The Sejm recalled the times of great solidarity between the Poles and the Hungarians. The times when the interests of the brotherly nation were placed higher than their own.
- The Hungarian revolution, or as we say in Poland the uprising of 1956, became at the same time an opportunity to confirm the truth of a folk wisdom: true friends are made in poverty - Marek Kuchciński, the Speaker of the Sejm, began his speech. He recalled the 23rd of October 1956 when thousands of Hungarian students took to the streets of Budapest in a gesture of support for the efforts of the Poles who wanted to loosen the shackles of the Soviet yoke, and the rallies of support organized by the Poles for the Hungarians resisting the Soviet invasion. Medicines and food were collected then. Blood was donated, and honorary guards stood in front of the Hungarian Embassy and the Institute of Culture. - It is no coincidence - said the Marshal - that on the 25th anniversary of the Hungarian independence uprising in Podkowa Leśna near Warsaw the first granite plaque in the entire Eastern Bloc with an inscription was unveiled: "In memory of the fallen and murdered on the anniversary of the Hungarian uprising". This was the same Podkowa Leśna, where a few years later Polish-Hungarian Solidarity would be established, which would soon bring freedom, democracy, Visegrad cooperation, NATO and European Union membership to our countries.
- Those were the times when the interests of a brotherly nation were put before our own," recalled János Latorcai, Vice-President of the Hungarian Parliament. - Our countries did not wait for others to help us. Sympathy for Poland was the beginning of the revolution, during which Poles gave Hungary spiritual ammunition - said Latorcai. He stressed the importance of remembrance - of the uprising for freedom of our countries, of solidarity and heroes, the remembrance that shows the way and gives strength for the future to support each other to achieve common success.
The conference "Poland-Hungary 1956: Contexts and Remembrance" was organized by the Institute of the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity at the History Meeting House and the Hungarian Institute to recall the dramatic events in Poland and Hungary in 1956 and to highlight the commonality of our countries.
