Plaque unveiled in Budapest in tribute to Catholic priest who saved Jews

A memorial plaque dedicated to Catholic parish priest Gyula Hévey, who issued several thousand certificates of baptism in order to rescue Jews between 1938 and 1944, was inaugurated by Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary, and Chief Rabbi Róbert Frolich in Budapest on Thursday.

Journalist János Dési said at the event that Christian priests who were willing to help Jews by issuing certificates of baptism had risked their own lives. This is also evident from how rudely they were attacked by anti-semitist papers. In the parish of Terézváros, however, baptisms were stopped only in the roughest days of the siege of the capital, he said.

Moreover, the priests who were baptized knew not to convert their new believers, but to save their lives. Yet they took risks because their faith and humanity obliged them to do so, János Dési added.