The apology was made at a conference jointly organised by the UN Secretariat and the Hungarian mission to mark the 70th anniversary of the Jewish and Roma Holocaust. "This is the first time that Hungary has acknowledged its responsibility in the Holocaust and apologized for it at the United Nations", UN Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi told Hungarian news agency MTI in New York on Thursday.

"We owe victims an apology as the Hungarian state was guilty in the Holocaust. Firstly because it failed to protect its citizens from extermination, secondly because it assisted and provided financial resources for the genocide", Csaba Kőrösi said at the conference, which was the opening event of a series of commemorations held at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

The Ambassador stressed that this apology by the Hungarian state must become part of the national memory and identity. He also noted that Hungary is commemorating the victims within the framework of a memorial year in 2014.

The issue of the Holocaust has been brought into the UN as it is a historical event of such importance that it must be discussed in front of the global public, he explained. In addition, despite all efforts, genocide has not disappeared from the Earth, and UN member states play a particular role in preventing genocide and holding the guilty accountable in the future, he said.

Yesterday, an exhibition entitled „The memory of the Hungarian Holocaust”, organised by the Carl Lutz Foundation, the Tom Lantos Foundation, the American Hungarian Coalition, the Hungary Initiatives Foundation and the Hungarian Mission, opened in the UN. There, Csaba Kőrösi once again stated that commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust offers an opportunity to face the past and apologise.

(Prime Minister’s Office)