Mr. Director-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the organizers – the Permanent Mission of Hungary and the Collegium Hungaricum - it gives me a great pleasure to welcome you at the inauguration of the exhibition „The 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the United Nations”.

Tisztelt vendégeink:

Nagy örömömre szolgál, hogy itt üdvözölhetem Önöket a bécsi ENSZ Központban az 1956-os Forradalom 50. évfordulója kapcsán megrendezett kiállításunkon. Kérem, engedjék meg, hogy külföldi vendégeinket angolul köszöntsem.

First of all I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to H.E. Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and his dedicated staff, whose contribution was indispensable for organizing the exhibition in the Vienna International Centre.

I would also like to thank the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its Regional Representative, Mr. Gottfried Koefner as well as the International Organization for Migration and its Regional Representative Ms. Argentina Szabados – both present today – for providing us with excellent photos from their archives.

I wish to express our special welcome to His Excellency, Dr. László Szőke, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary; and Mr. Alpár Bujdosó, Member of the Hungarian Delegation to the UN headed by the Minister of State of the Imre Nagy Government in November 1956.

At last but not at least let me add a word of my sincere appreciation to our co-organizer, the Collegium Hungaricum Vienna and especially to Director Dr. Zoltán Fónagy for his dedicated work to set up this exhibition.

There has been a wide range of events to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution all around the world.

Vienna, the capital of Austria, as the first stop for most of the Hungarians fleeing their country, as well as the only city with a UN headquarter in an EU member state has inspired us to focus the theme of this exhibition on the role of the international community and more specifically on that of the United Nations in the events of 1956.

A photo exhibition has limited possibilities to present this subject in its full complexity. However we do hope that it may invite you to stop for a minute and devote some thoughts to the elements of strength, as well as failure to meet certain expectations – but also courage, even heroism which the world organization manifested when responding to the call of the Hungarian People.

Thank you for your attention.