The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (FHJC) will not be attending this year’s official Holocaust commemoration unless the role played by Hungarians in the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews is more clearly described during the event. The group, which is the main Jewish organization in Hungary, voted on the decision today.
Hungary is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the transport of more than 430 000 Hungarian Jews to the Nazi death camps this year. The FHJC says it does not like the efforts by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government to portray Hungary as a victim of German aggression and to fully assign responsibility for the Holocaust to the Germans.
That is said to be the symbolism of an enormous memorial planned to be unveiled on the anniversary of the occupation of Hungary by Germany in March 1944 – and the FHJC wants the government not to go through with it. Critics consider the erection of such a memorial as part of efforts by Orbán’s government to obscure the responsibility of the former representatives of Hungary and of local security forces at the time for the deportation of the Jews in June 1944.
András Heiszler, chair of the FHJC, has confirmed that his organization rejects the government’s plans to build both a center and a memorial commemorating the Holocaust in Budapest, as well as the monument to the occupation of Hungary by Germany in March 1944. The FHJC is also protesting against the appointment of a new director to an historical institute whom the FHJC believes has made statements justifying the deportation of the Jews from Hungary.
"If we do not receive a clear answer to these matters from the government, our decision will be final," Reuters quotes Heiszler as saying. He added that he anticipated a response within a few days’ time.
The FHJC is also criticizing the building of a center to commemorate the Holocaust at the train station in Budapest which became the assembly point for deporting Jews to the death camps in 1944. The group believes that center will minimize the role of Hungarian collaboration in the deportations.
The government has stated that it intends to commemorate all of the victims of the events that occurred after the Nazi invasion on 19 March 1944. "The victims deserve our condolences and a dignified remembrance," a government spokesperson said last month.
