The Antal Ullein-Reviczky Foundation
In Memory of Antal Ullein-Reviczky (Sopron 1894 – London 1955)
Founder & Honorary President: Lovice Maria Ullein-Reviczky
President: Prof. Robert Christian Bachmann
Founded in 1992
The Ullein-Reviczky Foundation was created to keep alive the memory of Dr. Antal Ullein- Reviczky, the renowned Hungarian diplomat and academic, who did everything in his power during difficult times to combat Nazi infiltration of his native country.
Ullein-Reviczky was a well-known opponent of Nazism and a key figure in the Hungarian resistance movement. Regarding his activities in this field, there is one special tribute: Hitler once called him the "evil genius of the Hungarian government". This also accounts for his appointment in 1943, as Hungarian Minister to Sweden, charged with the hopeless mission of disengaging Hungary from the iron grip of Nazi Germany. These meetings included highly confidential discussions with American and British intelligence representatives in Stockholm. The talks focused on possible Allied intervention in Hungary as well as how to aid the threatened Jewish population. Ullein- Reviczky's impassioned pleas to the Government of the King of Sweden from April 1944 to save Hungarian Jewry are of exceptional current interest. By now, people in most parts of the world have heard about Raoul Wallenberg’s extraordinary rescue action, but what they don’t know is the close connection that existed between Wallenberg and Ullein-Reviczky. In the end this also made Ullein- Reviczky the enemy of the Communist regime.
Ullein-Reviczky was appointed Professor of International law at Debrecen University in 1931.
After World War II, Ullein-Reviczky moved to Istanbul with his family - his wife Lovice Louisa Grace Cumberbatch, was the daughter of the former British consul there - and then to Geneva, where, in 1947, he published his memoirs Guerre allemande-paix russe in French – in 1993 the work was published in Hungarian, Német háború-orosz béke, and in 2014 published in English, German War-Russian Peace. In 1950 the family moved to London where Ullein-Reviczky was the official representative for the Hungarian government in exile Free Hungary.
Antal Ullein-Reviczky never gave up his work to better Hungary's future and did his best to affect change even when he was far away from his beloved homeland. This remarkable visionary and servant of Hungary divined the one most important and necessary ingredient for the Hungarian soul's survival - liberty; and wore his red, white and green pro libertate lapel pin, along with the crimson ribbon of the Légion d'honneur every day, until he passed away in London on June 13, 1955.
His outstanding services have been acknowledged with numerous awards and recognitions, these precious documents and objects are available for study even today, as his only child Lovice Mária Ullein-Reviczky preserved them conscientiously over the past decades and returned them to Hungary following the political changes. It is important to emphasize this fact, as very few artefacts have been preserved in this way, and are hence rarely available for historical research.
The Purpose of the Antal Ullein-Reviczky Foundation
The Foundation dedicates itself to maintaining the positive moral values of the late Hungarian diplomat Antal Ullein-Reviczky, who in difficult times defended the inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled as a human being.
Activities:
- To maintain and preserve the Antal Ullein-Reviczky Historical Archive.
- To further historical research based on the Ullein-Reviczky Archive.
- To implement the Antal Ullein-Reviczky Award and Scholarship programme.
- To manage the Antal Ullein-Reviczky Centre in Magyarnándor-Kelecsény, Nógrád, Hungary.
- To provide an intellectual platform where fellow humans can share information on social, economic, cultural and political issues on a regular basis.
- To organize meetings and other events with leading national and international representatives in the fields of politics, diplomacy, economy, society, science, culture and religion.
- To support Hungary by keeping up its finest and most enduring traditions and making new ones.
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