On the gate you can read the poem of Hungarian poet Gyula Illyés, titled A sentence on tyranny. The poem was written in 1950 during the communist terror, but it could only be published in the days of the 1956 revolution. After the fall of the revolution, the poem was banned again, but it had become well-known by that time, and people circulated it secretly.
Read the section of the poem, then listen to the recollection of István Szász, who speaks about the fall of the Prague Spring.
“Where seek tyranny? Think again: Everyone is a link in the chain; Of tyranny’s stench you are not free: You yourself are tyranny.”
Translated by Vernon Watkins
István Szász was born in 1938, in Baja in a Neolog Jewish family. His father was a respected physician. He was 6 years old when during World War 2 the family was deported to Austrian camps, which they survived and returned home in 1945. He attended Béla III high school in Baja, and then learned music in Pécs. He actively participated in the 1956 revolution and was later interrogated several times. He worked as a journalist at the then prestigious “Magyar Nemzet”. After the fall of communism he became one of the founders of the party “Alliance of Free Democrats”. He continued to be a renowned journalist at the daily “Népszava”. He passed away in 2019. The interview was recorded in 2001, in Budapest, Hungary.