Plan To Open Another Holocaust Museum in Budapest Faces Criticism—From Jews

Many worry it will be window-dressing for politicians who want to be seen remembering the Shoah but ignore today’s anti-Semitism

By Ruth Ellen Gruber|January 10, 2014 

By Allison Hoffman

The Hungarian author György Konrád is arguably one of the best-known child survivors of the Holocaust. Yet in mid-December, Konrád, now 81, pointedly declined an invitation to take part in an advisory session for a new $22 million state-sponsored Holocaust memorial museum and education center focusing on child victims that is slated to open next spring.

Mađarski autor Gyorgy Konrad je jedan od najpoznatijih osoba koje su preživjele Holokaust kao dijete. No,  sredinom prosinca Konrad,  koji ima sada 81 godinu, je odbio poziv da sudjeluje na sjednici koja je sponzorirala novi  Holokaust  memorijalni  i edukacijski muzej ( vrijedan 22 milijuna dolara) koji je fokusiran na djecu koji su bili žrtve pokolja. Muzej bi se trebao otvoriti slijedećg proljeća.

“It would be hard to shake the feeling that the hasty organization of this exhibition is not about the hundreds of thousands of children murdered 70 years ago, but rather about the Hungarian government of today,” Konrád wrote in an open letter to the museum’s director. “If the government wanted to devote such a large sum to the memory of these children, then in the spirit of the children’s spiritual heritage I would suggest they turn this amount over to feeding the badly nourished, living Hungarian children of today.”

"Teško bi bilo probuditi emocija  na takvoj organizaciji izložbe koja nije o stotinama tisuća ubijene djece prije 70 godina, nego je umjesto toga izložba o današnjoj mađarskoj vladi" napisao je Konrad pismo direktoru muzeja.  "Ako Vlada želi posvetiti tako veliku sumu uspomeni na tu djecu, onda  Ja predlažem da se taj novac upotrebi za hranu slabo hranjenoj  mađarskoj djeci koja danas živi....