Articles by: Eszter Garai-Édler

Celebrating a fascist icon.

Géza Szőcs has died

Géza Szőcs, poet and former Secretary of State for Culture in the early years of the Orbán government, has died at age 67 from COVID-19. Whenever I read his name I am reminded of Elie Wiesel’s words: “It is with profound dismay and indignation that I learned of your participation, together with Hungarian Secretary of State for Culture Géza Szőcs […]

by · November 7, 2020 · Culture
Cattle car used for transporting Hungarian Jews.

Auschwitz Transports from Hungary

Germany occupied its ally Hungary on March 19, 1944 and the Auschwitz transports soon commenced on a rapid schedule. On July 6, 1944, Hungary’s regent Miklós Horthy issued a decree stopping the deportations of Hungary’s Jewish citizens. He did not do this out of concern for the fate of Jews, but due to the dramatically deteriorating military situation for Germany […]

by · July 18, 2020 · Focus
Zsolt Császy in September 2018.

Inmate Császy — An interview with a political prisoner of the Orbán regime

We last spoke in the summer of 2017. (See HFP’s piece here and here.) At that time, you had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison and your partner, Miklós Tátrai, received three years from the Curia for the Sukoró land swap deal of 2008. When I interviewed you with Christopher Adam at this time, you came […]

by · October 26, 2018 · Focus
In Budapest with me, after roaming the city. The last chestnut puré. February 18, 2011).

My mother’s death and the state of Hungarian health care

She would have turned 81 years old today, on June 20th…If they would have let her. My mother always wanted to be on the go. Even most recently, for three straight weeks, every single day, we were going somewhere. We essentially visited all of Budapest. On the last day, February 11, 2018, when I had to send her home to […]

by · June 20, 2018 · Focus
Remembering the last day of the deportation of rural Hungary’s Jews — Mr. Orbán, was Horthy really an exceptional statesman?

Remembering the last day of the deportation of rural Hungary’s Jews — Mr. Orbán, was Horthy really an exceptional statesman?

July 9, 1944 Seventy-three years ago on this day the transport of Jews of Pécs, Bonyhád and vicinity arrived to Auschwitz and many were immediately murdered. On July 9, 1944 11,140 Hungarian Jewish men, women and children were loaded onto transport wagons and sent to their death. From Monor two trains with 3,065 and 3,079 Jews. From Békásmegyer-Budakalász two trains […]

by · July 9, 2017 · Antisemitism
Viktor Orbán and his responsibility for rising antisemitism in Hungary

Viktor Orbán and his responsibility for rising antisemitism in Hungary

Quite a political storm is brewing in Hungary, after Ronald S. Lauder of the World Jewish Congress named Hungary Europe’s most anti-Semitic country. Specifically, Mr. Lauder said the following: “The worst offender is Hungary. Because they now have a neo-Nazi party called Jobbik. They had started to put up statues of Admiral Horthy, who was a Nazi.” András Heisler, President of the […]

by · July 19, 2016 · Antisemitism
The Érpatak model. Photo: Film promotional poster / BIDF

An example of ghettoization in the heart of Europe

On Saturday, I watched the screening of the film The Érpatak Model at the Uránia movie theatre, in Budapest. Until now I assumed that Viktor Orbán’s rotten regime can’t come up with anything new for me. Was I ever wrong! The film depicts how in a community of 1,800 residents, a mayor–who appears to be visibly mentally ill–has essentially become the […]

by · September 28, 2015 · Politics