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Mária Temesváry (née Lits), 1956er

Mária Temesváry (née Lits) was born in 1933 is Székesfehérvár, Hungary. She lived and worked in that city (64km southwest of Budapest) at the time of the Revolution, taking part in the anti-Soviet demonstrations in the city at the time and helping to burn the 'red corner' at the factory where she worked in the accounting department. Her fiancé was actively involved in the Revolution with a band of armed revolutionaries (most likely they traveled to Budapest, as there was no significant fighting in Székesfehérvár as that was where a large portion of Soviet troops were stationed after WWII). She escaped Hungary on November 11th with her fiancé - a heart-wrenching story that she tells in her interview. Mária and Lajos were married in Austria shortly after becoming refugees and then emigrated to Canada by boat. They lived in the Toronto area for ten years, moving to California in 1968. Mária and her children were extremely active in the San Francisco Bay Area Hungarian community.

Interview conducted by Andrea Lauer Rice and Réka Pigniczky in San Francisco, CA in March of 2016.