Budapest, Hungary — October 1, 1956
We are reporting live from Budapest, Hungary. It is Monday morning, October 1, 1956.
At six o’clock this morning, Ica Szilágyi leaves her apartment carrying an empty shopping bag.
She is hoping to buy meat.
Her husband Dezső told her not to bother.
“Get bread before that’s gone too.”
Ica doesn’t answer him. She closes the apartment door and walks down the stairs.
Outside, Budapest is waking up.
The first trams are already rattling through the streets. Men hurry toward work with their collars turned up against the cold. A woman carrying a basket walks quickly past Ica.
Neither woman says good morning.
Ica reaches the food shop.
There are already twenty-three people in line. Including the lady with the basket who just walked past her.
Ica takes her place in line.
Nobody knows how much meat is inside the store.
Nobody knows whether there will be any left when Anna reaches the counter.
The woman ahead of her turns around.
“They’ll probably send all of it to Moscow.”
Ica’s eyes immediately move toward the man standing behind them.
He heard.
The woman realizes it too.
Nobody says another word.
For the next forty minutes, the line is almost silent.
This is what an ordinary Monday morning feels like in Budapest.
People are hungry.
People are tired.
And everybody is careful.
Ica finally reaches the counter.
There is no meat.
She buys bread.
It is October 1, 1956.
Nothing extraordinary has happened today.
But something is happening.
You can feel it.
*
Seventy years have passed since that October morning.
Ica, Dezső, Teri and Józsi could not have known what was about to happen to Hungary—or how completely the coming weeks would change our family.
I know because I was there too.
I was the sixteen-month-old little girl my parents were trying to protect.
The Eleventh Arrow tells our family’s story during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
And when our escape from Hungary did not end our struggle, The Eleventh Arrow: Refugee Camp continues the story of what happened to our family afterward.
These are not simply stories I found in a history book.
They are my family’s story.
And seventy years later, I am still telling it.
The Eleventh Arrow
→ Purchase Paperback or Kindle Listen on Audible
The Eleventh Arrow: Refugee Camp
→ Purchase Paperback or Kindle Listen on Audible — Soon
