In January 2014, the Hungarian government suddenly declared that by March 2014 a new memorial will be erected in Szabadság tér to commemorate the Nazi German occupation of the country beginning March 19, 1944. A plan of this artifact also became public. Intellectuals commenting on the plan are still debating whether its low artistic quality (absolute kitsch) or its mendacious historical message is the more striking feature. Péter Raab Párkányi sculptor’s plan won the tender of the Office of the Prime Minister; and it was only due to a Socialist municipal representative of the 5th district that the simple folk living in this city had the chance to see the plan before it would be erected. He published the plan on his blog and since then this plan led to a series of conflicts over the historical self-image of Hungary. According to the plan, the Third Reich would be symbolized with an eagle. Here is the first outrageous feature: the national symbol of today’s Germany is used for Nazi Germany. As Krisztián Ungváry Hungarian historian pointed out, it is as though in a Slovakian or Romanian monument one would use a Hungarian national symbol to represent brutal aggression. It is not a case without precedents, so it’s not to say that in other countries historical responsibility for 20th century genocides is not blamed on foreigners. However, the issue of the planned Hungarian memorial with the eagle is aggravated by its position, since it would be erected in Szabadság tér, a most prominent square in the heart of Budapest.
This square is already provides quite interesting blend of different political symbols, a Mecca for researchers of symbolic politics. Besides being the location of the American Embassy, Szabadság tér hosts the memorial of the Soviet Red Army’s victory expelling Nazi and Arrow Cross militia from Hungary, which was called the liberation of Hungary for decades. Nowadays however, the same event is often labeled as the occupation of Hungary. And let’s not forget the recently erected Horthy sculpture, about which The CEU Weekly has already published an article.
Nazi-occupied Hungary would be symbolized in this incriminated monument with the person of Archangel Gabriel. Thus, there is a clear, simple message: brutal Germany invaded poor innocent Hungary. No one is doubting the brutality of the Nazi army of course, however, the truth is that Germans met very little resistance in Hungary. Governor Horthy remained the head of state and he himself legitimized one radical right-wing government after the other, to please his German allies. There are numerous proofs that Eichmann’s Einsatzgruppe hardly needed imported German soldiers to implement the “final solution” in Hungary, because he found excellent local people to send their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz.
Sculptors Miklós Melocco and György Benedek (both close to the government) support the plan of Raab Parkanyi, arguing that the concept behind the monument refers to the “deep meaning behind easily accessible symbols… moreover, its historical context is not ordinary… We could provide refuge to more than 200,000 Polish refugees. Until 1943 peaceful conditions ruled over this land. The genocidal German troops, in alliance with their lackeys in the Arrow Cross, dealt the death blow to this country.” To quote Krisztian Ungvary again, he commented that “even fewer historical distortions would be enough to earn a failing grade in a university exam”. One could say that sculptors are not necessarily history graduates. That’s why the expert opinions of historians should have been consulted before designing a 7 meter-high monument in the center of the capital. However, it is very clear why no one asked historians. 2014 being the memorial year of the Hungarian Holocaust (for the 70th anniversary), the government developed a two-faced strategy to please both international public opinion; by spending money on a new memorial center for the Holocaust’s child victims and at the same time to please Hungarians by falsifying our history, constructing an alternative history in which the Holocaust was the result only of Nazi German policy and not due to local collaboration or state-supported anti-Semitism strengthened in this country for two decades before WWII.
This monument is now one of the reasons why Hungarian Jewish organizations are about to refuse participation in any of the government-organized Holocaust commemorations during the year. Fourteen Jewish civil associations already refused all the government-funds they won in tenders for projects related to the memorial year. Many Jewish and non-Jewish people ask themselves how far such overt hypocrisy on the part of the government can be beard. Many intellectuals hope that MAZSIHISZ (umbrella organizations including all the neologue Jewish communities of Hungary, however not the Orthodox and the Reform communities), the largest Jewish community, will keep its word that unless the plan to erect the monument on Szabadság tér is cancelled (and two other requirements met by the government), it would boycott all the events of the government-organized Holocaust-commemorating year.
Agnes Kelemen,
Nationalism Studies,
Hungary
Image: vs.hu
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