Szabolcs Takacs
Head of the Hungarian Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 2002
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), 16 April (National Holocaust Remembrance Day), 2 August (Commemoration of the Roma and Sinti Genocide)
Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky (Office of the Prime Minister of Hungary) – Deputy Head of Delegation
László Csösz (Hungarian National Archives) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Kálmán Szalai (Action and Protection Foundation) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Andrea Szonyi (Zachor Foundation for Social Remembrance) – Education Working Group
Zoltan Toth-Heinemann (Holocaust Memorial Centre)
Tamás Kovács (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) – Academic Working Group
In the years following Hungary’s accession to the IHRA, milestone commemorative events took place: the launch of a National Holocaust Memorial Day in 2000, as well as the inauguration of the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest and the opening of the new permanent Hungarian exhibit in the Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum — both in 2004. The Hungarian government declared 2012 ‘Wallenberg Year’ and dedicated 2014 to the remembrance of the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary.
In 2015, Hungary had the honor of chairing the IHRA for the second time. In 2020, Ministerial Commissioner Szabolcs Takács, Deputy State Secretary Vince Szalay-Bobrovniczky, and György Szabó, President of the Jewish Heritage in Hungary Public Endowment, commemorated the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust in Hungary in the building of the Vasvári Pál Street Synagogue.
From an educational perspective, one of the biggest gains of joining the IHRA has been the increased awareness and implementation of acknowledged professional standards.