Sandor Taraszovics was a committed Freedom Fighter in 1956: He helped establish a communications system to advise freedom fighters of Soviet troop strengths and movements; he directed forces that wiretapped Soviet military and intelligence communications lines. He also represented his homeland on the revolutionary council in Budapest. Taraszovics was eventually forced to flee to Austria, and by December 1956 he was in the US, where he testified before a United Nations inquiry commission on the events in Hungary.

In Washington DC, he co-founded the Committee for Danubian Research, an educational organi­zation that worked to promote the publication of works on the history of the region. In 1991, he co-founded the Hungarian American Coalition.

From 1963 until 1996, Taraszovics worked at Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC, where his guest room became an unofficial quarters for dissident Hungarians in need of a place to stay. He was known as a gifted and gracious host to Hungarian Americans, and political refugees.

As Hungary’s national tennis champion in his youth, he also taught tennis and played with partners and opponents that included Washington journalists and decision makers. Taraszovics died at the age of 69 in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary.