Balog inaugurates victims of communism monument in Budapest

Budapest, February 26 (MTI) – Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog addressed the inauguration ceremony of a monument dedicated to Hungarian Gulag victims in Budapest on Sunday.

“Real European unity and dialogue cannot be achieved unless Western Europe is ready to declare the crimes of communism together with those of Nazism, Europe’s disgrace,” Balog said in his address.

Over 100 million people fell victim to communist dictatorship, Balog said, adding that at least one person from nearly every Hungarian family was deported. A total 630,000 people were sentenced for political reasons in the years 1950-1956, 300 were executed during the retaliation that followed the 1956 uprising and 30,000 were imprisoned.

Alexandra Szalay-Bobrovniczky, deputy mayor of Budapest, said that some 100,000 people from Budapest had been deported to the Soviet Gulag labour camps, and added that their story had been a taboo subject for several decades.

The inauguration ceremony marked the official closure of Hungary’s memorial year dedicated to the victims of communism.

Source: MTI