National Council on Public History

Proud & Torn: A Visual Memoir of Hungarian History tells the multi-generational story of of an everyday peasant family from the Hungarian countryside. Beginning in 1848, when we first meet the Fábos family, and ending in 1956, the story shows the family navigating the agricultural revolution, World War I, and the turbulent events of mid-twentieth century Eastern Europe. The narrative is built around the family history and contemporary lives of sister and brother Ari and Gyula (DJYU-LA) Fábos, both born in the early 1930s and who endure World War II, the Holocaust, Soviet occupation, forced labor, and the social, political, and economic turmoil of communist Hungary. The story culminates with the 1956 Revolution and the siblings’ dramatic parting to different continents.