Photo Exhibition in the Garden of the National Museum

An outdoor photo exhibition – Hope and Drama - Hungary '56 – opened on Saturday in the garden of the Hungarian National Museum (MNM) in Budapest. The exhibition commemorates the heroes of the 1956 revolution and the solidarity of the Polish people.

The exhibition, organized by the museum, the National Remembrance Committee and the Polish Institute, features photographs documenting the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, taken by an unknown eyewitness and passed on to the museum by a Polish family through the Committee of National Remembrance.

MNM Director General László L. Simon said that they were proud that the series of photographs documenting the events of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence, which had been lying dormant and known to few, was brought to the Hungarian National Museum, the institution that houses Hungary's largest collection of photographs and one of the most valuable historical photography collections in Europe.

The 60 photos, two-thirds of which are on display, were donated by Miroslaw Lesniak to the Committee of National Remembrance, the chairwoman of which, Réka Földváry Kiss, presented the original photos to the museum.

She stressed that it is important that scientific research and education go hand in hand. The cooperation serves a common goal: to preserve the national past, to pass on memory and knowledge to the next generation.

Speaking about the exhibition, she added that the history of the pictures includes the history of the bloody dictatorships of the 20th century, the history of silence, the history of fear, the history of preservation, transmission and solidarity. "Our job is to make it public," she stressed.

The exhibition is on display in the Museum Garden until November 27.