A Clear Vision of The Hungarian Nazi Regime through the Communist Era - Terrifying, yet Informative

When you look up as you enter the building,
 this is the view.

     “In 1944, during the gruesome domination of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party, this building, known as the ‘House of Loyalty’, was the party headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis”. These are some of the first words from a House of Terror brochure, where the JSBP students headed yesterday afternoon. I was extremely excited to experience this museum, but had little knowledge of what to expect. The afternoon was filled was amazing, yet gruesome pictures, movies, and reconstructions of what Budapest once experienced on the very blocks I now live. When walking throughout the House of Terror I was horrified at what the Hungarian people experienced while the Nazi regime evaded their lives for years, only to experience another nightmare ahead, the Communist Era and Soviet occupation of Budapest. The House of Terror brought the JSBPer’s through each moment experienced by the citizens of Hungary, dedicating different rooms to different moments in time.

            The rooms depicting the time of the Nazi’s occupation were quite disturbing. I have always been extremely interested in the Holocaust and Hitler’s horrible ideas, thus this was interesting for me to witness. There were many videos throughout the museum, most showing the Nazi actions throughout the city. It was so strange to imagine the Hungarian Nazi’s marching down Andrassy, a street I walk down multiple times a day. I also could not stop thinking that this was happening only about 60 years ago! The most challenging videos to watch, were the videos of survivors during this time discussing their experiences. It brought tears to my eyes! Older men and women who had lost everything were explaining what life was like for them during the Nazi invasion and torturous years that followed. I remember one video of a man discussing how he remembered thousands of newcomers arriving to a camp, only to discover that in a couple of weeks just 115 of them would still be alive. This was nauseating! This same man was explaining of the sicknesses that plagued the camps, killing hundreds of these people a day. They had no water, no food, and no hope for survival.

            Further into the museum the years passed, and the Communist Era was depicted. One of the most interesting rooms that I witnessed was the “Room of the Soviet Advisors”. It was filled with piles of Lenin, Stalin, and Marx books. There were Communist symbols and pictures of these stern men all over.

At the beginning of the museum - represents the Nazi's verse the Soviets - the double occupation.

            One of the last parts of the museum was the basement, which was where they had the reconstructed prison cells from the Communist Era. The cells were disgusting! Absolutely horrible! They made Eger look like heaven. There was one cell that could fit one person, standing up straight, no windows, no air, no light, no anything, except being able to lean against the hard cement wall. “Detainees were not permitted to change their underwear, nor to take a bath, their daily ablutions could last a mere thirty seconds’ they were not allowed to use towels, soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, tooth brushes…” (from one of the handouts we grabbed throughout the rooms). I never want to even imagine what this was like.

The victim's wall - very disturbing.

          

After the House of Terror, the JSBPer’s got to head towards Statue Park, which is located past the BudaHills, on the outskirts of the city. The statues throughout this park represent the Communist Era. The first statue I noticed was a huge pair of boots, which I quickly learned were part of a massive Stalin Statue which was most likely originally in the heart of Budapest. The rest of the statue was destroyed during the 1956 Revolution, but the boots remain as a symbol. The city wanted to keep these statues in a place where everyone could view them, but far enough away from the city center in order to eliminate all memories of this horrible decade within Budapest. The statues were beautiful and HUGE. Some of the pictures below can show how large they are. The reason they are so big is because the Soviets wanted the citizens to be intimidated and to understand where their place was in this society. “There were two kinds of people in those grim years: leaders of the system possessing unquestionable authority and the faceless mass of people”. I like this quote because saying that there was a faceless mask of people puts this Era in perspective.

A humongous man running away with the flag.

            Overall, it was a horrifying, yet informative day for the JSBPer’s. I learned many things from the House of Terror, as well as from Statue Park but overall, I am beyond happy that I was not living in Budapest or any other part of Hungary during these horrendous occupations!

The Communist State in a Statue - crazy.

Stalin's Boots

The LARGE liberator!

Picture I found Online - this was one of the last rooms of the museum.

An extremely disturbing video - this was one of the first shown within the museum. It's of the holocaust victims.