In early 2013, the Government of Hungary set up a Memorial Committee in order to properly commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Holocaust, an important step towards facing our history.

The Committee is to provide a forum through which representatives from civil society, ethnic groups, religious life, education, diplomacy and a range of public institutions can channel their ideas and proposals towards the preparation of the Hungarian Holocaust Memorial Year of 2014. The role of the Hungarian State is not to steer the course of discussions within this body, but to bolster an inter-societal dialogue among various stakeholders interested in the same goal: commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust together in the interest of preventing anything similar from happening again.

The legitimacy of the Committee follows also from the breadth of its membership: in addition to the largest Jewish communities, several Jewish cultural organisations, the Ambassadors of Israel, the United States, Germany and Austria, the Committee may also count several ministers and state secretaries, in addition to leaders of the Holocaust Documentation Centre and Memorial, the Hungarian Scientific Academy and the National Roma Self-Government (ORÖ) among its members.

In order to express its commitment to the concept of remembrance, the Hungarian State is to join the group of countries that support the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Throughout the Memorial Year, numerous high-level diplomatic exchanges will take place, directed programmes will tackle the issue of deported children and new initiatives will honour the memory of rescuers at schools by unveiling commemorative plaques. The Phorrajmos, the Roma Holocaust, will also gain equal acknowledgement through the dedication of a number of events and countrywide programmes to the memory of the Roma victims.

The Government understands that besides direct funding, there needs to be a Funding Programme that provides civil society at large with opportunities to start up their own initiatives. Via international cooperation, a synagogue-renovation programme is to be initiated, travelling exhibitions will be on display at 120 diplomatic representations abroad, while within the framework of overhauling Hungarian Holocaust education, it is planned that no student will leave secondary education without having visited Auschwitz-Birkenau.

(Prime Minister's Office)