Next spring, according to the Government’s plans, a Holocaust memorial site will be constructed at the Józsefváros Train Station in Budapest, Minister of State heading the Prime Minister’s Office János Lázár announced at today’s Holocaust 2014 Memorial Committee meeting.
Government Commissioner Balázs Fürjes has been tasked with implementing this plan, which has been allotted a budget of with 5 billion forints. Minister of Sate Lázár also indicated that UNESCO will probably grant its patronage for the memorial year.
The committee meeting was attended by parliamentary state secretaries Zsolt Németh, Tamás Vargha and János Fónagy, Minister of State for Social Inclusion Zoltán Kovács as well as Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor.
Mr. Lázár stated that the Hungarian Government has two priorities with relation to the Holocaust. One is to establish as many community memorial sites as possible, such as the one planned in the Józsefváros district of Budapest. The other is the commemoration of the child victims of the Holocaust, he added. The Minister of State said that the Government had accepted the Committee’s proposal and instructed Hungarian Railways (MÁV) to participate in the implementation of the project.
Mária Schmidt, Director-General of the House of Terror Museum has also been tasked with assembling an international research group, consisting of Hungarian and foreign historians, to determine the contents of an education centre, also to be established within the memorial site.
Mr. Lázár emphasised that this education centre must also become a leading institution on a European scale and should introduce Hungarian history’s links to the Holocaust to foreign children and young adults. With reference to the memorial year, he also warned that there are danger in both ignoring and relativising the Holocaust, and the thematic year will be an opportunity to take action against these threats.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
