President of the Republic János Áder presented the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary (civilian division) to Alice Esterházy, daughter of the ethnic Hungarian politician János Esterházy, who was a prominent public figure in Czechoslovakia in the 1930’s and 40’s.

In his laudation, Zsolt Németh, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the life of Alice Esterhazy has revolved around her continuous struggle to “rehabilitate her innocently convicted father, a politician who was condemned because he remained faithful to his community”. He said that Alice Esterházy lives for Hungarians in Slovakia and from the love of Hungarians in Slovakia, as well as for Hungary and the love of Hungary. The decoration is an expression of this existing bond.

The Hungarian State Secretary pointed out that János Esterházy had pledged his blood, while Alice Esterházy had pledged her faith throughout her life, and the essence of both their lives is the struggle for rehabilitation, loyalty to life. The former politician fought for the rehabilitation of Hungarians who found themselves living on the territory of Czechoslovakia and indeed of all Hungarians, when he fought for the rights of Slovak Hungarians, and also when – voting against the deportation of Jews – “he tried to protect the Hungarians from the moral disaster” that responsibility for the Holocaust and the war meant.

Zsolt Németh emphasized: János Esterházy continued his struggle for the rehabilitation of Hungarians when he raised his voice for the rights of Slovaks in Hungary, because he wanted to protect Hungary from the responsibility that stemmed from the persecution of minorities. Alice Esterhazy’s fight for the rehabilitation of her father is also a struggle for the rehabilitation of all Hungarians – he said.

With regard to the event, the Hungarian State Secretary stated that the fate of János Esterházy is a combination of multiple problems in 20th century Hungarian history: he was Polish, from the Northern territories, and he was an aristocrat, who died as a victim of Communism and the “Beneš decrees”. His life is an example of what loyalty to the nation is – he added.

Zsolt Németh expressed his view that the future of the Central European peoples was closely intertwined with the possibility of rehabilitation for János Esterházy, testament to which is the fact that the statue of the politician unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday was erected upon a joint Hungarian-Polish initiative. The memory of the former politician can also help to strengthen the idea of Central-European bonds – he added.

Speaking about the fact that János Esterházy is regarded differently in Hungary and in Slovakia, Zsolt Németh said: there are favourable elements in the relations between the two countries but there are also elements of “critical dialogue”. The objective is to achieve progress in the former and beside this to also pursue a dialogue on the latter – he pointed out.

János Esterházy (1901-1957) fought a steadfast battle between the two world wars and later during World War II for the survival and the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia. During World War II, being the only Hungarian representative in the Slovak Parliament, he was the only one who refused to vote in favour of the deportation of Jews on May 15, 1942. Despite this, he was declared a war criminal after the war and was sentenced to death. The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He died in Mírov prison, in Moravia on March 8, 1957.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)