Szegedist
02-13-2014, 12:24 PM
The Federation of Hungarian Resistance Fighters and Antifascists (MEASZ) held a commemoration to mark the 69th anniversary of Budapest’s liberation from German occupation in the capital on Wednesday.
“Budapest was liberated 69 years ago from fascism,” and for two-and-a-half years after 1945 the most advanced democracy had developed, Vilmos Hanti, the president of MEASZ, said at the commemoration held at a monument of the martyrs.
He called it the current government’s “sin” that it rejects to acknowledge “the fact of liberation.”
Hanti called the project of a monument planned to be erected in central Budapest to the victims of the 1944 German occupation “outrageous,” saying that it would make no distinction between victims and perpetrators.
Socialist lawmaker and candidate for Budapest mayor Csaba Horvath said that Prime Minister Viktor Orban wanted to “nationalise the right to commemorate”, referring to the same planned monument.
The commemoration was attended by representatives of the opposition left alliance, the Social Democratic Party, the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities Mazsihisz and officials of the Russian and Czech embassies.
The 102-day siege of Budapest by the Soviet Army, one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II, ended on February 13, 1945, with the city’s unconditional surrender. It claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people, including 38,000 civilians, and left about half a million people seriously wounded. About 27 percent of the city’s 40,000 buildings were destroyed and the retreating Germans blew up the city’s seven bridges spanning the Danube.
http://www.politics.hu/20140213/antifascist-federation-marks-budapest-liberation-69th-anniversary/
“Budapest was liberated 69 years ago from fascism,” and for two-and-a-half years after 1945 the most advanced democracy had developed, Vilmos Hanti, the president of MEASZ, said at the commemoration held at a monument of the martyrs.
He called it the current government’s “sin” that it rejects to acknowledge “the fact of liberation.”
Hanti called the project of a monument planned to be erected in central Budapest to the victims of the 1944 German occupation “outrageous,” saying that it would make no distinction between victims and perpetrators.
Socialist lawmaker and candidate for Budapest mayor Csaba Horvath said that Prime Minister Viktor Orban wanted to “nationalise the right to commemorate”, referring to the same planned monument.
The commemoration was attended by representatives of the opposition left alliance, the Social Democratic Party, the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities Mazsihisz and officials of the Russian and Czech embassies.
The 102-day siege of Budapest by the Soviet Army, one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II, ended on February 13, 1945, with the city’s unconditional surrender. It claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people, including 38,000 civilians, and left about half a million people seriously wounded. About 27 percent of the city’s 40,000 buildings were destroyed and the retreating Germans blew up the city’s seven bridges spanning the Danube.
http://www.politics.hu/20140213/antifascist-federation-marks-budapest-liberation-69th-anniversary/