Eighty-seven year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel died peacefully after a long illness on July 2, 2016 in New York City. “My husband was a fighter. He fought for the memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust,” his widow, Marion said in a statement.
US President Barack Obama wrote “Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, “Elie Wiesel spent his life in service to humanity, keeping the memory of the Holocaust’s horror alive. It is for us all to carry this torch.” German President Joachim Gauck and French President Francois Hollande praised Wiesel’s legacy. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called him a “moral compass.”
The Orbán government was mum. Not one word from the government media either. I was not surprised.
Wiesel was one of the first international figures to sharply criticize the Orbán government’s anti-Semitic tendencies, its practice of praising Hungarian fascists and distortion of World War II history. In 2012 Wiesel returned his Hungarian State award (received in 2004) in protest against what he said was a “whitewashing” of the role of the pro-Hitler Horthy regime in the deportation of Jews during World War II.
Wiesel also refused to identify himself as a Hungarian Jew despite the fact that he grew up in Hungarian Jewish culture. He was born in 1928 in Romania, in Sighetu Marmației (Máramarossziget in Hungarian). This town was part of Hungary before being incorporated into the Kingdom of Romania after World War I. Wiesel’s mother tongue was Yiddish but he also spoke Hungarian like most of the Jews of Northern-Transylvania. He also learned the Romanian language.
In 1940 Hungary annexed the area and persecution of Jews started immediately. As a child Wiesel witnessed the brutal implementation of the Jewish Laws by Hungarian authorities and in 1944 Hungarian gendarmeries pushed him into a rail car heading to Auschwitz. He survived.
In 2012 Wiesel wrote an angry letter to László Kövér, Hungarian House Speaker for openly praising World War II Hungarian fascists. Mr. Kövér idolizes anti-Semites like Mr. Géza Nyirő and Mr. Albert Wass. He even installed a plaque in the Parliament of János Esterházy a World War II politician of Slovakia. The Bratislava Jewish Community protested and Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic called Esterházy a fascist who died in prison as a convicted World War II criminal. (Mr. Wiesel’s letter to Mr. Kövér.)
Elie Wiesel warned the world about Orbán Viktor’s dangerous populism and the revival of the cult of Miklós Horthy, Hungary’s pro-Hitler regent during World War II. Orbán and his friends never forgave this and shamefully ignored his death. No letter of condolence arrived from Budapest.
Another sign that the Orbán Government is hopelessly isolated and continuing to lead the country into a dead-end.
György Lázár