House of Terror

This building was the HQ of the Arrow Cross Party (Hungary's Nazi Party). When they came to power in 1944 they used the basement for interrogations and executions.

When the Communists took power, 60 Andrassy became the HQ of the AVH, the secret police. It continued to be used as a place for interrogations and executions until 1956, when it became some sort of club for Young Communists.

It is now The House of Terror, a museum that explores the ways in which dictatorial governments use terror as a means of control, and commemorates the victims of that terror.

It is a very contemporary museum, in that it uses the design of the building, the atmosphere, the music, historical artifacts, documentary films and more to tell its stories. There's an interesting film (not documentary) in which individuals, one after another, walk into a room, hurriedly change their clothes for other clothes on a nearby coatrack, and leave, watching to see if they've been seen. This was part of small exhibit about people who quickly switched loyalties from the Arrow Cross and the Nazis to the Communists when it was clear that was where the power now lay.

One entire room dealt with the Soviet gulags, work camps where a large number of Hungarians were sent for long periods of time to do hard labor under harsh conditions with little food, as part of the Soviet push to industrialize the nation. Some died, and others were under strict orders not to talk about their experiences when they returned.

It's a disturbing but fascinating museum.