Former U.S. anti-Semitism Envoy Warns of European Governments Trying to Distort Holocaust History
Source: Ha'aretz (Jul 07, 2017 2:45 AM)
This week, two events which made headlines in Israel and among the U.S. Jewish community turned attention to attempts by Eastern European governments to downplay and distort their countries' histories with regards to the Holocaust.
The first event was a diplomatic skirmish between Israel and Hungary over the Hungarian prime minister's speech praising Miklos Horthy, Hungary's leader during World War II who was complicit in the mass extermination of the country's Jewish population. The second event was Donald Trump's speech in Warsaw on Thursday, in which the U.S. president praised the Polish people for the 1944 anti-Nazi uprising, but in accordance with the line of the current government in Poland didn't mention any Polish involvement in the Holocaust.
The current governments of Poland and Hungary share a somewhat similar approach to their countries' dark history with regards to the Holocaust. Over the last years, both governments have been trying to downplay that history, and present the events that took place during the German occupation of the two countries as if they were entirely the fault of the Germans, with little to no responsibility falling on the local governments and populations.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's far-right prime minister, was accused last week by the U.S. Holocaust Museum of trying to rewrite history and of insulting the victims of the Holocaust. Poland, meanwhile, passed a bill last year which criminalizes the use of phrases pointing at Polish responsibility to the mass murder of the country's Jewish population.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.800094
= new reply since forum marked as read
