Holocaust Exhibit in Hungary Extended After Agreement with Historical Museum

An exhibition here on the Holocaust that was to close at the end of November has been extended at least through mid-January because of the considerable local and foreign public interest it has generated.

More than 25,000 people have seen the exhibit, which is the first of its kind here.

The exhibit will remain open at least until Jan. 18, a date chosen because it is the 50-year anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest Ghetto.

However, it is possible that the exhibit will remain through May, according to Ivan Beer, head of the Holocaust Commemoration Committee.

The extension was made possible by an agreement reached between the committee and directors of the Budapest History Museum.

Hungary began commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Holocaust in January, and commemorative ceremonies will end on May 8, 50 years after the Nazis were defeated by the Allies.

Meanwhile, talks are continuing about erecting a permanent Holocaust museum in Budapest. Financial and logistical matters are now under discussion at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

If these plans do not materialize, plans are afoot to install part of the present Holocaust exhibition at the Budapest Jewish Museum. The museum would be enlarged to accommodate the addition, said Robert Turan, museum director.

Meanwhile, a Jewish theater was re-opened here this week at the headquarters of the Jewish community, 50 years after it was closed. The last performance of the Jewish theater was held on the eve of the March 19, 1944 Nazi invasion of Hungary.

The Jewish theater had served between 1938 and 1944 as a place of shelter and subsistence for Jewish actors in Hungary, who had been forbidden to perform under Hungarian fascist law.