The 20th century hasn’t very kindly to Hungary. After the second world Guerra Treaty of Trianon had divided the nation into much smaller territory, air and land of WWII fighting Hungary abandoned in declared beaten. And then there was communism.
Testament to the resilience of the Hungary is the way in which the country was rebuilt and paid to the memory of the last century melee several attractions.
Whimsical is definitely is not the word to describe the Memento Park. After 1989, the more Socialist monuments of Eastern Europe have been slaughtered. Other countries destroyed their collections to impose the icons in the catharsis of the revolution, but the Soviet legacy of the Hungary was abandoned in dusty warehouses. Now, more than 20 years later, 42 statues, busts and plaques to mandate what Hungarians call the Soviet occupation are a fascinating attraction in Budapest.
A huge station of Lenin greets visitors at the doors of the Memento Park and inside is a mixed history in the last half of the 20th century. Images of Lenin, Marx and Engels post-war are adjacent to the works stylized since the 1970s. There are many monuments faltering Béla Kun, leader of the Hungarian revolution, which later had problems with before Stalin their rehabilitation potential as Communist icon.
First purchase in the shop of ironic example of memories includes t-shirts with reasonable motto, “never buy something with an average handle…it works” and cans of air filled with “the last breath of socialism”. Amateur darkly ironic music groove dance mix CD “best of the Communist revolutionary songs” or the light of candles to illuminate the dying embers of revolution of Lenin and Stalin.
In the Centre of Budapest, the tragedy of the 20th century is masked by elegant cafés and Art Nouveau apartment style. Number 60 Andrassy Ut was the headquarters of the secret police of the fascist party Arrowcross in the last days of the second world war, and from 1945 to 1956, the building was used for similar purposes by any repressive Communist. After falling in disrepair, was reopened in 2002 that the terror of Haza or the House of terror, a Memorial poignant for thousands of people who have experienced torture in underground cells in two different totalitarian regimes.
The entry is spectacular, with a Soviet tank surrounded by hundreds of photographs of the victims and exhibitions dealing with fascists and Communist regimes are stark and chilling. Photographs are black and white and color are raw and monochromatic, illuminating the swastika as Arrowcross of fascists and the Red Star of the Communists. A plush red curtain opens suddenly to illuminate the Interior of the luxurious red velvet of a limousine of the Communist Party.
Sounds and music especially responsible for surround visitors, despite high-tech gadget, data personal that emotional experience and touching. A single room is a sanctuary for the Hungarian diaspora together after the 1956 Soviet crackdown. Postcards of refugees with success in other cities and countries. The Angeles and Sydney. The Canada and the New Zealand. Dean Martin croons “Memories are made of this” in the background. It may be kitsch, but it is really very moving.
The last two quarters relief prior to the terror of the Haza melancholy sadness and hope explodes with video clips showing the festive version of the events of 1989. In a new century, it is only a colourful and welcome outside assumed a summer day Budapest.
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