Although no formal agreements will be signed at the end of the visit of Hungarian President Arpad Goncz to Israel, relations between the two countries have deepened, Goncz told reporters Monday.
Goncz visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and then declared that the Holocaust should never recur.
His tour of Yad Vashem was extended, with the president stopping time and again by exhibits, receiving explanations by Yitzhak Arad, the Yad Vashem director.
“We are very, very deeply moved,” he said, his eyes wet with tears, as he was standing at the Yizkor Hall. “This must never be repeated.”
Visiting the Old City of Jerusalem, Goncz, who is also a playwright, said he felt as if he was “in the middle of time,” seeing both the “very, very old and very, very young at the same time.”
Goncz later had a lunch meeting with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
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