CEE News

President commemorates labour camp victims

MTI News
September 22, 2007

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Inmates of Hungary's one-time forced labour camp in Recsk (NE) have become symbolic figures of history, President Laszlo Solyom said on Saturday.

    It is important to talk about Recsk today because the existence of the camp was a secret not only at the time, but also during the 30 years that followed, Solyom added at an event held to mark the 54th anniversary of the closure of the camp. He praised the efforts of the Recsk Federation comprising of former inmates who set up a national memorial park on the site where the camp once stood and opened a chapel at nearby Matramindszent.

    Some 1,300 people were imprisoned in the Recsk camp between 1950 and 1953. The camp was shut down by Imre Nagy, Hungary's prime minister appointed following Stalin's death in 1953.