By Zsuzsanna Korosi, Adrienne Molnar

For a decade now, the authors were engaging in interviews for Hungary's Oral background information, with the kids of these Hungarians - nationwide heroes, as they're in general noticeable this present day - who have been imprisoned for his or her involvement within the 1956 revolution. The giant physique of fabric that has been accrued, and is now on the disposal of sociologists, psychologists and others within the educational neighborhood, kinds the foundation of this quantity. this can be a documentation of thoughts of the riot and, extra rather, its aftermath. the almost spontaneous ten-day rebellion exerted a long-lasting influence at the fates of the households of the greater than 20,000 who have been imprisoned and 229 accomplished by way of the regime within the harsh reprisals that the crushing of the revolution (the final of them as overdue because the early 1960s), with energetic police surveillance prolonged to tens of hundreds of thousands extra. This intimidation, and the attendant social and monetary devastation that it wrought, bore in particular challenging at the psyches, upbringing and schooling, and for that reason the following possibilities and lifestyles classes of the kids who grew up inside these households. the cloth is grouped by way of subject matter: e.g. the results on verbal exchange inside households, adjustments in social prestige, how kinfolk and pals reacted, and what types of difficulties those youngsters encountered in pursuing their reports, in attempting to assimilate into society as adults, and in on the subject of these fathers who did go back. In an appendix, the editors current designated biographies of the folks such a lot at once affected, supplying an exceptional glimpse into the fates of these they interviewed. The documentation comprises letters that the youngsters wrote to their imprisoned fathers.