A World Without Walls 2010
”An International Conference on Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Globalization in an Interdependent World”
At least 7,000 East German refugees traveled to Budapest. Most were able to arrive in the city as "tourists", who once arriving, would immediately declare their intentions to either seek asylum in the West German Embassy or travel to the West.
The decision to officially allow refugees to leave the country represented the first crack in the relatively common policies of the Warsaw Bloc. Never before had a nation within the Bloc openly broke from the consensus that citizens under Communist rule should not be allowed to leave the East.
Eastern governments, especially East Germany, were furious by the decision. But their accusations and protests were largely ignored by the Hungarian Government. Hungary would respect the human rights of those people within its borders.