Remains of Socialism by Maya Nadkarni

Author:Maya Nadkarni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

The Battle for Victimhood

Many on the left who criticized the museum’s historical distortions did so to dismiss the museum as a political tool of the right wing: a way to avoid discussion of Hungary’s current problems and to prevent a true coming to terms with the past. One MSZP politician, László Kovács, even made the controversial suggestion that in the event of an MSZP victory, the museum should be renamed the House of Reconciliation (Megbékélés Háza) (Stefka 2002). In response, the right accused the left of refusing to take responsibility for the crimes of the previous era, arguing that the left muddied moral distinctions between right and wrong and let past injustice ebb into the grayness of recent history. Schmidt argued that the complaints about the museum’s role in Fidesz’s campaign were proof of the very need for a museum that would tell the truth about the past. “The unending and devious series of attacks preceding and following the opening of the House of Terror perfectly fit into the Hungarian Socialist Party’s violent and aggressive campaign; they conjured up the memories of leftist power-demonstrations well known from the old party’s times. To many elderly, this awoke old fears, and the old reflexes returned: ‘it is still not advisable to discuss these things’ and ‘it’s better to remain silent’ ” (Schmidt 2003, 197–198, translated and quoted in Szucs 2014, 241).

From this perspective, the House of Terror stood in opposition to those who sought to wipe out history and moral accountability. What made this injustice particularly acute was the emphasis that had been placed on punishing Nazi criminals and commemorating their victims. As one reader wrote to the far-right weekly Democrat (Demokrata), if the public did not forgive the Nazis after the Nuremberg trials, it should not forgive the actions of communist murderers either (Paksa 2002). The minister of justice, Ibolya Dávid, similarly complained at a conference held by the International Alliance of Those Persecuted by Communists (Kommunizmus Üldözöttei Nemzetközi Szövetség), “When it comes to the crimes of Nazism, the sentence was passed in good time, but in the case of communist crimes, only time has passed [A nácizmus bűnei fölött időben pálcát törtek, a kommunizmus bűnei esetében még csak az idő telt el]” (Gábor 2000).

This perception of the differential treatment of fascist and communist persecutors and victims drove much support for the House of Terror. In the eyes of many of my interlocutors, Nazi criminals had been punished and their victims commemorated both abroad and locally (whether in films and literature or memorials and official acts of remembrance). Indeed, in the first decade after the end of communism, private individuals and international institutions from Israel, Western Europe, and North America helped to fund a new Holocaust memorial beside Budapest’s centrally located Dohány Street synagogue.13 They also participated in attempts to revitalize the Jewish community in Hungary by supporting the establishment of new organizations and infrastructure, including Jewish schools, community centers, and summer camps aimed at “reviving” religious-ethnic and communal identity among

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