House of Terror, a can't miss site

Since I did so much yesterday, today's plan consisted of one thing: House of Terror.

House of Terror

I wasn't sure what to expect, other than a museum that explains the history of Hungary. The museum is on Andrassy ut and it has an unmissable outside entrance where they've created a cutout of the word "terror" that sticks out over the street from the roof. When the sun shines through the cutout, it prints "terror" on the building. I paid for the audio guide and they handed me a mini iPad (and headphones) with a cool app on it.

No photos are allowed inside, so here's the story as I saw and heard:

After World War I, Hungary was surrounded by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Hitler started to come in to Hungary and Russia did as well. Some people wanted Russian rule, but a huge majority wanted their own democracy. An election was held in 1945 and democracy won. The communists even had fake ballots and still didn't win. It didn't matter because the government said communists had to be involved, so Hungary was essentially communist. 

A central dictatorship wasn't working, there were food shortages and many other problems. There was rampant discrimination, kids were trained to be communists, even songs and holidays were changed.

People felt they had to whisper to talk and terror was in full effect. Religion was banned, and the government asked for reports where family members reported on each other for acting against the government. People hid weapons to be prepared to fight and 1000s were killed by the government for doing for doing that and other acts of sabotage. Many people were deported if they weren't killed.

The government forced people to farm the land. The government took most of the crop and only excess above the quota could be sold by the farmer. 

They say mail was controlled and spied on. Propaganda was everywhere, bright colors and positive communist messages on radio, news, posters, etc. Religion was banned and replaced by all-knowing leaders. Faith was punished as a crime. 

I'm walking through room after room of professionally designed layout that really makes you see and feel what it felt like during these times. Here's where it got intense...

They pack an elevator shoulder to shoulder. It goes down to the basement very very slowly while playing a video of a man describing how people were killed on Andrassy ut. Since we're packed in there, it heats up quickly with body heat, let alone the message we're hearing and experiencing. 

It was then that I realized this is 60 Andrassy ut. This is the government building and jail where it all happened.

Then you're in the prison, the basement of the building. There are concrete tiny rooms, one room barely fit my shoulders, they said it was 60x57cm. There were 2 light bulbs at eye level and water at your feet. This cell was found in the year 2000. 

Students led a change in the 50s, 1956 was their revolutionary war. The photos and videos were very sad, pure ruin, bridges under water, lots of dead people.

The museum rooms were beautiful. Especially the "room of tears", which was a dark room with thousands of backlit names on 4 walls around the room. There were tiny led lights on top of black sticks to represent candles and lives.

1989 is when the last soviet advisors left. 1991 soviet troops were gone. This museum opened on Feb 25, 2002.

I left the building with several tears beading up.

Walking outside, the street felt different, in fact the world felt a little different. So many parallels to things that still happen today, whether in politics or somewhat in business (in a much different way of course). 

Things felt a little different

As I think about it, there wasn't a happy ending, more like a cautious, "and that's where we are now".