[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 25, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING THE VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM IN HUNGARY AND AROUND THE WORLD

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                            HON. ANDY HARRIS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 25, 2014

  Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the Memorial Day 
for the Victims of Communism in Hungary. On this day in 1947 the Soviet 
authorities occupying Hungary illegally arrested Bela Kovacs, the 
general secretary of the Independent Smallholders' Party, who, after 
being deported to the USSR and spending almost a decade in prison and 
labor camps died at the early age of 51. The arrest of this fellow 
Hungarian politician marked a new era in Hungary where the elimination 
of political opponents soon led to one-party dictatorship, and his fate 
symbolizes the tragic destiny of hundreds of thousands in Hungary whose 
rights were denied and whose lives were crushed by the evils of 
Communism.
  As a son of an immigrant from Hungary who fled the same brutal regime 
that eliminated Bela Kovacs, I know there are few among us who can give 
a firsthand account of the horrors of the soul-crushing Communist 
system. It is therefore all the more important that we officially 
remember the immeasurable damage caused by totalitarian regimes 
worldwide, and recognize that too many people of influence still 
subscribe to these same deadly ideas. Nostalgia toward Communism and 
the whitewashing of history is deplorable, and crimes committed during 
those times should never fade from our memory.
  No leader in Europe today is a more outspoken advocate of remembering 
the crimes of the Communist system than Prime Minister Viktor Orban, 
who himself was instrumental in the underground movement that helped 
bring down Communism in Hungary. Hungary's leadership in facing and 
condemning its Communist past is exemplary. Hungary was first among the 
nations of Central and Eastern Europe to institute a memorial day for 
the Victims of Communism, and soon many nations followed.
  The Hungarian Parliament has set out to remove the last vestiges of 
communism and open a bold new chapter defined by its own history and 
its own national sovereignty--which was dictated by outsiders for far 
too long.
  Hungary's new Constitution declared that the crimes committed against 
the Hungarian nation under communist dictatorship has no statute of 
limitations, and it rejects the authority of the country's communist 
constitution of 1949--which made a mockery of the rights and freedoms 
it claimed to enumerate for its people.
  Since last December, former victims of the state-party intelligence 
service now have the right to go public with the names of their 
surveillance agents and search the formerly closed archives. In a 
society plagued by the secrets of the Communists' crimes, truth is the 
only antiseptic, and it is the only source of reconciliation.
  Inaugurated by the Orban government more than decade ago, the House 
of Terror in Budapest, the former headquarters of the Communist State 
Police and a place synonymous with the brutalities of the dictatorship, 
today is one of the most visited museums in the world showcasing the 
everyday horrors of a dictatorial regime.
  Overcoming the damages caused by 45 years of totalitarian Communism 
is not easy, but Hungarians are on the right path. In an era of 
political correctness which too often refuses to shame the shameful and 
to elevate selfless heroes, Hungary's leadership should be applauded.

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