In the weeks before Christmas, refugees arrived - and Midlanders welcomed them
How world's first major crisis captured on television saw Midlands folk welcome refugees with open arms
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It is a story which has resonance in the troubled world of today - but these events were nearly 70 years ago in a convulsion which shook Europe.
In November 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to crush a popular uprising. The aftermath saw an estimated 200,000 Hungarians fled abroad.
Internationally, the response was of shock. Hungary's agony was something brought into living rooms through the relatively new medium of television.
And there was also no doubt a sense of guilt, as the West had cheered on the Hungarians as they rose up in the cause of freedom but had stood by and done nothing to help them.
However, the international community rose to the refugee challenge, launching an emergency resettlement operation in what has been recognised as the first modern relief effort. Countries ripped up, or bent, their immigration rules.
By December 14, the British Red Cross had brought 7,500 refugees to the UK and ultimately nearly 21,000 came to these shores, of whom around 15,000 settled permanently.
The reaction of ordinary Britons to their plight was of great sympathy, and those who came to our region received a warm welcome.
We have taken a dip into the Star's archives for some pictures which capture those times, and for some of the stories of those who fled Soviet repression.
The refugees included three teenage girls, 18-year-olds Edit Farkas and Anna Horvath, and 16-year-old Razalia Schweifer, who got off the train at Wolverhampton High Level Station on December 11, 1956, clutching bags marked with the words "United States Escapee Program."
