Hungary Leader Vows To Push Forward With Controversial Nazi Occupation Monument
Always Remember: Hungarians march in Holocaust remembrance ‘March of the Living.’ Image by getty images
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Jewish community leaders he would build a controversial Nazi occupation monument despite their opposition.
Orban presented his firm position on Wednesday during a meeting with leaders of the the Mazsihisz Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, the news site www.nol.hu reported.
Mazsihisz believes the monument of an eagle attacking an angel whitewashes the prominent role that pro-Nazi Hungarian governments had in the murder of more than half a million Jews during the Holocaust by presenting Hungary as a mere victim.
Mazsihisz has pulled out of government-led activities in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion into Hungary, and has boycotted the planned unveiling of the statue at Budapest’s Freedom Square on May 31, pending talks with the government on replacing it with an alternative monument.
But during the meeting Wednesday, Orban said “there is no room for maneuvers” on the design, according to Nol.hu. Andras Heisler, president of Mazsihisz, told Hungarian media on Wednesday he had a “frank discussion” with Orban that day but would not elaborate.
On Tuesday, Orban published an open letter defending the monument which he addressed to Katalin David — a lecturer on art and member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts who had criticized the plan to unveil the statue.
“It is striking how quickly the assumption that the angel is analogous with Hungary has gained ground,” Orban wrote. “I, for instance, see in the angel the innocent victims and not some kind of innocent state.”
In his letter, Orban reiterated his government and previous governments’ recognition of widespread collaboration with the Nazis on the part of the Hungarian governments during World War II.
On Sunday, Heisler said he was “shocked” by the recent decision of the Holocaust Memorial Center, a government institution established in 1999, to cooperate with the newly established Veritas Historical Research Institute.
In January, the government appointed another controversial historian, Sandor Szakaly, to head Veritas. Szakaly said in an interview that month that the 1941 deportation and subsequent murder of tens of thousands of Jews was an “action of the immigration authorities against illegal aliens.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
