The exhibition follows other temporary exhibitions on the Holocaust, ethnic Germans expelled after WWII and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
In 1963, the prisons were finally opened and the regime granted a partial amnesty. But the freed revolutionaries found themselves in a strange world: the Soviet invasion, Kádár's retribution and the failure of the West to come to Hungary's assistance had, together, broken any resistance to the system, says museum director Mária Schmidt. But fear led to an unspoken compromise in the 60s: Hungary's citizens withdrew from public life and didn't say anything about politics, while the party withdrew from citizens' lives, ensuring them a degree of freedom within the walls of their own home, Schmidt explains. Western clothing styles became fashionable with the generation of '68, as did beat music and long hair.
"Long ago, there were always three of us under the covers: your dad, me and the portable cassette player," Schmidt says, recalling an aphorism from the era.
"The message of the new left fell on deaf ears in the case of Hungary's youth: Mao was never popular in Hungary, neither was solidarity with Vietnam nor peace protests," says Schmidt.
Beat music became the expression of an entire generation's split with petit bourgeoise ways. And sexual freedom became an expression of freedom of speech, says Schmidt. Rules of courting went out of fashion at the end of the 60s: young people walked hand in hand on the street, girls were no longer expected to be virgins when they married, and house parties became the rage.
László Benkő, keyboardist for the great Hungarian 60s rock band Omega, said the exhibition touched a personal note for him. "The leaders thought what we were doing was a passing fashion," he says of the period. "It should be noted that they usually reacted too late to what we did."
The House of Terror exhibition shows portable record players, album covers, period furniture, posters and newspapers. Visitors can also see several important Hungarian cultural figures who were witnesses to the era reflect on the period from old television sets.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
