January 27 will mark the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The day was designated as International Holocaust Memorial Day by the United Nations Organization in 2005.
The subject of the Holocaust Memorial Center's permanent exhibition, entitled "From Deprivation of Rights to Genocide - to the Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust in Hungary", is the Holocaust in Hungary. Its aim is to recount and present the suffering, persecution and massacre of those Hungarian nationals - mainly Jews and the Roma - who were condemned to annihilation in the name of racial ideology.
"The dominant motif of the exhibition is the relationship between the state and its citizens," exhibition organiser András Szécsényi writes in the catalogue. "The exhibition does not present the events in a chronological order; it is based on units that present the different phases of the persecution: the deprivation of civil rights, property, freedom, human dignity, and existence. These topics are introduced and concluded in two adjacent rooms....within each thematic unit, the visitors can view films, photographs, and original documents with the help of touch screens. Computerized data storage is available on the balcony, where the entire material of the exhibition is open for research," Szécsényi says.
The centre's temporary exhibition "Return and Resumption, 1945-1947" attempts to present a little-known chapter of the Holocaust. At the same time, 1945-47 was the period of the short existence of a democratic government in Hungary," Szécsényi says. "Atrocities towards former deportees, people who had been persecuted for their race or political and religious beliefs, did not end with the euphoria following the liberation of the concentration and labour camps....By presenting written and photographic documents and objects from the period, the exhibition also intents to highlight the fact that between 1945 and 1947, the National Assembly of Hungary revoked 21 discriminative acts and several hundred decrees, and passed the Act XXV of 1946 on the denunciation of the persecution of the Jews and the reduction of the consequences. The 'Return and Resumption' exhibition was arranged for the 60th anniversary of Act XXV of 1946," Szécsényi says.
Programme for the International Holocaust Memorial Day - January 27, 2007
10:00
Remembering the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Speech by ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland, Mrs. Joanna Stempinska.
10:15
Laying of the symbols of remembrance at the Memorial Wall.
The Royal Fanfare Ensemble brass band performs.
Guided tours of the Holocaust Memorial Center's exhibitions will start at 10:30, 12:30 and 14:30.
Source: Art-net
