The exhibition was opened by the Prime Minister's commissioner and deputy chair of the Roma interdepartmental committee László Teleki. It presents on 12 tableaux the deportation of the Roma and their suffering in camps throughout Central Europe.
The historians Ferenc Kardos and József Tulok, who created the exhibition, presented a collection of films made in concentration camps as Roma wailing songs played in the background at the opening.
Gábor Bóri, who heads the UN permanent mission which commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day each year, greeted guests at the opening ceremony. Among the people who came were officials of the UN and UN country missions, as well as representatives of Jewish organisations and ethnic Hungarians in New York. Also present were Hungarian Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller, minorities ombudsman Ernő Kiss, state secretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour Lajos Korózs and Deputy Director of Outreach Division of the Department of Public Information of the UN Ramu Damodaran.
Korózs said the lesson to be learnt from the Holocaust is that the sinful nature that condemns and excludes people because they are different must be rejected. "Those who committed sins must always be named," he added, urging that all political means be used to act against groups that incite fear, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
"Nobody should think that the Holocaust is only an issue for the Jews and the Roma, because it is everyone's interest to prevent it from being repeated,"
Teleki said. "The Hungarian government does its utmost to suppress views that a small group of people try to project on the majority, even today," he added, referring to some of Hungary's far-right elements.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
