Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)
Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum
THE DESTRUCTION OF 1956 1956 was a significant year in Hungary's history not only in the political context. During the revolution - which was fought for democratic changes in the country and which was finally drowned in blood - Soviet bomb attacks fell on some of our cultural buildings probably this was pre-designed. Among these buildings was the National Museum, where stood - along others - the famous-in-Europe Africa Exhibition, and the building of the Department of Zoology in Baross street, in which the largest damage was suffered by the Herpetological Collection. We can imagine the sad events of October most authentically from the personal report by FERENC MIHÁLYI (1906-1997): "...the collection survived World War II and the siege of Budapest in chests in the basement of the museum, though the building suffered more severe damage than it has in this year. Now, however, the revolution which broke out suddenly, caught the museum totally unprepared. It was impossible to defend the material..." "...the Department of Zoology only has exhibitions in the building of the National Museum. Among these the most popular and most beautiful was the Africa-exhibition. Unfortunately, the two 20-metres halls were absolutely destroyed. In one of them - the one which housed the elephants - stood the world's largest and most beautiful diorama created by the museum's preparators and artists from the trophies of Kálmán Kittenberger. Not only the Hungarian visitors looked upon it with admiration, also experienced foreign professionals spoke about it with rapture noting they have never ever seen such a scene elsewhere. In the other great hall, Sándor Ory's perfect lions, chimpanzees, and a rhino were destroyed. Fortunately, the crocodile-hall did not catch fame, though an exploding grenade caused great damage here. The corridor-hall's antelope-heads got smoky and sooty, but probably they can be cleaned. The Department of Zoology exhibitions on the other side of the building remained unharmed. After the conflagration, we walked through the destroyed exhibitions with grief in our hearts, hoping that this was the end of the devastation. Unfortunately, it was not. On the 5 f of November, battles raged around the building in Baross street. Here stood the scientific collections and workrooms of the Departments of Zoology and Anthropology. Bombs exploded in the collection of reptiles and amphibians on the top floor. The few thousand specimens stored in alcohol caught flame, and more than 20,000 litres of alcohol ran out, turning the whole annex into a sea of flames. The fire spread to the neighbouring fish collection, where there was also alcohol in almost 3,500 bottles. The inhabitants of the neighbouring house formed a chain and helped the firemen. The doors and windows of the butterfly collection stood in flames and even the furniture started to burn. However, the fire was finally extinguished, and the Lepidoptera collection - containing 400,000 specimens - was saved. Even though almost one-third of the buildings - along with the collections stored in them - were destroyed..." (MIHÁLYI 1956). For the public, the tragedy of the Natural History Museum was summarized by ISTVÁN BOROS director general in the yearbook of the museum (BOROS 1957). As MIHÁLYI also wrote, the Herpetological Collection was absolutely burnt out: 15—20 thousands of Hungarian (Carpathian Basin) materials, mainly the collections of BOLKAY, DELY, DUDICH, ÉHIK, FEJÉRVÁRY, GEDULY, MÉHELY, PONGRÁCZ and VASVÁRI and 18-20 thousands of
