Holocaust Memorials - Monuments, Museums and Institutions in Commemoration of Nazi Victims

in detail

Between 15 May and 9 July 1944, according to German sources, 437,402 Jews and most likely tens of thousands of Roma were deported from Hungary, primarily to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. This was the largest and most rapid deportation organised by the National Socialist regime.

 

During the Rule of the Hungarian Arrow-Cross, an estimated 5,000 Hungarian Jews were shot beginning in October 1944.

 

In memory of the Jewish victims in Hungary, the private Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation was set up in 1990 with the aim of creating a Holocaust memorial. In 1999, the Hungarian government concluded an agreement with the Jewish Community on establishing a Holocaust museum. The Community offered its synagogue in the Ferencváros district, which had been used for religious services down to 1982, as a possible site. The French government supported the project with a donation of USD 500,000.

 

In March 2000, the firm Mányi was commissioned with construction of the building. The Hungarian government set up the Foundation Holocaust Documentation Centre and Memorial as the official organisation for the Memorial and the legal successor to the private Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation. The foundation stone for the Holocaust Memorial was laid in December 2002, and the facility was officially opened in April 2004.

1941
Handing over of more than 18,000 Jews from Carpatho-Romania regarded as stateless to the German Wehrmacht and Security Police. Most are shot near Kamenets Podolsk.

15 May to 9 July 1944
Deportation of 437,402 Jews from Hungary and likely tens of thousands of Roma, in the main to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

1990
Estblishment of the private Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation.

1999
The Hungarian government concludes an agreement with the Jewish Community on the creation of a Holocaust museum.

2000
After a competition, the firm Mányi is commissioned to construct the building.

March 2002
The Hungarian government establishes the Foundation Holocaust Documentation Centre and Memorial as the legal successor to the private Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation.

December 2002
Laying of the foundation stone for the new building of the Holocaust Memorial.

15 to 18 April 2004
Opening of the Holocaust Memorial. The inner courtyard has a memorial wall 8 metres high on which the names of the Holocaust victims, if known, are inscribed. At another place the names of more than 100 communities from which Jews and Roma were deported are symbolically represented by small flags.