Aus Anlass der Gründung des "Museum des Kalten Krieges"
und des Gedenken an den Volksaufstand von 1956 gegen das Sowjetregime,
gaben die Botschafter der Republiken Estland, Lettland, Litauen, der Slowakei
Ungarn und der Vorsitzender des Cold War Museums, Herr Francis Gary Powers Jr.
einen Empfang in der Ungarischen Botschaft in Washington D.C. USA
Vertreter mehrere Botschaften, des Senats, Kongresses sowie des Militär und
anderer Regierungsstellen befanden sich unter den geladenen Gästen.

Mrs. Jennifer Powers, Francis Gary Powers,Jr., son of the U-2 spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.  Historian Werner I. Juretzko, and Ambassador Geza Jeszenszky.

Der folgende Text enthält die Rede von Werner I. Juretzko

Remarks by: Werner I. Juretzko made at the reception presenting:

“ The Cold War Museum Project and Commemorating the Hungarian Revolution of 1956”

 held at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, DC

Your Excellency Ambassador Jeszenszky,

                 Mr.Powers,

Ladies and Gentlemen

May I ask you, Mr. Ambassador to give my regards to your beautiful country and to convey my admiration to the heroes, the men and woman, who dared to rise against the communist tyranny in 1956.

1956, I was a political prisoner myself, just starting a 13-year sentence in the notorious “Red Hell” of Brandenburg, a maximum-security prison, some 40 miles south of Berlin.

Yes, during these years, I encountered many fearful situations; but none has ever driven so much fear into the life of us prisoners than the time during the Hungarian Uprising.

First, it started with a total lock-down. Then, the encirclement of the outside prison by tanks and dug -in Army Troops. Flame-throwers directed at the cells, barricaded behind sandbags inside the hallways.  Loudspeakers announced: “That hoodlums, paid, inspired and controlled by the monopol -imperialistic American Wallstreet warmongers, have taken over the streets of Budapest, storming the prisons, freeing the criminals and the rest of the scum of the human race, which now drowns Hungary in a huge puddle of “blood and tears”.

This will not happen here! Screamed the announcer! The slightest attempt of any action - and you will be barbecued via flame-throwers.

This is how I remember, “The uprising in Hungary”.

Many millions have fallen victim to a barbaric system - and cannot speak anymore.  The few who survived - should.

I think that this cold war museum will speak out loud for the dead of the past - to those, who will live in the future.

 

Thank You

 

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