Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addressed a letter to Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, in tribute to his work preserving the memory of Holocaust victims.
Marking International Holocaust Memorial Day, PM Orbán said he and his wife recalled Lauder’s “great speech” given at last year’s commemoration at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. PM Orbán assured Lauder that “Hungary has drawn the appropriate lessons from the dark chapter of Hungarian history that took away so many of our compatriots from the Jewish community and deprived the survivors of their loved ones.”
The prime minister noted that his government maintained a policy of zero tolerance against anti-Semitism. He also offered Lauder and the Jewish World Congress his full cooperation “in the spirit of common values”. “With head bowed to the victims, I wish you much strength and good health in your work for the world’s Jewish community,” the letter concluded.
President János Áder also marked the day by lighting candles in the synagogue in Buda Castle. Slomó Köves, the leader of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH), said at the event that the goal of “remembering dark times is … to find hope and strength”.
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