Agnes Gibboney was born in Budapest about ten years after communism took hold in Hungary. Her father was a skilled cabinetmaker, her mother had a good job, and they owned their own house, which was rare. Then the Communist Party assigned a stranger to live in that house, and when her mother objected, the woman asked whether she wanted to be reported. In January 1957, two months after the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, her parents put their two-year-old to sleep with a pharmacist's concoction, jumped a ditch at the Yugoslav border on the last day it was open, and never lived there again. Ten months in a refugee camp, thirteen years in Brazil and a legal immigration to the United States followed.
In this installment of the Surviving Communism series, Jenny Beth Martin walks through what daily life was like under the regime her parents fled: milk and meat rationing, a baptism performed in secret because it was against the law, bribes for doctors, radio propaganda that claimed Americans were starving in the streets, and a 1977 visit to Budapest where her uncle answered a question about communism with "shh." Then Gibboney turns to today, and to the young Americans who hear the Democratic Socialists of America promise free rent and free health care. Her question for each of them: how do you think you are going to get it for free?
Guest: Agnes Gibboney, Hungarian-born legal immigrant, angel mom whose son Ronald was killed by an illegal immigrant, and 2020 candidate for Congress.
Today's topics:
• Why every Hungarian conversation her parents had was about the same fear: a neighbor reports you, the police take you, no trial, no hearing, a forced labor camp
• The stranger the Communist Party assigned to live in her parents' house, and the question that ended every argument: "Do you want me to report you?"
• December 1956: soldiers surround the family at the border, take the suitcase of cigarettes they meant to sell for food, and let them go
• January 1957: a pharmacist friend's concoction puts a two-year-old to sleep, and her father jumps the border ditch into Yugoslavia with her in his arms
• Her mother never said goodbye to her own mother, afraid she would report her to stop her; they never saw each other again
• Ten months in a Yugoslav refugee camp, where a baby brother died in her mother's arms as he was being admitted to the hospital
• Rationing under the regime: one liter of milk a day for three children, one pound of meat a week for a family, and the coworkers who gave up their vouchers so her mother could serve a baptism luncheon
• Baptism was against the law, so her godparents carried her through the back of the church in Göd while her parents stayed away
• The New York Times, 1950: milk products "disappeared completely" from Budapest, meat "as rare as eggs," and food exported to pay for the five-year plan
• Bribing doctors, waiting years for a replacement, and radio propaganda that told Hungarians Americans were starving in the streets
• First the mansions, then the middle class, then the poor: how a whole country ended up equally poor with nothing left to take
• Thirteen years in Brazil, two lapsed applications, and the knock on the door that finally opened the American embassy in Rio
• Stateless: Hungary stripped the family's citizenship, and an immigration officer in Los Angeles told her in 1977, "You don't belong anywhere"
• Budapest in 1977, still communist: gray cars, bullet holes in the buildings, and an uncle who answered a question about communism with "shh"
• Why she says socialism and communism are the same thing, and what a "free phone" from the government really costs
• The Democratic Socialists of America pitch of no rent and no medical bills, and her question for every young person who believes it: how do you think you get it for free?
• The Cal State San Bernardino student who learned communism was good from his professor and had never once checked
• Her charge to Americans born here: get an education, do your own research, and stand up for this country
The Jenny Beth Show airs live Monday through Friday at 1:00 PM ET. Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. Subscribe for daily analysis of politics, policy, and the fight for constitutionally limited government. teapartypatriots.org
#CommunistHungary #AgnesGibboney #SurvivingCommunism #JennyBethMartin #TeaPartyPatriotsAction #JennyBethShow #Communism #Socialism #Hungary1956 #Budapest #HungarianRevolution #DemocraticSocialistsOfAmerica #LegalImmigration #RefugeeStory #Conservative