Remarks by: Werner I. Juretzko made at the reception presenting:
" The Cold War Museum Project and Commemorating the Hungarian
Revolution of 1956"
held at the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, DC

Your Excellency Ambassador Jeszenszky,
Mr.Powers,
Ladies and Gentlemen

May I ask you, Mr. Ambassador to give my regards to your beautiful
country and to convey my admiration to the heroes, the men and woman,
who dared to rise against the communist tyranny in 1956.

1956, I was a political prisoner myself, just starting a 13-year
sentence in the notorious "Red Hell" of Brandenburg, a
maximum-security prison, some 40 miles south of Berlin.

Yes, during these years, I encountered many fearful situations;
but none has ever driven so much fear into the life of us prisoners than
the time during the Hungarian Uprising.

First, it started with a total lock-down. Then, the encirclement
of the outside prison by tanks and dug-in Army Troops. Flame-throwers
directed at the cells, barricaded behind sandbags inside the hallways.
Loudspeakers announced: "That hoodlums, paid, inspired and controlled
by the monopol-imperialistic American Wallstreet warmongers, have taken
over the streets of Budapest, storming the prisons, freeing the
criminals and the rest of the scum of the human race, which now drowns
Hungary in a huge puddle of "blood and tears".

This will not happen here! Screamed the announcer! The slightest
attempt of any action - and you will be barbecued via flame-throwers.

This is how I remember, "The uprising in Hungary".

Many millions have fallen victim to a barbaric system - and cannot
speak anymore. The few who survived - should.

I think that this cold war museum will speak out loud for the dead
of the past - to those, who will live in the future.

Thank You