Wiesenthal Center protests memorial ceremony for Hungarian World War II leader responsible for deaths of hundreds of thousands
October 14, 2022
The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement of support for the Hungarian Jewish community's protest against a memorial, planned to be dedicated tomorrow in the city of Szeged, to the memory of Admiral Horthy, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
According to reports in the Hungarian media, a day-long event is planned for tomorrow in Szeged, during which a memorial plaque honoring Horthy will be erected, despite his well-known anti-Semitism, and his responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of thousand Jews either murdered by Hungarians or deported enmasse to Auschwitz, where approximately eighty percent of the 437,000 Jews deported there were murdered on arrival.
According to the Center's Director for Eastern European Affairs, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, "The erection of such a memorial is a horrific insult to the Jews victimized by the Horthy regime, and to the Jewish community, which has still has not fully recovered from its massive losses during the Horthy regime. We urge the government to take immediate action to cancel tomorrow's ceremony, and stop the initiative to honor a villain who does not deserve any honors."
For additional information please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center: Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156, follow the Center on Facebook, or @simonwiesenthal and @EZuroff for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
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