![Hungarian refugees bording the plane for America Hungarian refugees bording the plane for America](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hungary.jpeg?quality=85&w=2400)
![History News Network](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/unknown1.jpeg?quality=75&w=2400)
This post is in partnership with the History News Network, the website that puts the news into historical perspective. The article below was originally published at HNN.
We have seen the heartbreaking images of Syrians in desperate attempts to flee their war-torn homeland. All they want is to find safety in Europe, away from the conflict in the Middle East.
Thousands of Syrians each day are making this dangerous journey. They are tired, scared and hungry. What should the international community do? Start welcoming them.
That is exactly what the United States and other nations did for Hungarian refugees after their 1956 revolt against the Soviet Union. President Dwight Eisenhower launched Operation Safe Haven for refugees who were escaping the assault by the Soviet troops who were suppressing the rebellion. Other nations were welcoming to those Hungarians forced out of their country.
Eisenhower remarked in 1956, “It is heartening to witness the speed with which free nations have opened their doors to these most recent refugees from tyranny. In this humanitarian effort our own nation must play its part.”
Eisenhower did something else, which President Obama should do right away too. Ike ordered food and other assistance for the refugees. Welcome kits were provided. Eisenhower met Hungarian refugees at the White House.
Eisenhower was not the only U.S. president to get involved. Former President Herbert Hoover became involved as well. Hoover became a spokesperson for the charity First Aid for Hungary, which set up field kitchens, first aid stations and mobile pharmacies for those escaping the violence.
Food was also moved into Hungary. The Red Cross was able to feed those who remained behind in the aftermath. They provided food, including lunches for schoolchildren and milk for infants. Catholic Relief Services, a charity helping Syrians today, was one of the leaders in providing aid at the time of the Hungarian crisis. So too was CARE.
The United States, in 1956, quickly began bringing thousands of Hungarians to Camp Kilmer, N.J., to begin their settlement process.
Today, the international community needs a new Operation Safe Haven for Syrians. This would help those who are fleeing into Europe. But the crisis of course goes much deeper.
Millions of innocent civilians remain in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. They are running out of food and hope. They are meeting despair, frustration and hunger. The UN World Food Programme does not have enough funds to feed them. The WFP has been forced to reduce rations.
The world powers have not been able to press for a peaceful solution to the conflict. So it goes on and on and on.
Bill O’Keefe of Catholic Relief Services, says, “Many Syrians have given up hope of returning home any time soon. Countries such as Jordan and Lebanon that have opened their doors to Syrian and Iraqi refugees are simply out of resources. And many countries in Southern Europe are not prepared to meet the growing needs of those moving onward.”
Every person, every country needs to do a better job. Such a desperate time, the worst since the World War II era, demands this of us.
A lot more needs to be done. The United States will have to lead on several fronts.
First is trying to find an end to the civil war in Syria. For ending the war in Syria is crucial to bringing peace to the Mideast and defeating the Islamic State.
The United States Food for Peace program has to be increased, even doubled in size, to meet these hunger emergencies. It’s not just Syria. Wars in Iraq, Yemen, Ukraine, South Sudan, and Central African Republic have pushed countries near famine. The Food for Peace program is the single-largest donor to WFP, which leads the hunger relief in all these countries.
We cannot let these people starve. Peace cannot be won on empty stomachs. No political solution in Syria or anywhere else will succeed if people are malnourished and desperate. Hunger and chaos play into the hands of extremist groups.
One thing we do know is that we can respond to this crisis. We can elevate our response like we did during WWII and the Cold War era. We can have great leaders today who will rise to meet the challenge.
William Lambers is the author of Ending World Hunger and The Road to Peace. His writings have been published by the New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Huffington Post, Des Moines Register and many other news outlets.
This Is What Europe’s Last Major Refugee Crisis Looked Like
![WWII Belgium Springtime is laughter time for children, but there was no laughter for three-year-old Betti Malek when the Germans crashed through Belgium and took Antwerp in 1940. She was one of numerous child refugees brought from Belgium to England, and one of the million of children who suffered during the five-and-a-half years of war, May 17, 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-01.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Post WWII German refugees & displaced persons crow GERMANY - JUNE 06: Post WWII German refugees and displaced persons crowding every square inch of a train leaving Berlin. 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Operation Overlord Operation Overlord](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![March Of Death A handful of survivors from the 150 refugees who left Lodz in Poland two months earlier headed for Berlin. They are following railway lines on the outskirts of Berlin in the hope of being picked up by a British train.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![WWII Belgium Refugees Grim-faced refugees stand in a group on a street in La Gleize, Belgium on Jan. 2, 1945. They are waiting to be transported from the war-torn town after its recapture by American forces during the German thrust into the Belgium-Luxembourg salient.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![European Refugees 20th March 1945: Refugees from across Central Europe queuing for food at an Allied Forces refugee camp in Germany after being displaced.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-06.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Stream of refugees and people who have been bombed out of their homes moving through destroyed streets - 1945after end of war; on the left two soviet soldiers patrolling) Stream of refugees and people who have been bombed out of their homes moving through destroyed streets - 1945after end of war; on the left two soviet soldiers patrolling).](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![00632336.JPG Group of Dutch refugee children arriving at Coventry Station, Great Britain, 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-08.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![German Refugees 25th October 1945: German refugees fleeing from the Russian zone in the first few weeks after the end of World War II in Europe. They are sleeping on straw in a makeshift transit camp at Uelzen in the British zone of Germany.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-09.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Juchen Refugees 3rd March 1945: German refugees crowding the market square at Juchen, Germany, a town captured by the US Army at the end of the Second World War.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Exhausted, homeless German refugees hudd Exhausted, homeless German refugees hudd](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Dutch Child Refugees: Arrival In Britain At Tilbury, Essex, England, UK, 1945 Dutch Child Refugees: Arrival In Britain At Tilbury, Essex, England, UK, 1945, A small Dutch boy smiles for the camera upon arrival at Tilbury in Essex. He is carrying a small paper parcel under his arm, which contains all his luggage. He, and the other children, (some of whom can be seen behind him) all have labels pinned to their coats which bear their names, home address and destination, 11 March 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![WW II - refugees 1945 Refugees from the East of the German Reich (German Empire) around 1944/1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-13.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![WWII Germany Refugees German civilian refugees prepare to flee war-torn Aachen, Germany as the battle for the doomed city draws to a close, Oct. 24, 1944. The refugees have been living in air-raid shelters as the battle for the city rages on. The Americans have about 4,000 of these refugees on their hands, who are being taken to a camp in Belgium and temporarily housed in a large school.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-14.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Post-war era - refugees Women and children are standing at the roadside and are waiting for a transport possibility, in 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-15.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![00749920.JPG Swiss Jew Eva Bass, formerly a nightclub singer in Paris, entering refugee camp at Fort Ontario, with her children Yolanda and Joachim, whom she carried on a sixty-kilometer trek through the fighting lines to reach American transport ship Henry Gibbins. 1944.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-16.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![German Refugees German civilian refugees walking through the streets of Aachen, Germany, on their way to a safer area away from the combat zone, 15th October 1944.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-17.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![00607642.JPG Civil Affairs Refugee Camp, France, 1944.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-18.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Post-war years: German refugees in Berlin War refugees walking through Berlin with their whole belongings on 15th December 1945.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-19.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![WWII France Frenchwoman with two children and belongings loaded on a baby carriage seen in Haguenau, France on Feb. 20, 1945, before they started on their long trek to a safe rear area. They are some of the refugees leaving the town because of the planned withdrawal of the 7th U.S. Army. Many civilians prefer to leave their homes and seek safety in a rear area, rather than suffer another German occupation or risk being conscripted into the German Vollksturn.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-20.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Post-war era - camp for refugees in Bebra An attendant with white brassard (front, r) accompanies newly arrived refugees, in January 1946, through the refugee camp in Bebra.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/150910-wwii-refugees-21.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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