Applied Marxism: the House of Terror in Budapest

[Smile-n-Win]

Those who still think that "the Soviet Union was not so bad at all" or "Socialists are well-meaning people" should come to Budapest and visit the House of Terror. This museum was opened on February 24 this year, a date which has been dedicated to the memory of the victims of Communism, in the building at 60 Andrassy ut. This Neo-Renaissance villa, along with its cellars, was used by the Nazis as a headquaters and a prison during the German occupation. The invading Red Army made it one of its first priorities to secure this building for itself, and after the Communists completed seizing power by the early 1950's, it became the home of the dreaded AVO, or State Protection Department.

I visited the museum last Friday. While I stood in line waiting to enter, one of my fellow visitors remarked on the irony of so many people wanting to get into the building that, in the 50's, everyone in their right mind was praying never to see from inside. We were ushered in in groups of 20, and a young guide, wearing a red scarf around her neck (which had been part of the uniform of the Communist childrens' organizations), showed us around the upper floors. The rooms here had been used as offices by the terror organizations; now, each room and corridor was dedicated to one particular theme pertaining to the Nazi and Communist dictatorships. The designers of the museum had literally used every square inch of the walls and floors to give an impression of those sinister times, displaying contemporary black-and-white footage, quotations from politicians and civilians, "legal" correspondence, and propaganda materials. Besides the comments of the guide, we could often hear speech and sounds from two or more sources simultaneously. When she finished her explanation in a room, we immediately moved on to the next room, so we only had time to take a closer look at a fraction of the exhibits--but even so, the entire tour lasted an hour and a half.

The room that had the greatest personal significance for me was the Gulag Room, as one of my grandfathers had had an occasion to experience the Soviet Union's "hospitality" in one of those labor camps. He had told me many stories about his captivity when I had been small child. They had been carried to their destinations by rail, in freight cars. They had had to work for 12 hours or more a day, and got hardly any food at all. Many of them had dreamed of food at night. Luckily for him and for me, my grandfather had been among those fortunate enough to come home alive.

In the Gulag Room in the House of Terror, we could see a map of the Soviet Union on a wall-to-wall carpet, with red spots indicating the locations of labor camps. The two longer walls looked like the sides of a freight car, with displays on them showing Russian landscape rushing by. From the speakers, we could hear the clanging of train wheels. For a moment, I imagined what my grandfather could have felt like when he had been shipped into the depths of the Soviet Union.

However, when you visit the House of Terror, make sure not to try to visualize anything when you are shown the instruments of torture that the agents used on their prisoners. I did, and when the guide told us about the most horrible of them all, I felt like I could faint at any moment for minutes. When I finally regained my normal consciousness, I noticed my forehead was soaking wet.

(You have an option not to listen to the descriptions of the instruments of torture, in case you do not think you are strong enough for it.)

After our tour of the office rooms, we were taken to the cellar in a painfully slow elevator. During the descent, a TV screen showed us the man whose job it had been to clean the grounds where the executions of the "enemies of the state" had taken place, giving an account of what the executions had looked like.

In the cellar, another guide told us about the extreme and incessant sadism that the prisoners had been subjected to. No daylight could enter the cells, and the lamps had never been turned off, so the prisoners had never known the time of day. We were shown a cell, large enough only for one person to stand in it, where those who had tried to cover their eyes to get some sleep had been taken. A lamp at eye level had blazed into the victim's eyes; the sides of the cell were covered with glass splinters so he would immediately hurt himself if he had tried to lean against a wall.

And there were other cells, each with its own evil story.

When I left the House of Terror, it took me quite some time to recover from my revulsion. I was grateful I could leave that horrible building unhurt, unlike those who had been taken there decades ago.

Given the extent of the intimidation and reprisals that opponents of the Communist system had to face, I consider it little short of a miracle that the nation took up arms in 1956 and managed to expel the Red Army temporarily. When the Russians eventually came back with a reinforcement and quelled the revolution, a new dictatorship was established whose first order of business was to execute hundreds of people and imprison thousands more. But, after the initial retributions, this new regime became much more tamer than its predecessor or any other Communist government elsewhere, making Hungary "the cheeriest barracks" in the Soviet block. The new government did not dare to terrorize us anymore.

[Smile-n-Win]

If you come to Hungary sometime, it's a place you mustn't miss. Commentary and documentation are available in English. Be prepared for a long wait, though, and for a state of shock lasting hours or even days. A horror movie is nothing compared to this.

[Smile-n-Win]

Ping

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

This museum should be required to be visited by every Euro and American college student.....and by their professors.

Thanks for the post and for the reminder that

1) Marxism/Leninism/Socialism/Communism/Maoism - which are the "isms" which Bill and Hillary Clinton and 100% of the "Democratic Party Leadership" look kindly towards - are straight from hell and those who side with them are, unless stopped, going to bring this hell on earth to this country.

2) Man's inhumanity to man, and man's utter depravity, know no bounds. This is the essence of the need for salvation for only with God can human beings who thrive on perpetrating terror against their fellow men be redeemed. And, as with us all, apart from miraculous redemption, every single one of the terrorists who practiced their craft on the poor souls who entered there - is either in hell or headed there.

It also proves that IDEAS and IDEOLOGIES do matter, despite what anyone tries to say.

[2right]

Thank you for the heads up on this. It will be a must see on my next visit.

[CatoRenasci]

One of the men I have admired most in my life was a Hungarian gentleman who enjoyed ten years or so of Soviet hospitality. Baron Zoltan von Somygyi, an Olympian for Hungary in 1936 (gymnastics) and fencing master, served as a cavalry officer on the Eastern Front until captured by the Russians in 1945. He was in the gulag until the Christmas Amnesty in 1955. His tales of the gulag were chilling, and his view of the Russians rather absolute and unfavorable. He said that no one survived without doing things they were ashamed of, and that the only reason he survived was his incredible stamina as an athlete. Returning to Hungary, as soon as the border opened up, he left for Austria, after telling everyone he knew that the Russians wouldn't let Hungary loose and would come back in.

I knew him as my fencing master and friend in California. A great gentleman who gave his youth to hold back the barbarian hordres.

[angkor]

Communists have left a goulish legacy of official torture institutions.

Another is Phnom Penh's S-21, the converted Tuol Svay Prey High School, in which 17,000 people died during Pol Pot's murderous 4-year reign (his ideal was to "outdo" Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution). Tuol Svay Prey HS sits in the midst of a middle-class neighborhood in Phnom Penh.

Any visit to S-21 and the associated Choeung Ek "killing fields" requires 1/2 day for the trip and the rest of the day to recover. I will not describe how personally disturbing it was to visit Choeung Ek.

Islam is Communism's emerging and equivalent evil for the 21st century.

"The Rules" at S-21.

[Smile-n-Win]

This museum should be required to be visited by every Euro and American college student.....and by their professors.

Indeed. Of course, the visitors tend to be people who are already anti-Communist, but we can achieve a lot by telling the left-leaners what we saw inside. I e-mailed an account of my experience to my "right-skeptic" friends. I hope it will help open their eyes.

[jimkress]

Is this an article or your personal observations? If it's the former, what is the link to the original? If it is the latter, this should be listed as a "vanity post" so people don't confuse it with published material.

[Smile-n-Win]

Islam is Communism's emerging and equivalent evil for the 21st century.

I'm afraid so. No wonder the Liberal media is so bent on it.

[Smile-n-Win]

Is this an article or your personal observations?

It's vanity. Sorry for not remembering to post it as such.

[nopardons]

This reinforces my gratitude to my great, great grandparents , for emmigrating to America. I lost relatives to the Nazis and Communists, in Hungary. Reading this article was informative and very painful .

[Smile-n-Win]

Oops, I left a typo in it:

much more tamer -> much tamer

[Smile-n-Win]

This reinforces my gratitude to my great, great grandparents , for emmigrating to America.

Indeed, it's shocking to think you may never have been born if one of your ancestors had been just a little less fortunate. Or that, if you had been born a few decades earlier, you might have faced these tortures yourself for speaking your mind.

[Smile-n-Win]

...which, I should add, is all the more reason to speak your mind as long as you can safely do so!

[nopardons]

My family were all rabidly antiCommunists ( as I am ) , so the likelyhood of my being alive now, is pretty low, had my ancestors not emmigrated.

I vividly remember watching the news clips of the 1956 Revolution,as a child, and having my prayers for Hungarian freedom dashed by Russian tanks. We all suspected that such places, as this museum were active; however , to read about it, in detail, makes it worse than one's imaginings.

I have always and shall continue to speak out about the truth. Thank GOD, that I live in a country, where I can do so. I still pray that Petofi and Kossuth's visions for Hungary become a realiy. Many thanks, for kepping us aprised of what is going on over there. : - )

[cricket]

"This museum should be required to be visited by every Euro and American college student.....and by their professors."

. . .yes it should be. . .and there should include a special invites to all the Hollywood Libs and Media elites. . .

[AmishDude]

I went to a general history museum. I forget which one it was, but there was a large entryway. I believe it had the original royal crown in it. It certainly had a lot of ancient relics. Anyway, there were a number of rooms dedicated to the communist years, but I noticed that the theme was defiance of the Russians. It was nice to see.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

I want to say also that I appreciate and want to hug and kiss and sit at the feet of those who endured the Communist butcheries - and survived - or who had loved ones who did.

This goes for those in Hungary, in any of the Eastern European Communist countries, for those in China, Russia, in the Ukraine, in Cuba, in N. Korea and in Cambodia and VietNam.

How much we Americans take our freedom from such terror for granted. At least we did until 9/11.

But I will say again, and will pray against again, that the most dangerous terrorists in America sit in the US Senate - and the worst of all represents the state of New York.

She is a fan of Stalin, of Mao, of these terror chambers, of the atrocities that have been perpetrated in order to achieve POWER for the tyrants who used terror to stay in power. She would do the same if she could get away with it.

She would work with the enemies of this country to destroy our freedom if it would enable her to come to power. (In fact, she already has - by working with the Chinese communists. I am sure that alliance continues to the present).

The Chinese admire Hillary because she is probably the best propagandist in the world today. That means she lies with such skill in the pursuit of power and in the destruction of her enemies that they want to copy her.

I will pray against her because for all her vaunted "power" and "propaganda skills", she is no match for the Lord of Life!

[OldFriend]

First Circle by Solzhenitzen is a MUST read.

When he accepted exile in he was hailed as a hero by the commie/lib media. When he warned us about losing our own freedoms the media turned on him.

[okie01]

"...and by their professors."

Many professors, I suspect, would approve.