Confronting the Past

Hungary seems to have difficulties confronting its past, notes historian Róbert Braun. He goes on to draw certain parallels between how the István Szabó case and the Holocaust have been dealt with. "Without intending to equate these two totalitarian systems, one can nonetheless safely say that both forms of dictatorship represented a serious blow to moral values. This is why it's so crucial to take on the challenge of confronting our memories, both of the Holocaust and of socialism. For me, the passiveness of many reactions to the revelations about István Szabós is more worrying than his life as such. The silence, too, is bad, because silence is the attempt to flee justice. In our recollections of the past we should be aware of fundamental moral differences: in totalitarian regimes there were culprits, victims, resistance fighters and voyeurs. The issue of who were the culprits, who the victims, who resisted and who just looked on needs to be discussed."

» full article (external link, Hungarian)
More from the press review on the subject » History, » Hungary
All available articles from » Robert Braun

» To the complete press review of Thursday, February 2, 2006