Memorial to the victims of the German invasion

Memorial to the victims of the German invasion

The memorial to the victims of the German invasion is a monument built and initiated by Orbàn Victor, the Prime Minister of Hungary and is intended to honor the victims of the German invasion of Hungary during WW2. In spring 1944, a German military operation took place in Hungary, called Operation Margarethe. Its aim was to invade the largest possible part of the Hungarian territory which at that time was threatened by the soviet troops.

Its construction caused a polemic because it portrays a German eagle attacking Hungary under the innocent angel Gabriel, which tends to minimalize the responsibility of the Hungarian government in the deportation of Jews and Roma people to extermination camps.

On the sidewalk, people have left rocks, personal belongings, books and documents as a sign of rebellion. The statue officiallycommemorates the invasion of Hungary by the Germans on the 19th of March 1944. After the scandal that followed the announcement of this project, the formulation was changed to “In memory of the victims of the occupation”.

The historians of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have unanimously condemned the memorial’s message: it was an attempt to change history. Opponents want to emphasize that with the installation of the memorial, the government has been trying to sanitize the memory of Miklos Horthy, who ruled between the world wars, and led the country to its destruction with his policies.

This work is a sculpture that tries to denounce the genocide of the Jews but does not recognize the involvement of the Hungarian government in the deportations. The sculpture has not been very well placed because in its vicinity there are many sculptures that contradict each other. But its composition is interesting and symbolic.