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TAMÁS CSONKA, WHO CARRIED PUSKÁS’ DAUGHTER ACROSS THE BORDER IN ‘56, DIES
14 Dec. 2016.
The man who helped Ferenc Puskás’ wife and daughter across the border from Hungary so they could join him in Austria following the 1956 revolution has died in Zürich, reports the Puskás International Football Foundation.
Csonka, a keen hunter, spent time in jail under communism before emigrating and becoming an architect, an advisor to Prime Minister József Antall, a sports administrator and a member of the Puskás International Football Foundation Board of Trustees.
It was Csonka, who, on the night of 1st December 1956, was among a group of people attempting to cross the already-closed border to Austria, and offered his help to a young woman in the group. The young woman happened to be called Erzsébet and was the wife of Ferenc Puskás, not that Csonka knew as he carried her sleeping four year-old daughter Anikó in his arms and across the border leading to freedom and her father in Vienna.
It would be another 55 years before Csonka and Erzsébet met again, this time after news of Anikó’s passing had spread around the world. From then on, they met regularly in Budapest and Zürich, with Csonka taking an active role in the work of the foundation established by Puskás’ widow.
