Dear Editor, Recently while searching for some news items and articles about Hungarian Jews and the relationship between the Hungarian government and Jewish interests in Hungary and abroad, I was very surprised or rather shocked to read some articles by the author György Lázár in the Hungarian Free Press, in which he is accusing the Hungarian government and particular the […]
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a statement a few weeks ago on antisemitism in Hungary, during a joint visit to Budapest by Michael Georg Link, the director of the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and Rabbi Andrew Baker of Washington, DC. The Hungarian media quoted parts of the statement, but did not […]
Tad Stahnke from Human Rights First has published an article in which he warns American lawmakers not to be “duped” by the Fidesz government’s “charm offensive.” Here is a story about the communication tricks Hungarian diplomats play in the United States. Ferenc Kumin is 40 years old and the Consul General of Hungary in New York. Before this position, he […]
A small Jewish activist group called The Voice of Six Million Souls has long been working to uncover the identities of the people behind the neo-Nazi Kuruc.info website, which is known for publishing the most revolting examples of Holocaust denial and hate speech of any Hungarian publication. Some months ago, I had been in touch by telephone with this group, as it is well-known that the owner of Kuruc.info’s domain (which is registered […]
Ibi Gábori is an 87 year old Hungarian Canadian survivor of Auschwitz, who shared her experiences of the Holocaust at the 2015 conference of the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada (HSAC), held at the University of Ottawa from May 30th to June 1st, 2015. Ms. Gábori’s talk formed part of a special panel on the Holocaust. She spoke about growing […]
Hungary’s Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) has become the first institution of higher education in Europe to make Holocaust courses a graduation requirement in all programs offered by the school. This means that PPKE undergraduates are now all required to take two courses, regardless of discipline, namely: an introduction to the Roman Catholic faith and a Holocaust history survey course. […]
On a popular television news talk show called Civil Kaszinó, which airs on the right-wing HírTV network, pro-government intellectuals managed to come up with a remarkably passive aggressive response to something that should have been positive news for all Hungarians: namely, that László Nemes’ film Son of Saul (Saul fia) won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival. The 38 […]
Historian Mária Schmidt introduced the mayor of Budapest’s 8th District and local city councillors to the almost completed new Holocaust museum, called the “House of Fates–European Education Centre” (in Hungarian: Sorsok Háza: Európai Oktatási Központ). The interpretive centre, housed in an abandoned train station and created with 6.6 billion forints ($25 million) in state support, relies heavily on personal stories […]
James Comey, the director of the FBI, in a speech that was reprinted in The Washington Post, said that those who lived in Eastern Europe during World War II share responsibility for the mass murder of Jews. He said: “In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do […]
Congregation B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Florida invited Mr. Csanád Szegedi to speak on April 15 at their Holocaust remembrance Yom HaShoah commemoration. His appearance was widely advertised, the Sentinel had a piece about it, and the event was financed by the Sari Singer Holocaust Survivor Endowment Fund. Two days before the evening, a memo was sent out: “Due […]
