“The world’s responsible states must face up to the ‘world-shaking’ tragedy of the Holocaust”, Minister of State for EU Affairs Szabolcs Takács from the Prime Minister’s Office declared on International Holocaust Remembrance Day at a commemoration organised by the March of the Living Foundation in Budapest on Thursday.
Referring to the fact that about a tenth of the victims of the Shoah, some 600 thousand people, were Hungarians, Mr. Takács declared: “It is the firm standpoint of the Hungarian Government that the Hungarian nation died 600 thousand times during the Holocaust, and that in addition to the unforgivable crime of murder every Hungarian who took part in these murders or who collaborated with the murderers also committed treason”.
As a former chairman of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA), the Minister of State explained: “The Holocaust was the precursor for the establishment of both the United Nations and the IHRA, because the birth of both organisations is related to the recognition on the part of world leaders that it is only through stable and institutionalised inter-state cooperation that the Holocaust or another conflict similar to the Second World War can be prevented”.
“Those who drew up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had the Holocaust in mind when they included in the first line of the document the fact that dignity is the unalienable right of every human being, because they recognised the fact that at the heart of every crime against humanity lies a total disregard for the intrinsic value of every human being. Racist abuse and discriminative language could no longer be regarded in the same way following the Holocaust, because before stripping the victims of their lives, the Holocaust began by stripping them of their dignity”, Mr. Takács said.
The Holocaust may not be the first or last act of genocide in the history of mankind, but it was an unprecedented crime, “the collapse of civilization”, he declared.
The increased frequency of violent acts against Jewish communities and the spread of anti-Semitism throughout Europe “represents a direct threat to democracy, to the fundamental values of civilisation and to the general security of our societies”, the Minister of State stressed, adding that the task facing the international community is clear: major challenges such as anti-Semitism and the violation of human rights must be handled rapidly, with determination and without compromise, or else they will become an insurmountable problem. The Holocaust has shown what happens if we do not face these challenges both individually and internationally, the Minister of State said, stressing that in addition to remembrance “we must also take responsibility for our future”.
(MTI)
