The House of Terror Museum organizes a series of programmes between 17 and 27 February to mark the Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism, including special guided tours, history lessons, museum education sessions, exhibitions, a theatre performance and free admission on the day of remembrance.
According to the museum’s statement, the unconventional history lessons titled Let Us Tell You So You Know will feature historians from the House of Terror Museum, the Institute of the Twentieth Century and the Institute for the Research of Communism. They will deliver lectures for upper primary and secondary school students on topics related to the memorial day.
Students will learn about Hungarians deported for forced labour to the Soviet Union, known as malenkij robot, as well as the 1953 prisoner uprising in the forced labour camp at Tiszalök. Presentations will also address the operation of people’s courts and the communist propaganda apparatus, the life of 1956 revolutionary István Angyal and the anti-Hungarian policies of communist Romania.
During breaks, participants will be able to view paintings and drawings by József Ringhoffer, a Munich-based artist and former political prisoner in Tiszalök, depicting the 4 October 1953 uprising.
In addition to the history lessons, museum education sessions will focus on Hungarians deported to Soviet labour camps, the functioning of the communist propaganda machine and political police, show trials and the forced collectivization of the countryside. The sessions will use contemporary documents, original artefacts, photographs and film footage.
From 18 February, the museum’s exhibition Sentenced To Slave Labour, commemorating the suffering of 700,000 Hungarians deported to the Gulag, will be on display for a month at Hungary’s embassy in Stockholm. The opening will feature a lecture by historian Rajmund Fekete, Director of the Institute for the Research of Communism.
On 23 February, athletes, actors, musicians and singers will hold special guided tours for secondary school students at the House of Terror Museum, sharing personal and family memories related to totalitarian dictatorships and the 1956 revolution.
On 25 February, the museum will offer free admission between 10am and 6pm. Visitors will be able to light candles throughout the day at the Wall of Heroes outside the building in memory of the victims of communist dictatorships. A closed commemorative ceremony will be held at 10am and streamed online.
An outdoor panel exhibition titled Would We Have Forgotten? will present the destruction and victims of communism next to the museum on Csengery Street.
Also on 25 February, the two-act play One Night, Two Mornings by Pavel Stantchev will be performed at the Kertész Imre Institute. The production by the Public Foundation for the Research of Central and Eastern European History and Society pays tribute to the victims of communism.
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