Foun­ding of the Foundation

The Mar­git Hor­váth Foun­da­tion was foun­ded on Sun­day, July 11, 2004 in the Wall­dorf City Hall. Inau­gu­ral addres­ses were deli­vered on this day by Magda Ker­tész and others.

Magda Ker­tész quo­ted her hus­band, lite­ra­ture Nobel Prize win­ner, Imre Ker­tész, who had said these words:

“The ques­tion we have to ask today, after sixty years, is: Can the holo­caust create values? A via­ble society needs to keep awake and alive and con­ti­nuously renew its know­ledge, its self-awareness and the awa­ren­ess of its own con­di­ti­ons. … the holo­caust is a trauma of Euro­pean civi­liza­tion, and it will become a vital exis­ten­tial ques­tion of this civi­liza­tion, whe­ther this trauma will con­ti­nue to exist in the form of cul­ture or of neu­ro­sis, in a con­struc­tive or a destruc­tive form in the socie­ties of Europe…”

 

 

Prof. Dr. Arno Lus­ti­ger sta­ted earlier:

“Whe­ne­ver I come here and turn my atten­tion to the KZ Wall­dorf, there is a flood of emo­ti­ons, of empa­thy and reflec­tions in my mind and in my heart which are hard to express. Here, the thoughts of the Ausch­witz inmate, the his­to­rian, the sur­vi­vor, and the Jew living in Ger­many, struggle with each other for supre­macy in explai­ning the tra­gic events. Can I behave neu­trally as a his­to­rian?” Lili Schrei­ber, one of the sur­vi­vors of the KZ Wall­dorf, wrote: “We all bear wit­hin our­sel­ves a scar­red soul and a bit­ter­ness which will never disap­pear. But today, it is my only desire that all human beings show tolerance and respect for each other. I am very glad and proud to be able to par­ti­ci­pate in the esta­blish­ment of the Mar­git Hor­vath Foun­da­tion.” (Prof. Dr. A. Lus­ti­ger is mem­ber of the Board of Trus­tees of the Mar­git Hor­váth Foundation) .…

 

Some sur­vi­vors of the KZ Wall­dorf are pre­sent on this occa­sion, toge­ther with their fami­lies. Magda Hollander-Lafon speaks in their name on the topic of “Con­vey­ing Com­me­mo­ra­tion“
”… ‘Com­me­mo­ra­tion is a way of inward­ness, which takes place in three stages:

come to grips with
reveal
purify.… .

I had the fee­ling that my memory was con­trol­led by the Nazi hench­men for a long time after­wards, and that it could be relie­ved only by working on mys­elf, per­cei­ving my wounds and com­pre­hen­ding what I had expe­ri­en­ced for mys­elf.… For me, con­vey­ing means an appeal to live, i.e. the invi­ta­tion for ever­y­body to dis­cern the fol­lo­wing with him­self or herself:

1. his / her indifference
2. his / her wounds
3. his / her humiliation
4. his / her ten­dency towards violence
5. his / her hatred
6. his / her guilt, in order to reco­ver his/her zest for life.

Only by per­cei­ving these facts wit­hin our­sel­ves, and not by their renun­cia­tion, will we suc­ceed in fin­ding peace and in making peace. This is what this jour­ney is cal­ling for…”

 

The Second Generation

The daugh­ter of a sur­vi­vor of KZ Wall­dorf, Agnes Sar­kadi, sent us this bronze sculp­ture from Buda­pest on the occa­sion of the Foundation’s esta­blish­ment. She wrote:

“What had hap­pened during the war had para­ly­zed people. They have not been able to say anything for deca­des. It was even more dif­fi­cult to speak to each other and reach out a hand. But you have done it. This took a great deal of power and cou­rage. We are very happy since we had hoped for many years that there will be a dif­fe­rent Ger­many… It is now being rea­li­zed by you, and it makes its­elf heard. To us, this means that we are no lon­ger stan­ding alone fac­ing this hor­ri­ble past, but toge­ther with you. To us, this means an ent­i­rely new world. Toge­ther, we give each other tre­men­dous power…”

 

The Third Generation

In the name of pre­sent gra­dua­tes of the Ber­tha von Sutt­ner School in Mörfelden-Walldorf, Jen­ni­fer Huf­na­gel speaks to the survivors:

“…We do not feel your visit to be a mat­ter of course, since the con­fron­ta­tion with your past will cer­tainly be very agi­ta­ting, emo­tio­nal and har­ro­wing. It means a lot to us that you are do not con­demn us Ger­mans, and that you do not com­pare us with the Nazis. We are asha­med of our forefa­thers in such a way that it hurts our fee­lings that our coun­try had doo­med and humi­lia­ted human beings of a dif­fe­rent faith in such a man­ner. We are so glad that you have come to us, and we have a deep sen­ti­ment of com­pas­sion. It is our past.”

 

 

Offi­cial cer­ti­fi­ca­tes are pre­sen­ted to dona­tors of addi­tio­nal endowments: