France and 1956

News of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the Soviet intervention sparked massive public demonstrations and displays of solidarity across France. An outraged public, joined by a segment of the leftist intelligentsia, took to the streets in Paris and other major cities, chanting anti-Soviet slogans.

The French government was among the first to respond to an appeal from the Austrian authorities, who had called upon nations willing to accept Hungarian refugees to adopt a program of immediate, mass, and unrestricted admission. A National Reception Committee (Comité National d’Accueil) was established. In cooperation with the French state railway company (SNCF), a shuttle train service from Austria was organized, operating until December 15.

Refugees arriving in the country were welcomed by thousands of French families, as well as secular and religious organizations, with the active support of the government.

The effective implementation of government decisions was facilitated by the Hungarian Refugee Committee (Comité des réfugiés hongrois), which had been operating in France since 1950 with the financial backing from the American Free Europe Committee. Based in Paris, the organization eased communication between refugees and French authorities or charitable institutions by providing interpreters. Particular attention was paid to the enrollment and support of university and secondary school students. Of the nearly 200,000 Hungarians who fled abroad after the crushed revolution, around 10,000 found a new home in France.

Many young Hungarians also joined the Foreign Legion.

Béla Nóvé (historian, writer, translator, and film director) was doing research into the subject for many years, visiting not only Hungarian archives but also the central archives of the French Foreign Legion.

This work culminated in his book Patria Nostra and a documentary film of the same name, both released in 2016; they primarily chronicle the lives of the teenagers who were forced to flee their homeland after the suppression of the 1956 Revolution and subsequently enlisted in the Legion. Writing the book and producing the film required over five years of research, during which former Hungarian legionnaires provided invaluable assistance by recounting their personal stories.

Around five hundred Hungarians joined the French Foreign Legion, thereby becoming active participants in the bloody Algerian conflict of 1954–1962. Some military historians even refer to the decade following 1956 as the “Hungarian period” (période hongrois) of the Legion, as more than three thousand Hungarian volunteers served under the French tricolor and the green-and-red flag of the Legion during that time.