5/20/2013 – AHF welcomes the unveiling of statues of Count Janos Esterhazy, hero of the Holocaust, in Budapest and Kassa (now Kosice after annexation). AHF has long called for Esterhazy’s exoneration, despite strong opposition from Slovak nationalists, and recently published key documents from Simon Wiesenthal, Yad Veshem, and historians Dr. Magda Ádám and Dr. István Deák that attest to his principled stand and actions to save Jews during World War II and protect the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. Hungary’s Heti Valasz published the article below. Videos are also shown of the ceremony held in Slovakia and the nationalist disruptions there. [read more]
Related
Selected International Coverage
12/5/2011 – American-Hungarian Federation turns to US Congress over widening Slovak citizenship row. The American-Hungarian Federation has turned to the US Congress Helsinki Commission with an appeal for it to take action in the case of a Slovak of Hungarian origin who has been stripped of his citizenship on the ground that he took up Hungarian citizenship, the alliance’s chairman told MTI. [read more]
[ 
MTI cikk magyarul] “Álláspontjának Tisztázására Szólította Fel az EBESZ Kisebbségügyi Főbiztosát az Amerikai Magyar Szövetség” – MTI 2011. szeptember 30., péntek 1:14
Hovorte po slovensky!* Slovakia criminalises the use of Hungarian: The Economist, Jul 30, 2009
5/10/2013 – AHF publishes documents supporting the exoneration of Count János Esterházy (the only member of the Slovak Parliament in 1942 who voted against expelling the Jews, he was convicted on trumped up charges and died in a communist prison). The documents attest to his principled stand and actions to save Jews during World War II and protect the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, and includes letters from Simon Wiesenthal, Yad Veshem, and historians Dr. Magda Ádám and Dr. István Deák, Professor Emeritus from Columbia University.
It is regrettable when contemporary politics driven by totalitarian ideology attempts to revise, ignore or obliterate historical facts. Such shameful falsification of history is what is happening in the case of Janos Esterhazy, a principled anti-fascist who saved Jewish lives during the Second World War and championed the rights of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. [read more]
3/19/2013 — United States Helsinki Commission holds Hearing entitled, “The Trajectory of Democracy – Why Hungary Matters” to “examine Hungary’s constitutional changes with a particular view to the independence of the judiciary, present-day Hungary’s relationship to its Holocaust-era past, and the implications of Hungary’s sweeping legal changes for civil society, including an independent media and religious organizations.” AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FEDERATION TESTIMONY ENTERED INTO RECORD. [read more]
Slovakia stripping citizenship of ethnic Hungarian minorities.
12/14/2011 – UPDATE: The Case of Ilonka Tamas. The latest outrage from Slovakia: a 99-year-old teacher loses her citizenship. Ilonka Tamás was born in 1912 when Rimaszombat was part of Hungary. She brought up generations of children and received the “Komenský” medal and the Gold Medal of the Slovak Republic for her pedagogical achievements. She merely wanted to regain her Hungarian citizenship but is now a “person without a registered address.” AHF submits follow up letter to the U.S. Helsinki Commission. [read more]
12/02/2011 – Slovakia strips citizenship to ethnic Hungarian minorties who assert their right to dual citizenship in violation of their own Constitution. AHF submits a statement to the US Congress Helsinki Commission: “Intolerance and discrimination targeting any group based on ethnicity, nationality or religion is not acceptable… The most recent anti-Hungarian incident involves Slovakia stripping Oliver Boldoghy of his Slovak citizenship after becoming a dual citizen. This decision is not only contrary to American and European practices, it violates the Slovak constitution, which provides that “no one must be deprived of the citizenship of the Slovak Republic against his will.” [read more]
11/8/2011 – The Anti-Defamation League presented the Jan Karski Courage to Care Award to Count Janos Esterhazy. This comes just two months after the Slovak President shamefully calls this hero of the Holocaust a follower of Hitler. AHF continues to express concern over Slovakia’s anti-Hungarian measures.”Those who defended and aided Jews and other victims of the Nazislaughter merit our recognition and our eternal thanks. They were individuals who followed the call to conscience, which is surely no simple matter…Count János Esterházy was such a person of conscience, one who had more than enough reason to remain silent.” [read more]
9/29/2011 – Federation again raises minority rights. In a letter to Knut Vollebaek, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Federation again raises anti-Hungarian measures in Slovakia and Serbia and requests the High Commissioner’s clarification of reports in the electronic media asserting that he had labeled Hungary’s support for Slovakia’s Hungarian minority “malicious and foolish.” [read more]
9/13/2011 – Slovak President shamefully calls Janos Esterhazy, a hero of the Holocaust, a follower of Hitler. AHF continues call for rehabilitation of Janos Esterhazy, reacts to Slovak falsification of history… Esterhazy was the only member of the Slovak Parliament in 1942 who voted against expelling the Jews, setting an example which few dared to follow in the parts of Europe controlled by Adolf Hitler’s Germany. He was detained by the Nazis and died in a communist prison. Officially he is still classified as a war criminal in Slovakia, as courts have rejected requests for his rehabilitation. [read more]
4/27/2010 – UPDATE: AHF remains concerned that authorities continue to raise barriers to divide this community… In 2004, AHF, working closely with member the Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations (CHACR), worked to publicize the fate of villagers of Szelmenc, the “Village Cut in Two” / “A Kettévágott Falu.” In 2005, a year after a successful Congressional briefing, the parties agreed to finally open a border crossing. Important historically and morally to the local Hungarian community, both sides were also optimistic regarding what a border crossing and increased traffic could mean economically. Short-term, both sides of the border experienced much needed development. But the very same Schengen guidelines used to open the border seem to have raised new barriers. The cost for the visa alone (35 Euros), exceeds monthly salaries for most in this, one of the poorest locations in Subcarpathia (Kárpátalja), making crossing the border virtually impossible. In December 2010, DunaTV issued a report entitled “Visa requirements replace barbed wire as barrier to border crossing” / “A szögesdrót helyett most a vízumkényszer választja el a szelmencieket.” See the video in Hungarian [ Magyarul]
3/22/2010 – AHF President discusses Slovak Language Law with OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Knut Vollebaek and submits follow up letter: “…[Slovakia’s] actions include the gerrymandering of the administrative division of Slovakia so that Hungarians are in the minority; adopting a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees; and refusing to rehabilitate Janos Esterhazy, who as leader of the Hungarian Party in Tiso’s Fascist Slovakia was the only Member of Parliament to vote against the deportation of Jews in 1942, yet who died in a Czechoslovak prison after the war.” [read more]
2/16/2009 — AHF urges OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities to increase pressure on Slovakia to repeal oppressive language law. “The language law is the latest manifestation of the Slovak government’s intolerance toward its Hungarian minority. Not surprisingly, the Slovak National Party (“SNS”) is a member of the ruling coalition. Its chairman Jan Slota is known for his xenophobia: “Hungarians are the cancer of the Slovak nation, without delay we need to remove them from the body of the nation.” [read more]
![AHF urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to "publicly and unambiguously express [her] concern relative to the language law that took effect on September 1, 2009 in Slovakia. By curtailing or eliminating the use of minority languages from the public sphere, that discriminatory law threatens the Hungarian minority’s culture and infringes on fundamental freedoms.](/wp-content/uploads/legacy/images/hillary_clinton.jpg)
2/3/2009 — AHF urges Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “publicly and unambiguously express [her] concern relative to the Slovak language law. By curtailing or eliminating the use of minority languages from the public sphere, that discriminatory law threatens the Hungarian minority’s culture and infringes on fundamental freedoms.” [read more]
1/12/10 — AHF urged Vice President Biden to discuss policies with his “Romanian interlocutors that they should adopt to strengthen Romania’s democratic institutions and respect the rights of its Hungarian minority” during his trip to Romania. Frank Koszorus, Jr., co-president and chairman of the Federation’s International Relations Committee reports, “We understand that issues relating to the Hungarian minority were raised.” [read more]
1/9/10 — AHF calls upon Vice President Biden to discuss Slovakia’s language law with Hungarian Prime Minister Bajnai during the latter’s trip to Washington, “with a resolution that Slovakia be urged to repeal this discriminatory law.”
11/27/09 — American Hungarian Federation and others express their concern about sweeping statements made by Ambassador in interview concerning Hungary. The Washington Times publishes Federation’s letter and former Foreign Service Officer pens letter to the Ambassador. “[The Ambassador is] ignoring an exceedingly complex social problem that not even the government has been able to address effectively. While discussing prejudice, he also could have referred to the intolerance toward the Hungarian minorities throughout the region.” [Read more]
11/24/09 — “Elfogadhatatlan a szlovák politika.” The American Hungarian Federation’s call for greater cooperation among Hungarian American organizations in raising the ill-advised and discriminatory Slovak language law published in Heti Valasz. The same letter questions conclusions about various foreign policy issues made in an earlier interview. [Read more]
6/30/2009 – Use of Hungarian ILLEGAL in Slovakia… Hungary’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret and concern over the amendment to Slovakia’s act on its official language approved in parliament on Tuesday. Under the amended act the use of the minority language in official communication would be punishable in towns and villages where the ethnic community makes up less than 20 percent of the total population. [read more]
11/23/08 – AHF Submits Letter Regarding Intolerance in Slovakia — On November 21, 2008, the American Hungarian Federation submitted a letter to Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis who was visiting Washington, D.C. The Federation’s letter raised concern over the intolerant and discriminatory policies and practices aimed at Slovakia’s Hungarian minority.
3/1/2008 – AHF joins international petition effort to call attention to the Benes Decrees. On September 20, 2007, the Slovak Parliament adopted a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees. This is unacceptable. Make your feelings known. [Sign the petition] and read more about the cruel [Benes Decrees] which unjustly expelled thousands of Hungarian families from their ancestral homelands.
See where the [demonstrations] will be held and get involved!
10/20/2007 – Slovakia inexplicably confirms the Benes Decrees. “Hungarians are the cancer of the Slovak nation, without delay we need to remove them from the body of the nation” – Jan Slota. AHF International Affairs Committee releases statement on the Benes Decrees and recent extremist developments in Slovakia. “Having taken a step that has fueled ethnic hatred and assaulted good relations with Hungary, the Slovak Parliament on September 20, 2007 adopted a resolution proposed by extremist Jan Slota ratifying and confirming the Benes decrees. Those decrees shamefully imposed collective guilt on the Hungarian (and German) population of Czechoslovakia in 1945 and stripped them of their citizenship, rights and property without compensation. Czechoslovakia also pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing in southern Slovakia. The debilitations continue to affect many of the victims of the crimes committed in post-World War II Czechoslovakia.
The concept of collective guilt is abhorrent to Americans and to anyone committed to the rule of law, human rights and democracy. Rather than affirm the inviolability of the Benes decrees, Slovakia should reject them, provide legal redress to remedy their continuing and discriminatory effect and thereby adopt the values shared by the trans-Atlantic community of nations. [download the statement]
7/5/2005 – The Benes Decrees and Post Communist-era Developments… The 1945 Benes Decrees claimed collective World War II responsibility of Germans and Hungarians living in Czechoslovakia, and deprived them of their rights, their property and expelled many of them from the country. The Decrees, formally, are still in force. Austria, Germany, and Hungary are have called for the repeal of the laws.
According to the Decrees, 2.5 million ethnic Germans (Sudetendeutsch) and approximately 40,000 Hungarians were lost their Czechoslovakian citizenship, their land was expropriated and they were exiled. This transition was carried out over 1945-46, and was in many cases badly administered and brutal. Many people lost their lives. Ethnic Czechs were moved in to fill the empty towns. [Read more] and see a chronology of events.
Szelmenc: The Village Cut in Two… Seen here – relatives yelling across the border which runs through main street.
3/11/2005 – UPDATE – A Huge Victory! Szelmenc border crossing to open! – A long-awaited border crossing for the divided village of Szelmenc will soon open according to a recent decision of the Slovak government. AHF worked with its member and lead organization in the effort CHACR. CHACR was able to mobilize the American Hungarian Congressional Caucus and the Hungarian American Community to urge Slovakia and the Ukiraine to end this cold-war division. [read more]
2/4/2005 – Hungarians have until September 2005 to formally request return of confiscated properties in Slovakia under the Benes Decrees. The “Szabad Ujsag” weekly has published a list of those lands, which were taken away during the Benes programs. The original owners or their descendants may recover these expropriated lands and properties if they can prove their ownership and relationships to the original owner. The validated documents have to be shown to the proper athorities. One catch is that it has to be proven before September 1 of 2005. [Check the Database – in Hungarian and Slovak from Szabad Ujsag and the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation]
4/21/2004 – Successful United States Congress Briefing on Szelmenc: Congresswoman Diane Watson calls for opening border…The mayors of both sides of Szelmenc, the village divided in two, testified along with the Ambassadors of Slovakia and the Ukraine, and the President of the Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus regarding the desperate situation. The Ambassador of Slovakia committed to finding a solution to this “nonsensical situation.” Ukranian Counselor agrees. [read more]