There is a Need for a Uniform Culture of Remembrance in Europe

Markus Meckel emphasized that in the future, assessment of the past should be based on the values already laid down in the Treaty of Lisbon. At the same time, he admitted that it would be very difficult to create such a shared culture of remembrance regarding World War II and Germany in particular, because the Germans were aggressors everywhere during the world war. He noted that Hungary was affiliated with the Axis Powers, so the two countries should jointly come to terms with the “period they spent together as aggressors". “We have to take account of the facts that very often, the perpetrators of the crimes and the victims were buried in the same cemetery, and that these men are our grandfathers, fathers and brothers", he said, adding that the shared culture of remembrance is aimed at talking over these issues.

This year the VDK is primarily focusing on the one-time republics of the former Soviet Union, paying special attention to Ukraine and Belarus. Last year, some 300 German soldiers were exhumed in Hungary. As he said, that figure may seem high 70 years after the war, but the bodies of 19,000 soldiers were found in Russia in the meantime. During their whole operation in 2014, there were 30,000 reburials. “Seventy years after World War II, we still have opportunity to identify one-third of these 30,000 soldiers by name", Markus Meckel added.

Speaking about the organization led by him, he said that it had been established immediately after the end of World War I with social cooperation, because the state did not have any resources for this purpose. Operating as a foundation, the commission is among the oldest ones in the world in its kind, and maintains altogether 832 military cemeteries in 45 countries. The WWII German losses in Hungary totaled at 54,000, of which 35,000 fallen soldiers are known by name (there are 617 known casualty lists dating from WWI.) At present, there are fifteen WWII German–Hungarian military cemeteries in Hungary, all of which are maintained by the VDK. The largest of them is the one in Budaörs, where more than 15,000 German and 800,000 Hungarian soldiers are buried. The VDK considers the education of the youth a priority too, so it organizes international war grave care camps in several places including, for example, Hungary as well. As Markus Meckel said, this kind of education is primarily aimed at introducing young people to the shared European past and spirit. This year, within the VDK program, several countries are going to send young people to Hungary who will help with the maintenance of military cemeteries in Veszprém and Budaörs.

Markus Meckel arrived in Hungary at the invitation of Minister of Defence Csaba Hende. During his four-day visit, he also held discussions with Minister Hende about the two countries’ cooperation in war grave care. At a meeting with the leader of the Hungarian partner organization, they discussed some current professional issues and joint projects scheduled for the near future. Mr. Meckel visited the German–Hungarian military cemeteries in Budaörs and Székesfehérvár and received the “Gábor Bethlen" Award in Parliament building. In handing over the award, Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog said that the distinguishing characteristic of Markus Meckel – who was the last foreign minister in socialist East Germany – is a kind of inner freedom that enabled him to stand up for the freedom of thought, belief and action in the dark-grey world of the GDR. “This made him one of the central figures in the cooperation of the Central European opposition", Minister Balog added.

The Hungarian and the German organizations will have two joint special programs in 2015. On April 29, an international commemoration will be held in the cemetery of Halbe (Germany) to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, to which Hungary has been invited; and the inauguration ceremony of a Hungarian lot in the German military cemetery of Byaroza (Belarus) will take place on September 26.

Photo: Tünde Rácz