For me this event is unforgettable and cannot be confused with any other: June 1989, New Public Cemetery, Plot 301, setting up grave posts. My friends and I felt it absurd and intolerable that our well known and lesser known heroes – for that is what we considered the participants of the Revolution of 1956 – rested in unmarked graves in conditions unworthy of human beings, buried in the farthest corner of the cemetery. We wanted to erect a monument to them and to all those who rest elsewhere, as well as to those who survived. We did not want the memorial to be for any single person, since despite their differences their fate became intertwined forming a single ideal. This is why we decided to set up a memorial to all of them. The cemetery plot their bodies were dumped in had become the symbol of brutal retribution, and we felt that it was the best place to erect 301 uniquely carved wooden grave posts in the form of a spiral. From the moment we began to carry out the idea I felt imbued with a feeling of being freed. The moral obligation had been weighing me down for years – I had always felt that it had to be done – and I was simply happy that András Kozcogh and my friends in the Inconnu group, and I, were doing what we knew and felt was right. I didn’t care about the possible consequences. I felt that we must carry this out whatever would happen.

   

The group portrait is of us and the men who answered our call, broadcast on Radio Free Europe, to help set up the posts and finish the memorial. They came of their own accord bearing shovels, picks, and earth-borers. There were many of them. Some came alone, others in groups. Complete factory brigades came not caring whether they’d be fired or not, or whether their lives would be made more difficult. We didn’t even know their proper names, only their first names: Józsi, Sanyi… But they didn’t come to be famous. They came because it was important to them that they help. The joint effort was full of hope, another feeling I felt strongly. If we could create something, then that something will have been created. Neither the human aspect, nor the product itself, could be undone. Connections between people can be made, and one does not have to stay within the confines of the opposition. All you need is the right goal. It was fantastic to experience their solidarity and eagerness to help, as well as their courage. These moments of selflessness, unanimous accord, and spontaneous cooperation are unforgettable. I will always be proud to have been a part of it.