Holocaust wounds can never heal, says chief rabbi
The wounds caused by
human evil of the Holocaust will never heal, chief rabbi Laszlo Deutsch said on
Friday at an event commemorating the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the
Budapest ghetto.
Deutsch told a gathering
in the Dohany Street Synagogue that not only German Nazis but many other
people, including Hungarians officials, had participated in deporting Jews and
as many as 6 million Europeans, including 600,000 Hungarians, had fallen victim
to the Nazi death camps.
Israeli ambassador Ilan
Mor said the 70,000 Jews who stayed alive in the Budapest ghetto were liberated
by the Red Army.
“The arrival of the
Soviet soldiers brought rescue from Nazi hell,” he said, adding that this was a
historical fact that could not be disputed.
The 70th anniversary of the
Holocaust will be an appropriate occasion for forgiveness, “for society to make
peace with itself,” and to fight anti-Semitism, he said. But forgiveness can be
hindered if attempts are made to rewrite history, he added.
The event was also
attended by former prime minister and head of the National Memorial and
Funerary Committee Peter Boross, state secretary Janos Fonagy, President of the
World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder, main opposition Socialist Party leader
Attila Mesterhazy, 7th district mayor Zsolt Vattamany of the ruling
Fidesz-Christian Democrats, and Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary Alberto Bottari de
Castello.
Megjegyzések