Rock Hospital Nuclear Bunker Museum
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The Hospital in the Rock-Fallout Shelter Museum (Hungarian: Sziklakórház nuclear bunker Múzeum ) in Budapest is a museum in a former underground hospital, the Hospital in the Rock (originally Székesfővárosi Sebészeti Szükségkórház or Hauptstadtisches emergency hospital for surgery , falsely also hospital for air protection ). It is located under the Buda Castle District on an area of approx. 2,300 m² and was used during the Second World War and the Hungarian People's Uprising .
During the Cold War until 2002 it was a top secret object, a so-called “air raid hospital ”, with the sign LOSK 0101/1 . In 2008, a museum with the largest wax figure exhibition in Hungary was opened there. It depicts the history of the hospital, the development of military medicine, as well as the instruments and devices used by civil defense.
The exhibition was organized by the Military History Museum and Institute, the State Board of Directors for Disaster Protection, the Board of Directors for Civil Defense and the St. Johann Hospital.
history
1939-1945
The Rock Hospital (originally: Capital Emergency Hospital for Surgery , sometimes incorrectly referred to as Air Defense Hospital) is located under the Buda Castle District . A 10 km long, natural cave and cellar system runs under the castle hill, which has always been used and expanded by the residents. Before the Second World War, they fortified these systems, limited the number of entrances and connected some rooms with one another so that the system, located 10-15 meters deep, could be used as a shelter in the event of air raids.
The I. District and the castle functioned as a government district at that time. In addition to the air raid and medical concerns, this was one of the reasons why Szendy Károly, the district's mayor, ordered the construction of an air raid hospital.
To reduce costs, the hospital was aligned with the cave system - rooms became sickrooms, corridors became corridors.
The construction work went very quickly between 1939 and 1944, and so the surgical emergency hospital for the capital was opened in February 1944. The main purpose of the hospital was to provide general first aid, treating civilians and military personnel wounded during air strikes.
The widow of István Horthy (Countess Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai), the main nurse of the Red Cross, attended the opening ceremony .
It was subordinated to the Saint John Hospital, the director became István Kovács, assistant professor and chief surgeon. About forty doctors were working rotating shifts in the hospital at the time. The care was supported by numerous volunteer Red Cross nurses, such as Countess Cziráki and Countess Andrássy.
The hospital's capacity was around 200 people, but it was completely overcrowded during the siege of Budapest. According to eyewitnesses, there were 650 to 700 patients here, and those for whom there was no space in the hospital were placed in the cave system. The mortality was very high because of the infection and due to lack of medicines and equipment.
Civilians and soldiers were housed together in the hospital, and there was a separate room for women. German soldiers were also treated here, but mostly in their own hospital instead. There were also Swabians here ( Hungarian Germans ) who were forced to join the Waffen SS .
The hospital's generators made it possible to use its X-ray machine and other instruments during the siege of Budapest , while this was not possible in most other hospitals. There were 30 Jewish doctors in the hospital who were obliged to do labor and who later could not deport the Arrow Cross members , thanks to the district commissioner. They were dressed like Hungarian military doctors and were able to save the lives of Hungarian civilians and soldiers. On the day of the outbreak, the outpatients left the hospital, others stayed at home or were transferred to other hospitals until May 1945.
1946-1952
Most of the equipment was taken away, some hospital rooms were rented by private companies and until 1949 a typhus vaccination was produced here for Yugoslavia. At the beginning of the 1950s, the facility was classified as top secret - it stayed that way until 2002. It was given the code LOSK 0101/1.
Because of the Cold War, an expansion began here in 1952, and the hospital also got a new ward.
1956-1957
Although it was not prepared, the hospital had to open on October 24, 1956, during the revolution. Civilians and soldiers were treated, and boys and a girl were born there. After the crackdown on the revolution it was a prison hospital. By the end of the year, the patients lying here were taken away and arrested (except for Endre Bácskai, he was able to escape). In 1963 they received an amnesty.
1958–1962
Between 1958 and 1962, the hospital was expanded and rebuilt so that it could be used in the event of a nuclear attack. At that time the log hall (for decontamination) as well as the ventilation and water system were expanded. It also had a source and suction pump on the Danube, war gas filters and an energy supply system. It also had two GANZ diesel generators with which the hospital could be operated in the event of a power failure. Compromised people were hired for these tasks - who could not get another job after 1956. The construction manager, István Bakonyi, was hired by the capital. It was also checked by a caretaker: "Szabó bácsi" (Ohm Szabó) was commissioned by the AHV (Hungarian State Security Service).
1962-2007
The hospital was completed and continues to be supervised by the Heiligen-Johann Hospital. According to the plan, in the event of an attack, doctors and nurses would have to come here to treat patients after 72 hours of total and partial blockage. At that time the hospital had a powerful air conditioning system.
Because of the development of military technology, it has been out of date since the 1960s. Nobody wanted to put it down, however: the Heiliger-Johann-Hospital managed it and the civil defense used it as a storage place. Until the mid-1980s, doctors and nurses came to the hospital for the so-called civil defense exercise. There was also a caretaker family here until 2004, they lived in the front part of today's museum and secretly maintained the hospital. The ventilation and electrical systems had to be maintained by Mr Mohácsi, his wife had to clean everything, sterilize it and make the beds again every two weeks. After 2004, the temporary work was done by the employees of the Heiligen-Johann Hospital. Between 2004 and 2006 the Krétakör Theater used it for a performance. In 2006 it could be visited on Heritage Day. Until 2007 it was neither renovated nor modernized.
The museum
It has been under constant renovation since 2007, until today the memories of eyewitnesses are collected and the historical work is ongoing. In 2007, on the initiative of the Military History Museum and numerous other professional institutions, the Sziklakórház Gemeinnützige Nonprofit Kft. Made the facility accessible to visitors. The construction work was self-financed. The museum was partially opened on the Night of the Museums in 2007. The museum has been open continuously since March 2008, followed by further work. The exhibition is expanded annually with the title “Secret Air Raid Hospital and Nuclear Bunker”. In 2014 the museum was recognized as a thematic museum by the minister of the Ministry of Human Resources, since then the museum and the exhibition have been known as the “Rock Hospital-Nuclear Bunker Museum”.
Exhibition openings, anniversaries
- 2008 Military Hospital and Sanitary Exhibition from World War II, the 1956 Revolution, and the Cold War
- 2008 nuclear bunker and civil defense exhibition (Cold War)
- 2008 Civil Defense Alarm Center 1944
- 2009 the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Felsenkrankenhaus in 1944 - sanitary exhibition: medical instruments and apparatus between 1940 and 1980
- 2010 school program: "People in Inhumanity"
- 2011 Exhibition in honor of Friedrich Born
- 2012 Exhibition: Special Forces of the Military
- 2014 the 70th anniversary of the opening of the hospital in 1944 - "the rock hospital comes to life"
- 2015 Exhibition on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - "Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds"
location
The hospital at Lovas út 4 / c can be reached on foot from Matthias Church. The entrance is on the “back” of Castle Hill, under Szentháromság Street and Tóth Árpád Street, on Lovas Street.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 47 ° 30 ′ 2.6 ″ N , 19 ° 1 ′ 53.5 ″ E