Madam President, Former Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests,

We are here today to remember, and to remind others. On behalf of the whole nation, we remember those who were wronged and persecuted, bow our heads before those who died, pay our respects to those who returned, and care for those who are still with us today. This is what we can do today, and this is what we must do. We remember those who gave their lives for the country, and those who, deprived of their human and civil rights, were forced into labour in a strange land, thousands of kilometres from their homes, in humiliating conditions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Seventy years have passed since Hungary was welded to the system which, as Solzhenitsyn wrote, transported thousands of people incessantly, day and night, to the camps of the Gulag Archipelago. Amongst them were hundreds of thousands of Hungarians from all over the Carpathian Basin: prisoners of war, civilians and political prisoners. Of those forcibly transported between the autumn of 1944 and 1948, only around one fifth survived the hardships awaiting them. This system, in which millions of people disappeared without trace, was created on the foundations of an insane idea. That idea was conceived in Europe. Europe is a fertile continent, and over the course of our history a great many exciting and daring ideas have emerged here which later became forces that shaped the world. And some insane and dangerous ideas were also conceived, which grew to become forces of worldwide destruction. This is how National Socialism dragged the world into war; when a weakened Western world realised that its very existence was at stake, it entered into alliance with another insane idea and the master of that insane idea. That idea was international socialism, which we commonly refer to as communism. This is how the Soviet world broke into Europe. In exchange for its own security, the West eventually surrendered a significant proportion of Europe’s freedom-loving peoples to the Soviet Union on a plate.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

No one today disputes that, like National Socialism, communism was also an insane idea, and no one disputes the crimes of communism, but you know only too well what a long and difficult road it was to get this far. I do not need to tell you about the sad reality of the two decades after the fall of communism, when the Right and the Left in Hungary each carried their own historical burdens. For two decades there was an ongoing debate over whose burden was heavier, and whose shoulder was under the greater strain. The time had come to leave this era behind. This is why this year was declared the national Memorial Year of Hungarian Political Prisoners and Forced Labourers Transported to the Soviet Union.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many of you standing here today know precisely what an uplifting feeling it was when we were finally free to remember the victims of communism. Let us remember what an uplifting experience it was to open the House of Terror Museum. How important it is – especially now, when Europe is once again under attack – that young people should learn about the intellectual perversions of the 20th century’s dictatorships, and should grow up determined in their hearts that this should never happen again. Let us appreciate the fact that we may still remember the past together with those who witnessed the world of the Soviet forced labour camps. And let us be proud of all those who, after their return, did not give up the fight for the memory of their fellow-sufferers, but carried on the mission of telling the truth to as many people as they could and awakening the conscience of the nation together with them.

Honour to the heroes, tribute to the victims.

Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister