WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, issued the following statement regarding plans by the Hungarian government to fund a statue honoring Balint Homan, one of the architects of Hungary’s anti-Jewish laws and member of the Arrow Cross regime.

“I am deeply distressed that the Hungarian Government, even during their year-long chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, continues to shamelessly whitewash history.  Plans to honor a man known as the architect of Hungary’s anti-Jewish laws come on the heels of the erection of the much criticized ‘occupation memorial’ in Budapest last year and while controversies about the government’s alternative Holocaust museum remain unresolved.

“Plans to build a tribute to Balint Homan cannot be reconciled with Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s stated policy of ‘zero tolerance’ for anti-Semitism.  I urge Hungary to end the rehabilitation of anti-Semitic figures and to disavow efforts to honor members of the murderous wartime regime.”

###