We were asked to share this new and innovative project with the readers of the Hungarian Free Press, and we are happy to do so. A website called HolokausztFoto.hu is being launched on June 21, 2019 at 4:30 p.m. in Budapest’s Nappali Kávéház (Vasvári Pál utca 3) with the participation of historian András Lenárt, journalist János Dési and Miklós Tamási of Fortepan.hu, along with several experts on the Holocaust in Hungary, notably Katalin Jalsovszky, András Heisler, Zsuzsanna Toronyi, Béla Rásky, Szilvia Czingel and Marcell Kenesei.
This new public history project aims to grow into the largest collection of photographs of the Holocaust in Hungary and also hopes to collect essential information about each photo. We’re very pleased to share the information below with our readers and hope that some may be able to participate.
An excellent initiative, but can we know a bit more about how this venture fits into the framework of the existing Holocaust remembrance projects in Hungary, and into the structures of the newly emerging Holocaust Museum that is surrounded by some controversy. (see: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-holocaust-museum/hungarys-new-holocaust-museum-divides-jews-faces-whitewash-accusations-idUSKCN1MT1QQ ) Why is this initiative announced by a group of individuals in a coffee house, rather than by the leadership of the museum? Where will this collection of photographs be housed? Is this a separate, private initiative or part of the Holocaust museum’s initiative? It would be good to provide readers with a fuller picture of what is happening in Hungary, where the ruling political party regularly rewards anti-Semitic hate mongers with state decorations, where its hand-picked historians are systematically and consistently falsifying the history of the Jews and whitewashing their persecution over the centuries. It is in protest of this shameful conduct that the great Randolph Braham and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, two Holocaust survivors and scholars returned all of their state awards to the Orbán government and refused to participate in their shameful falsification of history. (On the efforts of the Orbán government’s Canadian Ambassador, Bálint Ódor to pull the wool over the eyes of unsuspecting Canadian Jews please turn here: “Hungary and the Jews: A Case-Study in Affinity-Fraud” http://hungarianfreepress.com/2015/11/25/is-hungary-taking-canadas-jews-for-a-ride/)
Thankyou for your response András.
It helps those of us on the outside to understand the meaning of this development
Your questions are very pertinent and I look forward to the response from the group.