PHOTO: Communism Equalised With Nazism

Today’s Museum of Terror was used as a place for executions and inhumane torture during Communism and Nazism.

During the 20^th Century, the Hungarian people were victims to two regimes which wrote their history in blood. The first was the Nazi regime, which besides Hungary, imposed itself on all of Europe. The other one was the Communist regime, which was present since 1944, until 1991.

The link between them is a building that is located in one of the nicest Avenues in Budapest, at 60 Andrassy Boulevard. This is the address of a beautiful neo-renaissance building in which terrible crimes occurred under the star and the Swastika. In 2002 it was turned into the “House of Terror” (Terror Haza).

This building was hired by Ferenc Szalasi, a member of the execution crosses, and after him it was used by Matijas Rakosi for the headquarters of the communist state security, more precisely the communist secret service (AVH).

Nazi uniforms and memories of Gulag

Today this palace has the function of a “reminder” of the bloody times through which the Hungarian people passed. At the entrance to the museum, there are two huge marble slabs standing next to each other, with which the two mentioned regimes are equalised. The atrium of the museum looks

The tour of the museum starts with climbing stairs to the second floor, where Nazi officer uniforms are on display. A special room is dedicated to those killed, whilst a carpet is on the floor with a map of the USSR at the time. Nearly all of the rooms have a number of screens showing films, in which the victims tell of the tragic fate that they suffered in both regimes.

The tour of the first floor starts with a room which has a car covered in a black veil on display. The visitors can see the interior of the car when a light symbolically shines on the seat covers with communist symbols. The exit from the dark room continues in rooms that are dedicated to the period of Soviet propaganda, whilst one of them is the office of Peter Gabor, the head of the Hungarian political police.

Executor, clinical death has occurred!

After touring the first floor, the leaders of the museum led us to the lift to go down to the basement. The lift ride lasts for a few minutes in order to hear a shocking testimony by one of the inmates of the dungeon. In the short documentary film, the witness describes the final moments of life of those there, from torture to the end of the film that ends with the words “Clinical death has occurred, executor!”.

The story is only an introduction into the moist and dark basement in which the visitors meet the inhumane conditions that the prisoners were kept in.

One of the most terrifying cells is a solitary confinement cell that is so narrow that a person could hardly fit inside, whilst two lamps shone light through a small slot at eye level. There was also a room where prisoners were exposed to old electric devices for torture.

Prisoners were denied minimal hygiene, and slept in water

Those arrested were not allowed to change their underwear, and if they were allowed to maintain daily hygiene, the process of showering was not allowed to last longer than half a minute. It was prohibited to use any sort of toilet paper, toothpaste or toothbrushes. Changing clothing was also prohibited. The prisoners were not allowed to go to the toilet, and they did not have toilets in their cells. Besides that it was not uncommon for them to sleep on the wet floor without blankets. There were various methods of torture, but most of them were like those from the middle ages. The prisoners were chained to steel balls weighing 18 kilograms.

In order to keep the memory of those who died in the basement, a hall of tears was dedicated to them, a dignified place where the silence speaks for itself, whose walls are full of names.

The hall of tears was the last exhibit of the Hungarian people’s bloody history. This modern museum deserves the attention of all of those who visit Budapest. The only disadvantage somebody could complain about whilst visiting the museum is that most of the exhibits are named and described in Hungarian. The overall impression is improved by the many papers which describe the contents of the rooms in English.

You can take a look at photographs of the basement and other museum rooms in the photo gallery: House of Terror in Budapest.