National Memorial Park in Recsk On the site of an Hungarian gulag
National Memorial Park in Recsk
Nationaler Gedenke- Park, Recsk, Hungary
CONSTRUCTION YEAR: 1950
SPACE TYPE: Prison
PRESERVATION STATUS: Under-used
The labour camp was in use near the Csákány rock stone cave above the settlement between October 1950 and autumn 1953 by the State Defence Authority (ÁVH) established secretly by following the Russian model of gulags.
The 1500 prisoners held for political reasons came from different layers of society ranging from politicians to poets, former estate owners, manual workers and intellectual workers. The prisoners deported here without any jurisdiction were kept under inhumane circumstances and made to work.
Most of them died due to starvation, accident or simply by the guards. No one knows exactly where the dead were buried. The camp was hermetically excluded from the world outside. Only two successful attempts to escape were made.
After the regime change in 1991 a memorial was inaugurated here to commemorate the prisoners who died or suffered there. The National Memorial Park was opened in 1996 where a tower and barracks were constructed to illustrate the circumstances at that time.
The memorial park that lies about 6 km from the centre of the village is accessible by car as it is signposted well.
Source: www.gyongyos-matra.hu
