House of Terror
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy út 60 in Budapest, Hungary. It remembers the two dictatorships in Hungary of the 20th century, fascism and communism. It is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or even killed in the building.
The museum opened on February 24, 2002 and the Director-General of the museum since then has been Dr. Mária Schmidt.
Contents |
[edit] Building
The museum was set up under the former centre-right government of Viktor Orbán. In December 2000 the Public Foundation for the Research of Central and East European History and Society purchased the building with the aim of establishing a museum in order to present these two bloody periods of Hungarian history.
During the year-long construction work, the building on 60 Andrássy Avenue was fully renovated inside and out. The internal design, the final look of the museum's exhibition hall and the external facade are the works of architect Attila F. Kovács. The reconstruction plans for the House of Terror Museum were designed by architects János Sándor and Kálmán Újszászy; the contractor was Architecton Share Co.
The reconstruction has turned the exterior of the building into somewhat of a monument; the black passepartout (the decoration entablature, the blade walls and the granite sidewalk) provides a frame for the Museum, making it stand out in sharp contrast to the other buildings on Andrássy Avenue.
[edit] Permanent Exhibition
The exhibition focuses on two dictatorial regimes in Hungary during the 20th century. There is material on the foreign powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, as well as Hungarian organisations such as the fascist Arrow Cross Party and the communist ÁVH (similar to the KGB in the Soviet Union). Part of the exhibition takes visitors to the basement, where they can see examples of the cells that the ÁVH used to break the will of their prisoners.
Much of the information and the exhibits is in Hungarian, although each room has an extensive information sheet in both English and Hungarian. Audio guides in English and German are also available.
The background music to the exhibition was composed by Ákos Kovács. The work with a timeless scoring for string orchestra in multiple movements contains special stereophonic mixes and sound effects.
[edit] Criticism
The museum has had its fair share of critics.[1] Some have argued that the museum portrays Hungary too much as the victim of foreign occupiers and does not recognise enough the contribution that Hungarians made to the terror regimes as well.[2] (source in German)
Most of the controversy has stemmed from the political slant that the exhibition has. Some have said that the museum is a right-wing “political stunt” and is more a reflection of contemporary politics than of balanced historical fact. It has been seen by opponents to be an attack on the socialists, many of whom were communists until 1989. Critics have bemoaned the fact that far much more space is given to terror under the communist regime than under the fascist one. Also the exhibition begins with a video showing invasions of the country and its loss of significant amounts of territory over the 20th century - which has been a popular rallying call for the Hungarian far-right in recent years.[3]
Despite these criticisms the museum has been a popular tourist attraction, as shown by its large visitor numbers - more than 1000 people a day when it first opened in 2002 - and many positive reviews online. The museum’s director has responded to criticisms of the museum’s political nature by saying "Is there anything in history that is not related to politics?". Others have stressed the importance of not forgetting what happened in the country’s recent history, especially when many of those involved in the terror are still alive.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- House of Terror
- Show_trial_preparations_1953_in_Hungary
- Wallenberg: More Twists to the Tale, Mária Ember, They Wanted to Blame Us
- Interview with István Domonkos, son of Miksa Domonkos who died after the show trial preparations (Hungarian)
