Launch of the Year of Remembrance

"There are things that cannot be forgiven, amended, or forgotten. The Holocaust is one of these. Let's remember the victims, but not just their annihilation, rather their lives, as they were, loving parents and loving children" said Dr. Andor Grósz, the president of Mazsihisz, at the event held in the Dohany Street synagogue on 3 April.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust, Mazsihisz devotes this year to remembrance this year, with the opening event in the synagogue on Dohany Street. After the singing of the Hungarian and Israeli national anthems, dr. Andor Grósz, the president of Mazsihisz, greeting the participants, pointed out that although we mark the eightieth anniversary, it must be said that the Shoah in Hungary did not begin in 1944.

– My father was already in the forced labor service during the German occupation, and forced labor servicemen were dying on the Eastern Front for already three years. The tragedy of 1944 was the culmination of what had happened, the president underlined.

Read the full speech by clicking here

He drew attention to the fact that in the year of remembrance, we should not only remember the victims as destroyed people, but as they really were in their lives, as loving parents and loving children.

"God, God, why have you forsaken me?" We have heard this line in the psalm, and this question has been asked for eighty years: why? – opened his speech Dr. Róbert Frölich, National Chief Rabbi.

As he explained: in the Book of Esther, which was read a few weeks ago, during Purim, there is an element of the answer, since in it the evil power seeking to destroy the Jews already characterizes the Jews as a separate, non-mingling people. The Jews have their own laws, and they stick to them more than to their lives, says the evil Haman.

– Quite a few centuries have passed since then, and if we look back at the sufferings of the Jews, we must see that the Shoah did not begin eighty years ago, as the centuries that have passed since Haman have laid the foundation for it – said the National Chief Rabbi.