Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Corvin köz
On the northeast corner of the Corvin negyed junction, duck into
Corvinköz
, the grand oval
passage separating the
CorvinCinema
from the surrounding flats, from which teenage guer-
rillas (some as young as 12) sallied forth to battle Soviet tanks in 1956. Since the fall of
Communism, they have been honoured by a statue of a young insurgent outside the cinema.
Its auditoriums are named after illustrious
Hungarian actors
or directors such as Alexander
Korda - one of many Magyars who made it in Hollywood.
Having renovated Corvin köz, developers have upped the stakes with the
Corvin Promen-
ade
(Corvin sétány) - a mall and luxury apartment complex carving a path through the old
blocks between Üllői út and Práter utca. Just around the corner from Corvin köz, you'll find
a delightful statue of the
PaulStreetBoys
- the heroes of Ferenc Molnár's eponymous 1906
novel - portraying the moment they are caught playing marbles in the yard of their enemies,
the Redshirts. The most widely sold and translated Hungarian book ever, it's both a universal
tale of childhood and a satire on extreme nationalism.
Kilián Barracks
If you're wondering how locals were able to fight so well in 1956, the answer lies across
Üllői út from Corvin köz, where the Hungarian garrison of the
KiliánBarracks
was the first
to join the insurgents, organizing youths already aware of street-fighting tactics due to an
obligatory diet of films about Soviet partisans. It was in Budapest that the Molotov cocktail
proved lethal to T-54s, as the “Corvin Boys” trapped columns in the backstreets by firebomb-
ing the front and rear tanks. Memorial plaques honour Colonel Pál Maleter and others who
directed fighting from the Corvin Cinema.
The Holocaust Memorial Centre
Holokauszt Emlékközpont • IX, Páva utca 39 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • 1400Ft • 1 455 3333,
hdke.hu
One block past the Kilián Barracks, a right turn into Páva utca brings you to the
Holocaust
Memorial Centre
, more chilling than the
House of Terror
;
think twice about bringing chil-
dren here. Like Libeskind's Jewish Holocaust Museum in Berlin, the building is distorted
and oppressive; darkened ramps resounding to the crunch of jackboots and the shuffle of feet
lead to artefacts, newsreels and audiovisual testimonies relating the slide from “deprivation
of rights to genocide”.
From 1920 onwards, Jews in Budapest were increasingly stripped of their assets by right-
wing regimes with the participation of local citizens, and Gypsies forced into work gangs.
Under Admiral Horthy (there are some chilling photos of the Hungarian regent with Hitler),
the interwar period was a time of increasingly repressive anti-Jewish measures, and the fate
of both groups was effectively sealed in March 1944 following the German occupation. The
section on pseudo-medical experiments makes for particularly grim reading, while the family
stories and newsreel footage of the death camps after liberation are truly harrowing. Visitors
