Hungary Slammed for Honoring Leader Who Deported Jews to Auschwitz
Image by File
U.S. congressional leaders have protested the construction of a monument in Hungary to a government minister who ordered the death of some 500,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
The co-chairs of the U.S. House Bipartisan Taskforce for Combatting Anti-Semitism on Friday sent a letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban protesting the monument to Balint Homan, a minister in Hungary in the 1930s and ’40s. Homan participated in drafting legislation in 1938 and ’39 that restricted the rights of Hungarian Jews, and in 1944 he called for their deportation.
Some 420,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.
The life-size bronze statue of Homan, largely funded by the Hungarian government, is scheduled to be unveiled this month in the city of Szekesfehervar.
The committee in its letter wrote of its “deep concern” about the statue, saying Homan “spearheaded Hungary’s anti-Jewish legislation and paved the way for deportations of and atrocities against Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.”
“We urge you to publicly condemn Homan’s role in the persecution and deportation of innocent Hungarians and to withdraw government funding for the construction of this or any statue in his honor,” the members wrote.
The co-chairs of the task force are Reps. Nita Lowey, Eliot Engel and Steve Israel, all New York Democrats; Ted Deutch, D-Fla.; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.; Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Kay Granger, R-Texas; and Peter Roskam, R-Ill.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
