“Communism was civilizational dead end”, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday at the commemoration jointly organised by the House of Terror Museum and Fidesz youth organisation Fidelitas to mark the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communism.
Gergely Gulyás highlighted: “At the House of Terror, one of the locations of the never avenged crimes of communism, we are saluting the victims of the mass-murdering dictatorship”.
He recalled that it was on this day in 1947 that Smallholders’ Party politician Béla Kovács was arrested, with total disregard for his parliamentary immunity.
“His abduction was a turning point, a clear indication to those who still harboured any illusions”, he pointed out.
The Minister recalled that according to conservative estimates some 100 million people were killed worldwide in the name of communist ideals, but the number of lives that were crippled was many times that.
Mr. Gulyás said that one of the most important fields in the fight against “existing communism” was the fight for the opportunity to commemorate. “This is why we must also commemorate the courageous struggle of those who regained our right to commemorate”, he stressed, also thanking historians who are working to uncover the past and the House of Terror.
Mária Schmidt, the Museum’s Director General drew attention to the fact that thirty years have passed since the fall of communism, and many of the people born in 1989 are now recounting their memories to their children.
“If someone wants to explain communism and totalitarian dictatorships in general, it is important to state that these strip people of their right to decide”, she said, adding: “Communism, although it cited noble goals, wanted to destroy everything that gives human life value”.
The Director General pointed out that communism should not simply be presented as a product of the past, because there are still some in Europe who would like to reorganise the world according to this system of ideals.
“Those who regard communist ideals as acceptable in 2019 have no place in public life, the economy, culture or the media”, Mária Schmidt declared.
President of the Community of Hungarian Political Prisoners 1944-1956 Ernő Szelekovszky spoke about the fact that the 29 years since the regime change had still not been enough to exclude “Bolsheviks who falsely claim to be democrats” from public life. “But even today, which we regard as being safe, we must still keep in mind: freedom is never given free”, he warned, adding that young people must also be made aware of the horrors of the communist period.
President of Fidelitas László Böröcz stressed that knowledge doesn’t always mean joy: “Knowledge is sometimes painful, but this teaches us to think about our future”.
“If we do not remind people of the horrors of the past, they will happen again”, said Mr. Böröcz, according to whom there are still politicians and intellectuals in Europe who think back on communism with a certain nostalgia.