On the 24th day of the month of Adar according to the Jewish calendar we remember what happened here in Hungary 80 years ago. We remember how the final, bloodiest, and most horrific chapter of the Holocaust began with the Nazi occupation of Hungary.On this day, Sunday, March 19, 1944, with the German units Gestapo arrival. Along with them came the 100-or-so-men-strong Eichmann commandos, with the task to annihilate – together with the state apparatus led by governor Miklós Horthy – the more than 800,000 Hungarian Jews.The Holocaust in Hungary neither began in 1944 nor with the Nazi occupation. On March 19, 1944, my father had been suffering in the forced labor service for a long time in the Úrkút manganese mine, together with hundreds of his fellow Jews. Thousands more labored in the Bor copper mine in Serbia and elsewhere in inhumane conditions, while tens of thousands of even more unfortunate ones were driven to the Eastern Front and had been perishing for three years without weapons, proper equipment and clothing.All of this was a consequence of antisemitism – also incited by the state – the culmination of a process during which Jewish citizens, or citizens considered Jewish according to the law, were gradually deprived of their rights, job opportunities, property, free movement, or even the opportunity to keep in touch with their family members.There are things that can be forgiven, amended, and even forgotten, but what happened to us during the Shoah can neither be forgiven nor made right, and especially cannot be forgotten.
The importance of remembering the past
There is a sobering quote from Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel from Máramaros-Sighet that underscores the importance of the remembrance. He said: “If we forget, the dead will be killed a second time.”We must not let the Holocaust, or any other heinous act committed against our people, escape our consciousness.Remembrance is about the past, but it speaks to the present and shapes the future. We must do everything we can to ensure that each new generation faces the heritage of the past clearly and recognizes its significance in the present. It is especially important to keep this in mind because the social processing of the whole tragedy of the Shoah in Hungary – just like in most of the affected countries – is still pending.As long as the majority of society not only knows, but also feels that the Holocaust is not only a tragedy of the Jews, but of the entire nation, it remains our task to remember what happened, to remember the martyrs, and whenever necessary to name the perpetrators.
THIS IS especially important now, when the entire post-war world order seems to be collapsing, when wars unimaginable until a short time ago are raging and when acts of antisemitism have soared in many parts of the world to heights that we have not seen in the last 80 years.When the brutal slaughter, defilement, and hostage-taking of civilians, kibbutzniks, the peaceful audience of a music festival, including babies, women, and the elderly on October 7th is accompanied by blaming the victims. Even in the wake of this flagrant crime against humanity, many question the right of the State of Israel to self-defense.After these 80 years, we thought it was enough to remember again and again our martyrs murdered in the Holocaust, to retell again and again what happened. We were wrong. This is not enough now.Now, when our enemies warned us with the mass slaughter on October 7th and proved that the goal is to destroy the Jews again, it is not enough to just talk, to just remember. We must confront the world with the fact that the era of inhuman acts is knocking here again. We are the target again. The terrorists encourage people to destroy Israel, to destroy the homeland that was finally regained at the cost of six million victims.They succeeded in inciting mass hysteria against the Jews once more, with a war provoked at the cost of the mass murder of innocent Jews. And hundreds of thousands of the people of the civilized world embrace this, wave the flags under which the terrorists threaten not only the Jews, but all modern civilization.It is a consolation for us that Hungary now stands by Israel and its people in an exemplary manner, acts in an exemplary manner against antisemitism, and enables us to live our Jewish identity in peace here in this country.British historian Ian Kershaw once said: “The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference.”I would like us not to let indifference pave any road. Let’s do everything we can to fight indifference, hatred or exclusion, wherever it happens in the world.It is important to remember the victims, it is important to work and fight for a world where such atrocities can never happen again. Let the commemorative year be the driving force of an active, proud and strong Jewish community in memory of the martyrs! And let the commemorative year also be a year of construction, so that we can meet the new challenges strengthened in spirit, soul and institutions.The writer is president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary.