News

We need this Memorial Day, The Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism, because we need to declare the truth. Every year, over and over again, we need to declare what a tragedy the communist dictatorship meant for our country, what human dramas took place during its inhuman rule. This is what we must teach our descendants, this is what we must commemorate every 25 February. These were the words of Mária Schmidt, Széchenyi Prize-winning historian and Director General of the House of Terror Museum, at a commemoration ceremony on the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism. Deputy Minister Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Interior, pointed out that most of the victims of communism were those in whose name the communists exercised their power.

Mária Schmidt, Director General of the House of Terror Museum, said that it has been almost 35 years since our country shook off the shackles of communism, and those who were born in the revolutionary years of 1989–90 are today mothers and fathers. The Director General observed that while they have no personal experience of the decades of communism, they have a duty to pass down to their children the knowledge of how their grandparents and great-grandparents lived before the overthrow of communism. 

She warned that their task is not an easy one, because there are some who are still interested in ensuring that children do not learn the truth about what people suffered under communist dictatorships. Mária Schmidt added that we need this day of remembrance to declare over and over again the truth about what a tragedy the communist dictatorship meant for our country, and what human dramas took place during its inhuman rule.

According to the Director General, too often people today loudly claim to see dictatorships in the present and too often complain about the alleged restriction of their freedom. Meanwhile the horror and the misery of communist dictatorships must not be excused or diminished. It is not enough to condemn communist dictatorships in general, but every single victim’s name, age and punishment received must be remembered, said Mária Schmidt, who noted that this is the most important mission of the House of Terror Museum.

“Even today, freedom is not freely given, and must be fought for again and again; if we are not watchful, we could once again become victims of the deadly virus of communism,” the Director General underlined.

Bence Rétvári continued by saying that during Hungary’s second Communist dictatorship, between seven and eight hundred thousand people were taken to the Gulag, from where three hundred thousand  that the trials were mainly against peasants and workersnever returned. One million criminal proceedings were initiated, he said, which meant: those in whose name power was being exercised. He called attention to the 1,200 people who were executed and the two hundred thousand who fled the country in 1956.

The State Secretary said that violence is a fundamental part of communism, of the communist system, and is not the result of badly implemented principles: wherever there is communism, there is violence. He added that whenever violence appears in politics, in public life, it is a warning light. 

Mr. Rétvári recalled that one year ago members of a far-left antifa group attacked pedestrians on the streets of Budapest, causing serious bodily harm. The extremists believe that they are even allowed to use violence in order to disrupt the order of society, he said. 

He went on to say that communists, if they fail to seize power, will attempt a flanking manoeuvre, first grabbing ideological power. According to the Secretary of State, this is what we see today in the woke movement or the promoters of gender ideology. 

“Those who want to ‘sensitise’ us pay no attention when their own ideological partners – left-wing terrorists – beat people in bloody assaults; in such cases the champions of tolerance suffer from blindness”, said Mr. Rétvári.

He stated that the victims of communism must be remembered so that the historical experience “becomes embedded in our Central European DNA”, and that Western Europeans should be made aware that the reappearance of the Red Star is not acceptable at any level, and that extreme left-wing ideas must be rejected.

“Snakes are not only able to slither, but they can also shed their skins”, the Secretary of State said, adding that there are many ways in which communism is attempting to return.

Mr. Rétvári said that there are politicians who look the other way when antifa launches attacks or when other politicians use violence against police officers, and those on the left always look the other way when violence occurs. He said that it is unacceptable for violent law-breakers to threaten police officers, prosecutors and judges in defence of their violent actions.

The State Secretary said that those who are moderate reject violence, while those who defend violence will always be an extreme political force, and that this was taught to us by the 20th century. He emphasised that in order to preserve peace and security, all extremism – including leftist extremism – must be rejected.

After the event, the following people placed candles in front of the House of Terror Museum at the Wall of Heroes: Director General Mária Schmidt; former President of the Republic János Áder and his wife Anita Herczeg; Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Interior; Minister of Justice Bence Tuzson; and Rajmund Fekete, Director of the Institute for the Research of Communism.

The Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Dictatorships was instituted by Parliamentary Resolution 58/2000 (VI. 16.), adopted on 13 June 2000. The proposal for the resolution was tabled by Béla Horváth, a Member of Parliament for the Independent Smallholders’ Party. On 25 February 1947, Béla Kovács, General Secretary of the Independent Smallholders’ Party, was arrested by the Soviet authorities for his opposition to the communists and taken to the Soviet Union, where he spent eight years in captivity. His arrest and imprisonment was the first step on the road to the Communist Party’s elimination of dissidents.

Source: MTI/THM