia, Hungarians in Hungarian-occupied northern Transylvania now returned to Romanian rule, Ukrainians in the western Soviet Union, etc.) fled with the retreating Wehrmacht to avoid retribution from the local majority or the advancing Red Army, and never returned. Their departure may not have been legally mandated or enforced by local authorities, but they had little option.”
“Elsewhere, however, official policy was at work well before the war ended. The Germans of course began this, with the removal and genocide of the Jews, and the mass expulsions of Poles and other Slav nations. Under German aegis between 1939 and 1943 Romanians and Hungarians shunted back and forth across new frontier lines in disputed Transylvania. The Soviet authorities in their turn engineered a series of forced population exchanges between Ukraine and Poland; one million Poles fled or were expelled from their homes in what was now western Ukraine, while half a million Ukrainians left Poland for the Soviet Union between October 1944 and June 1946. In the course of a few months what had once been an intermixed region of different faiths, languages and communities became two distinct, mono-ethnic territories.”[1]
Thus, when Beckett began “Waiting for Godot” in the autumn of 1948, inspired on the one hand by the notion of our being metaphysically homeless (Georg Lukács), and by J. M. Synge (“The Tinker’s Wedding”) on the other, he knew what he was writing about. So too did the audience of Paris in 1953, where the play was first performed.
A few years later there was a fresh wave of refugees in Europe, this time: Hungarians.
1956
“On October 16th 1956,” Judt tells us, “university students in the provincial city of Szeged organized themselves into a 'League of Hungarian Students', independent of the official Communist student organizations. Within a week, student organizations had sprung up all across the country, culminating on October 22nd with a 'Sixteen Point' manifesto formulated by the students of the Technical University in Budapest itself. The student demands encompassed industrial and agrarian reforms, greater democracy and the right to free speech, and an end to the manifold petty restrictions and regulations of life under Communist rule...”[2]
To what extent this was an early example of “regime change” on the part of the West and to what degree western intelligence agencies were directly involved remains as yet unclear. What is certain is that the discontented Hungarians expected Western intervention, an intervention which never came.
Escape from Hungary
“On October 23rd, 1956,” Tibor Gőzsy recounts “we emerged from the mine (where he was working). As soon as we learned what had happened, we raided the nearby army camp and seized weapons from the site. We loaded the arms on trucks and took them with us to Budapest. I joined the revolution at Móricz Zsigmond Square… I saw several young fellows of my age, who sacrificed their lives by carrying multiple grenades and throwing themselves under Soviet tanks. It was terrifying. When I returned to Komló I joined the militia in Szekszárd. During these days, I experienced a never-before-seen solidarity and unity among Hungarians. I got into hazardous situations on several occasions. At one time, while transporting guns, we were halted by the Russians – but luckily an armored car with the Hungarian national flag arrived, before our consignment of weapons was discovered by the Soviets. We could have been shot dead by the Russians at that moment. I didn’t want to be thrown into jail or be executed as some of my fellow workers were from the mine… it was time for me to flee Hungary.”
“On November 26th, I was smuggled to Kapuvár aboard a delivery truck to meet a person who would navigate refugees to the border. I drafted a farewell letter to my father by candlelight… he never received this note. The next day after sunset we left for the Austrian border. All of my luggage was a simple bread bag containing a piece of bacon, cigarettes, and a bottle of rum. After walking 20 kilometers we reached a channel, where we were supposed to cross a wooden viaduct, but we only found the burnt-down remnants of the bridge. We had no other choice other than jumping into the cold water and swimming to the other side. We made it, but at this point the Soviets spotted us, and even though we were already on Austrian soil, they opened fire… Suddenly I felt a bullet hitting my thigh, but I continued running. Once we were out of sight from the Soviets, I removed my boot. It was filled with blood. I was taken to a village in a temporary shelter. I refused to go to a hospital, so a paramedic who served there stitched my wound. Not having a single drop of anesthetic on site, my bottle of rum came in handy to ease the pain during the operation.”
“I spent three weeks in an Austrian camp at the German border… soon I gained admission to a high school by the Norwegian Red Cross. This establishment was up in the mountains near Innsbruck. We had classes in various languages, including Hungarian, German, and English. When the institution closed down in 1958, I shifted to a Benedictine high school in Bavaria in Germany. I truly enjoyed life there. I even had my own herd of pigs… thus I was able to provide the school with meat. Over these years, I exchanged several letters with my family back in Hungary. Since in my absence I was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, a return to my country was impossible. I was grateful to Germany and the German nation for providing education and a place for me to stay, but I still considered Hungary my home. I graduated from high school in 1961 and I went to universities in Munich and in Cologne… then I found jobs in the chemical industry.”[3]
The Resettlement of Refugees
He was not alone in fleeing the country: “During the suppression of the uprising that took place in Hungary in October 1956, Amanda Cellini reports “some 180,000 Hungarians fled to Austria and another 20,000 to Yugoslavia. The response to those who fled is considered one of the most successful demonstrations of international solidarity to find solutions to forced migration: nearly 180,000 Hungarians were resettled to 37 countries within three years.”
“Austria showed openness and willingness to welcome the refugees, noting their prima facie status under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Concerned for his government’s ability to handle the vast number of people suddenly arriving in Austria, Interior Minister Oskar Helmer quickly appealed to the United Nations and specific countries for assistance.”
“As early as 7th November, the French Red Cross flew a plane loaded with medical supplies to the Austrian capital Vienna and brought refugees back on the return flight. On 8th November, the first of many trains moved more than 400 refugees to Switzerland. Buses from Sweden and additional trains from Belgium and the Netherlands transported refugees on 9th November. By 28th November, a total of nine European countries had already resettled 21,669 refugees; by 31st December, 92,950 had been transported out of Austria. In total, 37 countries around the world resettled nearly 180,000 Hungarians.”[4]
2015
In 2015 there was another wave of refugees such as Hek, who, after fleeing Afghanistan at the tender age of twelve, reached first Greece and then, eventually, Austria. He currently goes to school here and wants to become a car mechanic.[5]
Hossain was eleven when he left Iran together with his eight-year-old nephew. He reached Austria in 2015 and, although initially sad and lonely, is currently learning to become a plumber.[6]
Mohammad left Afghanistan for Iran where his brother was shot and killed. He managed to get to Austria and currently lives in what is called a SOS-Kinderdorf (a place which helps displaced orphans founded by an Austrian named Hermann Gmeiner in 1949). Mohammad finds it difficult to think about the future, suffers sleepless nights and is occasionally afflicted by suicidal thoughts.[7]
I’ll never forget the joyful faces of the refugees I encountered when they were first told they’d finally reached Austria in the autumn of 2015. The tales of manhandling by the Hungarian police seemed to show that many Hungarians had already forgotten their fellow countrymen of 1956.
I abandoned my efforts to help the refugees after I read that they were being directed toward Europe in an effort to undermine European societies. What was being played, I gathered, was classic divide and rule, and I wanted no part of it. Worse still: tens of thousands of refugees simply disappeared. For many: their hopes and dreams of peace, prosperity and freedom had turned into a deadly trap.
2022
By March 22nd 2022 it was reported that “3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion”.[8]
A week earlier the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “stated that of 3 million refugees, more than half went to Poland.”
“Ukrainians mostly went to Poland (1,916,445), Romania (491,409) and Moldova (350,886).”[9]
As of 17th of April the official figure was: 4,934,415, 2,780,913 of whom are in Poland, 743,880 in Romania and 522,404 in the Russian Federation. [10]
A Train towards the Uknown
A blogger named David Turnley posted on social media: “I will never forget the privilege to ride on a train from the war in Ukraine, with thousands Ukrainian refugees, ten hours by train, to worlds unknown, after arriving at the Polish Border.”
“In an overwhelmingly crowded car, I sat in the same compartment with sisters, both named Alina, with their five children, Sasha, Sasha, Kira, Vira, and a young baby. The two sisters, whose husbands stayed behind to fight, left their homes, towards the unknown, with all of their belongs, for this entire family, in two small bags. The trip is normally a one-and-a-half-hour train ride. During this war, it lasted ten hours. At some point along the way, I shared a picture of my own nine-year-old daughter Dawson. The children behind us began to play rock, paper, scissors. And as I sat experiencing this memorable moment, I couldn’t help constantly knowing that I had a home to return to, while everyone else on this train, would arrive at the Polish Border, not even knowing where they would sleep or eat.”
For over seventy years Europe has seen wave after wave of refugees and all the homesickness, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, emotional turmoil, sense of loss, disorientation, loneliness, misery, confusion and difficulty this entails. It’s unlikely that the Ukrainians will be the last.
[1] pp.24-25 Postwar, Tony Judt
[2] pp.314-315 Postwar, Tony Judt
[3] https://welovebudapest.com/en/toplist/interviews-3-refugees-and-returnees-of-hungary-s-1956-revolution
[4] https://www.fmreview.org/resettlement/cellini
[5] Von weither, Meine Geschichte, welt museum wien
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid
[8] https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/refugee-agency-35-million-refugees-now-fled-ukraine-83593498?fbclid=IwAR00u4JcbVjbP1ZNkpiyaW9yigKKcD0n3SMgxyt9TIuF3XEA0anCKUKaxuA
[9] https://politicsheadlines.com/un-at-least-780-civilians-died-in-ukraine-3-million-169-thousand-897-refugees-crossed-to-neighboring-countries/?fbclid=IwAR1aknNv0lxFUKZgiinJZRbvAOiMhs0LTutQ_L5wQ4QdzzIAOPZi7-9jJuY
[10] https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine