Hungarians protest plan for statue of anti-Semitic figure

A silent protest has been held in central Hungary against a plan to unveil a statue of a former minister of religion and education, who helped draft and supported anti-Semitic legislation in the 1930s.

The protest was held in the city of Szekesfehervar, where a statue commemorating Balint Homan is expected to be unveiled December 29.

The plan has been strongly criticized by local and international groups, including a Hungarian teachers’ union, the World Jewish Congress and several US members of Congress and government officials.

Homan participated in drafting legislation in 1938 and ’39 that restricted the rights of Hungarian Jews, and in 1944 he called for their deportation.

Some 420,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.

Art historian Andras Renyi, a speaker at the protest, said that while it was possible to draw a distinction between Homan’s work as minister and historian and his anti-Semitic acts and views, “the statue legitimizes his whole historical figure.”

US congressional leaders have also protested the construction of the monument.

The co-chairs of the US House Bipartisan Taskforce for Combatting Anti-Semitism on Friday sent a letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban protesting the monument to Homan.

The committee in its letter wrote of its “deep concern” about the statue, saying Homan “spearheaded Hungary’s anti-Jewish legislation and paved the way for deportations of and atrocities against Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.”

— Agencies