Eva Cserfalva (pronounced cher-fal-ve) came to Canada in February 1957, when she was 29. Along with her husband and son—both named Egon—she settled in the Vancouver area. Eva was one of 37,500 Hungarian political refugees who were accepted for settlement by Canada’s government in 1956 and 1957. Of these, 7,000 came to BC, settling mostly in the Lower Mainland.1
Eva Cserfalva’s family lived near Budapest in the countryside. During the Second World War, Germany asked Hungary to open its borders so the Nazi army could invade Poland in 1939, but the Hungarians refused. Eva’s father had been drafted into the German army before the war and was sent to Western Europe with the German army. The family did not hear from him for several years. Finally, through the Red Cross, they heard he had survived the fighting. He returned to Hungary in 1945.
In 1956, the Hungarian government interpreted Russian Premier Nikita Khruschev’s promise of more freedoms
