Zoltán Balog said: it is our duty to release these enormous reserves, and to place them in the service of our common future. We sincerely hope that remembrance, too, serves as a means to achieve this, he added. The Minister pointed out: the horrific tragedy of the Roma Holocaust now has its own literature and a culture of remembrance in Hungary, and therefore no one can say in their defence „I have not been informed”.
Mr Balog also said that the change of regime created freedom, and at the same time the possibility „to face the past, and to re-discover those with whom we share a common fate”, but during communism „we hardly knew anything about each other”. Church communities, national and ethnic minorities, and civic communities who were not allowed to exist officially had to re-discover, or rather should have re-discovered one another, and one another’s history and wounds. This was a difficult process as everyone wanted to relate their own sufferings, their own losses first, and they were hardly interested in those of others, he said.
The Roma community in Hungary was relegated to the end of the line with its own story of suffering, „its own lost status” also in this respect. „It has taken twenty-five years to repay some of our debt in this department. To also look after those who are at the end of the line”, the Minister said. He also drew attention to the fact that the Roma Holocaust itself was a falsified historical event which was left untold for a long time. „It is therefore our duty to explore and to write down the facts that were concealed for so long, it is our duty to process the facts academically, and to publish them so that all of us have an understanding of the past”, he said.
Mr Balog pointed out that he regards this question as a matter of honour, and therefore in 2012 Roma culture and history were integrated into the national curriculum for the first time in Europe, including the topic of the Roma Holocaust. As part of the Holocaust Memorial Year, several programmes were concerned with the Roma genocide, he said, mentioning among others the performance entitled 371 Stars staged in the National Theatre.
In reference to the Oscar Award winning film Son of Saul, the Minister said: László Nemes Jeles’s film and the pride which we share on account of the Oscar do not blind us to the fact that we have yet plenty to do. At the same time, the message of this film, too, is that we have been given another chance to think and talk about the Holocaust in a new perspective. This is another reason why this film is so valuable, Mr Balog added.
Szabolcs Takács, State Secretary for EU Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Office, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) said in his welcome speech: the Tuesday evening cultural programme serves as the ceremonial opening of the conference to be held on Wednesday at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences which the Hungarian IHRA Chairmanship organised in cooperation with the Tom Lantos Institute and the Jesuit Roma Specialisation College in memory of the Roma Holocaust.
Mr Takács highlighted: this is the last international event of Hungary’s IHRA Chairmanship. Looking back on the last few months, „we may conclude that Hungary has guided IHRA as Chair of the organisation in the past 12 months successfully, in full awareness of its responsibility related to the past and with commitment to the future”.
He added: the Hungarian Chairmanship has achieved the amendment of an item of EU legislation, has increased the number of countries intending to join with two new observer states, and further organised a conference which drew attention to and highlighted the dangers of hate speech which is spreading in social media.
A dance drama which paid tribute to the Roma Holocaust was performed by the Khamoro Dance Company, with the participation of the students of the Jesuit Roma Specialisation College and the choir of the Dohány utca Synagogue.
The event was attended, inter alia, by Romani Rose, head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, and Károly Czibere, State Secretary for Social Affairs and Social Inclusion of the Ministry of Human Capacities.