News that the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted Nazi war criminal is living
freely in Hungary is the latest incident to spark fears that
the country is veering alarmingly to the right.
In particular, there are concerns that anti-Semitism, largely
dormant under Hungary's communist era that ended two decades
ago, is again rearing its ugly head under the rule of Prime
Minister Viktor Orban.
The newest case involves 97-year-old Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary,
accused by the Nazi-hunting Wiesenthal Center of organising
the deportation to their deaths of some 16,000 Jews during
World War II.
Since being forced to leave Canada, where he had escaped
to after the war, in 1996, the former policeman's whereabouts
were uncertain until the Wiesenthal Center last September
informed Hungarian authorities that he was in Budapest.
After British tabloid The Sun drew international attention
to his case this weekend, Hungarian prosecutors issued
a statement on Monday that appeared however to limit
severely the chances that the old man will end up in
the dock.
The events "took place 68 years ago in an area that now falls under the jurisdiction of another
country -- which also with regard to the related international
conventions raises several investigative and legal problems," a statement said.
Almost exactly a year ago, a court in Budapest acquitted
Hungarian Sandor Kepiro, 97, of charges of ordering the execution
of over 30 Jews and Serbs in the Serbian town of Novi Sad
in January 1942.
In the verdict, a Budapest judge cited a lack of tangible,
credible evidence against Kepiro, noting that much of the
prosecution's case rested heavily on old testimonies and
verdicts from previous trials in the 1940s.
The Wiesenthal Center, which had also listed Kepiro as the
most wanted Nazi war criminal and helped bring him to court,
described the verdict as an "outrageous
miscarriage of justice." Six weeks later Kepiro died.
Recent months, meanwhile, have seen something of a public
rehabilitation of controversial figures, most notably of
Miklos Horthy, Hungary's dictator from 1920 until falling
out with his erstwhile ally Adolf Hitler in 1944.
In May, a square in a park in the town of Gyomro was renamed
in his honour, a life-size statue has been erected in a village
and in the city of Debrecen a marble plaque honouring him
was restored at his old school.
Anti-Semitic writers like Albert Wass and Jozsef Nyiro, a
keen supporter of the brutal Arrow Cross regime installed
in power by the Nazis in 1944, have also been reintroduced
into the curriculum for schools, meanwhile.
Other incidents include the verbal assault of a 90-year-old
rabbi, Jozsef Schweitzer, when a stranger came up to him
in the street and said "I
hate all Jews!"
The decision by the speaker of the Hungarian parliament,
Orban ally Laszlo Kover, to attend a ceremony in May honouring
Nyiro, prompted Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel to return Hungary's
highest honour in disgust.
Holocaust survivor Wiesel, 83, said "it
has become increasingly clear that Hungarian authorities
are encouraging the whitewashing of tragic and criminal episodes
in Hungary's past."
The speaker of Israel's Knesset followed this up by withdrawing
an invitation to Kover to a ceremony in July in Israel paying
tribute to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved
Jews during World War II.
Others have also made clear their disgust, with Akos Kertesz,
an 80-year-old prize-winning Jewish Hungarian writer, in
March going as far as applying for political asylum in Canada.
And in January internationally acclaimed Hungarian-born pianist
Andras Schiff said he would no longer perform in his native
country because of the increasingly hostile environment not
only for Jews but also other minorities like Roma.
"
On the Internet I have been insulted as a 'filthy Jew'," Schiff
told a German newspaper. "I am disgusted at how anti-Semitic baiting has become acceptable in Hungary."
The balcony of Dr Csatary L., alias Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary,
on the last floor of a Budapest building. The Nazi-hunting
Simon Wiesenthal Centre confirmed that Laszlo Csatary, accused
of complicity in the killings of 15,700 Jews, had been tracked
down to the Hungarian capital.
Almost exactly a year ago, a court in Budapest acquitted
Hungarian Sandor Kepiro, 97, of charges of ordering the execution
of over 30 Jews and Serbs in the Serbian town of Novi Sad
in January 1942.
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