Communism research
“Communism is not dead, it lives on in the West at universities, institutions, in the media and even in politics.” Historian Mária Schmidt made this statement at a specialist conference on Wednesday in Budapest.
The director of the House of Terror Museum spoke at the international scientific conference organized to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Commission on National Remembrance (NEB). Schmidt accused the West of never having dealt with the crimes of communism. “Thirty-three years ago we might have believed that communism was over and that we were entering an era of freedom.” The East had so longed to belong to the West, but these expectations were disappointed.
Red star not a symbol of injustice?
In the West, monuments to Lenin and Marx are still accepted today, and no one is “interested in the feelings and experiences of people from the East.” In this spirit, the EU institutions and the ECJ refused to recognize the Red Star as a symbol of injustice. The museum director recalled the opening of her Terror House Museum in 2002, “with which we triggered a debate regarding how the 20th century should be interpreted. We took the interpretation of communism, which until then had been in the hands of the communist elite, into our own hands.” Today, the interpretation of this period of recent history by the left in Hungary no longer plays any role, announced Schmidt, not without pride.
German historian: No real interest
The German historian Hubertus Knabe also criticized the inadequate investigation of the communists’ crimes. Even though numerous books, research and exhibitions have dealt with the topic, in practice hardly anyone has been held accountable. “The fact that virtually no one had to go to prison for these crimes is a great shame.” In Germany, legal proceedings were initiated once morest only 250 people, of which only 40 were sentenced to prison sentences, the longest of which was four years. Although there was the political will to punish those responsible, the old gangs and the new parties showed no real interest in doing so.
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