Commemorations were held on Sunday to honour the Hungarian victims of the Holocaust. The 14th March of the Living event drew huge crowds, estimated at more than 10,000. For the first time representatives of Hungary’s historic churches also addressed the crowd.
The commemorative event was addressed as main speaker by Géza Röhrig, the lead actor in Lászlo Nemes Jeles’ Academy Award-winning film, Son of Saul, along with religious leaders and the Israeli ambassador.
For the first time the event was addressed by representatives of Hungary’s historic churches. Chief Rabbi Róbert Frölich said that although the Synagogue and the Basilica are just a few minutes’ walk apart, “there were times when the sobbing of the Synagogue and the cries for help from Jews who were to be sent to die fell on deaf ears and closed doors.” But today, Christians and Jews pay tribute to the martyrs of the Holocaust together. “Today the Basilica’s doors are open and the Jewish voices have found their way to Christian churches.”
István Szabó Bogárdi, of the synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, said that while walking in the march today, one should think about those who could not also walk the same streets with their grandchildren today, had they not been “thrown for no reason into the hell of war” as innocent victims
