Budapest Thursday, April 15, shortly after police uncovered a terrorist plot to blow up a Jewish museum. Snipers on a rooftop and a clearly audible helicopter accompanied the Israeli president as he was rushed by bodyguards into a synagogue that is part of the Holocaust Memorial Centre in a narrow street of Budapest.
It was in this synagogue where Jewish people said their last prayers before being deported to concentration camps by Nazis and Hungarian fascists. 60 years later, only some survivors returned for the opening of the centre as most of their relatives and friends did not live to see this day.
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The names of about 60-thousand of the estimated 600-thousand Hungarian Jews who were massacred during World War Two are engraved on a marble wall surrounding the memorial.
Besides the synagogue, the complex include a museum and education center which is now showing a temporary exhibition of photographs of Hungarian victims arriving at concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.
RISING ANTI SEMITISM
They came from the northeastern village of Bilke, that is now part of Ukraine. There is concern that anti-Semitism is once again on the rise in Hungary, which was a close ally of Nazi Germany during most of World War Two. These worries were underscored earlier this week when Hungarian police arrested three suspects who allegedly planned to place explosives at a Jewish museum, although officials have denied it was the Memorial Center.
The main suspect, a 42-year old Hungarian citizen and Imam of an Islamic community in Budapest is in police custody, but two other suspects identified as Syrians have now been released. While inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Center, Israeli President Katsav stressed he hopes it will help to combat the “re-emergence” of hatred toward Jewish people in Europe.
In an emotionally charged speech, the president made clear how moved it was by what he saw in the center. “It is difficult to see the pictures” and other documents related to the Hungarian Holocaust, he said.
“TREMBLING HANDS”
Katsav added it was hard “to see the trembling of a hand, the shaking of knees” and “the anguish of suffering” among those being deported to concentration camps, including many children. He urged Hungarians “to remember those depicted in the pictures as well as (the many thousands) more who are not.”
His opinion is shared by Hungarian-born American Tom Lantos, who was the first Holocaust survivor to be elected to the United States congress. Answering a question from BNL ahead of the ceremony, Lantos said he hopes the Holocaust Memorial Center will help Hungarians to remember their country supported Nazi Germany during most of World War Two.
“I deeply regret that there are still elements in Hungary who wish to blame the Holocaust entirely on Germany, which is inaccurate,” he said. “Vast numbers of Hungarians personally participated in the most outrageous, murderous acts,” Lantos added. Hungary was also the first country in Europe to introduce anti-Jewish laws, limiting the number of Jewish students in higher education, which historians say created an atmosphere of hatred in which the Holocaust could thrive..
“NO EXCUSE”
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy told his audience that he was ashamed that Hungary had actively participated in the Holocaust. Medgyessy stressed that “as the prime minister of the republic of Hungary” he wanted to declare that there “no excuse and no explanation” for what he called “the heinous and unforgivable crimes committed by Hungarians against Hungarians.”
Hungarian officials also said it was time to guarantee a better future for all people and ethnic groups, a view reflected by other politicians who joined the inauguration via video links from Auschwitz and the Holocaust memorial in Washington. Musicians played a composition expressing the suffering of Hungarian Gypsies, or Roma. Thousands of Roma were also killed by Hungarian fascists and Nazis during the Second World War. Even now, Hungarian Roma are still discriminated against and live in poverty human rights groups say.
Those who helped to build the Hungarian Holocaust Center say they believe their institution will encourage future generations to understand that the acceptance of different cultures and religions is the only way to avoid a new Holocaust.
