Deb and I had one of our most rewarding foreign travel experiences ever while visiting Budapest, Hungary, in eastern Europe. It is a beautiful city located on the scenic Danube River and we enjoyed our stay there. Our travel guru is Rick Steves and his travel guide suggested a visit to one of the oddest remnants of the communist past of Hungary on the outskirts of the city.

We took a bus, in part because Steves suggested it but also because we love riding public transit with “real” people. Although the bus was full, we were the only tourists. And, as it turned out, we were the only people who spoke English. We knew we had to get off and switch buses but we really didn’t know where. But it was clear that the people on the bus had figured out where we were going and they really wanted us to get there. .

We came to a stop and people indicated that we should get off. We did and when we started to head for the wrong corner, the bus driver held the bus and a passenger got out and signaled the proper corner. As the bus pulled away, people were looking at us and smiling. I will always remember Budapest in the faces of those smiling people. We caught the next bus, rode a short distance, got out, walked up a slight hill and there it was: Momento Park.

To understand Momento Park, you need a little background. Soviet Russia and it’s satellites, like Hungary, were big on branding. And so cities across Eastern Europe were filled with reminders of Soviet greatness and of statues of the great founding trinity of socialism: Marx, Engels and Lenin. (There would have been statues of Stalin, too, but they were all removed and destroyed in the 1950s after people learned of the atrocities he had authorized and performed in the name of consolidating power. It was called De-Stalinization. He just disappeared. Such is history in a highly censored society.)

When communism fell, one of the first things that happened was that hated symbols of communist oppression, murder and deprivation were destroyed. But some Hungarians thought that the statues and plaques should be preserved. Were they interested in preserving historical artifacts? Making a little money? I don’t know. Whatever their motives, Momento Park opened a year after the fall of communism. Of course, the park has statues of the “trinity.” But there are also big beefy communist men and big beefy communist women. They are strong, healthy, resolute and, as in the example above, boldly marching into the . . . . future? There is a theater at Momento Park that shows a film about the horrors perpetrated for decades by the communist Hungarian secret police should you need to be reminded.

When it comes to statues in the US that some see as symbols of treason, oppression and deprivation, perhaps the Hungarians provide a model. Rather than destroy or hide the statues, perhaps they could be put in a museum and used to educate. I realize that this isn’t quite as simple given that few Hungarians saw Lenin and his cohorts as heroes, and some people see Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and even Christopher Columbus as good role models for a nationalist racial cause that needs to be furthered. But it’s an idea.

After visiting the park, Deb and I caught a bus back to the city center. As it turns out, we sat near a Hungarian woman who spoke English. She was in her late 50s or early 60s. I remember her as being poised, curious and welcoming. And she had a beautiful, broad smile. That she could smile was striking to me because she told us that her husband had been murdered by the Hungarian secret police years before for some supposed crime. He just disappeared one night.

Having met her, it wasn’t hard at all to understand why walking past a statue of Lenin or of a Hungarian communist dictator would have been a painful experience and a constant reminder of her loss. I’m guessing she had no urge to go visit Memento Park.

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