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We Must Be Worthy of the Heroes’ Heritage

Szöveg: Ádám Draveczki-Ury |  2011. november 7. 16:07

“All causes can be brought to success if we join forces, possibilities and good will”, this was what Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende said at a commemorative ceremony held by the local WWI memorial in Budakeszi on Wednesday, November 2.

Galéria

The Ministry of Defence held a commemorative ceremony by the WWI memorial in Budakeszi, which involved the unveiling and re-consecration of the renovated monument. In attendance at the event were Katalin Schmittné Makray, the President of the Republic’s wife, the chief patron of war grave care, former Prime Minister Dr. Péter Boross, the chairman of the National Memorial Site and Funerary Committee, Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende, MoD Cabinet Chief Dr. Gábor Szarka and Maj.-Gen. István Juhász, the Director of Staff of the MoD Defence Staff.

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“All sacrifices are small compared with those that your Homeland has the right to claim", Dr. Csaba Hende started his speech by quoting from Ferenc Kölcsey, then commemorated the heroes who responded to the call and defended under arms all the things that the Homeland meant to them – and they had both faith and strength to do so.

Dr. Csaba Hende recalled that back in those days, 1132 men joined up from Budakeszi, a town with a population of 4000, in order to do their duty for the Homeland in the Great War. Many of them never returned home, and were buried in unmarked graves or in the forest of many thousand crosses, among several tens of thousands of their comrades. The rest of them had to go down a road, enduring an immense amount of suffering through field hospitals and POW camps, until they had the chance to return to their Homeland.

“Every monument erected for the heroes, every soldier’s grave draws our attention to the importance of values like the Homeland, peace, life and freedom, home and family", the Minister said. They draw our attention to the value of togetherness, and to the price our great-grandfathers and grandfathers paid for all these things. We must be worthy of this heritage – first of all by commemorating those who fought in the battlefields and fell there or returned home, and by preserving their heritage."

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Dr. Csaba Hende spoke about the issue of war grave care, saying that “it is absurd to see that the graves of the troops who fell in Hungary are protected by international agreements, yet there is no law that would protect the fallen Hungarian soldiers’ graves. And this had horrible consequences: the heroes’ cemeteries were bulldozed because their sites were needed for a project, and the graves were defiled because someone needed the non-ferrous metal. This situation is going to change once and for all", the Minister said, adding that a bill on war grave care will soon be proposed to Parliament, one which would provide a final and satisfactory solution to the problems.

“This monument demonstrates that the feats of these Hungarian-hearted ethnic German boys and the duties they discharged belong to all of us who belong to the Hungarian nation. Just like those Hungarian soldiers who are now serving the Homeland under arms!", Csaba Hende said.

After the Minister’s speech, Catholic Field Bishop László Bíró re-consecrated the renovated monument, then the participants laid the wreaths of remembrance by its base.

Photo: Mária Krasznai-Nehrebeczky

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