Budapest’s March of the Living 2019 – Photos

The tragedy of Hungarian compatriots killed solely because they were Jews is among the heaviest burdens of Hungarian history which must never be forgotten, the state secretary for European Union policies said on Sunday at a March of the Living event in Budapest.

The march moved along the sounds of the shofar and Scottish bagpipes from March 15 Square along the Jane Haining Embankment and the id. Antall Jozsef Embankment to the “Shoes on the riverbank” memorial honouring the memory of Holocaust victims killed on the banks of the Danube.

One of the march’s aims is to increase social awareness of the Holocaust, told State Secretary Szabolcs Takács told. “We have a shared responsibility to ensure that today’s generations and our descendants learn from the mistakes of the past and sincerely face the problems and distortions left behind so that they can make conscious and responsible decisions for the future,” Takács said. This requires more than joint commemorations, he said, stressing the need of an authentic approach to history.

Takács noted that April 16 had been declared the Memorial Day of the Hungarian Victims of the Holocaust by Viktor Orbán’s first government in 2000, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the first ghettos in 1944. The cabinet has pursued zero tolerance against anti-Semitism ever since, he added.