But I wasn't prepared for what unfolded as a harrowing afternoon realising the grisly truth about the the communist regime here in Hungary.
Heather had read online that the audio guide would help, as there was a lot of information. This was great advice and the audio guide was one of the best I've experienced. When you first enter there is a soviet tank, displayed on an inky black pool of synthetic oil that slowly seeps over the side and down towards the basement. However, on entering the first room we almost turned us away as the music beating forth was heavy and loud like some deth metal concert but the headphones dimmed this a bit and so in we went. This entire museum is the absolute best exhibition space I have ever viewed. The displays are edgy, creatively installed, utilising great symbolism, lighting, sound and space. The audio guide seemed to go on endlessly, quietly and clearly relaying Hungary's story from the Second World War.
We have had quite a bit of exposure to the holocust on this trip, with a visit to the concentration camp at Dachau, displays and exhibits in Germany, and memorials in the synogogues in Prague. I have found each of these experiences sobering and somber. But I had some previous knowledge of the holocust. I was completely unprepared for the story that unfolded in this Budapest museum of the socialist history.
Hungary was occupied by Germany during WW2, where the Jews were deported or killed, and Germans moving in to occupy the homes and possessions of those left behind. At the end of the war, the Russians took over. Though the first elections in 1945 yielded only about 20 % vote for the socialist left, and a more middle ground party received 52%, the outcome still resulted in the socialist government. At this time the country appealed to the United Nations, but no help was forthcoming. A very similar story to what we had heard from our Czech Republic Communisim tour - that the Americans could have arrived first and liberated the Czech Republic, however they deliberately delayed allowing the Russians to do so, and thus determining the future of the nation under communism.
The Hungarian socialist era lasted through until 1989, and during this time huge numbers of people were killed tortured and deported to forced labour camps in Russia. The descriptions of these gulag camps was very similar to nazi concentration camps, where prisoners were left in inhumane conditions, starved, beaten, forced into hard labour with ill equipped tools and resources, and also killed according to camp quotas. The photos, videos and personal accounts displayed looked just like those we have seen in holocaust displays. Amongst all of the truly horrifying accounts of these camps, given as part audio guide along with video recordings of survivors, it was especially distressing to learn that gulag deportees also included holocust survivors. The whole idea of the gulags seemed horrid, but it was just inconceivable that people who had survived the nazi camps lived only to be sent away to something as awful, but perhaps on just a smaller scale.
The socialist regime worked hard indoctrinating the population with their ideals, staring with nursery school, right through to the voluntary yet really compulsory daily reading from the propaganda papers at the start of the work day. National holidays were made into glorified work days, and days of collective work. People were recruited to report on others within their family, workplace, church and in all other activities of daily life. No one could feel safe speaking their true feelings and thoughts. At one point we were shown the propaganda that went along with the highlighting of a child who had turned in their own father, resulting in his being shot, displaying this child as a heroe of the people.
For those that didn't actively support the party, entry into education, university and work opportunities were limited.
The peasant farming population were punished and deprived of ownership of their land. The party determined what they were to grow and produce, often resulting in failed experimentation with unsuitable crops. The vast majority of production was to be given to the state with only a small proportion available for sale in the market, and along with the huge drive to move rural populations into industrial work, food shortages caused severe hardship for the Hungarian people, requiring rationaing and long queues to get food basics like bread.
My naive assumptions of Eastern European politics were that these populations somehow wanted communist systems, and supported the ideals of such regimes, despite their failings. However I see now that there are huge gaps in my rudimentary understanding of history, and when you see even a small part of the efforts of those who resisted these regimes, and the atrocities they suffrered, the controls placed upon entire nations to silence thier voice, I hold a newfound respect for the efforts of everyday people who fought and protested here to free thier country.
The state police eventually commandeered the entire block as thier need for space increased. Underground they connected the basements with tunnels and corridors.
The exterior of the building displays small photos plaques of those who were murdered under the socialist regime.
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