Capital Budapest, commemorating victims of fascism and communism, including Christians, Jews and political activists. The museum, which was opened last week, is called "The House of Terror" and is designed to shock. In addition museum workers want to help survivors to express their long hidden emotions.
"We just survived the Communist era" says 67 year old Emil Vertesi after he and his wife burn candles outside the building in honour of the victims. Vertesi explains that his family fled to Hungary from Romania hoping to find a better life.
But Vertesi was disappointed. "My family has always been afraid of the secret service and the Soviet soldiers who had occupied Hungary after World War Two. In 1945 Russian troops came to steal my family’s properties, including even the watch that I received as a 10 year old boy for my birthday."
DARK BUILDING
Vertesi is one of the thousands of people who stand in line to see The House of Terror museum on a cold afternoon. Inside the building they can immediately experience the atmosphere of dictatorship.
Dramatic music reverberates in the dark, Neo-Renaissance building, that was used as the headquarters for the executioners of the Hungarian Nazi’s and the Communist authorities. A former Soviet tank stands in front of a wall with pictures of thousands of people who were murdered or tortured.
Many of them were killed by Hungarian Nazi’s and later by the Communist secret police for their political or religious believes. Several horrified survivors recall memories in video presentations that can be seen across the museum.
CHURCH VICTIMS
There is also a room dedicated to the Protestant and Catholic Christians who were persecuted under Communism. One of them is Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty (1892-1975) whose mortal remains were ceremoniously transferred from Austria to Hungary in 1991, a year after the first democratic elections.
A strong opponent of Communism, Mindszenty was arrested by the Hungarian government in 1948 on charges of treason and illegal monetary transactions. At a show trial the Cardinal pleaded guilty to most charges, although it was widely believed he made his confession after having been forced to take drugs.
Released from prison because of ill-health in 1955, Mindszenty was kept under close watch and forced to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy following the failed anti Communist revolution a year later. Mindszenty settled in the seventies in Austria, but remained to many a symbol of the struggle against Communism.
MANY CONTRASTS
His picture in the House of Terror museum is just one of many contrasts. While at one floor people can watch luxury rooms and even the car of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, in the basement visitors are confronted with the torture rooms and jails.
In some of them people were beaten up or forced to stand for weeks. Others spend the night without proper sanitation between rats in often overcrowded prison cells. It is believed that at least 6,000 people were killed and 10,000 victims were tortured in these and nearby buildings adjacent to the complex.
Experts say one in three Hungarian families were effected by the activities of the feared secret police. A tour through The House of Terror museum often leads to emotional reactions, explains 20-year old guide Agnes Kaposztas.
"When young people come here they are terrified and they are frightened," she says while showing the pictures of victims. "When old people come here, they tell us what happened with them here. And there are a lot of people (among them) who (have) been arrested in this building," adds Kaposztas.
DIFFICULT TO RESTRAIN
Museum officials say survivors find it difficult to restrain themselves when they are confronted with the displayed photo’s of those responsible for the execution or the torturing of victims. "We have a psychologist to help them," says 53-year old Hungarian author Gabor Kiszely, the museum’s Research Director.
Kiszely, who wrote several books about Hungary’s dark past, regrets that the House of Terror museum could only open its doors more than a decade after the fall of Communism. It is very late I think, because a majority of the victims and of the interrogators are old, some of them are already dead," he explains.
Speaking in one of the rooms that could have been used for interrogations, Kiszely wonders why the project was allowed now now and not after the first free elections. "I suppose that it was a result of a political compromise between the parties after the elections not to touch the very near past" he says.
MORAL LOSS
"It was just for political reasons. But I personally think it was a moral loss," to open the museum only now. But The House of Terror remains controversial. Some Jewish representatives and analysts regret that there is little attention for the estimated 600,000 Hungarian Jews who were killed during World War Two when Hungary for the most part was a close ally to Nazi Germany.
The opposition Socialist Party, heir of the Soviet backed Communist Party, has suggested that the timing of the opening of the Government backed museum was "politically motivated" as general elections will be held in April.
In addition the Socialists have pledged to change The House of Terror into The House of Remembrance and Reconciliation, if they are elected into Government. But Kiszely says that this would be unfair to the thousands of people who suffered in this building.
TORTURED AND KILLED
"People were beaten, tortured and sometimes also killed," he says with bitterness in his voice. "This is why it was named The House of (the) Terror, even in the time of the Hungarian Nazi’s," known as the Arrowcross Party.
Kiszely adds that since the Communist took over they almost immediately made their centre in what is now the museum "for many, many years." "It remained also in the public opinion The House of the Terror because of the inhuman actions that were… going on."
"I just can’t imagine how in case of a change of a Government or another party could change the name of the house." Supporters of the Museum, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have said they hope that many youngsters will visit the site to learn from those "who suffered and fought" for their freedom.
