A public space to debate and discuss how to memorialize past human rights abuse so that it will never again occur.

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Memory and Justice: www.memoryandjustice.org

Discussion of Terror Háza

The museum has been both wildly popular and highly controversial. High-tech and slickly produced, the museum strikes some visitors as somewhat over-the-top, even campy, in its presentation of dark events. Some Hungarians insist that the museum takes a biased approach to remembering history, intended to defame members of the current Socialist party with communist pasts––a charge fueled by the fact that Victor Orban’s nationalist party commissioned the building’s renovation in the heat of an election year. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt that the museum’s scrutiny of communist repression is far more detailed and intense than the focus on fascism. The museum’s curators counter that Hungary’s communist era was far longer than its fascist era.

The Hungarian Jewish community has also criticized the museum for claiming that the horrors committed during and after World War II, such as the Holocaust, were the sole responsibility of outside impositions by foreigners, rather than something many Hungarians were complicit in.

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