{"id":1442,"date":"2014-08-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/08-08-2014-zoltan-balog-denies-deportation-of-hungarian-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:37:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:37:59","slug":"08-08-2014-zoltan-balog-denies-deportation-of-hungarian-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/08-08-2014-zoltan-balog-denies-deportation-of-hungarian-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"08.08.2014 Zolt\u00e1n Balog denies deportation of Hungarian Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hungarian minister \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof human resources, Zolt\u00e1n Balog, made headlines with a controversial statement \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabout the deportation of Hungarian Rroma during National Socialism. On the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toccasion of the uprising in the Gypsy camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, on August the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsecond, 1944, every year on this day a commemoration of the victims of genocide \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis held. Balog also recalled the events in an interview on state radio Kossuth,<\/em> but also used the conversation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto make some highly problematic statements: \u201cIt \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis important to know that no deportations of Gypsies from Hungary took place. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThese were done from Austria, that is, the Hungarian gypsies [sic] were taken \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taway from there, and this is why Hungary is also really affected [from the Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHolocaust]. The figures, however, vary greatly, some speak of 70,000, another of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thalf a million, so it is important to have a solid documentation and research, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhere we can confront ourselves with these facts. […] I tell you honestly, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat\u2019s why I’m cautious on the issue of the Roma Holocaust, because this is a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnew discovery. The greatest tragedy of these people is that they have no \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thistory (…), and what that means, the Magyars know well, whom one wanted to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trob their history, we are for a thousand years in one place, and then they find \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tout (say researchers) that we are not or were not there\u201d<\/em> (Puszta Ranger \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014) Historical sources as well as eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trefute all these statements: there were direct deportations of Hungarian Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinto the concentration camps. The Hungarian national socialist party Arrow Cross<\/em> provably deported thousands \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof Rroma into the concentration camps of the Third Reich. As regards the aspect \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof history: it is true that the Rroma don\u2019t have an own nation-state, but that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdoes not mean that they do not have a good documented history that is thoroughly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treviewed. A transnational ethnic minority can have a collective identity without \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe need to operate on the same rules as nationalism, as one might interpret \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBalog\u2019s allusion. Balog\u2019s statement that the Rroma should not rely too heavily \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton their identity as victims of the Holocaust, also caused great resentment. He \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstated: \u201cI have witnessed the process \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthrough which the Gypsy intelligentsia has begun to say:\u00a0 \u2018pardon me, but we too have a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHolocaust, and as such we too are part of this history.\u2019 Yet I would still like \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto caution my Gypsy friends from concentrating too much on this element of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttheir identity. Because even among the Jewry, many have come to the realisation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat if the experience of the Holocaust and the knowledge that \u2018we were \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvictims\u2019 are the only (or the most important) aspects of Jewish identity, then \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis creates internal confusion and schizophrenia. And this does not help these \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcommunities look towards the future\u201d<\/em> (Hungarian Free Press 2014). Although \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis statement may be well intentioned in terms of the social integration of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Rroma in Hungary, it also demonstrates great disrespect for the actual \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvictims of genocide and their memory. From a minister of human resources more tactfulness \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin dealing with such an issue can be expected. Critics point out that Balog has \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmade himself indictable by denying of the deportation of Rroma from Hungary, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich violates article 333 of the criminal code that punishes the denial or \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttrivialization of the Holocaust with up to three years imprisonment (compare Hirsch \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2014, Hungarian Free Press 2014, The Budapest Beacon 2014 I\/II).<\/p>\n