I often walk down the main steps from Fisherman's Bastion, and it is always a startling moment to come across this young man falling, quite obviously to his death. For so long, I meant to take a photo and look him up. I had at first thought that this was some sort of joke on the cynicism of Hungarian people: a bleak look at death in an otherwise pristine neighborhood... just because, just to remind us of our own mortality.
Although far from a joke, it is most definitely a stark statement piece, and a very tragic one at that.
Peter Mansfeld was one of the thousands of students who fought for their freedom in Hungary's 1956 Revolution against Soviet rule. When Soviet tanks finally entered Budapest to put an end to the uprising, 2,500 Hungarians were killed and tens of thousands more were left injured. Hundreds were executed in the aftermath, with some 20,000 put on trial and imprisoned. And then there are the 200,000 who are said to have escaped to the West before being captured or killed.
There was one exception made for those sentenced to die. It was against the law to execute anyone under the age of 18. Thus young Mansfeld, arrested when he was just 17, was imprisoned until his 18th birthday and then routinely executed.
This monument by Miklós Mahule, inaugurated in 2007, is in memory of Mansfeld's heroism and tragic coming of age. It is also said to symbolize how the efforts and sacrifices of so many, and so many young, ultimately "fell" on deaf ears.
I often walk down the main steps from Fisherman's Bastion, and it is always a startling moment to come across this young man falling, quite obviously to his death. For so long, I meant to take a photo and look him up. I had at first thought that this was some sort of joke on the cynicism of Hungarian people: a bleak look at death in an otherwise pristine neighborhood... just because, just to remind us of our own mortality.
Although far from a joke, it is most definitely a stark statement piece, and a very tragic one at that.
Peter Mansfeld was one of the thousands of students who fought for their freedom in Hungary's 1956 Revolution against Soviet rule. When Soviet tanks finally entered Budapest to put an end to the uprising, 2,500 Hungarians were killed and tens of thousands more were left injured. Hundreds were executed in the aftermath, with some 20,000 put on trial and imprisoned. And then there are the 200,000 who are said to have escaped to the West before being captured or killed.
There was one exception made for those sentenced to die. It was against the law to execute anyone under the age of 18. Thus young Mansfeld, arrested when he was just 17, was imprisoned until his 18th birthday and then routinely executed.
This monument by Miklós Mahule, inaugurated in 2007, is in memory of Mansfeld's heroism and tragic coming of age. It is also said to symbolize how the efforts and sacrifices of so many, and so many young, ultimately "fell" on deaf ears.
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