Hungary’s president urged Slovakia to rehabilitate the reputation of an
ethnic Hungarian politician who opposed the deportation of Jews during
World War II. Laszlo Solyom made his comments at a conference April 19
concerning
Janos Esterhazy.
Esterhazy was the only member of the Slovak Parliament to vote
against the deportation of the Jews to concentration camps when
Slovakia was a fascist state during the war. He also was a
proponent of autonomy for the Hungarians living in Slovakia and
for Slovak independence in 1939, and was thus viewed as a traitor by Czechoslovakia following World War II.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment after World War II for helping to destroy the Czechoslovak Republic and
serving fascism. Hungarian support of his rehabilitation in the past
has inflamed Slovakia, which has a tense relationship with Hungary partly due to the former’s sizable Hungarian
minority.
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