The head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office, Gergely Gulyas, announced at a press conference that despite the opposition of some of the members and leaders of the Budapest Jewish community, the Holocaust Museum, known as the "House of Destinies," will open next year.
The museum will open after the local Chabad branch has agreed to replace the Federation of Jewish communities in the country in partnership with the museum.
"The horrors of the Nazi and Communist dictatorships of the 20th century will never be forgotten," Guliash said at the press conference, "The fact that Hungarian Jews were sent to extermination camps after the German invasion of Hungary in 1944 does not exempt Hungary from responsibility for the crime of failing to defend its citizens. "
The construction of the new Holocaust Museum in Hungary began four years ago. The museum will be built at a cost of $ 22 million. The establishment of the museum was accompanied by delays and disagreements after the Jewish community in Hungary and the Yad Vashem Museum refused to take part in its establishment, after it became clear that the historian Maria Schmidt was the head of the "House of Destinies".
Schmidt once said that "Nazism was no worse than communism" - a comparison accepted by many members of the nationalist movements in Europe.
The statement angered Jewish organizations who announced they would not cooperate with the Hungarian government following the appointment. Following the dispute, the local Chabad branch announced that it would replace the Jewish community in the construction of the new museum.
During the Second World War, the Hungarian administration, led by Miklos Horthy, who was considered a close associate of Hitler, collaborated with the leaders of the Nazi regime in the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the death camps in Europe.