Mesterházy said Hungary does not need a monument to the victims of German occupation because it does not help confront the past but deepens division. It is necessary to ask today how the tragedy of the Holocaust could happen in Hungary 70 years ago and how the country’s leaders could turn against their own people.

And it is also necessary to ask why the current leaders could turn against Holocaust survivors and their descendants, he added.

Instead of cultivating the memory of Holocaust victims, the government is trying to wash the sins of the perpetrators clean, Mesterházy said.

Hungary had a Jewish community of 725,000 before World War Two. Twothirds of them were exterminated in the Holocaust.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

Follow that link to sign-up for MTI’s twice-daily newsletter.