Demonstrators gathered outside Budapest’s House of Terror Museum on Sunday to protest its temporary closure and the dismissal of long-serving director Mária Schmidt. Speakers, including Zsolt Bayer and opposition Fidesz politician Tamás Menczer, accused Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government of targeting the institution, while the authorities have announced that the museum will reopen on Tuesday.
The protest followed an announcement by Zoltán Tarr, the minister responsible for social relations and culture, that the museum would close temporarily while its operations underwent a review. Schmidt’s appointment as director was also terminated.
The government subsequently said the museum would reopen on Tuesday, 22 September, with free admission for one week, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.
Bayer and Fidesz politicians criticise the Tisza government
The demonstration took place on Andrássy Avenue, outside the museum, which documents Hungary’s experiences under Nazi and communist dictatorships.
András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Demokrata, accused the current government of undermining the memory of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, whose 70th anniversary falls this year. He called on the authorities to keep their hands off the museum.
László Szentesi Zöldi, an editor at Magyar Nemzet, also attacked the government, accusing Magyar of weakening democratic institutions. He claimed the governing Tisza Party would lose public support as the opposition reorganised. These were political allegations made during the demonstration, not findings established by the museum review.
Zsolt Bayer, a columnist who has recently faced scrutiny over state cultural grants, pledged to defend the museum. He also proposed adding a room to its exhibition addressing what he described as the dangerous ideologies of the 21st century.
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Former Terror Museum director rejects government review
Schmidt, who had headed the institution for 24 years, addressed the crowd and defended the museum’s work. She argued that its exhibitions had challenged what she described as a monopoly over the interpretation of Hungary’s history.
The former director of House of Terror Museum dismissed the planned examination by independent experts and accused those behind the closure of being unable to accept the museum’s historical perspective. Her remarks reflected her opposition to the government’s decision; the review has not been completed.
According to MTI, demonstrators waved Hungarian national flags, flags with holes recalling the 1956 uprising, and other banners. Participants repeatedly cheered former prime minister Viktor Orbán. Police closed Andrássy Avenue between Oktogon and Izabella Street during the protest, diverting traffic.
When will the House of Terror Museum reopen?
Culture minister Tarr said the review of the museum’s exhibition would be carried out by researchers from the ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities’ Institute of History and independent experts. The exhibition will remain accessible in its current form while the review continues.
The museum’s official visitor information confirms that it is scheduled to reopen at 10 am on Tuesday, 22 September. The government has said admission will be free for the first week.
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“The former director of House of Terror Museum dismissed the planned examination by independent experts…”
That’s a sure indication that this ex-director has a lot to hide about the museum’s operation when the director dismisses an independent examination before any results of the examination are published. Thank you again to Tisza government for doing independent reviews and exposing possible wrongdoers and corruption. I’m not saying there was any, since we have no examination report yet, but sure smells fishy.. Very interested to hear the results of this independent examination.
The question to ask is why after the election we had would the public want a Fidesz lackey to control one of the most important historical institutions of the country that has political influence on Hungarian perception of its recent past. Of course you want to kick Maria Schmidt out who was deeply involved in state propaganda under Orban and historical revisionism and promotion of narratives designed to promote Fidesz goals. She downplayed fascist responsibility for crimes and attempted to paint Hungary as an innocent victim of outside powers when in fact there were many guilty very willing Hungarian participants. Yad Vashem, and local Jewish communities accused her of attempting to “whitewash” the active complicity of the Hungarian state and citizens in the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II.