Always Remembering; The Holocaust Memorial Center

Holocaust Memorial Center

After 3 and a half incredible months in this amazing city it actually happened, and our last field experience was completed on Wednesday. Even though it was the last field and I knew that after I would only have about 2 weeks left here, I was still very excited for it because it was a trip to the Holocaust Memorial Center. After learning so much throughout the year about the Holocaust and specifically about how much it impacted Hungary, I thought this trip would be a great way to tie everything together. Also, since I’ve heard about the devastating things that took place, and seen pictures, movies and the actual death camps themselves, I was in the back of my mind hoping that the museum wouldn’t be too hard to handle. This of course wasn’t true and it was a very difficult thing to get through but it had to be done and I am so happy we went there.

One of the rooms in the Museum

The Holocaust Memorial Center is set up so that you walk through 8 different rooms. The rooms are not arranged chronologically however, but by different themes that were present during the Holocaust. For example, one theme was human suffering while another was centered on the loss of human dignity. I liked the way it was set up because even though it wasn’t in perfect chronological order, the different themes portrayed the Jewish population at different times and these times in turn were pretty much in order. I guess this happens because when it came to the Holocaust things just got worse with time and in the museum the themes got worse and worse with each new room. From freedom, to anti-Semitic laws, to ghettos, to everything being taken away, to the transportation to the camps and finally to life at the camps themselves, which for most was followed by death, show the progression of events that took, place. All these “themes” were present at the Center and they were presented through pictures, videos and descriptions. The tour ended in a Jewish Synagogue where they had placed glass tables all around and on each table was a face of a victim with their information, including where and when they died.

Glass with victims faces on them

I could go on and explain every traumatic thing that saw and heard but in my opinion that is not the main point of the museum. As our tour guide said, the museum was set up so that Hungary could take responsibility for what had happened. We can look around and see the devastation and human suffering that was caused by the Holocaust and this is very important to do but more importantly we need to remember that human beings let this happen. What starts out as a little idea can turn into a mass genocide, and by remembering and trying to put yourself in the shoes of these people, it will make you never want to see something like this happen ever again. Like I said before, I thought that after so much exposure, I would have become a little numb to seeing piles dead bodies, beatings and human suffering but what I have learned is that I will never be able to become completely numb. I think this is because you could study the Holocaust for years and years and could avoid hearing the same person’s story twice; six million Jewish  people were killed, thousands of people carried out the actions and the world watched. Almost everyone has their own story and this is the reason that every time I think about it or see pictures I feel sick to my stomach because it reminds you how many people died and how many people let it happen. Places like the Holocaust Memorial Center are great examples of remembering what happened while at the same time honoring those who lost their lives. 

Picture I took at Birkenau Death Camp that is a gift from the United States. It says "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children mainly Jews from various countries around Europe"

Picture from Auschwitz. Never forget what happened and hopefully something this horrible will never be allowed to happen again.

See you in a week America!

The Amazing Jewish Synagogue

Amazing and Beautiful Jewish Synagogue

So the field excursions are winding down in number as the weeks go on and as Ildiko put it, this Wednesday was our penultimate one. For those of you like me who have the vocabulary of a 5 year old, what this means is that this Wednesday was our 2^nd to last field experience until we go home which also means that I have less than three weeks left in this amazing city!! Bittersweet to say the least, so I’m enjoying the limited amount of time I have left to the fullest. This enjoyment included this week’s trip to Budapest Great Synagogue and the Jewish Museum associated with it.   

 

Church-like feel when you enter the Synagogue

When I walked into the Synagogue my first thought was that this was not the place we were supposed to be and that we had gone to a church instead. The gigantic Star of David reassured me we were actually in the right place but the feeling that I was inside a church was still there. There were the typical 3 aisles and high ceilings and it just had a very church-like feeling. Our tour guide later explained that this was because when the Synagogue was built in the late 19^th century the Jewish population wanted to respect the majority religion which was Christian. To do this they allowed a Christian architect to design the Synagogue and the result was this church-like building. Never the less the Synagogue was beautiful with rich detail and beautiful decorations.

 

Tree memorializing those who died and were never found during WWII

After we got some insight about the history of the Synagogue we went outside and saw this tree that was made out of metal. On some of the “leaves” were names and we later learned that these names where Jewish people who disappeared during WWII who were never found by their families. Because they were never found and could not properly be buried this tree was constructed in their honor. I thought this was a great idea because it is such a beautiful structure and it is a way of “burying” loved ones when they are unable to be found after death. Along these lines we also saw a cemetery next to the Synagogue, which was explained to us as being a very rare thing. This is because in the Jewish religion cemeteries are not supposed to be built next to synagogues but during World War II this Synagogue was in the area of the Jewish Ghetto in Budapest. When the ghetto closed there were over 2,000 dead people who needed burial so the people of Budapest chose to bury them in a cemetery next to the Synagogue. The Synagogue carries with it a lot of faith and religion but it also carries with it memories of loss and suffering and I admire to Jewish faith for moving while still paying due respect to those who have passed.

 

Sacred Scroll in the Museum 

The Jewish Museum located next to the Synagogue was where we went next. The museum was fascinating and we saw old artifacts from around the world that had been sent all the way here to Budapest. Old scrolls, menorahs, symbols of religious holidays and paintings were all available for viewing. The last room in the museum was the Holocaust memorial room where we saw pictures of the ghettos, people in concentration camps, dead bodies and a bar of soap that was made out of human fat. Since being in Europe I have had so much exposure to the atrocities of World War II and it honestly never gets easier to hear or learn about. Each picture you see or story you here shows a new story of suffering peoples who did not in any way deserve what they were put through. The Jewish Museum and Synagogue gave a great depiction of Jewish life, the religion itself, the culture, the history and the suffering and I thought it was an amazing experience.

 

Just a Casual Trip to Parliament

Beautiful Parliament that I have taken dozens of photos of since I have been here just because of how beautiful it is and how amazing it looks!

The field experience for this week was one that I was very excited for because it was a trip to Parliament! First off, we have all been staring at this building for the past 3 months and for me the whole time I just imagined what amazing things could be inside and how cool it would be to get a tour of the place. This excitement was probably due to the fact that when I hear parliament I think of men in white wigs yelling at each other in British accents. Unfortunately this is not London, but I was still very intrigued by this enormous building that had become the background for almost all my pictures with its towers and guards and placement right next to the river. It was finally time to see what was inside and I was more than excited.

Blue carpet for the House of Nobles representing "blue blood"

Well first off, getting into Parliament is like going through airport security. I guess you know you’re in an important place when you see those machines that see what’s in your bag and you have to walk through a metal detector. After “security” we entered this hall and I knew I liked this place already. Our tour guide was absolutely fantastic and she explained to us the history of the building, what the statues were, and gave us some fun facts. One fact that I found very interesting and actually a little funny was that there used to be 2 houses in Parliament, the nobles and the commoners. The “lobby” of the commoner’s side had a red rug while the nobles had a blue one and our tour guide said it was because of the old “blue blood” saying. I thought this was funny because even in the United States I’ve heard this term used and I never knew it was used in other countries.

The Holy Crown was the next thing that caught my attention mainly because of how absolutely fascinating it was. This Crown was first used to crown St. Stephen and is about 1,000 years old. This blew my mind because nowhere in America can you find something that has been around for that long, which is just because our country is not that old. The crown was beautiful and after everything I have learned about it since I have been here, it was just so amazing to see the real thing.

The Holy Crown that is 1,000 years old and represents the Hungarian people and government

Parliament Session Hall

After we had the pleasure of seeing Parliament in action. The people in Parliament only work Mondays and Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays and we were lucky enough that that day there was a session going and we were able to watch. We didn’t have a clue what was being said but it was a very amazing experience to see government in action. What I found interesting was that some people were on their phones, making small talk, reading the newspaper and one man was even sleeping. I guess this could be because it was the third day and the speakers may have been the last ones the list but it was still interesting to see how uninteresting Parliament could be on some days. Despite how “slow” it was, I loved being able to see what a “session” in Parliament looked like.   

Overall Parliament was an amazing field experience and I am so happy we were able to go there. Not only was its beauty astounding with all the intricate details covering all the walls, every window and column built with meaning and exact precision, but it tied together everything I have learned since I have been here. It was really awesome to know what the tour guide was talking about and be able to recognize names and dates. This trip made me realize how much I have learned about Hungarian history and culture since I have been here and I am so happy this is the case!

This is such an AMAZING building!!!!

Hungary's FBI - ILEA

Last Wednesday started JSBP back on the track of actually going on field trips for our field exertions. We went to the International Law Enforcement Academy of Hungary which is equivalent to the United State’s FBI. One of our “tour guides” was actually American and part of the FBI. This is because agents from the FBI are sent to the Academy to train people from various countries around Hungary and people within Hungary as well. 

International Law Enforcement Agency aka ILEA

            We started off our trip like most of the others with a guided tour of the academy. We saw the dining facilities and then a sort of “rec lounge” where the students can hang out and play pool or just talk. Mr. Stocking said he likes this area because if a student is too afraid to open up and talk in class, this area gives them a less formal setting where they can open up and get to know the other students. After this building we saw the gym where the students worked out along with their weights and training room. We also got to see Tito miss an extremely easy shot, which was pretty entertaining. After, we saw a crime scene training facility where the students practice different arrests and entering techniques. This was really cool because it was as hands on as you could get without putting yourself in an actual crime situation. Thomas also mentioned that this was a favorite of students and teachers alike because it was hands on opposed to sitting in a classroom. Speaking of classrooms our last stop on the tour was a classroom where the question and answer session began. 

Similar to one of the classrooms we sat in during our question and answer

            Thomas Stocking, Deputy Director of the academy started us off with the history of this program and a little information about the actual FBI. He compared our governmental system where each department has a law enforcement agency aspect to it to Europe’s where most countries law enforcement is under one department. He talked about how he works for the bureau of diplomatic security and has worked with security positions in the US embassy but there are also options protecting foreign dignitaries and secretary of states. This to me sounds like a pretty awesome job especially because the bureau provides language training and lessons if you are going to be in a foreign country for an extended period of time. Mr. Stocking is currently on a 3-year assignment in Budapest but has been with the FBI for 17 years. Quite a commitment if you ask me.     

Who Hanni has to report to as part of her job

            Next up was Tibor Bennet and Hanni Goshi (excuse my spelling if it is incorrect). Tibor has been with the US embassy for 17 years but started off in the Peace Corps and then worked for the USA international development after which he became a budget analysis and finally has been working with ILEA for the past 7 years. He said he really likes to watch the development of a country as he works with setting up schools and starting education and then tries to focus on creating democracy and stopping corruption. This is amazing to me because to watch a country go from nothing to something and say that you were a part of it I’m sure is an amazing feeling and I would love to one day say I was part of something that important. After Tibor, Hanni talked to us for a little bit about her background as an FBI agent and what she does currently. Her main job at the academy is dealing with students and the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, a lot of responsibility if you ask me. She proudly stated that she was a National Academy Graduate and now works for ILEA under the positions I have mentioned before. Hanni was inspiring to me because of how proud she was to have graduated from the FBI academy and be a part of this program, training people and teaching them about investigation techniques and other things related to the law. These two people, Tibor and Hanni clearly loved their jobs and loved what they were doing to help out and I hope one day I can say I have a job that I love and a job where I make a difference.

Countries working together for a better world!

            Our last part of our journey was a question and answer session with John Terpines who was a very intellectually bright and funny man. We asked questions from family life in the FBI to how you get to work for the FBI to what happens if you mess up while in college and get arrested, what are your options. I think one of the more interesting things was how a person gets to be a part of the FBI. John talked about how he had so many different eduacational disciplines in his class and that there is no one way to working and getting into the FBI. He did mention that this job is most always a second career and people persue it at around the age of 29. What I also thought was interesting was how John talked about the importance of building relationships between countries. People complain that we are spending too much money on these educations for other countries police forces but John said that they were the most important relationships because they develop trust as well as simple connections. I agree and think that if we can stop corruption and stop police from saying things like “a wife unbeaten is like a house unkept” then we are doing well for the world and in turn doing good things for ourselves. Bringing together countries is never a bad thing and I think ILEA does a great job making relationships that may not have the chance to be made if ILEA did not exist. I had a great time at ILEA and the people there were fantastic and I would like to thank them for their time and amazing hospitality.           

An Amazing End to An Amazing Line of Guest Speakers

So this week we met with our last guest speaker of the semester. Most people would see this as being a good thing because it means winter vacation is almost here bringing with it a break from schoolwork. Well, I’m just going to say that this outlook is not shared by yours truly, and I would rather have hundreds of more guest speakers if it meant I got to spend more time in this amazing city learning all of the interesting things we do every week. Unfortunately, good things must come to an end and with this week, as mentioned before, comes our final guest speaker and the countdown of our final four field experiences. What this boils down to is the fact that I will be leaving this amazing city in 6 weeks and the best four months of my life will come to an end. The silver lining of this sad truth is that I could not have picked a better guest speaker to conclude the long list of amazing ones we have had this semester.

            Wednesday, we were joined by Andras Baneth, who made the journey all the way from Brussels to talk to us. Andras said that he was briefly going to talk about the EU and more specifically the Euro crisis and after we would have a chance to ask questions and he would, to the best of his ability, answer them. The EU or European Union has 27 member states, soon to be increased to 28 with the inclusion of Croatia in the upcoming years. According to Mr. Baneth, this “union” lies between an international organization where governments cooperate on equal terms but it is still not equivalent to a United States of Europe. To put it simply, this is not one single entity, but the governments of various countries do work together to solve issues. I have always been interested in the EU and this fact has always made me question whether an organization like this could ever work. The pessimist in me thinks that without a strong hierarchy to control all of these member states, there is no way anything can get done because human nature would prevent people from putting other’s needs in front of their own without incentive. This organization is based on complete trust that if two or more countries have an issue they will choose to peacefully talk about it and come to a conclusion without any real authority pushing them to do so. However as we soon learned the European Union has succeeded in keeping the countries within Europe from fighting one another.

The EU was created after World War II to allow countries to communicate with one another and stop a third world war from happening in the future. This has proved successful in the fact that there have been no wars between the members of the EU states since it was created. As pessimistic as I sounded before, Andras made it sound like this was a great way for countries to have the option to “talk it out” so to speak instead of grabbing their guns and declaring war on each other. This is also supported by the fact that after WWII countries became more interdependent upon one another so they refrain from going to war with one another because doing so may hurt their economies more than just figuring out the problem peacefully. I would be inclined to say that by countries being interdependent; it provides the hierarchy I thought was missing before and is that incentive to not go to war. This makes the whole European Union successful in it’s goal of somewhat uniting Europe and preventing wars.

After our European Union background, Mr. Baneth went on to talk about the Euro and the ever-apparent Euro crisis. First off only 17 member states are on the Euro, which was a small number in my mind because I believed that when you joined to European Union, it was in a countries nature to go ahead and adopt the Euro. This thought was supported by the fact that the Euro was created in order to bring member states closer. Without a common language and no single ruling government, the lack of culture must be replaced with something and that something is currency. This idea of unity is a good one of course but like Andras mentioned, it is hard to have a single currency with so many different economies. Because of the variety of economies there are net players who are the key financers of the EU budget and include the Scandinavian Countries as well as Germany. The problem arises when these countries no longer think it is in their best interest to pay more taxes to help countries like Greece survive economically. Why would Germany want to pay higher taxes so the people of Greece can retire at the age of 60 or why should they bail them out when their economic crisis is mostly their own fault? This is becoming the issue around Europe and from what it sounded like to me, the Euro may not have a fighting chance.

However, Mr. Baneth cleared this right up and said that he does not in fact think that the Euro will fail and if it did it would be a huge loss for Europe. Going off of this very thought, the reason Greece is being supported is because if countries just give up on Greece, other economically struggling countries will look at the European Union and think they will too be given up on. Like I mentioned before it is all about trust between member states and what better way to create trust than saving someone’s economic future.

Mr. Baneth was an amazing speaker with all of his analogies and story-like approach. I was fully engaged the whole time and was so interested at everything he had to say. I am far from an expert on economics but Andras made things a littler more clearer in my mind and simplified what is such a complicated problem so that we could better understand the situation. In my mind I don’t know if I think the Euro is such a good idea but I think that now that it is in effect it must be kept up with. With its defeat would bring a loss of moral for the member states of the European Union and in the most extreme of cases could lead to the dismemberment of the European Union itself. So to all of you at home watching Greece on the news, its not just about cool riots and protests, it represents a much bigger issue that is sweeping across Europe; does the Euro as a common currency actually work? I’ll guess I’ll leave this up to all of you to decide. Have a good weekend!           

Swiss Chocolate is the best chocolate!

First off I would like to congratulate JSBP for successfully traveling to a different country and staying there without getting deported. You don’t realize how hard it is to travel in a big group until your actually doing it, but we beat the odds and arrived in Geneva Monday night safe and sound. That night after checking in to our hotel (a real live hotel and not a hostel!) we went to a Mexican restaurant, which was AMAZING to say the least. I had actually forgotten how good nachos were, but oh boy did these nachos do a good job of reminding me. They weren’t as good as Libby’s of course, but let’s be honest in saying that Libby’s sets a pretty high standard. After wandering around, we all came to the realization that when people said that the city was expensive, they weren’t kidding. I mean when you usually pay $5 for a meal, seeing meals for $50 makes you appreciate Budapest even more. Despite the expensive prices, after dinner we all wanted ice cream so that is what we found, and trust me it was worth every penny. Switzerland is of course known for its chocolate, and the chocolate ice cream I had just proved this point even more. After that my stomach felt like it was going to explode and we got back to the hotel and I melted into the bed. If I wanted to I could write a whole blog post about the bed, which were so unbelievably comfortable and had the fluffiest duvet I have ever seen. I slept pretty amazing that night to say the least.

We were on the schedule for the day!

We woke up pretty early the next morning and enjoyed a wonderful complementary breakfast provided by the hotel (the fact that it was free made it extra good). After breakfast we headed over to the UNEP headquarters (United Nations Environment Program) where we were going to have a “conference” where we would get to ask questions to some members of the program. These members were Barabara Ruis (legal officer), Angela Cropper (special advisor to the Executive Director), Mijke Hertoghs and Eva Duer (legal officer). All of these people were giving up time in their probably busy work day to answer our questions and give us some more information about what they do, which was very generous of them. Barbara and Angela started off the discussion by asking us if we had any specific questions about the UNEP program and/or what topics we were interested in discussing. Once they asked us this, I knew it was going to be an engaging discussion because it was going to revolve around our interests. I am very happy the two women gave us the opportunity to lead the direction of the discussion.

UN Environmental Program

We talked about cooperating with other countries, enforcing environmental laws, the future of UNEP, how you get countries to use sustainable energy and many more things. One of the questions that caught my attention was how to make countries adopt certain rules and regulations. Angela answered this by explaining that the UN was created after WWII so that countries could talk about issues and another world war would never happen again. She said that within the UN there are different entities such as the World Health Organization, UNEP and others that are there to give ideas and advice to other countries about certain issues. These entities do not have any power to make a country adopt certain rules; this is left up to the actual state itself. Angela said this is where problems arise because sometimes states do not put the global interest ahead of their own state’s national interest. In other words sometimes certain rules or regulations are not adopted by the state because they may be good for the global interest but do not benefit the state in any way. An example I could think of is if the UN decided to cut back on the digging of oil and asked Iraq to implement these new restrictions. This rule may be good for the environment and is of global interest but when it comes to Iraq’s national interest it doesn’t serve it because of how much oil means to the Iraq economy. Iraq would probably be less inclined to implement this hypothetical regulation because it doesn’t support their national interest. This is the type of problem that the UN encounters when trying to implement rules and regulations and is especially prevalent with UNEP and what they try and do.

Another question that peaked my interest, concerned how the UN and all the entities of the UN go about enforcing laws. Angela said that the World Trade Agreement was the only treaty that had law enforcement aspects to it. Besides this treaty, most other treaties have “soft law” which means if countries are caught breaking a law here are some repercussions but a hard legal stand is not taken. This was interesting because it would be extremely difficult to oversea all the countries in the UN and make sure they are abiding every single treaty’s laws that have been passed. I think the “soft law” approach is a good one because it shows that the UN is still making sure rules aren’t being broken but at the same time isn’t standing over every country making sure everything is done to point exactly. Overall, we had a basic question and answer session for about an hour with Barbara and Angela. After that Mijke Hertoghs talked to us briefly about chemicals and how they are bad for the environment but at the same time are everywhere. She mentioned that some countries use the parts from old electronics and burn what they don’t need thus putting chemicals into the air. She mentioned that it is hard to regulate chemicals because every one is different in the sense that each chemical has a different “badness” factor to it. Some are very dangerous and it only takes a little exposure to cause harm but some it takes a lot of exposure to cause even the slightest damage. Because of this chemical regulation is a lot of work and implementing regulations is equally as hard. The talk ended with Eva Duer who showed us a website where we could look at specific countries and see what treaties they had signed and also look for specific treaties that concerned specific topics. It was a very interesting website and I have actually been on it since we’ve gotten back and learned some pretty fascinating about certain countries and what treaties they are a part of.      

I think what I took from this UNEP experience was that it is extremely difficult to get countries to agree on certain things and to implement rules and regulations because every country is different and has their own national interests to worry about. Also the process of implementing anything from rules to regulations to just giving advice seems to be very long and tiresome process because of how many countries may have to be dealt with at once. When it comes to the environment, Angela did say that right now it’s clear that our economic model is not sustainable. The answer to how to fix this is still not known but UNEP works hard every day to try and change the outlook on environmental sustainability and make sure countries know it is an important thing. Barbara had a good quote and said that to make a change you need to work with all aspects of society. This makes sense in that you need to include social aspects, economical ones and state interest aspects when trying to implement change. This was a great opportunity for JSBP and I would like to thank all the people at UNEP for letting us come and talk with some of your employees!

This agency helps refugees all over the world survive in other countries and move on with their lives after being forced to flee their country

After we left UNEP we headed over to the UNHCR, which is the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Here, we were greeted by Mr. Simeh Bulbul who specializes in relief and refugee work for Iraq. Before arriving I had very high hopes because this topic is one that I am very interested in and I was excited for our lecture by Mr. Bulbul. The mandate of UNHCR is to provide international protection for refugees as well as persons of concern and come up with long-lasting solutions for these people. Mr. Bulbul’s talk was very long and he went into detail about how a refugee was defined, why these people need to flee, what a person of concern was and what UNHCR does to help them. The talk was interesting but it was a lot of information that I had previously known and could have been told in ½ the time. At the beginning Dr. Bulbul said that he would discuss with us the specific case of Iraq because of how closely he worked with the refugees from there. I was excited because I wanted to hear stories and see statistics and get information from someone who was actually in Iraq while the refugee crisis was going on. Unfortunately, because of the length of the first part of the talk there wasn’t much time to go into the Iraq situation. We did see some statistics, which were mind blowing, but if the talk had been more centered on this topic I would have felt more engaged. It was still a good talk and I am happy we were able to talk with Mr. Bulbul.

Voltaire Statue in the middle of town

After leaving UNHCR we were all pretty tired but we decided hey, while in Geneva we might as well go to France. Yes you read correctly, we went to France. JSBP hoped on a bus and 25 minutes later we were in a cute French town named after the philosopher Voltaire. We walked around, saw cute little shops, and experienced the feel of a tiny French town surrounded by the Swiss Alps. I’m very happy we got to go to France because it was a complete 180 from the bustling city of Geneva and I know for me at least I was able to step into a whole other world. We spent about 2 hours in France, went back to Geneva, went out to dinner and walked around the Old Town. It was fun and relaxing and I ad a lot of fun that night.

The next morning I went to a flea market, got some chocolate and then it was bye bye Geneva. I had a great three days and I’m glad all 11 of us got to take a trip together. Coming back to Budapest is always amazing though and it hits you when you come back that this is home and it makes me appreciate the city I live in even more.        

Attila the Hun? No just Attila Nyikos

To be honest I was a little skeptical about this week’s field experience. When I heard we would be learning about red sludge, again, I thought I would be hearing the same facts and asking the same questions. However, our lecture by Attila Nyikos introduced me to new facts and he gave us new information that I had not heard before. This field experience was very informative and we covered topics from disaster relief to preventative measures to specific facts about red sludge and red sludge relief efforts. I would say this lecture was different because Attila works for disaster relief and because of that knows knew very specific facts about the disaster and relief work that went into it. I think that because he wasn’t a scientist I felt like I understood what he was saying more. He described exactly what red sludge was and how it comes to being and I completely got it, mostly because it was a very top-of-the-surface explanation. Attila was also very funny and his lecture was extremely engaging which is always a good thing

What Attila compared his agency to, to us, so that we could have a better understanding of what he did and be able to put what he was saying and relate it to real-life situations.

Attila first mentioned that he was the head of International Relations of Disaster Management in which the disaster management was actually a subordinate body of The Minister of Interior. He compared his work with FEMA but did mention that there was a crucial difference between the two in that Hungary has fire-fighters as part of their disaster management team where as FEMA does nt. I thought this was a little strange because one would think that fire fighters would be very crucial to have on a disaster relief team. I know that surrounding towns and cities send their fire-fighters but having ones specifically for disaster management could mean special training and maybe a more efficient way when going about relief efforts. 

 

Picture of the 2006 flooding in Budapest

Something Attila showed us were the major disasters over the last 10 years and a majority of them concerned flooding. I asked whether the Hungarian government had a specific budget for specific disasters, for example a “flood budget” and if they did, if one budget was higher than another. He said they did not have specific budgets for specific disasters and just had an overarching budget that concerned relief and recovery and so on. Here is another 2 cents I would like to put in when I say that I think after seeing the disasters and noticing that about half were floods, the Hungarian government should have a budget when it concerns flood relief. You could invest in special equipment and special training on flood relief instead of having an overall budget that includes disasters very rare to Hungary. I am not saying to completely forget about tsunamis or other natural disasters that can not be predicted but to focus and give more time to disasters that have clearly been happening and probably will continue to happen. 

Didn't want this to reach the Danube. Thank goodness the underwater dikes worked!

Like I said before I was very impressed with how much Attila knew about the red sludge disaster and how well he explained it. I was very interested in the under-water dikes that were set up and used to catch all red mud particles headed for the rivers. I had never heard this mentioned before and I thought it was a very good idea. I don’t really understand the science completely but what I got out of it was that dikes were set up underground and they caught the red sludge particles and stopped them from reaching the Danube, which was extremely important. Another thing Attila said that I thought was interesting was he told us that the original dam was made up of ash and cement and water. He made a comparison to a bar of chocolate and a piece of wood. He said that if you put pressure on a chocolate bar it will start to crack and then eventually shatter but if you try and break a piece of wood it bends and slowly breaks in two. He said that the dam break was a hard break like the chocolate and it just shattered without any warning. If it had been like the wood, people would have seen cracking and been able to fix it. I really liked this metaphor and it made the “surprise” aspect of the whole dam breaking more believable.

This lecture was definitely informative and Attila Nyikos was also funny and engaging making the whole experience that much better. I guess I’ll see you all later and keep on keepin’ on!

Prosecution, Hungarian Style

            During this week’s field experience JSPB got to find out first hand what it would be like to be an investigative prosecutor in the state of Hungary. The man who divulged such information was Dr. Lajos Korona who works for the Department of Supervisions of Investigations. When I first heard this title I was very curious to see what the job entailed, because from my American view, prosecutors and investigators do two completely different jobs. After more explanation, Dr. Korona’s job became clearer to me; what it boils down to is his responsibility to make sure the police investigation of a crime is rightly done from a legal standpoint. Dr. Korona and his department deal with more serious criminal investigations such as drugs, property and organized crime. This sparked my interest at once because I was very intrigued at hear that a prosecutor’s job could be to work so closely with an investigation team. I wish this were the case in America because this type of work greatly appeals to me.

Everyone is equal under law including the Police

            As this kind of prosecutor Dr. Korona is allowed to initiate an investigation, or if the police initiate it, they need to inform the General Attorney’s office. Dr. Korona is there to make sure that the investigation being run is being run smoothly and legally. I think this is a great idea, because there are endless amounts of times when a case gets all the way to court and is thrown out because something was done wrong during the procedure and the defense has reason to dismiss a confession or a critical piece of evidence. When this happens double jeopardy is applied and the case is dropped with no chance of another hearing. I would love Dr. Korona’s job because I would get to be part of the investigative procedure, get to see the legal side of things but not have to go to Court and work directly under a Judge and do whatever it is he/she wants me to do. However, Dr. Korona did say that if he was ever heavily involved in a case and wanted to make sure it ended in a conviction he could request to see it all the way to court. In my opinion he gets to work with the best sections of the legal procedure.

Interesting parts of the presentation from my standpoint were the different types of crimes prevalent in Hungary and learning about where this penal system originated. First of Dr. Korona separated the different types of crimes into thirds, 1/3 being drugs, 1/3 being homicides, murders and crimes against the body and the last third being crimes against property. These are obviously very broad terms but it was interesting to me that he could place all the crimes he deals with loosely into at least one of these categories. He also mentioned that gangs have become less structured compared to about 15 years ago and most of the crimes deal with money laundering. This was surprising to me because my notion of gangs was that they were becoming more structured over the years and not breaking apart. However according to him, a lot of people from different countries came to Hungary and it caused problems concerning gangs but within 4 years the authorities cleaned up the situation. As of now gangs are not a prevalent concern when it comes to Hungary. The second interesting thing was that Dr. Korona mentioned that this type of legal system is based off of the old Communist regime. The fact that Hungary still has aspects of Communism in their legal system makes me wonder how people feel about basing something like the legal system, which is very important, off of something that they hated so much. I feel like if I looked into it more I would be sure to find some controversy concerning the subject.

What one would think a typical gang would look like but for Hungary gangs like this, organized gangs, are not prevelant in Hungarian society

            Overall this field experience was very informative and I was even a little jealous that a job like Dr. Korona’s was an option. If this type of job was available in the United States I could definitely say that it would be one of my tope choices for my future career. Dr. Korona answered everyone’s questions very well and even added some extra information where he felt necessary. I enjoyed his talk and to be honest am very jealous of his job.

Good Old Riot Police

Epic and everlasting battle of society's mob versus the government's riot police

Well it had to happen sometime and last Wednesday this something happened. What I’m talking about is, dare I say it, a disappointing field experience. The past field trips we have taken and speakers we have listened to, no matter how early they were or how long they took, always left me at the end feeling educated and happy I was able to experience what I just experienced (I apologize for the double word usage as its probably not good to use the same variation of a word so close in proximity to one another). I guess my hopes had been risen when I saw “Visit to the Riot Police” on the syllabus and visions of cool riot videos, talks about specific scenarios and experiences and huge, muscled men in crazy riot gear flooded my mind. Unfortunately this field experience did not live up to my apparently high and almost fantasy-like.

Presenter could have related to this well

After a fairly short commute we got to the riot police headquarters and the first thing I noticed were the many cameras surrounding the building. This was no joking matter; stuff was about to get pretty serious. The first place we went to was a little conference room where a slideshow presentation was good. What I got out of this presentation was that the riot police are very similar to the regular police except they have a wider jurisdiction. Also there are tons and tons of different agencies that include training, in the field and behind a desk. The main issue I had with this presentation was that the presenter did not know English and thank goodness Ildiko was there because she became our own personnel trainer. Overall the presentation was interesting but what overshadowed that in my opinion was how dry it was and how hard it was to follow along due to lack of English used.  

All the guns that are all actually modeled after the AK47 design

            

After the presentation we saw the barracks located in the headquarters treaty and then crossed the street to a parking lot. In this parking lot, not only were there cars, BUT there was also a dummy in full riot gear, a table full of guns and about four unique vehicles including a tank, a fire-truck like vehicle and a patty wagon. This to me was my favorite part of the whole trip because I got to see in person what was used to control riots is ones ever broke out. What intrigued me was when the member of the riot police who was showing us all these things mentioned that when it comes to riots only tear gas is used and not rubber bullets. He said that this specific force came under intense scrutiny for their use of force a couple of years back so they responded. I thought this was a good thing because they realized rubber bullets were not needed and other things much less harmful and painful could be used as a replacement. A quick show was put on for us and then we said goodbye to the riot police in hoped we would never encounter them on the street surrounded by 100s of other people

             

This tank is only used to shoot tear gas but its still pretty awesome!

This field experience was very anti-climatic for me but I still learned some interesting things. The fact that the riot police are in charge of the transportation of money and assets is very interesting to me. What also interested me was all the different type of groups and unfortunately I did not ask my question but it would have been “can you choose to be in a specific department or do you need to specialize in a specific department or is the whole process a random selection?” I would hope the answer would be that people are specialized in specific fields as to enhance the efficiency of that particular department. The riot police are still in my mind regular police that handle large crowds when needed and do not have specific jurisdiction except to stay within Hungary. Lets just be happy we met these guys when they had on regular people clothing and were talking to us in a friendly manor instead of them being in full riot gear and tackling us to the ground.

Staging what would be done in the instance of a car robbery

See ya’ll later

House of Terror and Statue Park; Remembering Things that Would Rather be Forgotten

Wednesday was yet again another adventure, but this time it consisted of a much closer commute compared to Eger, and was in fact only a short 10-minute walk down Andrassy. JSBP visited the House of Terror followed by a not too long 30-minute bus ride up to the Buda Hills and to Statue Park. In my recent blog posts I have tried to convey a light, happy tone in my writing in order to keep you, the reader, engaged and not bored out of your minds. I must warn everyone though, that today’s blog post will probably not have much happiness in it due to the fact that the things I saw on Wednesday’s field experience hit me hard, and made me realize how difficult history has been to the Hungarian peoples.

When one thinks of the Holocaust and the Nazi invasion of Europe, they think of Germany and Austria and Poland and even sometimes France; but throughout my years of taking history classes, I have a hard time remembering a professor or teacher ever mentioning anything about Hungary. After visiting the House of Terror it is very clear to me that Hungary did experience the force and brutality of the Nazi party. 

The Arrow Cross Symbol which was a symbol of the Hungarian Nazi Party. Just because there was no Nazi symbol does not mean there were no other Nazi parties around Europe. I never realized that Hungary had its own party who committed many crimes against human life under the guidance of the Nazi party.

 First off, I would like to mention that the House of Terror is located right on Andrassy Street, which is considered, at least in my mind, a very central location in the heart of Budapest. This same building was headquarters of the Arrow Cross, which was the equivalent of the local Nazi party, and after World War II became headquarters for security and police (both of which committed harsh crimes against human life). The events that took place in this building, a building that almost all Hungarian peoples living in Pest walked by probably daily, are horrific to say the least. When you walk around and see cells that have no beds, a room that is only big enough to stand in with no movement, and a room that emits no light and when the door is closed would leave one in complete darkness, you start to feel how cruel the actions taken against other human beings were.

As you can see the House of Terror where many brutalities took place is located on a central street where it was probably seen by many different Hungarians daily  

Wall of victims

If I could describe everything I saw and felt I would, but it would be almost impossible for me to give a description of some of the things I saw that would actually justify how horrific and malicious they were. What I think affected me most was the live videos they had of people describing actual events that they had to live through and in the end actually survive. One video in particular was of a man telling a story of how he was being punished while working in a concentration camp by breaking up these huge rocks, without eye-wear. He said that while working he heard a scream and when he turned around his friend has his left eye-ball in his hand because a piece of rock had chipped off and apparently punctured it. The man said to the guard on duty “sir I’ve lost my left eye” to which the guard responded, “So why didn’t you loose both.” This video in particular really had an effect on me because, what human being could look at a man who was clearly in a lot of pain, needing medical assistance, and make a joke suggesting that he should have lost his other eye and just loosing one eye was not an issue? The grotesque abuse of human life made me put myself in these people’s shoes and it’s then that I realized I would not have had the courage or will to continue on, and for that I have all the respect in the world for the men and women who went through, surviving or not, the atrocities of the time.

Enormous size of this statue

The House of Terror was a complete eye-opener for me and after we left, we made our way to Statue Park, which wasn’t as emotional but made me realize how much of an effect communism had on people and how much propaganda they probably saw every single day. When we first walked in there was a statue of Mr. Carl Marx himself and I knew then and there that this collection of statues we were about to see would be a flashback to communist times. When I walked into the park itself, I would compare the scene to an abandoned graveyard, but instead of people there were statues. Some were lying on the ground, others still in tact, but the feel of it all was that these statues were not wanted anymore, but instead of destroying them; the people put them in this open field, far away from the city, to just sit there. State-control, power and authority would be the three words that come to my mind when looking back at the park. Most statues were huge and very “in your face” showing me that they were meant to be seen and the people seeing them were meant to feel the effect that they needed to follow the rules of the time. I have respect for the people of Hungary for not destroying these statues because from the looks of them it would be hard to not want to destroy every last one of them due to the memories they must bring up.

Carl Marx standing at the entrance to Statue Park vs.

Remnants of a statue that had clearly been torn down

Wednesday’s excursions opened my eyes to the brutality man can inflict upon man. The one question that keeps popping up in my mind is “who let this happen and why was it even allowed to happen at the time?” I would hope that if any thoughts or ideas were to appear in public opinion today (which unfortunately some people still encourage) they would be squashed and not given a second thought. Herein lies my conclusion of the day, corny but very true; with power comes great responsibility. If no one objects to a thought, that thought can become and action, and that one action can become multiple actions and those actions can grow and grow and before you know, people are being persecuted and no one can stop it. Like I stated before I greatly admire the people of Hungary for keeping these statues and not tearing down a place like the House of Terror because yet again I will quote a famous quote that “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.” History gives us an insight to what is good and what is bad and if history is erased, than the bad things will keep happening. Experiences like this should be shared because it’s easy to read in a textbook and imagine what it must have felt like during this time. What’s not easy; is seeing a man being praised like a god when he was the reason for thousands of deaths in one single country, or seeing a widow speak of the last time she saw her husband before he disappeared, or seeing live footage of dead bodies, young and old, covering the ground, or worst of all seeing the pleads for help when none came. Even though it's hard, we must learn, and through the things we see, somehow feel the pain these people did, so things like this will never happen again.             

Going to Prison

So last Wednesday I took my first ever trip to a prison (yes this may be a shock but it is true) located in Eger. The town is about a 2-hour train ride East of Budapest, and get this, we left at the wee hour of 7:00 and arrived in Eger just after 9:00 (the long day had officially begun). First off I would like to mention that I almost walked past the prison mainly because from the outside it looked like a regular, old, cute European building. The fact that the outside of the prison looked like a regular building took me by surprise a little bit because even though I have never been to a prison what I expected was not what I saw at all.

We walked inside and were immediately met by the prison’s governor who was a younger man around the age 35 and who, at first, I thought was just a guard who was going to clear us to go inside. We all squished into a small office (small being an understatement in this case) and watched a brief presentation about the prison itself. This presentation was a very eye-opening thing for me and I learned so many interesting facts about the Hungarian prison system. For me the most interesting fact was that there was very little gang activity within the prison. In America I feel as though if you are in prison you become part of a gang not only to fit in somewhere but also for protection and a sense of pride. The governor told us that gangs were extremely rare in Hungarian prison as well as drugs and violence. When I think of prisons the things I think of are the exact same things the governor said were rare; gangs, drugs and violence. No matter if you like prison movies or not it is common knowledge that in America these things exist and it took me by surprise how uncommon they are in Hungary.

What one would think a typical prison fight would look like. After my visit I learned that prison fights are not common at all and if anything it consists of a one guy punching another once and then it ends. This type of fight is a very media produced fight and would be very rare in a prison in Hungary and I wouldn't be surprised if its never happened before.

After this presentation it was time to walk through the actual prison itself. What I expected was what I had seen in movies; a long narrow walkway and on each side metal cages with 2 or three people inside sitting on the bottom bunk of bunk beds. What I actually saw was a hallway but on only one side were about 4 or 5 doors that had only a little slit in which you could see in or the people inside could see out. It was almost an anti-climatic feeling for me because even though I was scared of what I thought I was going to see, this prison was not in the least bit intimidating. The men and women were separated but each corridor had rooms and within each room were about 6 bunk beds against the walls with a table in the middle. The women’s rooms looked a bit homier and some of the beds even had stuffed animals on them. I thought that it was a funny concept to put 12 women who are clearly prone to breaking the law in a room together. I’m no genius and I have never done studies on people in prison but in my personal opinion putting that many people with such personalities in a room together was a recipe for disaster. I thought back to the fighting situation and had to remind myself that fighting doesn’t happen as much as I thought and obviously the set-up works well.

This picture actually works very well because the governor was talking about how the major thing people try to smuggle in is cell phones. They use very creative ways like putting it in hair brushes, fish and even salamis. Who would have ever thought a cell phone would mean that much to someone.

 My first ever visit to prison was surprising, eye opening and very interesting. The governor of the prison definitely enhanced my experience because he was funny but at the same time knew what he was talking about and was very respected within the prison (every guard we passed saluted him or shook his hand and stood at attention). Even though prison wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be I still would never be able to stay there for an extended period of time (mom and dad this was clearly a great deterrent for me). Life in prison takes away almost all of your freedoms; freedom to choose what you wear, freedom to do what you want, freedom to eat what you want and most of all freedom to be free (corny I know). This was again a great opportunity for me and I enjoyed it very much and am so happy I was able to experience the prison environment without actually being in prison :)   

How I felt walking out after only 2 hours in a prison and I was only visiting!