A miniature statue of Hannah Szenes, a young martyr of World War II, has just been created by Mihály Kolodko, Budapest’s legendary guerrilla sculptor. A local team organising themed walks set up the statuette in the little square named after this impossibly brave secret agent.
The Hosszúlépés. Járunk? crew have long been organising themed walks, taking in unusual sights around town. It hadn’t escaped their expert notice that of the 1,000-plus sculptures in the Hungarian capital, only some three dozen represent women.
With this in mind, Hosszúlépés. Járunk? hooked up with Mihály Kolodko – he of the site-specific statuettes such as a murdered meerkat beside a likeness of the crime-solving Columbo – to instigate a campaign for more statues of female figures. The winner was Hannah Szenes.
Already lending her name to a small park between Dob and Király utca, Szenes was a Jewish Hungarian poet who undertook a number of covert anti-Nazi activities before being arrested on the Hungarian border in possession of a British military transmitter.
Refusing to provide her captors with details of the all-important codes despite appalling torture and the arrest of her mother, Szenes was executed on November 7, 1944. In her cell, her diary contained these last lines:
Two strides across, the rest is dark
Life hangs over me like a question mark.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most
The dice were cast. I lost.
Her little likeness is part of a longer-term initiative that aims to place more women’s statues around the city in the future. The next is likely to be on the newly renovated Széna tér opposite the Mammut mall.
Watch this space!
