Smugglers, soldiers and a loaded gun: a personal refugee story from Andrew Kaldor

Every refugee’s story is distinct, an individual human experience of fleeing home, moving across different geographic and emotional terrain before, if lucky, reaching safety. Andrew Kaldor AM rarely tells his story. At UNSW’s Scientia Circle in 2017, the unassuming businessman and, with his wife, Renata Kaldor AO, generous philanthropist shared how his views today were shaped by his family’s escape from Hungary, as the Soviet regime was executing its Communist takeover. 

It was on a Thursday in October 1948 when young Andrew’s father was told he would be arrested on Saturday. What happened next was an almost cinematic story of risk, with smugglers, soldiers and a family’s dead-of-night reckoning with a loaded gun. During Refugee Week, take less than four minutes to hear this personal story, which resonates in today’s refugee debate.