“The role of education in preserving the past is becoming increasingly important as the number of Holocaust survivors grows ever fewer” said Minister of State for Education László Palkovics, who is representing the Hungarian Government at the commemorative International March of the Living being held between Auschwitz and Birkenau on Monday.
In a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI, the Minister of State said: “For us to be able to put our future in suitable order, we must also evaluate our past in a suitable fashion, but the younger generation has fewer and fewer opportunities to meet people who survived the horrors of the Holocaust, and accordingly it is the task of education to prevent the Holocaust from being forgotten”.
“This is why since 2013 the national curriculum includes more and more elements relating to the Holocaust, Jewish culture and the State of Israel, drawn up in cooperation with experts from the Jewish Roundtable”, he said.
Mr. Palkovics also spoke about the fact that in addition to the international commemoration he will also be taking part in a conference attended by Europe’s education ministers and state secretaries. The goal of the meeting is to share experiences and methodological solutions on Holocaust education, and via this on teaching mutual tolerance. In the experience of several countries, relations with the Yad Vashem Institute is extremely important with regard to teacher training, and Hungarian students have been attending methodology courses in the Israeli centre since the nineties, Mr. Palkovics explained, adding that in future Hungary would like to incorporate this methodology training into continuing teacher training.
The International March of the Living is being held for the 29th time this year with the participation of 56 countries.
Leading official from the Hungarian March of the Living Foundation Zsuzsa Kálmán told MTI: The Foundation has taken 200 secondary school students on a pilgrimage to Poland, and prior to the international commemorative program they will be holding a separate commemoration service at the No. 18 Hungarian barracks.
She also mentioned that Hungarian ultramarathon runner Péter Hajdu, who left Budapest during Hungary’s March of the Living on 16 April and has run 420 kilometres to increase public awareness of the dangers of modern-day racism, had also arrived in Auschwitz, adding that many had joined the runner in Poland and the entourage were flying the flags of 18 countries during his arrival.
“The Hungarian delegation also includes Israel’s Ambassador to Budapest Yossi Amrani, President of the Public Foundation for Hungarian Jewish Heritage György Szabó, President of the Budapest Jewish Community Tamás Ács, and Chief Rabbi Tamás Verő, who launched the International March in the early afternoon by blowing a shofar”, Ms. Kálmán told the press.