Prohászka László: Polish Monuments - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
was the highest among them. This is explained by the fact that many Poles persecuted after the 1830-31 uprising and the unsuccessful 1856 Krakow revolution had found refuge in Hungary, where they were received with demonstrative sympathy. Among the generals and field officers just over four per cent were Poles, some in prestigious positions. Lieutenant General Henryk Dembinski was chief commander of the Hungarian army, a Polish legion fought under the command of Józef Wysocki and Jerzy Bulharin, while from December 1848 the Transylvanian army was headed by the legendary Polish figure Józef Bern (1794-1850)—affectionately known as ‘Uncle Bern’ by the Hungarians. On the wall of the neo-Classical former István Archduke Hotel at Akadémia utca 1, by the side of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, there is a bronze relief of Józef Bem (Zoltán Farkas, 1926). The building has housed several organisations including, since 1996, the Polish Council of Budapest. The artist relied on a famous 1849 drawing by Sándor Petőfi, Bern’s aide-de-camp, which is held in the national Széchényi Library. Set in a red marble frame, the squareshaped relief shows a portrait of Bern looking to the left with the name General Bem written below. The white marble plaque above the relief bears the following inscription: General Bem, born in Poland, rising to become a hero in Hungary, deceased in Turkey / stayed here 9-27 Houember 1848. / Erected in his memory by the Hungarian-Polish Association /1926. The marble plate below the relief made in 2000 displays the Polish translation of the above inscription. Converting to the Muslim faith in Turkey and called Murad Pasha, Bern was governor of Aleppo when he died on 10 December 1850. His remains were brought home by the Polish government in 1929. On 27 June, on its way from Aleppo to Tarnow, the train carrying Bern’s remains stopped in Budapest and the inhabitants of the city had an opportunity to pay their final respect in front of his coffin. This event brought to public attention the fact that there were no statues of the legendary generals of the War of Independence in 18
