23. oktober

I dagens anledning:

Dette meget kendte billede var i 1956 på forsiden af Billed Bladet (og sikkert mange aviser rundt om i verden). For første gang har jeg nu fået noget af historien om billedet, her klippet fra denne amerikanske hjemmeside

Erika - A Freedom Fighter

Henning Schultz of Copenhagen, Denmark, was 15 when he saw the picture of Erika on the front page of the Danish weekly newsmagazine Billed Bladet on November 13, 1956. The photo of Erika haunted Henning and he tried to gather information about her. He succeeded by meeting with a Hungarian refugee who had fled to Copenhagenafter the 1956 Revolution. The man told him that the girl's name was Erika, but didn't mention her last name. She had worked with him at the Hotel Béke in Budapest as a cook trainee, when she was 14, in 1955.

When the Revolution broke out, Erika was 15 years old and along with her boyfriend joined one of the freedom fighter groups in Budapest. She had been involved in several street fighting engagements. Around November 1st or 2nd, the Danish photo-journalist Vagn Hensen took several photos of her including the one you see here. Her now famous picture appeared in newspapers all over the free world. Erika, a demure girl with auburn hair and a charming personality and carrying a submachine-gun, had become an icon of the heroic Hungarian Revolution.

By the time the Russian troops counter-attacked Budapest en masse on November 4th, Erika had been persuaded by her colleagues to lay down her arms, but she continued her struggle by helping the wounded as a Red Cross volunteer. Around November 8th, during heavy street fighting, one of her colleagues was shot. Dressed in her Red Cross uniform and unarmed, she had tried to aid the wounded boy, but she too was gunned down by Russian machine guns, and died. No more about her is known.

Erika had been born in Budapest in 1941 during the second world war. She died at age 15 as a freedom fighter. She would now be around 65 years old, had she lived.

Can you help identify more about Erika and possibly her family???
magyarmuzeum@hotmail.com