Hungary to commemorate victims of communism

Hungarians will hold commemorations across the country in memory of the victims of communism on Monday, the state secretary for international communications and relations told MTI.

Tributes will be paid to those who were executed, imprisoned or ruined by the communist regime and to those whose only crime was that they did not fit into the narrow framework of the idea of class struggle, Zoltán Kovács said.

He called it “unacceptable” that communism nowadays “is welcomed with nostalgic enthusiasm” in western Europe.

“While we, here in the central European region, experienced on our own skins what it was like to live in oppression and fear,” he added.

But today, he said, “we live in freedom and security.” “We have a future we’ve chosen for ourselves, in contrast to dictatorship.”

As part of Monday’s commemorations, Budapest’s House of Terror Museum will be open to visitors all day for history lessons and guided tours, Kovács said.

Commemorators are invited to light candles in memory of the victims of the regime at the Heroes’ Wall next to the museum, he added.

The central commemoration will be addressed by Justice Minister László Trocsányi and Mária Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum.

The Hungarian parliament in 2000 declared February 25 a day of remembrance in memory of Béla Kovács, general secretary of the Independent Smallholders’ Party, who was arrested and deported to the Soviet Union on this day in 1947.

Source: MTI