OPINION:
The three-book review by James Srodes (“To witness without understanding,” Books, May 14) contains the following quote from author Peter Longerich: “Large Jewish communities could be saved (as they were in France, Italy, Denmark, Old Romania and Bulgaria) or they were lost (as in Hungary and Greece).” While on the face of it, this statement is essentially true, even a cursory examination of the Jewish persecution in each country erodes the comparison’s meaning.
For instance, wartime France was divided into occupied France and Vichy France, and both political entities gave up members of their Jewish communities. In the case of Denmark, its entire Jewish community of 8,000 souls was smuggled to neutral Sweden. Denmark, like most European countries at the time, was not in a position to take in any significant number of Jewish refugees.
The majority of Hungary’s approximately 600,000 native Jews were murdered or deported, mainly in the countryside, with 35 percent to 40 percent surviving in the capital city, Budapest, thanks to foreign and domestic rescuers.It is not widely known that neutral Hungary received200,000 Polish, Jewish and other refugees until the German occupation of March of 1944. Besides foreign diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Lutz, Papal Nuncio Angelo Rotta, diplomats from Spain, Portugal, El Salvador and Italy, there were Hungarian heroes who protected wartime refugees, risking their lives against the overpowering intolerance of extremism. These included Jozsef Antall Sr., father of the late Prime Minister Jozsef Antall.
JANOS SZEKERES
Hungarian Coalition News
Washington
Please read our comment policy before commenting.