Under a declaration by parliament made in 2012, November 25 is the Memorial Day of Hungarian Political Prisoners and Forced Labourers Transported to the Soviet Union.
Events of the King Matthias memorial year have been held at over 150 locations ranging from Canada to Arini (Magyarfalu) in Romania’s Moldavia region to commemorate his 575th birth anniversary and the 560th anniversary of his coronation.
The state secretary in charge of Hungarian communities abroad Árpád János Potápi commissioned the House of Hungarians to organise the commemorative events one year ago, House of Hungarians director Krisztina Csibi told a press conference on Monday.
Events included concerts, exhibitions, theatre performances, tale recitals, school competitions, scholarly conferences, pilgrimages and Renaissance shows, she said.
National Bank of Hungary director Barnabás Virág presented at the event a memorial coin issued in two versions with identical designs, one a 20,000 forint sterling silver piece, and the other a 2,000 forint in copper-nickel.
Photo: MTI
He said the coins pay tribute to Matthias with representations of artifacts from his life.
The central motif on one side is a half-length bust of the king from a detail from the relief of him in Bautzen, Germany, which accurately depicts him in arms with his regalia, he added.
Opposition party Jobbik has proposed that the Budapest Metropolitan Assembly should declare 2020 Trianon Memorial Year on the occasion of the centenary of the Trianon Peace Treaty that stripped Hungary of two-thirds of its territory.
Marcell Tokody, a Budapest representative of the right-wing opposition party, told a press conference on Wednesday that the ruling parties in the national legislature had voted against Trianon being commemorated in 2020.
“The government doesn’t even want to remember this shameful diktat,” he said, adding that Jobbik wants to put the issue on the Budapest assembly’s agenda.
It cannot be permitted that Hungary and Budapest do not remember “the greatest tragedy of Hungarians,” he said.
Hungary and Poland today continue to be bound by true friendship and both countries can count on each other’s unconditional support, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence in Budapest on Tuesday.
At the event held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Hungarian Justice Minister László Trócsányi and Budapest Mayor István Tarlós were decorated with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, Commander’s Cross.
Zsolt Németh, the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, was decorated with the Officer’s Cross and Richárd Horcsik, head of the European affairs committee, with the Knight’s Cross.
Szijjártó said his country was one that had to fight for its freedom many times throughout its history. Hungary appreciates and values freedom, “it’s a real nation of freedom fighters,” Szijjártó said. He added that the same was true about Poland.
Poland became independent 100 years ago and Hungarians were always there to do their part in Poland’s freedom fights, he said.
Both nations can now call themselves free, both countries are independent, but “the storms of history are still not quieting down, in fact the waves are reaching higher and higher”, Szijjártó said.
He said this was why Hungary and Poland had to strengthen their friendship. Both countries are at the receiving end of severe attacks, the minister insisted. They are being attacked by those that want to establish a “united states of Europe”, to change the composition of Europe’s population and move Europe to a “post-national and post-Christian period”, he said. Those attacking Poland and Hungary also want Europeans to forget their national identities and religious and cultural traditions, Szijjártó said.
“But we will resist,” the minister said. “We have always been European nations, we’ve always wanted a strong Europe, but a Europe of strong nations rather than one of subordinated nations.”
“We have an opinion and we’ll always express it,” Szijjártó said. “We can because we have the performance to back it up, as demonstrated by the economic and security situation.”
Jerzy Snopek, Poland’s ambassador to Hungary, said all Europeans knew that 100 years had passed since the end of the first world war. This anniversary is especially important for Poles, the ambassador said, because it was 100 years ago that they regained their independence, making the dream of several generations a reality.
Featured image: www.facebook.com/Lengyel-magyar barátság
Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Szilárd Németh, a lawmaker of ruling Fidesz, on Tuesday proposed to parliament that 2019 be declared a memorial year of Hungarian Prince Francis II Rákóczi.
Rákóczi (1676-1735), a ruling prince of Transylvania, led an uprising against the Habsburg Empire between 1703 and 1711.
Although the rebellion was ultimately stifled and Rákóczi forced into exile, their fight put an end to imperial attempts to fully assimilate Hungary into the empire.
The memorial year will mark the 315th anniversary of Rákóczi’s installation as the ruling prince of Transylvania.
Under the proposal, the prince and his fight of freedom will be commemorated with a series of events, celebrations and publications.
Situated a few kilometres to the south of Budapest, Memento Parkoffers visitors a glimpse of the urban-visual culture of Socialist Hungary through a huge collection of original statues and monuments that once dotted the streets of the Hungarian capital.
Easily accessible by bus departing every 10-15th minutes from Kelenföld metro station, Memento Park is the best way to experience what life was like behind the Iron Curtain, except if you’re in possession of a time machine.
Photo: www.facebook.com/MementoParkBudapest
Photo: www.facebook.com/MementoParkBudapest
Photo: www.facebook.com/MementoParkBudapest
The symbolic pieces of art displayed here, including allegorical monuments to the Hungarian-Soviet Friendship, as well as statues of Lenin, Marx, Béla Kun, and the Liberation Army Soldier (a favourite with visitors) are stark reminders of the tyrannous regime. Besides taking selfies with the giant statues, you can also learn about the 1956 revolution and the fall of communism in 1989, and even sit behind the wheel of a classic Trabant.
Batthyány Sanctuary Lamp
Located on the corner of Báthory and Hold utca near the grand Szabadság square, this monument commemorates the first Prime Minister of Hungary, Count Lajos Batthyány who was executed in this place on 6 October, 1849 by a firing squad.
Batthyány’s last words were: “Long live the motherland! Shoot, hunters!”.
Photo: Wiki Commons by Misibácsi
The sanctuary lamp sits on the former location of the courtyard of the New Building, a sprawling fortress that eventually became a prison. It was designed by architect Móric Pogány as early as 1905, but due to the delays caused by the First World War, the unveiling was held two decades later, on 6 October 1926, in the presence of the last surviving soldier of the Revolution of 1848, István Lebó.
Liberty Statue
Proudly standing atop Gellért Hill, the Liberty Statue (nicknamed “Bottle Opener”) is one of the most famous landmarks of Budapest. It was erected in 1947 in remembrance of the Soviet army which “liberated” Hungary from German occupation in front of the south-eastern bastion of the Citadel. The statue itself (designed by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Stróbl, depicting a woman holding a palm leaf over her head) is 14 meters tall, and comes with a 26 meters high pedestal overlooking the city from a total height of 275 meters.
The original inscription on the base of the statue read “To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes, erected by the grateful Hungarian people in 1945”. This was changed after the Communist Era ended in 1989 to read as follows:
“To the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary”.
The strong country that is capable of standing up for itself which István Tisza, Hungary’s prime minister during the first world war, considered his most important goal during his political career is now a reality, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a ceremony in Budapest on Wednesday marking the centenary of Tisza’s assassination.
Tisza served two terms as prime minister in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In his second term, he tried to prevent the country’s entry into the first world war but was overruled by the monarch, Francis Joseph.
In his address at the wreath-laying ceremony at Tisza’s statue next to Parliament, Orbán said Hungary should appreciate its sovereignty, that it has its own path, a strong economy, national cohesion that transcends borders and that it has strong allies.
Orbán said Tisza was a “patriotic politician to the core” who looked out for the interests of the Hungarian nation instead of those of certain classes, “gentry cliques”, ideologies or financial interest groups.
He said Tisza had entered politics with the aim of providing “at least one building block” for the foundation of the future of the Hungarian nation. And after the collapse brought about by war, the destruction wrought by “the red terrorists” and Hungary’s loss of two-thirds of its territory, these building blocks were the foundation on which the country’s interwar statesmen like one-time prime minister István Bethlen and Kúnó Klebelsberg, who served as interior minister and culture minister during the period, could build the future, he added.
Photo: MTI
“To this day it is hard to understand why Europe held a gun to its own head and fired it in the summer of 1914,” Orbán said.
“But the more we learn about the facts, the more it seems like the whole thing started out with a bad decision being made in Vienna, and another in Berlin, a third one in St. Petersburg, a fourth one in Paris and a fifth one in London, and all these bad decisions added up to a disaster that consumed the entirety of Europe.”
Hungarians were not in a position to make a good decision “in the shadow of all the bad ones”, Orbán said. “We weren’t sovereign; we were chained to a multiethnic empire, to a rock that had started to fall and landed four years later and shattered to pieces.”
Orbán said the world was again witnessing a global political shift. He said there was no shortage in the world of “self-endangering ideas” or “European leaders who have tomorrow’s front page headlines in mind”.
“Once again, we have to be mindful, because our entire homeland could be lost if we give up control over our fate,” Orbán said.
After the speech, Orbán and Parliamentary Speaker László Kövér laid a wreath at Tisza’s statue. This was followed by a prayer from Reformed Bishop József Steinbach.
“The heroes of 1956 fought for a free, sovereign and independent Hungary, a country that stands independent from empires; they gave their lives for an independent Hungary that can stand up for itself and decide its own future,” Gergely Gulyás said at the memorial on Széna Square, an important site of armed resistance.
“The message of 1956 is that Hungary is capable of changing the course of history if it takes its own fate into its own hands,” he said at the 1956 memorial.
Photo: MTI
Hungarians are not the type to gamble, they do not gamble with their country, but if necessary they can fight when there is no hope, although they prefer to have heroism and common sense on their side, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a state commemoration of Hungary’s anti-Soviet uprising of 1956 in front of Budapest’s House of Terror Museum on Tuesday.
Orbán said “the freedom fighters of 1956 had made a sensible decision”.
The Soviets withdrew from Austria, the Hungarian communists were focused on each other and the free West was urging Hungarians to rise up and promised help, Orbán said.
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
“On one side there was the hopelessness of certain decay and on the other the once-in-a-lifetime last chance,” the prime minister said. “They had to try and they did. The only way we Hungarians know how. With death-defying bravery, by putting our bad disputes behind us, in complete unity and with a pure heart.”
The foreign minister expressed gratitude “to every hero of 1956” for their role in ensuring that Hungary “can today enjoy freedom”, in a video message addressed to Hungarian communities beyond the borders and Hungarian diplomatic missions.
Hungarian people in 1956 said no to tyranny and dictatorial rule, as they also said no to intimidation, Péter Szijjártó said in his message.
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
“They said it was enough of others wanting to decide Hungary’s future and dictating how they should live their lives in their own country,” he said.
“The Hungarian nation is a nation of freedom fighters. This was shown in 1956, too, when Hungarian people had enough courage to rise against a vastly superior force and, despite the absence of the much awaited help from abroad, they fought until the end for Hungary’s freedom”, Szijjártó said.
“We Hungarians will never accept that others should decide about our future. We owe that to the heroes of 1956,” the minister said.
The co-leader of green opposition LMP said at the party’s commemoration of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising that the freedom of Hungary is threatened time and again but Hungarians will not allow their rights, “voice and thoughts” to be stifled.
Photo: MTI
Speaking at a memorial of the revolution, László Lóránt Keresztes said that “those who opposed the regime thirty years ago have become soldiers of treason, theft and destruction”. “They have learnt and implement everything they used to fight against,” he said, adding that “the unnamed operators of the Communist regime now sit among the ranks of [ruling] Fidesz”.
The leaders of the country boast of patriotism but in reality are reinstating the Communist regime they grew up in, he said. The incumbent “Bolshevik-type” government has brought a “grievous tragedy to our nation,” the emigration of several hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, similarly to the situation after the revolution in 1956, he said.
Hungary must however “step into the 21st century” and “remove the thieves betraying and robbing our country.”
Today’s youth has to use knowledge and information instead of weapons, although the ruling power is trying to strip them of those tools, Keresztes said.
“The message of 1956 is to fight constantly for what we believe in and for those we love,” Keresztes said.
Keresztes laid a wreath with his fellow co-leader Márta Demeter at the mural commemorating Peter Mansfeld, who participated in the revolution at the age of 15 and was executed shortly after turning 18
The opposition Socialist and Párbeszéd parties laid a wreath at the statue of Hungary’s martyred Prime Minister Imre Nagy in Budapest.
Párbeszéd co-leader Gergely Karácsony told reporters after the wreath-laying ceremony that Nagy had “restored people’s faith” that Hungary could become an independent country of freedom and equality where workers could control their own factories and where freedom and equality were compatible values.
Photo: MTI
Socialist Party leader Bertalan Tóth underlined the importance of values that keep society together, adding that patriotism, which he said was one of these values, had been at the core of Nagy’s message. Nagy traded his past beliefs for the hope of the future and supported the revolution, giving his life for freedom and his country, Tóth said.
Karácsony and Tóth said their parties will do everything in their power to ensure that Nagy’s statue stays in Vértanúk Square in central Budapest.
The executive deputy head of the leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) said at the party’s commemoration of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising that the fight in 2018 was being fought for the same goals as the revolution had been:
for the rule of law and an independent, democratic state.
Csaba Molnár, who is also an MEP of the party, spoke to the press after laying a wreath at the statue of Hungary’s martyred prime minister Imre Nagy in Budapest. He said Nagy and his companions had wanted freedom of the press, religion and association.
Photo: MTI
The same freedoms are missing today, Molnár said. “There is no freedom of the press, freedom of association and the Hungarian people’s fate is decided in Moscow meeting rooms,” he insisted.
Molnár said DK “has declared its resistance” because they believe in the same values as the heroes of 1956: “we cannot let a small group rob the people of freedom for their own interests.”
Molnár accused ruling Fidesz of wanting to remove Nagy’s statue from the vicinity of Parliament, “after having erased his memory from the official historical remembrance.”
DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány told the party’s commemorative event that the reason DK had been established on October 23rd was to demonstrate that its founders were on the same side as Nagy.
One cannot be “a little bit in the opposition or very much in the opposition,” Gyurcsány said. In line with the essence of democracy, “it is not possible to stand close to [ruling] Fidesz or very far from Fidesz, only against Fidesz,” he added.
DK identifies with a European, civic and constitutional standard in line with which those in the government should be branded “crooks” without hesitation because “they are indeed crooks in a political and also a criminal sense,” he added.
Last but not least, conservative opposition Jobbik rejects all compromise with the “regime” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and will continue its fight to overthrow it, party leader Tamás Sneider said at an event commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising.
“The greatest thief in the world” is building Bolshevism in Hungary, he told the event held in front of the Hungarian Radio building.
Photo: MTI
He cited several parallels between events during the Communist era and the current period, including the emigrants who left Hungary after 1956 and those that have left in recent years to work and live abroad.
Sneider said that just as the Communists had been subservient to the Soviet Union, the current prime minister was also “the most devoted servant” of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
He said the current “regime” would not soften and only those should join Jobbik who are willing to participate in the tough fight to overthrow it.
Addressing commemorators at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, one of the focal points of the revolution, human resources ministry state secretary Bence Rétvári paid tribute to the freedom fighters.
Hungary’s freedom fighters, in the interests of the nation, even “joined a battle deemed hopeless” because they believed that a Stalinist dictatorship could be turned into democracy, Rétvári said.
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
“This is also a message to those who want to curtail Hungarian sovereignty and independence abroad,” the state secretary said.
Many have tried to do this, he said, adding that Hungarians always ended up taking back their independence.
Rétvári said Hungary as a nation was no longer a “minor”. “It has been an adult for 1,100 years and we expect to be spoken to in a respectful tone,” he added.
A torchlight march was also held in Budapest to commemorate the revolution. The march started from the Budapest University of Technology and ended at Bem József Square near Margaret Bridge.
Addressing the marchers, Gergely Gulyás, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said that “history has shown that we can only preserve our freedom and Hungarian culture if we stand together.”
Hungarians around the world have to know that they can count on the homeland, Gulyás said. “That is why we must do everything we can to protect the Hungarians in Transcarpathia,” he said.
“By paying our respects to the sacrifice of those who came before us and by remembering the hell they lived through after the revolution was stifled, we set standards. Remembrance is responsibility,” Gulyás said.
The greatest help for people with disabilities is providing a life as independent as possible, also for those living with impaired vision or blindness, a state secretary of the human resources ministry said at an event marking
International White Cane Day and the centenary of the Hungarian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted.
At the event held in Budapest on Monday, Attila Fülöp said that the government aims to promote that independence and views employment as one of the key factors.
“Hungary has become a European automotive industry superpower”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at an event on Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Audi Hungaria Zrt, where temporary Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG Abraham Schot announced that the company will begin manufacturing of electrically driven vehicles at its plant in Győr.
The Minister highlighted the fact that the production value of the automotive industry reached 8 trillion forints (EUR 24.7bn) last year, breaking all previous records, and increased by a further 6 percent year-on-year during the first six months of 2018, and if growth continues at this rate the automotive industry will set yet another record within the national economy by the end of this year.
Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that in recent years Hungary can boast economic, political and human achievements, thanks to which it has become a competitive and attractive investment destination.
“Political stability has become our trademark”,
he said, adding that Hungary currently offers Europe’s most flexible job market regulations and the lowest taxes, in addition to which dual training has also been introduced based on the German model.
“Today, Hungary is strong and proud, and is the most important country in the Central European cooperation that represents the engine of European growth”, in which a role is also played by those companies “that have placed their trust in the Hungarian people”.
Audi is one such company because without it the country could not have the traveled the path that it has traveled during the past 25 years, the Minister said.
Temporary Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG Abraham Schot stressed that Audi’s mission is electromobility and that by 2025 an electric version of all of Audi’s models will also be available, the motors of which will be manufactured in Győr. He did not indicate a date for the beginning of the production of electric vehicles in Győr.
“The future belongs to self-driven cars and sustainable drive systems”, the Chairman declared.
Mr. Schot also spoke about the fact that Hungary offers one of the most attractive environments for Audi in Central Europe. The region’s largest tool plant also operates here, making the company’s Hungarian subsidiary a strong member of the “Audi family”, he declared.
Photo: MTI
At the event, which was held in the plant’s assembly hall, Chairman of the Board of Audi Hungaria Zrt. Achim Heinfling spoke about the fact that the plant in Győr is “a solid and intrinsic part of the Hungarian economy and a stable and dependable part of the Volkswagen Group”.
He stressed that while in 1993 the plant produces two thousand engines-a-day on an area of sixty thousand square metres and employed seven hundred people,
today the facility manufactures over nine thousand engines on an area of 5.2 million square metres and employs over 12 thousand people, and together with its suppliers provides jobs for over thirty thousand people.
During the past 25 years the plant has produced over 34 million engines and 1.2 million cars, and the company has invested over 8.9 billion euros. He also said that the plant’s competitiveness will be assured by the serial production of the Audi Q3, in addition to which production of e-motors also began in Győr two months ago.
Mayor of Győr Zsolt Borkai said Audi not only provides a living for thousands of families in Győr, but is also a frontrunner with respect to social responsibility.
The company is Győr’s strategic partner and the driving force of the industry and the region’s economy, he stated.
Last year, Audi Hungaria Zrt. increased its turnover by one percent to 7.136 billion euros. Last year it manufactured 1,965,165 engines, and increased of 1.9 percent over its 2017 figure, and 105,491 vehicles were manufactured in Győr, 16.5 percent less than in 2016.
Audi AG employs over sixty thousand people, and the Audi Group provides employment to over 90 thousand. Last year, a total of 1,878,100 Audis were shipped to customers worldwide.
As we wrote before, “Audi will be establishing a new research and development center in Győr with an investment of EUR 19.7 million, one-fifth of which is being funded by the Hungarian Government”, read more HERE.
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In his address, published on the embassy’s Facebook page, the ambassador remembered “the outpouring support from our friends around the world including our NATO-ally Hungary, who offered solidarity during that difficult time.”
Cornstein commemorated the nearly 3,000 people who died in the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2011, including four of his personal friends.
Addressing the event, Katalin Victor Langer noted that in May 1944 Roma prisoners of Auschwitz turned against their Nazi captors and fought heroically for their own survival.
She noted the importance of commemorating tragedies such as the Roma Holocaust as part of Hungary’s collective conscience.
Szabolcs Molnár, the deputy mayor of the fourth district in northern Budapest, noted that on July 11 in 1944 ten thousand Jewish and Roma men and women were taken from Újpest to Nazi death camps.
The local government declared July 11 the district’s own day of mourning in 2005, he said.
August 2 was named international day of the Roma Holocaust in 1972.
Over 3,000 Roma prisoners killed that night in Auschwitz in 1944 are commemorated on that day. About 500,000 Roma are estimated to have been killed in Nazi camps, 23,000 of them in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Nowadays we tend to take the beautiful bridges connecting Buda and Pest for granted. Neither the citizens of the capital nor tourists stop to appreciate or wonder about the history of the Margaret Bridge for example, which also happens to provide access to the beloved Margaret Island. But this beautiful bridge has an eventful history – in less than 150 years, it was designed after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, built in 1872-76, then severely damaged during the Second World War, then rebuilt exactly 70 years ago, Hirado.hu reports.
The original plans
The Hungarian parliament decided to build a second bridge over the Danube in 1870. The first bridge, the Chain Bridge was overburdened, and, also, a private company owned it. Not only could they impose a toll on the bridge but, according to a statute accepted in 1840, they also enjoyed a 90-year-long monopoly: new bridges were to be built further than eight kilometres away from the Chain Bridge.
Therefore the Parliament had to buy off this bridge first, and only after that could they start building the new bridge. Their goal was to encourage the development of Northern Pest and to connect it with the main road of Buda. They announced an international contest and received 43 plans. The winning application belonged to the French engineer, Ernest Goüin.
Building and naming
The building of the Margaret Bridge lasted between 1872 and 1876 and Goüin’s French company, the Societé de Construction de Batignolles, carried out the construction. The bridge was 607.12 metres long, with seven piers and has cost about five million Forints.
The extension that connects the bridge and Margaret Island was only added later and inaugurated on the 19th of August in 1900. Before that, one could only visit the island with a boat. However, today it is an essential part of the capital, offering a little break from the buzzing of the city. Check out here our list of must-see sights on Margaret Island.
Like the island, the bridge was also named after Margaret, the daughter of Béla IV of Hungary, who had lived in the convent on the island.
The Margaret Bridge was officially opened to traffic on 30th April 1876.
From 1879 a horse tramway ran on it until it was replaced by the tram in 1894, joined by buses in 1929.
Damaged in war
During WWII Margaret Bridge suffered serious damages. Its end on the side of Pest was blown up on 4th of November 1944 by Germans. The explosion occurred in the busy afternoon, so the bridge was full, and an estimated number of 600 people lost their lives. The other side was blown up next January.
The war-stricken bridge. Photo: Fortepan.hu/Glázer Attila
After the war, there were plans for rebuilding the bridge, and the one by the Ganz factory was accepted. The new structure was lighter than the first one but had the same appearance with a few changes: six top-beams instead of eight and no customs houses.
The rebuilt bridge was opened to the public on 1st of August 1948.
Today
The latest, complete reconstruction of Margaret Bridge occurred between 2009 and 2011. The old, dragon ornaments were restored on the columns as well as the historical arms of Hungary on the middle pier and the crown resting on the stone pillow. The finishing touch of the reconstruction took place in 2014 when the four statues of both Nike and Hercules were restored.
If you would like to test your knowledge about the Margaret bridge and read other interesting facts about it, then click here to try our quiz.
The Budapest Jazz Club is to host the 11th World Leonard Cohen Festival on August 4-5, expected to attract some 150 visitors from 20 countries.
Performers from all over the world will give concerts, participate in discussions and common singing events with the audience, they said. Hungarian performers will include Mariann Falusi, the Sarik Péter Trio and the Budapest Klezmer Band.
The World Leonard Cohen Festival is held every second year.
Cohen, a Canadian poet, songwriter and singer, was born in 1934 and died in 2016. His first hit was “Suzanne”, one of his most often played songs since. Others include Hallelujah, So long, Marianne! and Democracy. He published several books of poetry and two novels during his carrier, next to his 14 studio albums.
Young Roma Hungarians will go to Auschwitz-Birkenau to take part in the first Roma March of the Living at the site of the former death camp, organisers told MTI on Monday.
The 45 participants will attend a commemoration at the Roma Holocaust Memorial in Budapest on August 1. They will travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau on Thursday, to join 300 students from all over the world to commemorate the Roma victims of the Holocaust, they said.
August 2 was named the international day of Roma Holocaust, commemorating the over 3,000 Roma prisoners killed that night in Auschwitz in 1944.
About 500,000 Roma are estimated to have been killed in Nazi camps, 23,000 of them in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
For that matter, the The March of the Living set out from March 15 Square in Budapest on the 14th of May. Commemorators of Hungary’s Holocaust victims followed a path crossing Elisabeth Bridge to the Friedrich Born banks of the River Danube.
Featured image: www.facebook.com/AzÉletMeneteAlapítvány
“The heroism displayed at the victory at the Battle of Nándorfehérvár in 1456 is still needed today”, the Ministry of Defence’s Parliamentary State Secretary, Szilárd Németh said on Sunday in Budapest on the anniversary of the famous Siege of Belgrade.
In his speech at the statue of János Hunyadi at Buda Castle following the midday ringing of the bells, which was originally introduced to commemorate the victory against the Ottoman Empire at the battle, Mr. Németh recalled: “At the time, Europe didn’t take the threat too seriously either, as a result of which the conquerors were able to advance without major resistance”.
“The Hungarians recognised the danger, however”, he added.
According to the State Secretary it is a warning to the whole of Europe that the continent must not forget its history. “Europe will be lost if it does not protect its own borders and its Christian culture”, he said, adding: “The Hungarians believe in their culture and in their thousand-year traditions, and are ready to defend them again and again”.
In the 15th century the army of the Ottoman Empire was one of the strongest of the age with relation to its organisation and combat level. This army occupied Byzantium and the Kingdom of Serbia, after which it planned to occupy Nándorfehérvár, he emphasised.
“The victory of Nándorfehérvár on 22 July 1456 was one of the greatest victories in Hungarian military history”, the State Secretary emphasised, stressing that: “the Battle of Nándorfehérvár is a triumph of Hungarian warfare and cooperation, one of the determining elements of our national identity, and also an example of the heroic defence of Hungarian and Christian values”.
“The patriotism, heroism and solidarity of the victorious participants of the Battle of Nándorfehérvár serve as an example not only for the Europe of the time, but also for today”, Mr. Németh said in his speech.
On 22 July 1456, the Christian Hungarian armies defending Nándorfehérvár (now Belgrade) were victorious against the forces of Turkish Sultan Mehmed II following a battle that lasted over two weeks, and as a result delayed the Ottoman Empire’s attempts to conquer Europe for a period of seventy years. Never before had a Christian army achieved a victory of this scale against the Sultan’s forces.
Parliament issued a degree on the Day of Remembrance for the Battle of Nándorfehérvár in 2011.
A research programme aimed at identifying the around 100,000 Hungarian child victims of the Holocaust has been launched in partnership of the Budapest Jewish Museum and Archives and the creators of Oscar-winning Holocaust drama Son of Saul, the organisers said on Monday.
Children aged 12 or younger had no chance to survive the Nazi death camps while those aged between 13 and 18 and selected for labour were transported to camps at 400 various locations across Europe from Estonia to Alsace-Lorraine, historian Zoltán Vági told a press conference.
Researchers under the programme will have to study an estimated 150 million pieces of documents stored in international archives and centres that contain transport lists, records by the SS and personal accounts, among other things, he said.
The programme dubbed Children of Saul aims to complete the identification of as many victims as possible by 2024, the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust, Vági said.
Zsuzsanna Toronyi, the museum’s director, said their institution, founded in 1909, is one of Europe’s oldest Jewish museums which operated even after 1938 and began compiling Holocaust documents already during WW2.
Photo: MTI
The museum has experts including psychologists who are prepared to conduct interviews with survivors, she said.
The museum can be contacted by phone for the programme at 36 1-413-5547.
