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Show "Thank Cod For AmericaOur New Home" r Vc .,Y . A--.f 1 t rf' V'. ;, - . ,- i -C -'r - - ' t- ' . ; This thankful Hungarian family of fourteen offered a prayer of thanksgiving as they sat down together recently for their first dinner in their new home in Chicago. One of the largest family groups to immigrate to the United States under provisions of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, the lather's visa represented the 30,000th person to come to this country under auspices of Catholic Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference. Con-ference. It brought the overall total of homeless refugees resettled by the agency in free countries throughout the world since 1943 to 200,000, marking mark-ing the greatest effort of any voluntary agency. They are Mr. and Mrs. Beta Roman with twelve of their fifteen children ranging in age from 8 years to 26. Three daughters remained in France two of them nuns and one married. With the Resistance of the Hungarian Catholic League a home and job assurance have been provided for the family. Roman, who is 58, and his 48-year-old wife, Elisabeth, fled with their eleven children to Germany Ger-many from their native Hungary in 1944, when ' Russian troops entered the country. Their flight was promoted by the father's fear of communist reprisals. As a young man, in the Hungarian Royal Army in which he served 28 years, he had taken an active part in the 1919 uprising against the communist regime of Bela Kun. Their nomadic existence ex-istence finally took them to Vosges, France, from which place they immigrated. Here they will begin a new life eagerly awaiting await-ing the day they can become American citizens. Mrs. Roman stated, "It was only the grace of God that let us rear our family through these years." (Chicago American Photo I |