From the Facebook page of George Szirtes.
Miklós Radnóti is universally recognised as one of the great European poets of the last war. He was shot, his body was left in a ditch, and his greatest poems were discovered in his coat pocket and published after his death.
Latest from Hungary.
Somebody runs their car into the Radnóti statue in Abda, Hungary and breaks it. It is not the first time it has been defaced but now it's wrecked. Others - the neo-nazis - are busily burning his poems. Does that remind us of anything?
3 comments:
Hungary is a cesspit of anti-semitism as virtually every other European country. There are differences only in the acceptance by the mainstream of this traditional European pastime and in this regard Hungary is not the worst at all, it is somewhere in the middle.
What can I answer to that, Peter? I don't pretend to know enough about Hungary today, but destroying a memorial of Jewish poet, burning books and Jobbik seem to be "elevating" Hungary to a special place... in hell. But I confess to be unable to come up with objective comparison. Although, when George Szirtes, who also has strong Hungarian roots and connection, says what he say, I tend to listen very attentively.
You are correct to emphasize the ascendance of neo-Nazis in Hungary, but don't forget Tonge, Corbyn, Galloway and Livingstone in the UK either. Also important is the fact that from Hungary (at the moment) there is no Jewish emigration (more than the general population) not like in Sweden. To sum it up Hungary is exactly like its European seniors - they forgot everything and won't learn anything from their honorable past.
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