On the occasion of Hungary’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorations including exhibition openings, conferences and history lessons were held throughout the country.
Within the framework of the series of events, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics laid down the stones of remembrance and lit a candle at the Shoes on the Danube Promenade Jewish memorial site.
The Deputy Prime Minister declared that we commemorate not only the victims of the Holocaust but also those who could not be born because of it. He emphasised that several generations of talented and outstanding people are today missing from the Hungarian nation as a result.
Fidesz Member of the Parliament Zoltán Pokorni, who was also present at the Jewish memorial site, suggested in 2000 as Minister of Education that a remembrance day should be held each year for the victims of Holocaust on 16, April. Zoltán Pokorni expressed that the Holocaust is part of Hungarian national history, adding that those who were killed were Hungarians and those who killed were also Hungarians.
With the participation of Minister of Defence Csaba Hende, a conference entitled Rescuers during the Holocaust was held in Hódmezővásárhely.
The Minister pointed out that the responsibility of the Hungarian state and the fact that it did not defend its citizens from the depravation of rights and physical destruction shall not be forgotten, adding that if the representatives of the Hungarian state would not have complied with all available instruments to the inhumane commands, the genocide could not have taken place.
Various events were also held in the Holocaust Memorial Center, the Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, the House of Terror Museum and various Budapest theatres as well as in Hódmezővásárhely, Pécs, Szerencs, Kiskőrös and Balatonfüred.
