The minister said the change in political system in 1989-90 had created the freedom and the possibility to “confront out past and thereby rediscover those with whom our common fate lies ... in communist times we could hardly know about each other.” Church communities, national minorities and civic communities that did not officially exist had to discover each other, their stories and their wounds, he said, adding that this was hard since everyone at first was only concerned with their own suffering and losses.

The Hungarian Roma community has been pushed to the end of the line with its story of suffering, he said, adding that 25 years was needed to pay our debt “and take care for those who are at the end of the line”.

Szabolcs Takács, prime ministerial state secretary for EU affairs and current chairman of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, said. Ideologies based on exclusion and promoting the obliteration of ethnic and religious groups must not be allowed to gain ground.

He said Hungarians were participants in the Holocaust carried out by the Nazi regime both as perpetrators and as victims. No compromise is being made in terms of confronting the past so “in this respect Hungary has nothing to be ashamed of,” he added.

The conference has been organised by IHRA in conjunction with the Budapest Tom Lantos Institute and the Jesuit Roma College.

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MTI photo: Kovács Tamás