Hungarian Minister Displeased with Budapest Jewish Leaders

The executive of the Jewish Community of Budapest has been charged by the Communist government of Hungary with “doing nothing to inform the Hungarian people and the world” about the “anti-Semitic features” of the recent uprising against the regime.

Information reaching the World Jewish Congress here today says that the charge was voiced by Gyoergy Marosan, Hungarian Minister of State, at a press conference during which he stated that the “counter-revolutionary activities in Hungary” had in many places been marked by anti-Jewish outbursts.

The member of the Kadar Government said that delegations from the districts of Szabolcz-Szatmar and Hajdu-Bihar had recently informed him that after the uprising against the present regime was crushed in Budapest the rebels took it out on the Jews in a number of villages where they were still in control. The delegations, he said, told him that many Jewish homes in these districts were looted and a number of Jews, including women and children, were killed.

The member of the Communist cabinet charged the leaders of the Budapest Jewish community not only with failure to bring these anti-Jewish events to public note, but also with “trying to minimize” these developments in the course of a conversation with him. He told the press conference the Hungarian Government will issue a “White Paper” on the recent developments in Hungary which will include documents about the anti-Jewish excesses.

At the same time, Mr. Marosan declared that there was “a crafty, tactical move” on the part of the leaders of the uprising not to permit any anti-Jewish pogroms during the rising. The sole reason for these tactics, he stated, was the fear that anti-Semitic actions might cause anger among the Western Powers and alienate sympathy for the revolutionaries.