Memorial to Hungarian Navy Members Unveiled in Pula
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu | 2017. június 14. 10:28On Saturday, 10 June – on the occasion of the Remembrance Day of Hungarian Navy Members –, a joint delegation of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Defence travelled to Croatia.
Croatian marines in the Naval Cemetery of Pula, Croatia, attending the unveiling ceremony of a memorial to Hungarian navy members killed in action during the First World War. (Photo: MTI/HINA/Daniel Sponza)
At the unveiling ceremony, speeches were delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Dr. Imre Vejkey, the Chairman of the Committee on Immunities. The deputy prime minister said that Hungarians are said to like reburials and marking days of mourning, and went on emphasizing that “although we do nothing else but serve justice to our martyrs and give them the last honours". He stated that, in the course of history, the world showed respect to Hungary several times. “This was so in 1848–49, when the nation was forced to its knees in a fight for life with two great powers, and it was also the case in 1956, when the lads of Pest smashed the first hole in the seemingly unbreakable bastion of communist rule", he added.
Zsolt Semjén pointed out that on the centenary of the First World War, when the whole world is commemorating the events, Hungarians too must make their voice heard. “In the years after the First World War, all the belligerent countries declared their soldiers heroes, and erected plenty of monuments. During the years of post-WWII oppression, however, Hungarians were not even allowed to speak about the Hungarian victims of the two world wars, let alone commemorate them as heroes or set them as examples to follow. This is why very few know that Hungary’s navy members gave clear proof of their valour during the First World War," Zsolt Semjén said.
At a ceremony held in the Naval Cemetery of Pula, Croatia, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén inaugurates a memorial erected in commemoration of Hungarian navy members killed in action during the First World War. (Photo: MTI/HINA/Daniel Sponza)
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony of the memorial to Hungarian navy members, the deputy prime minister thanked all those who are working to discover the past, those who consider it important to find historical truth so we can set true role models to posterity, to the youth of the next generation. He finished his speech saying “Let us remember all Hungarian victims of the world war, knowing that we cannot give them the last respect they deserve".
Also in attendance at the event were KDNP parliamentary leader Péter Harrach and Dr. Zoltán Lomnici, the President of the Council of Human Dignity. Lt.-Gen. (Ret.) Dr. József Holló, Ministerial Commissioner for War Memorial Services laid a wreath on behalf of Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó.
In what followed, at the memorial plaque erected in 2004 by the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia (DUHC), the guests attending the unveiling ceremony of the memorial observed a moment of silence in commemoration of those Hungarian victims who died in the sea battles of the Great War. The Hungarian community in Croatia was also represented at the commemorative event by Róbert Jankovics, a Hungarian representative of Sabor, Zoltán Balázs-Piri, the head of the Coordination Body of Hungarians of Croatia, as well as leaders of local Hungarian organizations in Istria and Fiume. The Croatian side was represented by State Secretary Zdravko Jakop, Mayor of Pula Boris Miletic and Vice-President of the Istria Region Fabrizio Radin.
The one-time Austro-Hungarian (K.u.K. Kriegsmarine) Naval Cemetery was consecrated on 2 October 1862; according to records in the Vienna Archives, 2660 Hungarian navy members were buried here between 1903 and 1918. On 27 October 1960, the local government of Pula declared the cemetery a historical memorial site. Here lie, among others, 12 Austro-Hungarians who were killed in action while on duty aboard battleships Baron Gautsch, Szt. István, and Viribus Unitis. The cemetery is protected by the Hague Convention. The Istria association of the DUHC erected the bilingual memorial plaque in 2004 with support from the MoD Institute and Museum of Military History.
