Budapest, October 23, 1956

This is the picture of the Memorial of Recsk, the Hungarian Political GULAG-like prison camp, where hundreds of prisoners were executed in the 1950s.

Today is the 52-nd Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. These pictures show the Memorial of the Freedom Fighters held in the Mac Arthur Park, Los Angeles, for the 50th Anniversary in 2006.


For five days bombs exploded and machine-guns were in action, spreading death. Budapest, torn by fate, was shedding blood and suffered for five days. But despite hundreds of deaths, the ideal of true patriotism and democracy were burning in every heart. The revolutionary people of Buda and Pest wanted a people's freedom without terror and without fear.

On November 4, 1956 Soviet forces launched a major attack aimed and crushing the spontaneous uprising that had begun 12 days earlier.

The defeat of the Hungarian Revolution was one of the darkest moment of the Cold War.


"October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations. It was a day of courage, conscience and triumph. No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man's desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required.
President John F. Kennedy, on the first anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution.