Ezzel a címmel foglalta össze a The Jerusalem Post Dr. Grósz Andor a Magyarországi Zsidó Hitközségek Szövetsége (Mazsihisz) elnöke megemlékező beszédét, amit a Holokauszt 80 Emlékév nyitórendezvényén tartott a Dohány utcai zsinagógában április 3-án, vasárnap.
Remembering the Holocaust: We Jews are the targets once again - opinion
Let the commemorative year be the driving force of an active, proud and strong Jewish community in memory of the martyrs!
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.
We, who
were not yet born then, we have the duty even after several generations to
recall what happened, to put into words the pain of all those who suffered the
atrocities. The pain of those into whose arms and souls the numbers of humiliation
stayed engraved forever.
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.
Címlapfotó: Hersch Tamás
