The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling for the cancellation of a program that glorifies a notorious World War II‐era Hungarian writer and Nazi collaborator.
Mark Weitzman, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director of Government Affairs said that the program—scheduled for later this week at the Hungarian House in New York – will, “celebrate Albert Wass, who has been described by prominent historian and Holocaust survivor Professor Randolph Brahama, as a ‘notorious anti‐Semite’ who collaborated with the Hungarian fascist regime during World War II’.”
Wass, who received an Iron Cross, fled with the Nazis at the end of the War. Today, his writings can be found on a major neo‐Nazi website.
“Although the Hungarian government has denied any connection with this program, the fact that Hungary is the incoming Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) makes it all the more important for the Hungarian government to officially repudiate any glorification of a writer so closely linked with anti‐Semitism and the persecution of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust,” added Weitzman, who is the chair of the IHRA’s Committee on Anti‐Semitism and Holocaust Denial.
“This is an opportunity for Hungary to forcefully demonstrate that it is totally aligned with the IHRA’s goals and that it denounces intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany,” Weitzman concluded.
Should Jews fight Hungarian desire to honor one of their major writers, just because he fought on the side of the Nazis in WWII? This strikes me as Jewish over-reach and it won’t redound to our benefit in the long run.
If the Simon Wiesenthal Center is similarly occupied in fighting celebrations of Jews who were communists, I can find no evidence of that, even though communism slaughtered far more people than Nazism. But hey, most of those people communism killed weren’t Jews, so I guess they had it coming.
According to Wikipedia on Albert Wass: He is popular among the Hungarian minority in Romania[2] and has a growing popularity in Hungary. In 2005 in a public assessment (Nagy Könyv), he was found to be one of the most popular Hungarian authors: his book “A funtineli boszorkány” (The Witch of Funtinel) was named the 12th most popular book; two more books were named in the top 50 ranking, including the family saga “Kard és kasza” (Sword and Scythe)…
Romanian authorities tried several times to extradite him to Romania, however in 1979, after several revisions, the U.S. Department of Justice refused the petition due to lack of evidence. This was confirmed even after the Wiesenthal Center denounced him, as he was among the people who were accused of killing Jews. After the analysis of the case, the U.S. dropped the charges against him. Wass continued to insist that he had nothing to do with the killings, and claimed he was the victim of a “Zionist-Romanian” conspiracy.
