(JTA) – A Hungarian county’s government fired a former department chief after he was seen making anti-Semitic sentiments in a recording that surfaced online.
Imre Sisak, a former lawmaker for Hungary’s Socialist Party, MSZP, was fired Tuesday from his position as the head of a department within the local government of the northern country of Nógrád, ATV reported.
In the audio recording, which surfaced online in April, Sisak rants about how “foreign trade companies are all run by dirty Jews” and describes the Jewish people as “a vile, dirty folk.” He referenced the late Jewish mayor of Paszto, Laszlo Kramer, as an example proving his point. Kramer passed away in 2013. Sisak served as Paszto’s mayor from 1998 to 2014.
According to ATV, Sisak eulogized Kramer after his passing, highlighting in a statement the late mayor’s “readiness, devotion to his voters and town, willingness to help and constructive attitude.” He also credited Kramer with “greatly contributing to the town, including by setting up an ambulance post.”
During a Holocaust commemoration ceremony last year in Paszto, Sisak, who was mayor then, spoke of “reverence and deep sorrow as we remember the first days of June 1944, when hundreds of Paszto’s Jewish community were deported to forced labor or to death camps set up by Nazi Germany and its henchmen.”
Sisak was unavailable for comment on his dismissal. ATV spoke with two of his children who said he did not wish to speak to media.
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