Commemoration of 2014
June 22, 2014
Commemorations on the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust
Inauguration ceremony of the memorial plaque of Dezső (Munk) Magos
In the following article we quote the article by Angela Nagy from the homepage of the Circle of Friends for Balassagyarmat where you can find more photos of the event, and the speech of Mr. Zoltan Reti (in Hungarian only)
"Dezső Magos (Munk) famous architect and building contractor, member of the city council was born one hundred and thirty years ago and died seventy years ago.
(Photographed by: Angela Nagy, Zsuzsanna Vitéz)
The two Lang families, members of the city council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Balassagyarmat and the István Kertész Foundation, the Civitas Fortissima Circle, the Order of the Valiant, members of the press and last but not least, Mrs. Erzsébet Kun Kubicza and Mr. Zoltán Réti, freemen of the City took part in the ceremony. At first Mr. Lajos Medvácz, Mayor of the City greeted the public, then in the name of the families of Magos grandchildren Mr. László Lang thanked to the City and the collaborators for the arrangement of the ceremony, and to the owner of the house for the contribution to the placement of the plaque, Dr. Mária László recent owner of the house replied that it was her honour to contribute in keeping the memory of Dezső Magos (Munk) in such a way. She has been living in this beautiful art-noveau villa for fifty-two years which was preserved in its original form. A ceremonial speech fulfilled with many personal memories was held by Mr. Zoltán Réti, who was working in Dezső Magos (Munk)'s office as a student."
Commemoration for the martyrs at the cemetery
Article by Henrik Hegedűs (source: Ipoly-menti Panoráma)
„We need to remember and to remind people that such horror never being repeated not only our fellow man" – that was the main idea of the commemoration on the seventieth anniversary of the Holocaust arranged at the Jewish Cemetery of Balassagyarmat.
The sunday morning event was started with students of the local Albert Szent-Györgyi Grammar School who were listed the names of the local jewish children who were deported and burned in the death camps seventy years ago. Then Mr. József Bauer chairman of the Jewish Community held a speech. He recalled the period when the respected Jewish citizens of Balassagyarmat first had been forced into the ghetto then deported to Auschwitz and Birkenau on the summer of 1944. The gendarmes arrived from Miskolc had been tortured them brutally at 15 Kossuth street to find out where they hide their property. Later on they dragged the people from the ghetto to the barnes of Nyírjespuszta, in the surrounding of the city. A good example to their barbarity that they didn't spared even the mother who gave birth in those terrible conditions: they were taken with the others into cattle wagons with the two transports on the 10 and 12 of June and the trains were started to the death camps. And out of the almost six thousand people just 136 of them could return to home. Mr. Bauer quoted the Hungarian President János Áder who told that "they were deprived of a life befitting human dignity; they were even deprived of a death befitting human dignity."
Yet the Jews did much for the country: they were fighting int the fronts of World War I, stimulated the economy, they were faithful Hungarians. They made up the majority of the city's traders and craftsmen and it is not a coincident that on Saturdays the Main Street was almost empty: the shops were all closed. He added:that Balassagyarmat still didn't recovered from the shock caused by the extermination of the local Jewry.
After Cantor David Schwezoff's prayer Rabbi Péter Deutsch told what has happened seventy years ago cannot be convey with other word than mass extermination. The Holocaust still tears up painful wounds and the the horrors could never be, and it should not be forgotten.
Following the event a travelling exposition of the March of The Living Foundation ("Deported Lives") was opened at the Hunyadi street Ipoly Region Jewish Collection and Museum by Mr. Gábor Gordon Chairman of the Foundation.
Photographed by: Mrs. Katalin Sümegi Kurczweil, László Bacskó, Judit Vámos, Zsuzsanna Vitéz, Dr. György Gonda
Opening of the exposition "Deported Lives" of the March of The Living Foundation at the building of the Ipoly Region Jewish Collection and Museum
Photographed by: Mrs. Katalin Sümegi Kurczweil, László Bacskó, Judit Vámos, Zsuzsanna Vitéz, Dr. György Gonda
(Yechiel)