“Today’s Hungary cannot be a modern and democratic state if we do not eradicate the very seed of anti-Semitism from the thinking of Hungarian society”, Minister of State for the Development and Coordination of EU Policies Szabolcs Takács from the Prime Minister’s Office said prior to the screening of the digitally remastered version of Schindler’s List in the Urania National Film Theatre. Stephen Spielberg’s multi-Oscar-winning work premiered 25 years after the release of the original version to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

Prior to the screening of the film, with a special introduction by Stephen Spielberg, Mr. Takács stressed: “In Hungary, there is zero tolerance with respect to anti-Semitism”. “It is not enough for anti-Jewish language to have political and legal consequences, however; today’s Hungary cannot be a modern and democratic state if we do not eradicate the very seed of anti-Semitism from the thinking of Hungarian society”, the politician pointed out, according to whom this the responsibility of all of us. “What happened from the 1930s until the end of the Second World War was the end of civilisation. Many Hungarians chose the bad in those years, and the Hungarian state at the time did not protect its citizens either”, he added.

However, we must also commemorate those who chose the good instead of the bad at great personal risk. Mr. Takács also stated: “Auschwitz is the largest cemetery in Hungarian history, and the six million victims of the holocaust isn’t just a statistical number, but six million personal tragedies”.

The Auschwitz deathcamp was liberated on 27 January 1945, in memory of which on 1 November 2005 the UN General Assembly declared 27 January the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)