Refugees crowded into the West German consulate in Budapest Aug 7.

The West German consul came to see Kozma Aug 13, asking for help. He agreed without hesitation.

The following day a consignment of tents came from Munich, organised by the head of the West German Maltese Charity Service, Csilla von Boeselager, who also brought a team of volunteers.

A large refugee camp opened on the grounds of the parish church in Zugliget, a leafy suburb of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

'On the first evening 920 people were given shelter,' says Kozma. Further camps were quickly set up by the Maltese Charity Service and the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, the Pan-European Picnic loomed, and Kozma and his associates helped those who wanted to travel to Sopron.

The number who crossed the border - 661 according to the West Germany Embassy at the time, says Habsburg Douglas - seems small compared to the thousands of East Germans who remained in Hungary.

Kozma believes many were not ready to take the risk.

'They had very painful experiences with border guards in East Germany, and knew about the Berlin Wall and how many were murdered there,' he says.

'Stasi agents must have been present in our camps, naturally,' says Kozma, referring to the feared East German secret police.

On Sunday, Sep 10, 1989, Kozma was surrounded by dozens of East German families as they watched the evening news on a large television.

Just three weeks after the Pan-European Picnic, Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn announced that East Germans were officially free to cross the border from midnight.

'There was an enormous roar, so loud that it must surely have been heard in Berlin,' says Kozma.

Some 5,000 crossed the same night, up to 15,000 within three days.

The roar may not have been heard in Berlin, but the news was.

When Habsburg Douglas returned to Budapest after the Pan-European Picnic, she was content simply to have 'dealt a blow to Communism.'

'I realised that I had witnessed something far more important some days later, when I heard (East German Communist leader Erich) Honecker speaking in very derogatory terms about the picnic on Radio Moscow,' she says.

'In the eye of the storm it is not easy to see what is happening around you,' she says.