Collecting money at a global level. The UN fundraising campaign for the 1956 Hungarian refugees

The present study examines the role that the UN played in providing the financial means for the international reception of the 1956 Hungarian refugees. According to the author’s conclusions, through the coordination of money-raising efforts, authorised by international law (that is, by the UN General Assembly’s decisions) and the professional and trustworthy documentation of humanitarian needs and activities, the institutional network of the UN contributed considerably to the formation and practical implementation of Western governments’ international humanitarian action aimed at solving the crisis of the 1956 Hungarian refugees. This study is based on documents in the UN archives (New York, Geneva), the Swedish National Library (Stockholm), the UNHCR Archives, the Archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, (Geneva) and the NATO Archives (Brussels), and in the Diplomatic Archives Center (La Courneuve, Nantes), Diplomatic Archive (Brussels) and the Hungarian National Archives (Budapest).