Sopronkőhida is a village in northwestern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, 4 km north of the city

Sopron Sopron (; german: Ödenburg, ; sl, Šopron) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő. History Ancient times-13th century When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a ...

and 5 km south of the border with

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Significance

The village is the location of an infamous Hungarian military prison. Its notoriety stems from its use in 1944, by the

Nyilas The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian nationalism, Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Kingdom of Hungary (1920- ...

government to incarcerate, torture, and execute its opponents. Famous prisoners, like General Vilmos Nagy of Nagybaczon, and

Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Endre Kálmán Bajcsy-Zsilinszky ( Szarvas, June 6, 1886 – Sopronkőhida, December 24, 1944), was an influential Hungarian national radical politician and an important voice in the struggle against German expansion and military policy. Exec ...

, were imprisoned here, with Bajcsy-Zsilinszky executed in late 1944. After World War II, the prison served as the holding facility for the Allied Military Tribunals until 1947, when it reverted again to serve as a prison until 1951. Prior to World War II, it served as a workhouse, and after 1951, the buildings were used for successive commercial enterprises. The Austrian border near the village was the site of the 1989

Pan-European Picnic The Pan-European Picnic (german: Paneuropäisches Picknick; hu, páneurópai piknik; sk, Paneurópsky piknik) was a peace demonstration held on the Austrian- Hungarian border near Sopron, Hungary on 19 August 1989. The opening of the border ...

breach by

East Germans East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

gathered to escape to

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, and which precipitated the collapse of the Iron Curtain.Der Spiegel article

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sopronkohida Populated places in Győr-Moson-Sopron County Prisons in Hungary