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The American Hungarian Federation Co-Sponsors Conference Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Foiling of Deportation of Jews to Nazi Death Camps.

11/14/2019 The American Hungarian Federation Co-Sponsors Conference Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Foiling of Deportation of Jews to Nazi Death Camps.-

On Thursday, November 14, 2019, the Office of the Hungarian Parliament, the Ferenc Koszorus Memorial Committee and the American Hungarian Federation hosted a conference, the Fate of Rescuers in Dictatorships. The conference honored Colonel Ferenc Koszorus, whose military intervention 75 years ago prevented the deportation of close to 300, 000 Jews living in Budapest who were about to be sent to Auschwitz and other camps under horrific conditions.

The conference, held in the stunningly beautiful Upper House of the Parliament, heard from historians and experts, whose scholarship focused on the armed resistance and rescue efforts of courageous Hungarians, who challenged the imminent deportation of Budapest's large Jewish population (swelled by Jewish refugees from neighboring countries) by Adolf Eichmann and the puppet Stojay government.

Dr. Csaba Hende, Deputy Director of the National Assembly, greeted the standing room only gathering on behalf of the Parliament's President and eulogized Colonel Koszorus by recalling the words of the late U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a victim of the Hungarian Holocaust himself:

"Colonel Koszorus' unparalleled action was the only case known in which an Axis power used military force for the purpose of preventing the deportation of the Jews. As a result of his extraordinary brave efforts, taken at great risk in an extremely volatile situation, the eventual takeover of Budapest by the Nazis was delayed by three and a half months. This hiatus allowed thousands of Jews to seek safety in Budapest, thus sparing them from certain execution. It also permitted the famous Raoul Wallenberg, who arrived in Budapest on July 9, 1944, to coordinate his successful rescue mission."

The conference continued with the showing of a clip from the documentary, Becsület Útján (On the Road of Honor). Tibor Zinner, the Conference Chair, introduced the other panelists, including M. Sándor Kiss, who spoke about the military and civil resistance in Hungary, while researcher Nóra Szekér discussed the efforts of István Vasdényei, who was the captain of a Hungarian camp and assisted many of the inmates escape.

Gábor Ujvári compared the pre-1944 anti-Semitism of some politicians with their post-1944 sympathies regarding the plight of the Jews of Hungary. György Haraszti, from the National Jewish University for Rabbinical Student, focused on the need to commemorate those Jews who worked side-by-side with their Christian counterparts in the rescue efforts of 1944, and how up until 1989 the communist government reclassified these Jewish rescuers as ''communist resistors."

Mr. Koszorus, President Emeritus of the American Hungarian Federation, gave a memorable speech stressing that he was not at the conference so much as to give voice to his family's personal accounts of Colonel Koszorus. Rather, he stressed, he was there to entreat those few members of the academic community and journalists, who despite the growing number of documents, reminiscences, and historical research, nevertheless, belittle and distort the Koszorus Action, and thereby disappointingly blacken and distort the history of Hungarians and Hungary.

Finally, Zsuzsa Hanto, the Ferenc Koszorus Memorial Committee chair, delivered a lecture highlighting the past failures and refusals to accurately record the activities of the 1944 rescue efforts, and how under forty years of communist dictatorship, the Marxist historical narrative refused to recognize the significance of these endeavors.

In addition to Mr. Koszorus, other AHF members who attended this most important and informative conference included Yvette Boone, Csilla Banyai and Bert Kolus. AHF national president Akos Nagy joined the organization's delegation later that evening and noted that "we are proud to have been part of this much needed and noteworthy conference, especially considering that AHF's mission includes correcting misleading assertions made about Hungarians and their history."

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AHF established the Lajos Kossuth Award to recognize members of Congress for their support in strengthening U.S. relations with Hungary and of democracy and human and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe.
AHF established the Lajos Kossuth Award to recognize government leaders for their support in strengthening U.S. relations with Hungary and of democracy and human and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe.

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March 15 is Hungarian National Day commemorating the 1848 War of Independence and fight for Liberation and Democracy. The 1848-1849 flag is shown here.March 15 is Hungarian National Day commemorating the 1848 War of Independence and fight for Liberation and Democracy. Kossuth Lajos (Louis) (b. 1802, d. 1894, pronounced co-shoot luh-yôsh) was Governor of Hungary and leader during fight for independence which was eventually defeated by the union of the royalist Austrian Habsburg and Russian Czarist Armies (1848 - 1849). Kossuth envisioned a federation in the Kingdom of Hungary in which all nationalties participated in a vibrant democratic system based on fundamental democratic principles such as equality and parliamentary representation. The bloody conflict eventually led to a great compromise known as the "Austro-Hungarian Empire," in which Hungary gained some autonomy, although Kossuth would have no part in it and demanded full indepependence until his death. It also inadvertantly set the seeds for Hungary's dismemberment after WWI at Trianon

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The American Hungarian Federation of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., joined Hungarian American communities worldwide andpresented a program commemorating the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The 1848-1849 flag is shown here."the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, perjured in the sight of God and man, had forfeited the Hungarian throne."
Hungary, April 1849

"All for the people and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age."
Spoken before the Ohio State Legislature,
February 16, 1852


Audio Resources

Hear Louis Kossuth Speak!Hear Louis Kossuth Speak! [Click Here] - This is the speech of Louis Kossuth which he gave for the dedication of the statue for the 13 Hungarian generals, who were executed at Arad, Hungary, on October 6, 1849 (Arad is in Rumania today after annexation due to the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 ). Louis Kossuth was exiled after the fall of the Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1848 and made his permanent home in Torino (Turin), Italy. He could not attend the dedication of the monument at Arad, without risking arrest, so he recorded his speech inTurin, and sent it to Arad using the new technology of sound recording, called the phonograph.
This is the speech of Louis Kossuth which he gave for the dedication of the statue for the 13 Hungarian generals, who were executed at Arad, Hungary, on October 6, 1849 (Arad is in Rumania today after annexation due to the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 ).The recording was made on September 20, 1890, when Kossuth was 88 years old. It is a sad fact that the monument Kossuth sent his speech for was torn down by the Rumanian government when they annexed Transylvania, along with Arad, in 1920, after World War I.

The original recording on two wax cylinders for the Edison phonograph survives to this day, although barely audible due to excess playback and unsuccessful early restoration attempts. Lajos Kossuth is the earliest born person in the world who has his voice preserved. Since the audio is of such poor quality, here is it is transcribed in Hungarian and translated to English (special thanks to Louis Kossuth in North America)

Hungarian
English

"A világ bírája a történelem fog e kérdésre felelni. Legyenek a szentemlékû vértanúk megáldottak poraikban, szellemeikben a hon szabadság Istenének legjobb áldásaival az örökkévalóságon keresztül; engem ki nem borulhatok le a Magyar Golgota porába, engem október 6-a térdeimre borulva fog hontalanságom remete lakában látni a mint az engem kitagadott Haza felé nyújtva agg karjaimat a hála hû érzelmeivel áldom a vértanúk szent emlékét hûségükért a Haza iránt, 's a magasztos példáért, melyet az utódoknak adtanak; 's buzgó imával kérem a magyarok Istenét, hogy tegye diadalmassá a velõkig ható szózatot, mely Hungária ajkairól a Magyar Nemzethez zeng. Úgy legyen Ámen!

Turin
September 20 1890
Kossuth Lajos

"The judge of the universe, history, will decide over this question. Should the saintly remembered martyrs be hallowed in their ashes, in their spirit with the highest blessings of the Lord of Liberty and through eternity; I can not pay my sympathies to the ashes of the Hungarian Golgotha, but October 6 will find me on my knees in this reclusive home of exile, as I open my arms to my disowning homeland. With gratitude's faithful sentiments, I bless the martyrs' sacred memory for their faith in their homeland and for the sublime example they left to their heirs: with ardent prayer I beg the God of Hungarians to make their appeal which echoes from the lips of Hungaria to the Hungarian Nation. So be it, Amen!

Turin
September 20 1890
Lajos Kossuth


The Kossuth Anthem:
Hear Louis Kossuth Speak!
Click to hear the recording:
"Kossuth Lajos azt üzente,
elfogyott a regimentje.
Ha még egyszer azt üzeni,
mindnyájunknak el kell menni,
Éljen a magyar szabadság,
Éljen a haza !
Esik esõ karikára,
Kossuth Lajos kalapjára.
Valahány csepp esik rája,
Annyi áldás szálljon rája,
Éljen a magyar szabadság,
Éljen a haza!"

Links

  • AHF and the Kossuth Bust in the US Capitol
  • AHF commemorating 1848
  • President Bush Honors 1848 and Hungary's Contributions to Democracy
  • HRFA's excellent Kossuth in America [visit]
  • Select Speeches of Kossuth, Condensed and Abridged, with Kossuth's Express Sanction [visit]
  • Louis Kossuth, Mason And Apostle Of World Democracy [visit]
  • Count Apponyi's Oration on the Death of Louis Kossuth [visit]
  • Wikipedia - [visit] and add your thoughts!
  • Louis Kossuth in North America [visit]
  • Kossuth County, Iowa [visit]
  • Kossuth County, Iowa statue dedication
    [visit]
  • Dedication of statue to replace one destroyed by
    Rumanian occupation forces in 1921:
    Gyergyócsomafalva, Transylvania [visit]
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