Liberation of Budapest’s ghetto commemorated at Dohány Street Synagogue

A commemoration was held in Budapest’s Dohány Street Synagogue on Sunday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of city’s ghetto. Róbert Frölich, the synagogue’s chief rabbi, said the tragedy of the Hungarian Jews did not begin when the first trains departed for Auschwitz.
The persecution of Jews started with words, ideologies, writings, with changes in the public discourse, with thoughts and emotions that marked the path towards the setting up of the ghetto. It is a mistake to believe, he added, that “those in the highest places did not know about the establishment of the ghetto, that they did not take a decision and did not agree. Those in Buda Castle were aware and approved of it and allowed it to happen”.
Many people ask the question, chief rabbi Róbert Frölich noted, “don’t you Jews exaggerate this remembering the Holocaust? – But is it possible to exaggerate remembering the fact that they tried to exterminate our fathers and grandfathers, that they wanted to take away our right to be born … that they erased 600,000 Jews just like that from the society of this country?”
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