In Hungary Gyorgy Nagy, who has attended demonstrations carrying a sign denying that the Holocaust happened, was convicted of being a Holocaust denier. He is the first Hungarian to be convicted under this new law. In February of 2010 the Hungarian Parliament made denying the Holocaust a punishable offense. Soon after the Parliament also made denying human rights violations committed during the communist era a punishable offense. The maximum punishment for this crime is up to 3 years in jail. The latest denier has been sentenced and must now visit Budapest's memorial museum, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, or Auschwitz and record his thoughts.
I found that there is some discomfort within Hungary regarding anti-Semitism. According to many news sources, Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel returned Hungary's highest state honor in 2012 because of Hungary's attempt to "whitewash" its collaboration with the Nazis. According to Arutz Sheva, an Israeli news agency, the far-right nationalist Jobbik party, third largest in parliament, has been making headlines because of anti-Semitic statements by some of its top officials. This includes one statement by a deputy who called for the resignation of members of parliament who have Israeli citizenship. There is also a claim that some members of this far-right party have called for a list to be made of all Jewish members of parliament and government.
When I first read this article I thought that by sentencing a Holocaust denier, Hungary was repressing his freedom of speech as skewed it might be. While this might be true, a deeper look shows that there is some real concern for the Jewish population of Hungary. The Jobbik party, as far-right as they might be, does seem to have at least some control in Hungarian parliament. They currently hold 47 seats in both national and regional government. My question now is, what will the results be in the next round of elections in Hungary in 2014? Will Jobbik gain even more popularity in the parliament?
I had no idea about any of this. It's amazing to me that there are people that still don't believe that the Holocaust happened even though there is so much proof that can be given to non believers. It's interesting how the Hungarian Parliament went that far as to actually make it a punishable offense. It seems like there is so much disagreement occurring in positions of higher power between varying groups about something that I feel is so easy to see as wrong. I definitely agree that it will be interesting to see what is going to happen there next year!
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