Budapest ghetto liberation anniversary marked in Dohány Street Synagogue

A commemoration was held in Budapest’s Dohány Street Synagogue on Friday to mark the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the city’s ghetto.

Addressing the ceremony, Szabolcs Takács, state secretary at the PM’s Office, called the Holocaust “one of the heaviest burdens in the history of our nation, which we can never forget”.

Remembering the Holocaust is a “joint responsibility for us”, the state secretary said.

The Hungarian government will not tolerate hatred or any threat that would jeopardise “the unity and peace of the nation or Europe’s Jewish-Christian culture”, Takács said, noting that the government has declared “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism.

He said Hungary’s Jewish community was Europe’s largest, and noted that the synagogue hosting the commemoration is the world’s second largest. “Jewish life is flourishing in Hungary,” he said, adding that Jewish festivals are organised on a regular basis and the government has contributed large funds to the renovation of synagogues and old Jewish cemeteries.