Part four – those who acted against inhumanity

  

I always read your paper with the highest  inquiry
and I do respect your gentle values to endure for the
interest of pedagogues. In the issue of February 10
there  was an article about the  also  instructive
events, titled  ‘Az emlékezet bíbor bársonya’.
Notwithstanding I have decided to grab a pen as the
article seemingly was forgotten a significant detail.
You were quoting  Israel Meir Lau, the former Chief
Rabbi of Israel who  said that at the time of the
Holocaust the world was divided into three groups: the
Nazis and their supporters; the victims, and those who
“stood by and did nothing in order to save the victims.”
The former Chief Rabbi, who now is the Chairman of
Yad Vashem in  Jerusalem, spoke about that 23
thousand  people are registered as life savers who
helped the chased ones during  even  the  bloodiest
period.
It is typical both in Hungary, both internationally that
we forget to mention the fourth group of the world.
This group includes those who acted against the
terrifying ideas either armored, or with political or
civilian way. They were the  resistant  antifascists and
life savers. Although the former Chief Rabbi mentions
the life savers but he forgets to rate them as the fourth
group of the world.  The only way  the fascism could
have been defeated in the World War II was that the
antifascist coalition of the Allies made  an incredible
amount of victims in order to  achieve success. This
also means that any Hungarian blessed with some
national feelings should be proud on the fact that
Hungarians participated in 22 different countries in the
fight of resistant antifascist and life savers. We should
be proud in Hungary that there were Hungarians who
sacrificed their life for a democratic and independent
Hungary even if there were very few of them.  Árpád
Göncz, former armored resistant injured in the
liberation of Rákoshegy. The Red Army that liberated
the ghetto and  the capital put the Hungarian national
flag next to their own on the top of Buda Castle
because they acknowledged the contribution of the
Hungarian antifascists during the war.
When our children do not get enough and authentic
information about the World War II we cannot expect
them to have a real  view about this period of the
history.  Fortunately in my organization, named the
Hungarian Federation of Resistance Fighters and
Antifascists (http://www.antifasiszta.hu) there are some
former resistance fighters that  still can recall the
antifascist resistant authentically. But  what happens
when this excellent people will no longer be among us?

In the meantime of the previous government we got in
touch with  István Hiller, Minister of Education and
Culture in order to ask for help to bring alive a house
for memories, a museum, where we could
commemorate for the  resistant fighters  and we could
demonstrate their brave stand out to the next
generations in the very last minute.  We were turned to
the Holocaust Memorial Center in the Minister’s
formal reply. It is typical that the role of  the victims
and those who acted against the inhumanity in their
deeds in the World War II are often blurred.
Unfortunately  in the educational system of the last
years our children  did not receive enough motivation
(huge respect for the exception) to get into the side of
humanist values, those who raise their voice against
inhumanity and to judge over all those who next to the
Nazi Germans were organizing  the deportation of
people to the death trains here in Hungary.
Slowly the civil service media is adrift to the direction
of the extreme-right. This year  around  February 13 at
the anniversary of the fascist liberation of Budapest the
antifascist resistance was not a topic but the “famous”
hero  protectors of Buda castle. Citing the siege of
Budapest, our politics  approaching the extreme-right
were moaning over how many civil died as a result of
the Russian destruction. They did not put their words
into a wider context or into a more complex  relation.
Therefore  those, who  do not have a deep knowledge
about  that period of history, unwittingly accept the
words of the extreme-right. It is essential to teach the
generations of the future: the subject of the human
respectability  is to refuse the false and hypocritical
words  in these questions instead of going for it and
endure to the truth. They should be leaded by the
example of the former antifascist resistance fighters
and life savers. Hopefully there will be no need to offer
as a sacrifice or even to risk their lives. But they ought
to believe that their human  strength of  the weekdays
could lead into a better world.
Consequently our colleagues  that stand at the side of
humanism have a huge responsibility. I know that their
situation is  defenseless but their audaciousness is also
essential. They have all of my regard and respect.


Vilmos Hanti,
president of Hungarian Federation of Resistance
Fighters and Antifascist

2011. április 15.

2024. április 28. Vasárnap