Righteous Among the Nations title, Medal of Bravery awarded in Budapest

Hungary awards interior minister — Photo: MTI

Sándor Pintér, the interior minister, and Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, handed out the Righteous Among the Nations title and the Medal of Bravery at a ceremony in Budapest on Tuesday.

The bestowment of the honour of Righteous Among the Nations is a “celebration of life” and “humanity’s triumph over evil”, Pinter said at the event. During the Holocaust there was social need for joint action against exclusion, but this is now a value enshrined in law, the minister said. “But without the actions of heroes who risked their lives to save others this would not be natural,” he said.

Hadas-Handelsman said anti-Semitism was still poisoning Europe and the world today, adding that it was “our duty” to continue fighting against it. The honour was posthumously awarded to Lajos Turóczy and Irén Turóczy Gruber and accepted by their grandchildren.