A 9-year-old’s photos of the 1956 Hungarian revolution in Budapest

János Pölöskei was nine years old when the Revolution broke out on October 23, 1956. They lived near one of the hotspots of the events, not far from the Köztársaság (Republic) Square where the headquarters of the Hungarian Communist Party was.

Index.hu says that they did not talk about politics at home, but he knew that his parent’s small enterprise was nationalised and they lived together with the family of Béla Dálnoki Miklós, a former Hungarian PM. He had an older brother who was beaten by agents of the State Protection Authority after he tore down some communist posters and his deed was reported to the police by one of his classmates.

On October 23 he said to his mother that they should buy a lot of bread because there would be war. He grabbed his father’s Primus camera and took a lot of photos during the days of the revolution. He says that everything was like the world war about which his parents and grandparents were continually talking about.

 After the Soviet invasion

they lived in the basement with his family for more than a week

and Pölöskei was right – they really needed the bread he talked about on October 23. But afterwards life went on, and though some of his classmates were missing, he told that everybody was given chocolate which came as the support from Switzerland.

His photos were never published because he hid them in a book but below you can check them:

The ruins of the Rákóczi street 74 where the fight was hard even after the Soviet troops crushed the revolution on November 4.