Tens of thousands of Hungarians, most of them Jews, marched in a torchlight procession on the banks of the Danube River.
Sunday night’s demonstrators against anti-Semitism included state, civic and religious dignitaries as well as diplomats, academics and artists.
The “March of Life,” which took place at the scene of the murder of thousands of Holocaust victims by Fascist Arrow-Cross thugs in the winter of 1944/45, was the biggest among several commemorative events taking place over the weekend to mark the 66th anniversary of the incarceration of Hungarian Jews in specially designated ghettos. That process launched the final and deadliest phase of the Holocaust involving the deportation to and murder of more than half a million Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai declared in a message to the demonstrators that “Fascist paramilitary organizations will never again be allowed to march on the streets of Hungary.” This was a reference to the nascent Hungarian Guard, a banned paramilitary organization modeled on the notorious Arrow-Cross and sponsored by Jobbik, an extreme-Nationalist party that made extraordinary gains earlier this month in parliamentary elections.
All of the weekend demonstrations taking place at the sites of various Holocaust atrocities drew unusually large crowds. Speakers at the events called for national unity to confront the current rise of anti-Semitic agitation.
