On Friday a commemoration was held in the Dohány utca synagogue on the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto.

Szabolcs Takács, Minister of State for EU Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office, said the tragedy of our compatriots killed purely due to their Jewish origin is one of the heaviest burdens in the history of our nation which we can never forget.

There is nothing that can serve as an excuse for the horrors of the past and forgetting. The memory of the Holocaust is our collective responsibility, and a part of our heritage that we can never forget, he added.

He highlighted that, in addition to commemorating the victims, we must also celebrate the survivors who looked terror in the eye “with death-defying courage”, and had enough strength to start again after the siege.

Mr Takács stressed that the Hungarian government will not resign itself to hatred, and will not tolerate any threat that could jeopardise the unity and peace of the nation and Jewish-Christian European culture, he stated.

He said the government has announced a policy of zero tolerance against anti-Semitism, and has incorporated Holocaust education into the national curriculum. A Holocaust museum and memorial centre has operated in the capital with the Hungarian government’s support for almost two decades, he highlighted.

Hungary has the largest Jewish community in Central Europe, Budapest boasts the world’s second largest synagogue, and “Jewish cultural life is thriving” in Hungary. There are regular Jewish festivals, and the government provides significant funding for the renovation of synagogues and the refurbishment of abandoned Jewish cemeteries. The refurbishment of the synagogue in Rumbach utca was completed entirely from state funds, and the Hungarian government is also contributing to the reconstruction of the New Synagogue in Szeged. The refurbishment of Jewish treasures of Hungarian cultural heritage continues in the territory of Historical Hungary as well, including Transcarpathia, Partium and Vojvodina, Mr Takács listed.

Tamás Ács, President of the Budapest Jewish Congregation (BZSH) said many take the view that after all these years, it would be time to forget, and we should not mention the past year after year as the generation that underwent the horrors has almost entirely died out. However, their descendants carry the sufferings of their parents and grandparents in their genes and souls, he added.

It is a duty of the descendants of survivors to commemorate, and at the same time to remind people of the cruelties of the Holocaust in Hungary and the responsibility of the perpetrators. This is what we should expect from every decent human being as well as from historians many of whom are inclined to rewrite and to change the documented facts, the President of BZSH stressed.

Mr Ács expressed hope that ideologies which exclude certain individuals simply on the basis of their religion, origin or skin colour and force them into ghettos surrounded by walls for the purpose of their physical restriction will never again take hold either in Hungary or anywhere else in the world.

Chief Rabbi Péter Kardos, a Holocaust survivor, highlighted that 74 years ago the soldiers of the Soviet army liberated two ghettos. The one situated in the neighbourhood of Dohány utca, and the so-called international ghetto – which was referred to as the “protected houses” – which is located in today’s 13th district. The latter was not fenced off, signs on the gate of each house indicated which state’s protection the Jewish people living there were under. However, protection only lasted until the first Arrow Cross units broke in and tore down all the “Schutzpass”, the letters of protection issued by embassies, the Chief Rabbi said.

Regarding liberation, quoting former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he said “they gave life back to us, but not freedom as they had none to give”. The Interior Minister’s decree designating the boundaries of the “large” ghetto of Budapest was published on 29 November 1944. The area bordered by Dohány utca, Nagyatádi Szabó (today Kertész) utca, Király utca, Csányi utca, Rumbach Sebestyén utca, Madách Imre út, Madách Imre tér and Károly körút, was sealed on 10 December. Some 40,000 people were moved into the 4,513 flats of the ghetto – from which around 12,000 Christians were forced to move out – from scattered yellow-star houses around the city. This number increased rapidly, and reached 70,000 to 80,000 by the beginning of the following year.

Despite the efforts of the Red Cross, the people living in over-crowded conditions only had access to 700 to 800 calories of food daily (bread rations were limited to 150 grammes), and when the Soviet siege finally encircled the entire city at the end of December, the situation became even more critical. Health conditions in the ghetto were cruel and barbaric, people were dying in masses; in December 80 to 120 dead bodies were removed from the ghetto every day. At the time of the liberation of the ghetto on 18 January 1945, more than 3,000 unburied corpses were found in Klauzál tér alone.

(MTI)