Field Excursion #4: A Trip to the House of Terror and Monument Park

         I know I normally like to take an informal tone with my blog posts and throw in some humor, but there are some experiences in life that cannot be joked about. Yesterday we went on our fourth and perhaps most “historically significant” field excursion to the infamous House of Terror followed by Monument Park. These two places serve as a constant reminder to Hungary of its past and perhaps its darkest days. Before I go into detail about the trip and my feelings about it I feel that it is important that I first give a brief description as what exactly these places are. The House of Terror is located down the street from us on Andrassy Utca (Hungarian for street for you back in the states), and it is the former headquarters of the Hungarian Nazi party during the end of World War II and the Hungarian/Soviet Union Communist party after the war. The building also served as a prison and was part of the “secret police” that terrorized the people of Hungary during the Soviet occupation. In 2002 the Prime Minister and his staff decided to renovate this old building of “terror” and turn into a museum honoring all those who suffered from these brutal regimes. In contrast, Monument Park is not a museum but rather and outdoor display of statues and other forms of “physical” artwork from the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed the people of Budapest were unsure of what to do with all the statues the USSR had bestowed upon them. Some felt they should be destroyed and others wanted them preserved, but they all agreed that they should have no place on the streets of the city. They decided to take the major statues from around the city and move them to a place on the outskirts of the city. This was done as an attempt to acknowledge and commemorate what occurred in the Soviet years, not to celebrate it.

      

      This is the outside of the House of Terror. As shown in this photo, the building is cleverly designed with a roof facade that spells out Terror both to one looking up at the building and in the shadows of the building itself.

     

      I personally was very excited to see the House of Terror because I am someone who enjoys history and I had heard from several native Hungarians that it was the best museum in all of Budapest. I was well aware of the tragic nature of the building we were about to enter and felt I was prepared for everything about to be thrown at me, but I was wildly incorrect. The building takes you chronologically through the period of the Nazi takeover in 1944 from the eventual exit of the USSR, and it spares no detail. Displays include exact replicas of the offices of the “terror” officials and pictures and videos of the substantial damage that Budapest took during the Second World War. There is sworn video testimony of people who lived through this awful time period, and many of their stories were absolutely gut-wrenching. One that especially struck a chord with me was the testimony of an older gentleman who had been interred in a Soviet Labor camp in his younger years. He described that out of the about five thousand people he entered the camp with; only about two hundred and fifty of them came out alive. He struggled to say those words, and when he finally did he began to sob uncontrollably. Its one thing to hear about a dark point in human history, but seeing the damage done first hand is a whole other experience.

               

                       This is a picture of the famous Chain Bridge that connects Buda and Pest after it was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Having seen the re-built  bridge in person  this photo sends chills down my spine.

          

             The section of the museum that was the most hard to stomach was the basement floor, where the former Nazi/Soviet prisons have been restored to give people a sense of the “terror” that these people were put through. The cells and the surrounding areas looked like something out of a horror movie. It was so sad and so inhumane that I had trouble trying to fully comprehend what I was seeing. I tried to put into perspective the fact that I was standing in a place that literally represents the worst of mankind, a place where innocent people were imprisoned, tortured, or put to death based on their political and personal beliefs and convictions. These are obviously not the  happiest thoughts one could have flowing through their head, but one cannot ignore the historical significance of this prison to both the history of the World War/Cold War era and more importantly humankind itself. When we ignore our darkest hours and push them aside we tarnish the legacy of the innocent people who fought and died for what they believed in. More importantly we will never be able to reach our full potential as citizens of a shared planet unless we acknowledge our historical short-comings and work together to make sure they never happen again.

                  These are Stalin's boots, which is to many a symbol of a country that had to fight so long and tirelessly for its independence.

           

                When we finished our trip to the museum we then packed a bus and set out to Buda to visit Monument Park. This trip was less depressing, but it was still full of lots of historical relevance. Upon entering the park one instantly comes across the infamous “Boots of Stalin” that are a cornerstone of the history of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The boots are what’s left from a gigantic statue of Josef Stalin that used to sit inside the heart of the city. During the 1956 revolution it was torn down by the Hungarians and the only part that stayed intact were the boots. The boots are still displayed today as homage to the many that fought and lost their lives in an effort to rid their beloved city of their evil oppressors. Inside the park, there are all sorts of different statues and carvings depicting different Soviet-era “heroes” and other communist themes such as happy soldiers shaking hands with happy peasants. I can’t imagine what it would be like to study in Budapest during the era in which these giant statues stood outside my apartment, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t be nearly as pleasant. Yet I am still happy I was able to visit them and affirm the longstanding belief that the USSR and the CPSU that ruled it are evils that the world is better off without!