Ante Beljo was born in the village Veliki Gornji Ograđenik near Čitluk, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1946. He attended primary school in his hometown and secondary school in Široki Brijeg. At the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, he studied physics, but he did not complete his studies, because in 1967 he emigrated to Austria, and then to Canada in May 1968. In Sudbury, the largest city in Northern Ontario, in addition to his regular work, he was also an active participant in Croatian cultural organizations in Canada and North America. He is one of the founders of the Croatian-Canadian Folklore Federation and was active in the work of Amnesty International. During the introduction of the multiparty system in Croatia (1989-1990), he became involved in the activities of the Croatian Democratic Union in Canada. In 1990 he returned to Croatia, and in January 1991 he established the Croatian Information Centre, an NGO with the mission of informing the international public and Croatian emigrants about events in Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina. From 1993 to 2000 he served as director of the Croatian Heritage Foundation. He was a member of the Croatian Parliament for two terms (elected in 1995 and 2000). In 1995 he was awarded the Order of Danica for special merits in education.

Ort:
- Zagreb, Croatia

Benažić, Marina

Marina Benažić is a professor of art history and comparative literature. Since 2006, she has been the curator of the Tošo Dabac Archive, and its manager since January 2007. Her position as manager of the Archive means that she is the chief executive of the Archive, the main organizer of all events organized by the Archive, and also makes her the most conversant with the contents of the Archive.

Benažić was not associated with the socialist regime, nor was she involved in the cultural activities of the opposition. Her importance to the Collection rests on the fact that she is its manager.

Ort:
- Zagreb, Croatia

Benda, Kálmán

Kálmán Benda (1913–1994) was a Hungarian historian and archivist. He studied history and geography at the science university of Budapest as a student at the Eötvös College. He got scholarships to pursue studies in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris in 1937–1938. From 1938 to 1942, he was the director of the People’s College in Tata. He worked as an instructor at the Calvinist Grammar School of Budapest (1940–1941) and assistant administrator at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education (1941–1942). In 1942, he began working at the Teleki Pál Science Institute. He served as vice-director at the Institute between 1945 and 1947. He taught at the science university of Budapest (1945–1949), and he was vice-director at the East European Science Institute (1947–1948), but he lost his job at the end of 1948 for political reasons. Benda earned a living doing odd jobs, but in 1950, he was given a position at the Archive of the Church District along the Danube River of the Hungarian Calvinist Church. In 1957–1958, Benda served as the vice-director of the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. From 1958 to 1983, he was a fellow at the Institute. From 1983 to 1985, he was head of department. In 1985–1987, he was a scientific advisor at the Institute. He taught at the school of education at Szeged (1975–1977), and in 1980 he was made the director of the Ráday Collection. In 1984, he became an honorary professor at Eötvös Loránd University. As a scholar, he focused on the history of Hungarian and Transylvanian culture and education in the Early Modern Age.

Ort:
- Budapest, Hungary
- Tata, Hungary

Benda, Václav

Václav Benda was a signatory and spokesperson of Charter 77. He studied philosophy and Czech studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague from 1964–1969. He received his doctorate in 1970. Afterwards, he studied theoretical cybernetics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University from 1970–1975. After graduating, he worked as a computer expert. However, after signing Charter 77 in 1977, he was dismissed from his job and worked as a stoker.

Benda transferred his critique of the regime into civic activism. In 1968 he became head of the Academic Council of Students and was the founder of the Catholic Youth Club. During Normalization he was one of the founders of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS) in 1978. He was also a spokesperson for Charter 77 in 1979 and 1984. In 1988, he co-founded the Movement for Civic Freedom (Hnutí za občanskou svobodu). Benda represented the Catholic stream of Czech dissent. He published in samizdat volumes, and co-translated into Czech the book “New Paths in Biology” by Swiss zoologist Adolf Portmann, which was published in the samizdat edition Expedice. He also published and edited a philosophical samizdat journal Paraf (1985–1989), and wrote for the exile periodical Studie. He was imprisoned from 1979-1983 for his activities and political opinions.

After the Velvet Revolution he focused primarily on politics. From 1989–1993 he was the chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, and for next three years its vice-chairman. After merging the party with the Civic Democratic Party, Benda became part of its new executive committee. From 1989–1992 he was also its deputy chairman, and at the time of the break-up of Czechoslovakia he was chairman of the Federal Assembly. After the end of his parliamentary mandate, he worked at Prague City Council (1994–1997). From 1994–1998 he was director of the Office for the Documentation and Investigation of Communist Crimes. In 1996 he was elected to the Senate. He served as a Senator until his death in 1999. Benda was awarded the Czech state medal “Za zásluhy” (Medal of Merit) in 1998.

Ort:
- Praha, Prague, Czech Republic

Bereményi, Géza

Writer, scenarist, director, lyricist for Tamás Cseh, with whom he started to work in 1970. They composed some 1,200 songs, mostly in the early 1970s. However, they did not publicize these works in the early years. The songs, rather, were performed only privately. According to several people, they reveal more about life during the Kádár era than history books.

Born Géza Vetró, he later acquired the name Rozner from his foster father, which he replaced with his grandfather’s family name, Bereményi, when he became a legal adult. Studied Italian and Hungarian linguistics at ELTE and later worked as a dramaturg and as artistic director and a theatre director.

He published thirteen books, directed seven films and twenty-one plays, and wrote twenty film scripts and forty-six play-scripts. Member of the European Film Academy and the Hungarian Academy of Arts.