Budapest unveils memorial to Polish, Hungarian Jew savers
A memorial to Polish and Hungarian World War II Jew savers Henryk Slawik and Jozsef Antall was unveiled Monday in the Hungarian capital Budapest by Polish Sejm (lower house) speaker Marek Kuchcinski and Hungarian parliament head Laszlo Koever.
In his address at the ceremony Kuchcinski reminded that Slawik (see: NOTE 1) and Antall (see: NOTE 2), saved at least 5,000 Polish Jews from the Holocaust during World War II, and were recognised as war heroes in Hungary, Poland and Israel. Kuchcinski stressed that the memorial to the two men was "a symbolic site that integrates people and shows for what values (people - PAP) laid down their lives".
Kuchcinski remarked that Slawik and Antall were for years forgotten in their countries owing to the values they served. "These values were patriotism, righteousness, a love of freedom and the conviction that every human being is a value through their dignity and courage, that cannot be ever replaced by anything", Kuchcinski said.
Also attending the unveiling were Poland's ambassador in Hungary Jerzy Snopek, his predecessor and memorial initiator Grzegorz Lubczyk, Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and Polish History Museum head Robert Kostro.
The memorial in the shape of a park bench is located on Budapest's Gyoergy Goldmann Square close to the River Danube.
NOTE 1: Henryk Slawik (1894-1944) was a Polish politician, a social activist and diplomat, who during WW2 helped some 30,000 Polish refugees, including some 5,000 Polish Jews in Budapest, by issuing them false passports. In Budapest he established a Citizen's Committee for Help for Polish refugees and together with Jozsef Antall he organised jobs for POWs and refugees. He also helped exiled POWs leave camps of internment and travel to France to join the Polish Army. He was also a delegate of the Polish Government-in-Exile. Arrested after German forces had entered Hungary in 1944, he was executed in Mauthausen on Aug. 23, 1944. In 1977, he was posthumously granted the Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations of the World medal. In 2004, he was posthumously granted the Grand Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order, and in 2010 the Order of the White Eagle.
NOTE 2: Jozef Antall senior (1896-1974) was appointed a Hungarian government commissioner for war refugees 1939. He was granted numerous foreign distinctions, including, the Commander's Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order in 1948, and posthumously the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2010). In 1990, he was posthumously decorated with the Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations of the World medal. (PAP)
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