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Exactly 80 years ago, on the 16th of April, 1944, the ghettoisation of Hungarian Jews began. Since 2001, this day has been the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in Hungary. In Pásti Street synagogue, the six thousand people of Debrecen who lost their lives in concentration camps, labour camps or ghettos were remembered.
In his welcoming speech Mayor László Papp said that “80 years have passed, but the immense evil that claimed the lives of so many people, including many in Debrecen, is still incomprehensible. Men, women and children who were deported because of their religion. They declared themselves Jewish and Hungarian at the same time. We remember those who, as compatriots, showed that they regard Hungary as their home and worked every day for their families, communities, faith and country”.
“Jews in many parts of the world are not safe today, but in Hungary and Debrecen they are,” Tamás Horovitz said. According to the President of the Jewish Community of Debrecen, the most important message of this Memorial Day is that regardless of affiliation, we must work to ensure that the horrors of 80 years ago never happen again. There were 12,000 Jews living in Debrecen before the Holocaust, six thousand of whom lost their lives in ghettos, death camps or labour camps.
“Every day, when we come to the synagogue, we see and are confronted with the wall with the names of nearly six thousand Jewish citizens of Debrecen who were victims of the Holocaust,” Tamás Horovitz. On the Remembrance Day, the “kádis” or prayer is said for the victims in Debrecen, and the participants also laid the stones of remembrance.
Source: debrecen.hu
