Hungary officially assumed the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) on Monday. The handover ceremony was held in Berlin, the seat of the Permanent Office of the international organisation.
At the ceremony held at the Hungarian Embassy in Berlin, Szabolcs Ferenc Takács, who has been appointed to supervise the Hungarian Chairmanship as a ministerial commissioner under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office, highlighted that the fight against antisemitism, the promotion of education related to the Holocaust, the cause of the Roma genocide and the situation of Roma communities in Europe will be in the focus of the Chairmanship programme. He emphasised that the Chairmanship is a great honour for Hungary.
Szabolcs Ferenc Takács pointed out that Jewish life is „thriving” in Hungary once again, and the programme has been developed in close cooperation with Jewish communities. In addition to the efforts designed to serve the principal goals of IHRA – Holocaust remembrance and the promotion of education –, during the year of the Hungarian Chairmanship the emphasis will also be shifted towards the wider dissemination of information on the Hungarian Jewish community before the Holocaust and today.
The ministerial commissioner told MTI in an interview after the ceremony that Hungary was given the Chairmanship on the basis of the consensual decision of the 31 IHRA Member Countries which is an „important and powerful message”; it indicates that „our international partners have no doubts concerning the commitment of the Hungarian Government”.
He reiterated: Hungary took part in the foundation of IHRA in 2000 and assumed the Chairmanship in 2006. The Holocaust Memorial Day was introduced in 2000, a Holocaust Memorial Centre was inaugurated in Budapest, the Government organised a Wallenberg memorial year in 2012 and a Holocaust memorial year in 2014, and enforces the principle of zero tolerance in the context of antisemitism and hate speech.
The awarding of the Chairmanship for a second time is a recognition and „logical consequence” of all these efforts, and its main message is that the Member Countries of IHRA „have faith in us”, Szabolcs Ferenc Takács said.
IHRA will hold two general meetings during the year of the Hungarian Chairmanship; one in Budapest, and the other one in Debrecen. The seat of Hajdú-Bihar County was selected to showcase that Jewish communities are continuously growing also in the provinces, and to involve the Transylvanian Jewish community as well as Romania, the Member Country to next assume the Chairmanship, the ministerial commissioner said.
Another strong argument in favour of Debrecen was that the Government’s synagogue refurbishment programme will also extend to this city, he added, highlighting that another major government programme will be launched as well, as part of which 1,500 mostly abandoned Jewish cemeteries will be renovated in cooperation with Jewish communities and the local population, with special regard to students.
Three major international conferences will be organised during the Hungarian Chairmanship. The topic of one of the conferences will be the representation of the Holocaust and its language in public speech, with special regard to the emergence of antisemitism on the Internet. The second conference will form part of IHRA’s series of conferences that began in London last year which is concerned with the Roma Holocaust and the situation of the Roma. The third conference will deal with current-day antisemitism in Europe under the title: Revival of antisemitism in Eastern-Central and Western-Europe, Szabolcs Ferenc Takács told the news agency.
As regards the organisation and relations of IHRA, the Hungarian Chairmanship will focus on the development of relations established with Observer Countries, the reinforcement of cooperation with the Vatican which started during the previous British Chairmanship, and the enhancement of the „visibility” of IHRA, in particular, in the region of the former Soviet Union where the process of openly and publicly facing the Holocaust could only begin in the last 25 years, the ministerial commissioner said.
In his speech at the ceremony held on Monday evening, Sir Andrew Burns, head of the outgoing British Chairmanship, highlighted that IHRA accepted Albania, Moldova and El Salvador as observer countries and intensified relations with the Vatican in the past year.
At the ceremony, the head of the Hungarian delegation, Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Deputy State Secretary for EU Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Office opened the exhibition „Synagogue Architecture in Central-Eastern Europe between 1782-1944”, which introduces a number of refurbished synagogues in Hungary. Szalay-Bobrovniczky stressed that the synagogue is not only a place of prayer but also a centre of Jewish intellectual and community life which reflects the community’s values and identity.
The exhibition which invites visitors on an „architectural journey through time” will become a travelling exhibition during the Hungarian Chairmanship and will be presented at Hungarian embassies in several IHRA Member Countries.
The handover ceremony was attended by more than a hundred guests, including diplomats and executives of IHRA’s Permanent Office in Berlin. János Forgács, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor delivered a lecture at the ceremony, while singer Judit Klein performed Jewish songs accompanied by pianist Zoltán Neumark.
After the ceremony, Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in answer to MTI’s question that, in addition to representatives of the Government, experts from a number of academic organisations, including the Budapest Archive, the Tom Lantos Institute, the Jesuit Roma Residential College and the Antall József Knowledge Centre will also take part in the work of IHRA’s Hungarian delegation.
IHRA was founded at the initiative of former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson. It is an international inter-governmental organisation with 31 Member Countries and 8 Observer Countries. Its principal objective is to promote the preservation of Holocaust remembrance and research and education related to the Holocaust.
(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)
