‘As if I bore them all in one night, They slew them in a single night.’ These were the words spoken by the mother, whose four teenage children were all killed on the same day by the Derg, who officially opened the small but powerful ‘Red Terror’ Martyrs Memorial Museum in 2010. Over the space of a couple of rooms the museum reveals the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie and the horrors of life under Mengistu’s Derg regime. The museum is well laid out and incredibly moving. Nothing more so than the walls of photos and names of just some of the estimated half a million killed under the Derg, or the display cabinets filled with human remains dug out of mass graves. Some of the skulls and other bones are displayed alongside a photo of the victim and personal artefacts they had on them when they died. The watch hanging in one display case was given by the victim to his wife with the words ‘Keep this safe. One day you will need it’, just as he was led away by the soldiers of the Derg. When the museum opened she brought it here.
Excellent English-speaking guides are often available, although you may prefer to just look on in silence.
The museum is funded by donations only.
