null Commemoration of the deportation and expulsion of Germans in Hungary

The Minority Ombudsman attended the central commemoration in the village of Hercegkút, where together with survivors, leaders of the German nationality community and public leaders, they paid tribute to the victims of the tragic events that struck the Germans in Hungary after the Second World War.


 

The central commemoration takes place every year in a different location in the affected communities. This year, the event began with a solemn mass in German and Hungarian at the Kisboldogasszony Church in Hercegkút, celebrated by Attila Kecskés, Canon Emeritus, and Ferenc Mészáros, parish priest. The event was addressed by the local mayor, József Rák, followed by János Nagy, State Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, and Imre Ritter, German Nationality MP and Chairman of the Hungarian Parliament’s Committee of the Nationalities in Hungary. The National-level Self-Government of Germans in Hungary was represented by Olívia Schubert, Vice-President. The participants paid tribute to the victims by laying a wreath at the Deportation Memorial, where the Minority Ombudsman also laid a wreath with a ribbon reading "Verschleppung und Vertreibung - nie wieder!".

The deportation began on 19 January 1946, when the first group of Germans in Hungary had to leave Budaörs in cattle wagons. In 2012, the Hungarian Parliament declared 19 January, the anniversary of the beginning of the expulsion in 1946, as the Day of Remembrance of the Deportation and Expulsion of Germans in Hungary.