Zsolt Németh, parliamentary state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Hungary Wallenberg Year 2012 aimed to remember Wallenberg?s heroic acts, while memorialising the victims of the Holocaust. He added that Wallenberg?s own end, as a victim of the Soviets, offered a chance to recall the crimes of communism.
Németh said the year was also a remembrance of those people who, independently of Wallenberg ?rescued humanity from the inhumanity of systems of tyranny?.
He said the important thing was to demonstrate Wallenberg?s example to young people, a task requiring new tools.
?In the programmes of the Raoul Wallenberg Year we shall present Raoul Wallenberg, the diplomat and man, and his partner rescuers, helpers in Hungary, the conditions of the rescue, the dangers of exclusion and discrimination. Doing so, we intend to draw attention to the importance of the protection of human rights and of having the courage of defending our long-standing values. The events of the past, their impact on the present and their lessons for today will be made tangible for all generations and all visitors in 2012 by exhibitions, conferences, concerts, competitions, meetings with witnesses and Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations,? Németh said earlier in a statement.
The Hungary Wallenberg Year 2012 will officially open in the Hungarian National Museum on Tuesday. Israeli minister Yossi Peled and Swedish foreign affairs minister Carl Bildt will be present at the opening, Németh said.
Bildt will open an exhibition of photographs called To me there?s no other choice ? Raoul Wallenberg 1912 ? 2012 on the occasion.
A number of programmes are planned in Hungary for the Wallenberg Year, including a middle school quiz on the theme of the Holocaust in the spring. Wallenberg?s actions will be in the focus at the annual March of the Living in April, and the House of Terror Museum will organise a Wallenberg memorial concert on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Budapest?s Holocaust Documentation Centre will host a conference in May on people who have taken a stand against terror, or physical or psychological violence.
In June, the Tom Lantos Institute, the International Centre for Democratic Transition and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will organise a forum on international human rights that focuses on Wallenberg.
The Hungary?s Wallenberg Year 2012 is organised under the patronage of President of Hungary Pál Schmitt.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
