Museum of Terror in Budapest

The Terror Museum in Budapest is one of the most terrifying and fascinating modern attractions. How does Hungary greet tourists? Well-developed infrastructure, colorful cuisine, many interesting attractions. For lovers of travel and fresh impressions, there is one exciting place – the Terror Museum in Budapest. This attraction is worth getting to know better.

Basic information about the Museum of Terror in Budapest:

Museum of Terror: History of Origin

The Terror Museum in Budapest is located on Andrássy Avenue. Previously, it was the building that housed the Hungarian State Security Directorate. And before that, the Nazi Secret Police. It would seem like a simple building that was supposed to serve the party and the people. However, in the post-war period, in the basements, they tortured and killed opponents of the revolution. The torture was cruel and bloody. Beating with sticks, beating to within an inch of their lives, endless interrogations, psychological violence. Also, prisoners were tortured in perverted forms. For example, they could only sleep on their backs and under the close supervision of a guard, they were not allowed to sit up during the day, they were constantly beaten and starved, and were practically not given anything to drink. Those who survived were sent to camps.

In the late 90s, the chairman of the Young Democrats party in the Hungarian parliament, Josef Szajer, proposed setting up a museum in the House of Terror. He substantiated this idea as follows: people and visitors should remember and honor the memory of people who died from fascist and Soviet repressions. However, it was possible to open the museum only in 2000. This house-museum is an unusual place, and not just a collection of compositions. This is a place where history is transmitted through psychological influence. Each visitor keenly feels the atmosphere and the horror that reigned within the walls of the house of terror.

Exhibits and displays of the Museum of Terror in Budapest

What can you see in this terrible building? The torture museum presents visitors with horrible pictures:

• Tank at the entrance.
• Photos of people who were killed. They stretch along the entire height of the building.
• Preserved torture rooms and interrogation rooms.
• Torture instruments.
• Undestroyed prison cells in the basements.
• Gallows.
• Soviet car.
• Illustrations on TV screens.
• Video of a guard explaining the execution process.
• A labyrinth of soap.
• Twilight, dampness, terrible violin music.
• And also various documentation, many illustrations of various kinds, speeches by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, post-Soviet posters and things, walls made of lard and bread.

The building consists of 4 floors. In general, the house-museum has 3 floors dedicated to the Soviet repression and several rooms – Nazi. Famous and respected historians consider this unfair, since there were also enough victims in the fascist repression, if not more. An interesting feature of the museum is a wide canopy on the roof, on which the inscription “Terror” is illuminated in sunny weather. The place is truly terrifying. How many screams, blood, mental and physical pain and torment, how many deaths were absorbed by the walls of the house-terror in Budapest.

Budapest Terror Museum Controversy

There are still debates among historians regarding the history of Hungary. Many eminent historians believe that in the nineties the Hungarian government slightly changed its own history. Namely:
Hungary was presented from a brighter side. The fact that the state agreed to cooperate with Germany during the war was missed.

In the Museum of Terror, the Hungarian authorities focused more on the Soviet repression than on the Nazi one;
There were also debates among historians regarding the concealment of pre-war crimes by Hungary.

There are also debates regarding the innocence of the country’s authorities in both terrors. Allegedly, Hungary itself became a victim of Nazi Germany at one time and the Soviet Union at another. It is worth noting that the study of those years (from 1919 to 1944, as well as the 90s) is still being conducted by historians, analysts and others.

The House-Museum of Terror in Budapest is an unusual place. The place where the atmosphere of the times of torture is recreated with the help of music, illustrations, and museums that clearly show the historical moments of Nazi and communist repressions.