According to the organisers, 15 thousand people, including politicians and diplomats, participated in the 12th annual March of the Living in Budapest on Sunday. The marchers started off from the Pest side of the Elisabeth Bridge, where a statue called March of the Living was inaugurated, and walked along Rákóczi Avenue to the Keleti railway station, where a message from Israeli President Shimon Peres was displayed on a large screen. Participants included deputy head of governing Fidesz party Lajos Kósa, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Antal Rogán, as well as former German Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle.

At the Keleti railway station, special envoy for Holocaust issues of the US State Department Douglas Davidson addressed the crowd, pointing out that it was painful for Hungarians to admit that the Nazis did not act alone in the deportation, and used local help.

Eli Rubinstein, international director of Canada's March of the Living organisation, noted that Hungary had lost some 600,000 Jewish lives, three quarters of the country's Jewish community.

At another commemoration at Budapest's House of Terror Museum, Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics talked about the tragedy of the Holocaust. He emphasised that “the Hungary of the 20th century was the Hungary of bad solutions to bad situations,” adding that „the foundations of the political community today are based on remembrance”.

On Monday, a 600-member delegation left Budapest for Auschwitz-Birkenau, including 30 Roma students, to commemorate Roma victims of the Holocaust. The Hungarian participants include Holocaust survivors, secondary school students, Roma, as well as both Jews and non-Jewish people. Hungarian President János Áder is also joining the event.

(Government)