Ministerial Commissioner Szabolcs Takács, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) delivered a speech at the Hungarian Institute in Pozsony (Bratislava) at the symposium entitled „Churches and rescuing human lives in World War II” on 5 October 2015.

October the fifth has been Raoul Wallenberg Day in the United States since 1992, while in Hungary we have remembered the Rescuers of Human Lives since 2000.

Mr Takács highlighted in his speech as Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance: it is important that the subject-matter of „Churches and rescuing human lives in World War II” was given an academic forum at the Hungarian Institute in Pozsony on the day when we remember those who have saved human lives.  It is the science of remembering when we pay our respects to those who have saved lives, and remembering makes visible that which is beyond the past: the present and the future. It is therefore imperative that the acts of those who have saved human lives should be assigned the place that they deserve in our memory, whether we remember them on our own, in smaller groups or in larger church or other communities. There were not many who rescued human lives, and it is certain that there cannot have been enough of them. When we offer future generations a model, an example to be followed, in addition to those who were responsible for events in the past, we must also notice and make others notice the active heroes of hope, the Ministerial Commissioner stressed.

The life and acts of Raoul Wallenberg encourage us that, should the need arise, we should not hesitate to act in the interest of saving human lives, humanity, and eventually ourselves, and also warn us that the fight against inhumanity will never end. This is also why it is obvious that we need to enforce zero tolerance against all forms of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which Hungary chairs this year, has from the very beginning built on that which Raoul Wallenberg’s memory stands for. An important objective of Hungary’s IHRA chairmanship is that the most significant conclusions should reach as many people as possible, primarily among the younger generations, against the background of the challenges and opportunities of the world today. To this end, the chairmanship disseminates the objectives of IHRA to the generations of the future at more than a hundred cultural and academic events world-wide this year.

„I know that it is often stated, but I find it necessary to highlight nonetheless: the teaching that those who save a single man save the entire humanity is in no way a mere cliché”, Mr Takács said.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)