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Memorial to the Expulsion of the
Germans in Budaörs
From: Donautal-Magazin Jg. 30, Nr.
140 dated 1. August 2006, pp. 8-9.
Contributed
by
Dr.
Hans Gehl; translated by Nick
Tullius.
[Published at www.dvhh.org,
Oct. 2006]
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For the first time, a central memorial and
monument for the Germans expelled from Hungary
were inaugurated in Budaörs (German: Wudersch)
near Budapest, on the 18th of June 2006.
Participating in the ceremony at the Old
Cemetery of the once Hungary-German community
were, among others, the president of the
Hungarian Parliament KATALIN SZILI, the chairman
of the German Selfadministration of Hungary,
OTTO HEINEK and the German ambassador to
Hungary, Ursula Seiler-Albring. |
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The president of Hungary LASZLO SOLYOM, in a
message read at the ceremony, apologized to the
victims of the expulsion. Their families, and
their descendants. During the years 1946 and
1947 about 200,000 ethnic Germans were expelled
from Hungary, with the agreement of the
victorious powers. Most of them found a new home
in the German Federal State of
Baden-Württemberg.
The expulsion, some of which were characterized
by cruelty, started in Budaörs on 19 January
1946 when – as the chairman of the local
German Selfadministration remembered – "the
first families were chased into the streets in
the middle of the night and had only a few
minutes to gather their belongings."
With the memorial in the Old Cemetery of the
Germans from Budaörs, which was saved from
destruction by renovation, "remembrance
received a concrete place, a point reference,
which can also provide an occassion for the
younger generation to ponder about the
expulsion" said the German ambassador to
Hungary, Seiler-Albring.
The president of the Hungarian Parliament SZILI
called the government decrees on the subject of
the expulsion and expropriation of the German
population of Hungary "documents of shame“.
These decrees had been abolished after 1989 by
the Hungarian Constitutional Court." To make
sure that history does not repeat itself, such a
memento, such a monument of reconciliation is
necessary“ she said. In addition, she announced
that the Hungarian Parliament will soon hold a
day of commemoration for the expulsion of
Germans from Hungary, which started 60 years
ago.
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