ESCAPE FROM HUNGARY
Updated: Jan 4, 2023
ELIZABETH ANNA VINCZE (1911-1993)
FRANK FERENC VINCZE (1921-2006)
Image: Elizabeth Anna Vincze and Frank Ferenc Vincze, 1957.
Source: National Archives of Australia, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1213098
Frank and his wife Elizabeth bought Corio Bay Villa in 1967 and moved in shortly afterwards. They lived there for four years. Frank and Elizabeth had fled Hungary ten years earlier, arriving in Australia with no friends or family, seeking the opportunity of a new life.
Frank was born in Budapest, Hungary, and Elizabeth was born in Subotica (now Serbia). The couple, then called Fernec Vincze and Anna Uszleber, were married in 1955 when he was 34 years old and Elizabeth was ten years his senior.[1] Elizabeth was not a young bride. In fact, she had previously been married with children. During the Second World War a bomb destroyed her home, killing her entire family. Elizabeth barely survived herself and was no doubt devastated by the loss of her family.
After WWII Elizabeth met Frank. He was a metal worker and also a member of the Freedom Fighters. The Freedom Fighters were ordinary men and women of Hungary, such as students, teachers, factory workers and craftsmen, who bravely demanded the end of communist Soviet rule in Hungary.[2]
By 1956 Hungarians had had enough of the Soviet controlled communist government and were protesting in the streets. The USSR sent in Red Army reinforcements to subdue the uprisings and fighting broke out between the army and the Hungarian people. The Soviet's brutal repression of the uprising killed thousands of Hungarians. Tens of thousands of people fled for their lives and sought political refuge abroad. Frank and Elizabeth were two such people who left their home in order to escape violence.
After fleeing Hungary, the couple travelled to Yugoslavia, where they were able obtain passports. They then travelled through Austria, Italy and/or Germany, and then France. From France they made the months long voyage to Australia where they sought permanent residency. Australia offered sanctuary for up to 14,000 Hungarian refugees under the Menzis government.[3] Upon arriving in Australia, Frank and Elizabeth, like many refugees, had little money and little knowledge of the English language. They must have worked hard to save a deposit for a house.
Before buying Corio Bay Villa the couple owned at lease one other house in Albert Park or Middle Park that they shared with an engineer called Josef Vincze. According to Frank's son, Josef was not a close relative, and was likely a young immigrant that Frank and Elizabeth took into their home while he landed on his feet. Josef did not move with Frank and Elizabeth to Corio Bay Villa.
When Frank and Elizabeth purchased Corio Bay Villa there was no mention of their original names Anna or Ferenc on the title.[4] The voting register, however, shows an Elizabeth Anna Vincze was living at Albert Park and then Corio Bay Villa. It seems that they both changed their names upon arriving in Australia. Did they change their names to fit in with white Anglo-Saxon Australia? Perhaps. Frank's son recalls that both Frank and Elizabeth loved living in Australia and were proud to call themselves Australian. He believes they changed their names to integrate better into Australian society.
During the 1960s, while living at Corio Bay Villa, Frank and Elizabeth ran a Hungarian restaurant/bar in Napier Street, Fitzroy, where many young people met and socialised. Both Frank and Elizabeth were great cooks and often opened up their home to recent immigrants who were lost or lonely. They were both kind, hard working people who were heavily involved with the local Hungarian community. Frank, in particular, was very generous and loved to socialise. While running the restaurant, he also worked as a fitter, and often drank with friends late into the night. He never took a sick day and always liked to keep busy. I imagine him as an energetic and charismatic man.
In the four years that the couple lived there, Frank and Elizabeth made a number of changes to Corio Bay Villa. They remodelled the Victorian-era porch, by enclosing it with windows and bricks. They also removed the original patterned tiling on the veranda that had once continued down the steps and along the path towards the sidewalk. The white picket fence was replaced by a timber rail fence. They were most likely responsible for enlarging the windows and replacing the doors. There was a vegetable garden in the backyard that had been carefully maintained by the previous owners Margaret and Ken, which I can only assume Frank and Elizabeth would have maintained. I base this assumption on the generalisation that European immigrants were known for having well-maintained vegetable gardens.
In 1971 the couple sold Corio Bay Villa to Megan and Adrian Peniston-Bird, and moved around the corner into Pembroke Street. Soon after leaving Corio Bay Villa the couple divorced, and the Hungarian restaurant closed. Frank, now 52, had a son by a younger woman and Elizabeth, now 62, moved to Chadstone. Despite their messy separation, Frank and Elizabeth remained close. Frank's son recalls Elizabeth fondly as a grandmother or step-mother figure. He believes his father loved Elizabeth dearly, right up until the end.
When Elizabeth had a serious stroke in the late 1980s, Frank cared for Elizabeth. Elizabeth Anna Vincze never really recovered from her stroke. She died in 1993 and was buried in Springvale.[5] She lived for approximately 82 years.
Frank Ferenc Vincze died thirteen years later from emphysema in 2006, at the age of 85. His ashes are buried at the cemetery behind the Hungarian Reformed Church in Fitzroy. Some of Frank’s ashes were also placed with Elizabeth at Springvale. His son felt that part of Frank would alway be, and should be, with Elizabeth. Frank had one son, who still resides in Melbourne.
Image: Corio Bay Villa, 1971. Source: Megan and Adrian Peniston Bird.
Frank and Elizabeth were not the first post WWII immigrants to live in Corio Bay Villa. After the Second World War there was a wave of immigrants arriving in Australia from European countries such as Italy, Greece, Poland and Hungary. Kazimierz Lagowski arrived in Australia in the same year as Frank and Elizabeth and lived at Corio Bay Villa prior to the Vinczes with Margaret.
REFERENCES:
This article as written with the help of Frank's son, who was interviewed in May 2022. Other sources for information contained in the post include:
[1] Arrival processing sheet of Frank Vincze, National Archives of Australia, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1213098
[2] Kovacs, Zoltan, 'Honoring the freedom and bravery of the 1956 Freedom Fighters,' About Hungary, accessed 5 May 2022, https://abouthungary.hu/blog/honoring-the-freedom-and-bravery-of-the-1956-freedom-fighters
[3] Bolger, Dawn, 'The Menzies Government and the Hungarian refugees: An issue of race?', accessed 3 May 2022, http://static.moadoph.gov.au/ophgovau/media/images/apmc/docs/research/2010-11/Bolger_SSfinal_report_2010-11.pdf
[4] Corio Bay Villa land titles 1889 - 1964. Source: Landata, https://www.landata.vic.gov.au/
[5] Find a grave, https://www.findagrave.com/