National Memorial Park of Recsk - Recsk, Ungaria

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Monument of the Penal Labour Camp of Recsk

Created by Ádám Farkas in 1991.

The secret forced labor camp of Recsk, the "Hungarian Gulag" was operated by the State Protection Authority ("Államvédelmi Hatóság" or ÁVH, the communist secret police) between 1950-1953, close to Recsk village, near a quarry. During this period there were approximately 1500 political prisoners were kept and tortured here, on the basis of trumped-up charges. Many of them were died, but until today the mass graves have not yet been found.

After Stalin died, in autumn of 1953 Imre Nagy Hungarian prime minister had this forced labor camp (together with the about hundred similar facilities) closed, eliminated and demolished. The still living prisoners were released, but during the communist/socialist era it was forbidden to talk about the labor camp to anybody. The location of the camp, as well as the approximate location of the buildings were discovered in the 1990s, based on reports of survivors.

One of the famous prisoners of the "Hungarian Gulag" was György Faludy (1910-2006) Hungarian poet, writer and literary translator, who wrote about his ordeals here in his autobiographical novel called "My Happy Days in Hell" (in Hungarian "Pokolbéli víg napjaim"), written in 1961-1962 during his emigration in London, UK. The novel could be first published in Hungary in 1987, just two years before the political system change in Hungary.