On the morning of Wednesday, 25 November – the Memorial Day of Hungarian Political Prisoners and Forced Labourers Transported to the Soviet Union – a moment of silence was observed and a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the memorial stone of the victims of Gulags in Budapest.

In his speech, Vice-President of the National Memorial Committee Áron Máthé emphasised that this day is not only the day of remembrance but also that of homecoming. He reminded his audience that 1,500 political prisoners had returned home from the Soviet Union on this day in 1953. They made it clear that “there is a way back from hell on Earth”, he said.

According to the Vice-President, it is our duty to do justice to the dead, to our Hungarian predecessors. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that although many people had died, “we, Hungarians as a community, have survived”.

The commemoration held at Honvéd Square, Budapest was also attended among others by Adjutant General to the President of Hungary Brig.-Gen. László Szegő, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Tamás Vargha, MoD Deputy State Secretary for Public Relations Maj.-Gen. István Kun-Szabó, as well as representatives of several other governmental and non-governmental organizations and political parties. The attendees laid the wreaths of remembrance by the monument.

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The central commemorative events continued at Nyugati Square with the opening of a special exhibition “Frozen history”, which will welcome visitors until 5 December.

On 21 May 2012, the National Assembly made a decision to designate 25 November as the day of the Memorial Day of Hungarian Political Prisoners and Forced Labourers Transported to the Soviet Union, because 1,500 political prisoners returned to Hungary from the Soviet Union on this day in 1953.

On this day, we commemorate the some 800,000 Hungarians who were deported to the Soviet Union as prisoners of war or internees for yearslong forced labour, and also those whom the gradually established Communist dictatorship convicted on trumped-on charges and exiled to the Gulag prisoner camps for years or decades after the end of World War II.

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Under the government’s decision, 2015 is the Memorial Year of Political Prisoners and Forced Labourers Transported to the Soviet Union.

(Ministry of Defense)