Auschwitz anniversary

A left-wing commentator thinks Prime Minister Orbán should have attended the commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. A right-wing analyst quotes his words, admitting Hungary’s guilt for the Holocaust.

In Népszabadság, Gábor Miklós suggests that Hungary should have been represented at the Auschwitz commemoration by the Prime Minister or the President rather than by Human Resources Minister Zoltán Balog. He quotes a well informed source according to whom Mr Orbán hates anti-Semitism, and he does not question that information. Nevertheless, he criticises the Prime Minister as someone who “needs the anti-Semitic vote”. Miklós thinks “that arouses fear among the survivors”.

In Magyar Hírlap, Sándor Faggyas admits that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe, and verbal anti-Semitism can also be detected in Hungary. Nevertheless he points out that unlike in France, Germany or Belgium, no physical atrocities against Jewish people have occurred for many years in Hungary. He praises Orbán for again acknowledging the guilt of “many, many Hungarians” in “choosing Evil” during the Holocaust and admitted that “we were loveless and indifferent when we should have helped”. The memory of the Holocaust, the pro-government commentator writes, must be kept alive, in order to prevent the repetition of those horrors.

Tags: anti-Semitism, Holocaust