Talk Radio Pioneer Barry Farber Honored by Hungarian Government for Role Assisting Refugees of 1956 Revolt.
On October 22nd & 23rd talk radio pioneer Barry Farber was honored in Budapest, Hungary for his role in helping Hungarians revolting against Soviet oppression escape from Hungary into Austria. Faber was one of two correspondents for the Greensboro Daily News at the Austro-Hungarian border in October of 1956. Farber met an old friend from Norway who was part of a team of Norwegians assisting fleeing Hungarians. Farber volunteered on the spot to work the “Freedom Navy” – an old rubber raft with two oars. When the refugees, about forty at a time, would gather on the Hungarian side of the border canal the two oarsmen would row across, load the boat with about five refugees at a time. They would pull the raft over to the Austrian side. Then the oarsmen would row back and repeat the process. Farber and the others helped about 200 refugees out on Christmas night of 1956. Hungarian Consul-General Ferenc Kumin reports that the government asked Hungarian communities around the world to look for people who’d taken part in the refugee exodus. Of all the names on the 60th anniversary, Barry Farber is the one still alive! Farber, who still hosts a show on CRN Digital Talk Radio, says, “We owe the Hungarians big time. That heroic freedom fight marked communism’s high-water mark. Things went steadily downhill from there.”
