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.