Hungary: January 9

Today I had the opportunity to compare and contrast how Budapest dealt with its communist past with how Berlin dealt with it.  The first point of contrast were the monuments; all the communist propaganda that was fashioned in stone and iron, and set up on every square in the capitals of communist regimes.
In Berlin, I don't remember seeing any of them, and the populace didn't bother to keep them around.  Our guide pointed out where a statue of Lenin used to be, but there's only a few stones there now.  I don't remember what eventually happened to it, perhaps it was destroyed.

In Budapest, or rather, just outside it, there is a Statue park, where all the old monuments were put after the democratization of the early 90's.  They were set up there as a memorial, to show what had been there before, and later more exhibits were added to the park, to explain what living life in their shadow was like.

The second difference, and by far the most striking, is the way in which the former State Secret Police were exhibited to the public.  In Germany, many of them still live, and publish books attempting to justify their actions as carrying out the laws of their government, while the former victims have taken over the prison, and personally escort visitors through as they tell their stories, in an ongoing battle to wrest control of the historical narrative from the Stasi.

In Hungary, there's not that sense of a battle over history.  No one defends the AVO, AVH, or any of the enforcement apparati of the Hungarian Communist regime.  In the House of Terror, there is an entire room where the employees and officers all have their names and photos on the wall, labeled "victimizers" and called murderers in no uncertain terms.  You would never see that in Germany, not yet at any rate.

There are probably many reasons why the difference existed, but I think the biggest has to do with the fact that the years of the Communist regime tend to be referred to as "the Soviet Occupation," giving all the regime members the taint of collaborating with an invader.  The AVH couldn't plead loyalty to the state of Hungary like the Stasi, because the people of Hungary don't think of the former regime as legitimate.  It's a little odd to reflect that the GDR managed to get itself seen as more legitimate in retrospect, considering that it dissolved entirely as a state; while Hungary is still here.  But perhaps the real state of Hungary was only buried temporarily under the Red Enamel, and will not consider it a legitimate part of the national architecture.