 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
Smoke hangs above a pile of burning records and photographs of Joseph Stalin. Two men in long trench coats add pieces of paper bearing the famous mustache of a man known for oppression, to the burning debris. This scene, displayed in deep tones of black, gray and white is one of 23 photos placed on polished iron that visitors will be faced with on the bottom floor of the Dimond Library.
Freedom '56: Commemorating the Hungarian Revolution, a black and white photography exhibit now on display in the University Museum, depicts the revolutionary impact of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 on the Soviet stronghold in Hungary and all of Europe.
The exhibit was first displayed in Boston in 2006 and traveled around the country, including the Portsmouth Public Library, before making its stop at the University Museum.
Freedom '56 was opened to the public at UNH on Feb. 14, 2008 when its creator, Gabor Garai, honorary consul general of Hungary, spoke on behalf of his creative and highly anticipated historical venture. The exhibit will remain open to the public till July 3, 2008 where hopefully many will be able to experience history through the eyes of Associated Press photographer Erich Lessing, the man responsible for the emotional and sometimes shocking shots portrayed in the exhibit. Garai and Lessing, who were both present in Budapest at the time of the revolution, began the Freedom '56 joint venture when Garai convinced Lessing to publicly publish his remarkable photos in an exhibit to help bring awareness to the crucial shift in communist power that the revolution initiated.
"The point of having the exhibit here was the Budapest study abroad program connection," said Dale Valena, the museum curator. "Several classes on European history that cover this period were also interested is seeing the exhibit as well."
UNH currently sends around 40 to 60 justice studies, business and engineering majors per semester to Budapest, Hungary, for their study abroad programs. Jeff Sherman, assistant coordinator of the UNH study abroad program, discussed the impact of the revolution on students' experiences in Budapest. He studied abroad in Budapest himself when he was a student in 1993 and also spent some time working there after graduation in 1996.
"You are living in history there," said Sherman. "You can still see the bullet holes in the buildings and you wonder which invasion they're from."
Shermans' first Budapest experience came five short years after the last Soviet solider left the country. When he returned to the city three years later in 1996, he was amazed by the small changes that had already taken place.
"There were Chinese restaurants and no NATO," said Sherman.
Kyle Zorawowicz, a civil engineering major here at UNH, just returned from a semester abroad in Budapest and cannot stop smiling about his experience.
"If you get the chance to study abroad, do it," said Zorawowicz. "Just go anywhere you can."
While spending his semester in Budapest, Zorawowicz also experienced the layered history of Budapest through the permanently remaining holes of the past.
"You walk around the city and see all the bullet holes and the parts of buildings where bombs exploded," said Zorawowicz. "It's amazing."
The exhibit focuses on post World War II Hungary between 1945 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
"We're trying to put the general word out about the exhibit, especially to those of Hungarian decent," said Velena. "We had a nice opening where several people from Boston attended."
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