Budapest
Hungarians are divided over a plan to erect a statue to a former prime minister who passed Europe’s first anti-Jewish law of the 20th century. Pal Teleki supported a 1920 law that limited the number of university places given to Jews. But he is revered in Hungary for his opposition to Nazi Germany’s attempts to dominate the continent. He committed suicide in 1941, when Germany asked Hungary to help invade Yugoslavia. The Teleki Memorial Committee said this week that while the Jewish laws were regrettable, they were among the most moderate in Europe and should not detract from the good Teleki did. Jewish groups said a statue honoring a symbol of “institutional anti-Semitism” would be inappropriate. Some 600,000 of Hungary’s 800,000 Jews died in the Holocaust.
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