Hungary, Budapest: C is also for Commies!

A tid-little-bit of history... Hungary got its name from its first settlers, Nomadic tribespeople called the 'Huns'. Medieval Hungary was powerful, and geographically encompassed bits of Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovakia. In 1500s, the Ottomans, on their crazy rampage, took Hungary as well, including Budapest castle. Years later, Hungary was under Austrian rule, until finally in 1867 they compromised with Austria to become the shared Austo-Hungarian empire. And just after both WW's, when they hadn't been beaten up enough, in 1947, communism arrived!

Currently, church and state are of equal importance, therefore their buildings are of equal height; however, during the communist period the parliament had a communist star, rising higher into the sky, thus indicating 'who was boss.'

And how do they commorate all this? The Hungarian flag which hangs outside parliament has a hole in the middle, where the hammer and sickle used to be. And it stands pretty proud, with its hole, flapping in the wind.

Well, that's one way to commemorate. The other is to set up a 'Terror House' museum in the same building as the Hungarian Nazis held their 'House of Loyalty' and where, between 1945-1956 the AVO & AVH, communist terror organizations, were all based.

And although not as daunting as the one Holocaust Memorial museum I've been to, it came pretty damn close. Apparently people who terrorize all do so with similar methods: interrogations lasting weeks, prisons, labour camps, or being shot just out of suspicion. 'Informers' watched people's every move. The terror house has rooms showing Hungarian Nazis, Soviets, their clothing, screening rooms, torture chambers, propaganda, and finally the dank, erie, dimly lit basement showing reconstructed prison cells and gallows.

Most of the exhibit was in Hungarian, but they had several English handouts (double occupation, 'GULAG' the Soviet concentration camps, the Arrow Cross communist party, deportations, persecution of religion, etc etc) describing the horrors in pretty painstaking detail. So if my description wasn't enough, I guess you can ask me for those when I get home...