Budapest, Hungary (5/14)

Today I am off to Kiev but for the past two days, I have been in the beautiful city of Budapest. Budapest is called the Paris of the east for its illustrious boulevards, huge castles and palaces, and stunning architecture, not to mention the numerous cafes and coffee shops. Although this city has lost practically every war it has fought and many of the communities, buildings, and spirits were destroyed during these tough times, a tourist would not be able to notice that the city had been through both a Nazi Occupation and Communist regime for most of the 1900s. Almost all buildings have been restored or if not yet restored, they are in the process. We saw the Parliament, which was a great example of how the government funded the restoration of a building in the city. As you can see in the picture below, workers took off the stones which were effected and damaged by the bombings and pollution and replaced them with new white stones, perfecting the exterior of the beautiful building. You can also see the difference between the clean and dirty side very easily in the picture. Other buildings such as the Jewish Synagogue were also restored after it was bombed and used as telecommunications for the Nazis during World War II. It was paid for 80% by the government and a couple American Jewish families like the Lauders funded the rest. I was pretty confused how the government could afford to pay for all these expensive projects and still have really clean streets and great service all around. I concluded that they must be a relatively rich country but also it doesn’t seem like all of their projects are very pricey. The whole reconstruction of the Synagogue was 10 million dollars, which is pretty cheep for a building of such large size and detail. Another building that caught my eye was the National Oprah House. This brought my attention to the intense competition the Hungarians have with Austrians. This competition dates back to when the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was in power and the Oprah house was being built. In order to build one, the architect had to get it cleared by the king, he favored Vienna because that is where he was from, so he said that they could build the Oprah house but it could not be any bigger than the one in Vienna. On the opening night the King came and left mid show and never came back because he said that he made sure the house was smaller but forgot to say it had to be less beautiful. The Hungarians are very proud of this still to this day.

The beautiful Jewish Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and second largest in the world after one in New York. At the heart of the Jewish part of town, it offers a very strange design for one main reason, assimilation. In order to try and blend in with society, the Jewish community hired a now Jew to be the architect for the big project. They instructed him to build the synagogue with as much Christian elements as possible with still keeping it Jewish. It being my first time in a Synagogue, my first thought was wow, this looks a lot like a church. The building was shaped in a cross, there was a grand organ, and it even had two pulpits on the sidewalls just like a Basilica or Church. This Synagogue is considered a Liberal Orthodox Synagogue for a couple reasons. Firstly, It is Orthodox because the service is in Hebrew. It is Liberal because there is an organ. In the Jewish religion you are not aloud to work from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown so no one could function the organ. As a solution, they hired a non-Jewish person to play the organ and turn on the candles. It is Orthodox because men and women have to sit separately, women on the second level and men on the ground floor. It was Liberal in the fact that they men and women could still see each other. In most other Orthodox Synagogues, there is a big curtain blocking the view. It is also Liberal because they put the torah undressing cushion in the front facing the east rather than in Orthodox situations it is in the middle. As you can see this church is very different from many around the world but it is truly one of the highlights of the city.

As I said earlier Budapest’s history has not been as bright as it’s beauty. We got a deeper look into the terror and devastation of the times at the Terror Museum. This building used to actually be the head quarters of the Erocross , 60 A… Boulevard. The building has been transformed into a museum to teach visitors the horrors of the Nazi and Communist regime. Before WWI, Hungary had huge amounts of land ranging all over Europe. After the war, they lost about 71% of their land and millions of their citizens became a different nationality overnight. So when the Nazi’s came, they gave them their much wanted their land back. Thankful, the citizens joined the Nazi side. The governor of Budapest, instead of doing what Hitler’s army was doing he didn’t establish any persecution to the Jews. At the being of the war, Hungary was considered safe for Jews who escaped their countries because of harsh conditions. But soon after, when Hitler found out that the governor was not doing the right thing, he ordered the man to be hung infront of everyone as an example. In place of him came a horrible leader who took care of things in three parts. First he moved all Hungarian Jews and refuges from the other countries from the Conservative area of town and took them to concentration camps. By the time he got to the Jews in Belgrade, the war was practically over so they were mostly saved.

After Hungary was “liberated” by the Red Army from the USSR, the war was over, but not the terror. Next comes the age of Communism or “socialism” lead by the Russians and Stalin. This period of time was filled with rigged elections, no freedom of speech, suppressed revolutions, forced admiration for Russian, betrayal, mass killings, and forced labor.  Children were rewarded and used as an example if they report rebellious or revolutionary talks within their family. Those who talked to act against the regime or Russia were hung and killed. In athletic games they were politically forced to lose to Russia even if they were the better team. Stalin would write list of names and numbers of people he wanted to kill. Killing was a game, propaganda and brainwashing was the everyday norm. Once Stalin died, the Hungarians thought they might have a chance to break free out of Communism. In 1956, the citizens took to the streets and protested and fought for freedom. As soon as victory seemed close, the Red Army crushed them once again, this time led by Mcchrushicof. Now they were crushed down under the regime until the fall of Communism in the early nineties.

As you can see, Hungarians have had a very harsh and cruel past century filled with terror, deaths, and horrible regimes and leaders. Because of Hungary’s central position, it always got stuck in the middle of wars. In WWII it was surrounded by USSR on one side and the Nazis on the other. Although they consider themselves central European, geographically they are eastern and politically they were west of the iron curtain. They often joke, people always say the Russians came and liberated us from the Nazi’s but all that did was bring us into another era of terror and horrible treatment. They were suck with both.