PHOTOS: Holocaust victims commemorated, new memorial inaugurated in Budapest
A memorial to Vilma Bernovits, “a Christian teacher of religion, rescuer of Jews, martyr and hero” was inaugurated near Petőfi Bridge in the Ferencváros district of Budapest on Wednesday, marking the Memorial Day of the Victims of Hungarian Holocaust.
New Holocaust memorial in Budapest
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony told the event that “we are paying back on old debt by having a public memorial to Vilma Bernovits, one of the heroes who gave their lives to rescue someone else’s life during the Holocaust.”
Bernovits and others were taken from a nearby building and shot into the Danube in December 1944, he noted. Karácsony said Bernovits had died because she “remained a human amidst inhumanity”.
Official marks Memorial Day of the Victims of Hungarian Holocaust
Of putting Israel in the middle of a bull’s-eye were accepted as normal, then setting the Jewish people in the middle of the bull’s eye would also be considered normal, and the Hungarian government rejects both, a foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.
State secretary for security policy and energy security Péter Sztáray told an event marking the Memorial Day of the Victims of Hungarian Holocaust that since the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, the activities of countries and players representing anti-Israeli rhetorics had intensified. Hungary is against the sanctions proposals, legal proceedings, advisors’ opinions and arrest warrants, or anything that could make Israel’s position more difficult, he said.
Sztáray said the diplomatic and legal attacks against Israel opened the door for anti-Semitism and physical attacks.
Andor Grósz, head of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ), said the Holocaust was not only about the grief of survivors and a transgenerational trauma, but also about a future taken away.
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