Inventory of the Erich Lessing Hungarian Revolution photographs 6008
Finding aid prepared by Sue Luftschein
USC Libraries Special Collections
2012 May
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California, 90089-0189
213-740-5900
specol@usc.edu
Title: Erich Lessing Hungarian Revolution photographs
Collection number: 6008
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
2.0 Linear feet
1 box
Date: 1956, 1998, 2006
Abstract: Photographs created by Austrian photographer Erich Lessing, documenting the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The photographs were
printed in 2006 for an exhibition held at USC Libraries' Doheny Memorial Library commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of
the Hungarian Revolution.
creator:
Lessing, Erich
Purchased from Erich Lessing, 2006.
Advance notice required for access.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
[Box/folder# or item name], Erich Lessing Hungarian Revolution photographs, Collection no. 6008, Special Collections, USC
Libraries, University of Southern California
Purchased for the exhibition "Five Days of Freedom: Photographs from the Hungarian Revolution," on display in Doheny memorial
Library, September 17-December 17, 2006.
Erich Lessing was born in Vienna July 13, 1923, the son of a dentist and a concert pianist. Hitler's occupation of Austria
in 1939 forced his emigration to Israel (then still the British Mandate Palestine), leaving behind his mother in Vienna, who
eventually perished at Auschwitz. In Israel, Lessing worked on several kibbutzim, and returned to photography, a childhood
hobby, working as a kindergarten photographer and later as photographer with the British Army.
In 1947 he returned to Austria, worked as a photographer for the Associated Press and, in 1951, joined Magnum Photos, the
world-famous photographer's cooperative. Working chiefly for LIFE, Paris Match, Picture Post, EPOCA and Quick Magazine, he
documented political events in post-war Europe, particularly in the former Communist countries. He covered the Hungarian Revolution,
several summit meetings and President Charles de Gaulle's visit to Algeria.
After 1960 his focus shifted towards history in an attempt to bring historical personalities and epochs alive in what he called
photographic "evocations." These evocations included the lives and times of great musicians, poets, physicists and astronomers.
Erich Lessing's more than 40 books include works on the history of Austria, the travels of Ulysses, two different volumes
on the Old Testament, the Italian Renaissance, the history of the Low Countries, the Travels of Saint Paul, the Greek Myths,
two books on Art and Religion in Ancient Egypt, a History of France and many more.
Erich Lessing has taught photography in Arles, at the Venice Biennale, in Ahmedabad in India as a UNIDO-expert, at the Salzburg
summer Academy and at the Academy of Applied Art in Vienna. He has been the recipient of many prizes over the course of his
career, including the Imre Nagy-medal, bestowed by the President of the Hungarian republic for his work during the Hungarian
revolution.
Erich Lessing lives in Vienna. He is married to a journalist, has three children and five grandchildren.
[Adapted from the biography available on the Lessing Photo Archive website,
http://www.lessing-photo.com/biopers.asp ]
The photographs are identified by Lessing's accession number (written in pencil on the reverse of each print). The scope notes
for the first 50 photographs are the captions used in the 2006 exhibition; the scope notes for the remaining 20 photographs
are the original descriptive captions provided by Lessing's studio.
70 photographs created by Austrian photographer Erich Lessing, documenting the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Soon after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union seized power in the recently defeated countries of Eastern Europe and
instituted Communist rule. On October 23, 1956, thousands of Hungarians in Budapest took to the streets to demand political
reform and an end to the occupation. After a few brief skirmishes with protesters, which included students, factory workers,
and Hungarian soldiers, the Soviets withdrew across the border. Jubilant citizens took to the streets celebrating their newly
found freedom. However, the Soviets counterattacked shortly thereafter, crushing this nascent revolution and forcing nearly
250,000 people to flee the country. Austrian photojournalist Erich Lessing documented the dramatic events leading up to, during,
and after the conflict with images that show both a people's desperate fight for freedom and the stark reality of life in
Communist Europe in the middle of the twentieth century.
["Five Days of Freedom: Photographs from the Hungarian Revolution"]
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Lessing, Erich -- Photograph collections
Hungary--History--Revolution, 1956--Photographs
56051518
Following World War II, Hungary fell under the control of the Soviet Union, which imposed communist rule and quickly established
a strong military presence in the country. By 1956, the disastrous collectivization of the Hungarian economy drove people
to seek political reform. Here a young couple strolls past a giant monument to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on Budapest’s
Felvonulási (Parade) Square. The statue, a symbol of the repressive conditions under which people lived, was torn down on
the first day of the revolution--October 23, 1956.
56051423 1956 May 31
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews faced considerable restrictions in the exercise of their religion under communism. Some church
leaders, such as Cardinal Mindszenty, were imprisoned for subversion. The young girls in white carry baskets with rose petals
during the Corpus Christi procession in Kalocsa on May 31, 1956.
56040215A 1956 June 27
The Petöfi Circle, named after the hero-poet of the 1848 Hungarian revolution, was a gathering of intellectuals critical of
the communist party. A fiery meeting on June 27, 1956, sparked the events in October. In the foreground is Emil Horn, a student
at the time. The group met in several places; this gathering took place in the hall of the Budapest Officers’ Club. While
six hundred were expected to attend, six thousand angry citizens showed up to take part in the discussions.
56050209A
Most Hungarians detested the conditions imposed on them that made the country economically subservient to the USSR. They were
deeply opposed to Soviet ideological control of the schools, limitations on their civil liberties, and broad censorship of
the media. In the meanwhile, people tried their best to go about their daily life, as seen here by the men and women frequenting
a Budapest coffeehouse.
56054708
The Sztálinváros (now Dunapentele) steel plant was the pride of Hungarian industry under communism. However, labor unrest
and periodic strikes occurred among the steel workers in the months before the outbreak of the 1956 revolution. Workers like
these joined the student-led demonstration in Budapest on October 23, pushing for such demands as the withdrawal of Soviet
troops from the country, free general elections with multiple parties, and the reinstallment of Imre Nagy as prime minister.
This photograph shows a production meeting in the early summer of 1956.
56040521 1956 June 27
Sándor Nógrádi, a member of the Central Committee of the communist party, defends the government in a meeting of the Petöfi
Circle on June 27, 1956. Despite Nikita Khruschev's policy of "de-Stalinization," hard-line communist regimes remained in
place in Eastern European countries. In a reflection of national pride, reformers in both Hungary and Poland held reformist
sentiments that challenged Soviet hegemony. A large demonstration of Polish workers in June 1956 emboldened the Hungarians
to confront their own communist government a few months later.
56051811
Sculptor István Kiss shows his model for a monument entitled "György Dózsa," a tribute to the peasant revolt of 1514. The
work symbolized the long, proud history of the Hungarian people, from the Magyar tribes who settled in the area of present-day
Hungary to the modern farmers and industrial workers. Patriotism proved to be an important element in the revolution of 1956.
This monument was eventually erected below the Castle Hill in Budapest.
56054125
Imre Nagy, seen here in his house on Orsó Street, was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1953 to 1955. His adoption of a liberal
reform agenda angered Soviet loyalists like Mátyás Rákosi, who forced him to resign in 1955. Nagy was elevated again to Prime
Minister at the start of the revolution. His declaration on October 31, 1956, that Hungary would secede from the Warsaw Pact
greatly alarmed Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev and led to the invasion that crushed the nascent revolution. Nagy was tried
by the Soviet-backed communist regime of János Kádár and executed in June 1958. Nagy’s ceremonial reburial in 1989 by a democratic
Hungarian government reinforced his image as a freedom fighter in the minds of the people.
56091025
At the Budapest headquarters of the [communist] Hungarian Workers' Party, revolutionaries burn pictures of Party Secretary
and Soviet loyalist Mátyás Rákosi. His allegiance to a hard-line style of leadership made him reviled among Hungarian freedom
fighters who called him Stalin’s "best pupil."
56091626
Crowds try to catch the first edition of
Függetlenség (Independence), a paper produced by the former editors of the Communist Party newspaper Szabad Nép. Once word of the revolution
spread, the editors quickly joined in and supported its goals. Erich Lessing describes the event "And I discovered what it
means when people finally demand 'real' facts instead of propaganda: out of the press-building windows the printers tossed
the first issues of
Függetlenség. The crowd stood below, catching the pages as they fell, such was their thirst for the truth!"
56091535
Panic broke out on Köztársaság (Republic) Square when fighting erupted between Hungarian revolutionaries and Soviet soldiers.
A nurse looks for wounded people as the battle continues in the distance. Members of the AVH, the Hungarian secret police,
reportedly opened fire on a large crowd who were gathered around the radio building, trying to broadcast their demands.
56091325 1956 October 29
56091010
Revolutionaries hoist a Hungarian flag on a captured Soviet tank in front of the New York Palace along Lenin Boulevard (today
Teréz Boulevard), near Blaha Lujza Square. The spontaneous organization of thousands of students, workers, soldiers, and ordinary
citizens, took the Soviets by surprise.
56090122
This statue of Stalin, previously situated on Felvonulási (Parade) Square, was dragged through the streets and finally demolished
near Blaha Lujza Square. A protestor encouraged further desecration of the work with their chalk message: "Go on, keep banging
on it! It’s not your father." Hungarians resorted to such iconoclastic actions during the revolution as a means of denouncing
their communist oppressors.
56090206A 1956 November
After a week of triumphant street fighting, Hungarians believed that the Soviet Army had permanently fled the country. A captured
Soviet armored car, a BTR-152 APC, sits on Corvin Lane around November 1, 1956. The arms of the Hungarian Republic of 1946
(the Kossuth coat of arms) have been painted on it as an act of defiance. To the left of the car is the Corvin cinema, which
is still in operation today.
56091301
A formation of Soviet T-54 tanks block the Pest side of the Kossuth Bridge emplacement, on their way to retake the city. Erich
Lessing described the situation as follows: "I turned down an empty road, and suddenly, out of nowhere, there were Soviet
tanks. They were not going east, but in my direction, towards Budapest. I doubled back, returned to the Duna Hotel and told
my colleagues, 'Friends go home, it’s going from bad to worse, the Russians are coming back!'"
56091417
Dead members of the Secret Police (AVH), ordered to protect the Budapest headquarters of the communist Hungarian Workers'
Party, are lined up in front of the conquered building. The AVH, which had a large network of spies, recorded the movements
of vast numbers of civilians. In the years preceding the Revolution, the AVH ruthlessly targeted thousands of individuals,
condemning them to hard labor in remote camps.
56101710
In a burned-out shop a woman sells necklaces, rings, and other trinkets. As eyewitness Erich Lessing recalls, "Before Christmas,
I drove to Budapest in a delivery van loaded with medicine and fruit. I photographed the ravaged city in the winter snow.
Since most of the big stores had been plundered and burned to the ground, people had set up their tables amidst the ruins."
56101711
A woman sells Christmas trees on the Pest side of Szabadság (Freedom) Bridge. As Erich Lessing tells it: "A little later,
I went back to Hungary, by which time they had started to clean things up. Traffic police regulated the traffic in front of
the ruins as normal life took over again. It was the time of so-called 'goulash communism'; it seemed as though the revolution
had never happened."
98010229A
Andau Bridge spans a small canal that forms the border between Austria and Hungary. Thousands of Hungarians who fled the country
in late 1956 crossed into Austria on this bridge, despite its precarious condition due to artillery damage. The bridge was
reconstructed after the fall of the communist government in 1989.
98010219A 1998
Two of the watchtowers dotting the Iron Curtain near the Austrian village of Andau are seen in a 1998 photograph. Hungarian
authorities preserved them in memory of the mass exodus of their countrymen. Overall, an estimated 250,000 Hungarians fled
Hungary in the months following the revolution.
56091217 31 October 1956
Cardinal József Mindszenty, Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of the Hungarian Catholic Church. He was arrested in 1948 and
sentenced to life in prison. He was liberated on 30 October 1956 and returned to Budapest accompanied by Major Antal Pálinkás-Pallavicini.
Pallavicini was sentenced to death after the end of the revolution and executed on 19 December 1956. This photo was taken
on 31 October 1956 at the Primate’s Palace in the Castle of Buda after the Cardinal was freed from prison. On 4 November,
he fled to the American Embassy in Budapest, where he remained until 1971, when he was allowed to leave Hungary as a result
of an agreement between Hungary and the Vatican. He lived in Vienna until his death in 1975.
56030118
The Iron Curtain dividing Europe into East and West also divided Austria and Hungary. It consisted of wire fences, land-mines
and watch-towers. Between May 10 and early September 1956, in a brief thaw before the Hungarian Revolution, Hungarian soldiers
cleared the area of mines and took down the barbed-wire fences on the Austrian border.