The Reach N210 Hungarian refugees from the University of Sopron.

Sziklai family in foreground: woman, man and two boys at left and the  Szij family: woman facing camera and man in profile in the background; having paperwork processed after their arrival at the bus depot.

Abbotsford’s first Hungarian immigrants came as part of the rush for rural development and bought land on the newly reclaimed Sumas Prairie.  Qualities of the prairie soil, rich loam sand, reminded several of the new landowners of their homeland and encouraged them to try a crop new the Fraser Valley: tobacco.

With seed from Hungary, John Kovaks, Joseph Egri, Joseph Haydu and others commenced farming the labour intensive crop.  Tobacco cultivation on the lakebed reached a peak of about 800 acres between 1938 and 1945 but was in decline by 1948.  As production costs became too high, Kovaks and others switched to dairying and other crops.

The largest Hungarian migrant group was dubbed the “56ers.”  They had been driven out of Hungary following the 1956 uprising against communist rule.  During and immediately after the brutal squashing of the revolt, it’s estimated that 200,000 Hungarians fled the country.  The entire Faculty of Forestry from Sopron University had been directly involved in the revolution.  They looked to escape life under communism, persecution and punishment.  Faculty members, students and families arrived at the refugee camp established at the Abbotsford Airport in January 1957.  B. C. accepted 1000 of the 37,000 refugees to flee to Canada and most passed through the camp at the Airport and participated in English language classes offered there.  Some stayed, others moved on the other forestry communities throughout the province.