Government official commemorates ethnic Germans deported to Soviet Union

The deportees were guilty of nothing and had never even fought against the Soviet Union, Retvari said in Kismaros, in northern Hungary. They were only forced to leave their homes because every settlement had to fulfil a quota, he said, noting that the deportees had no idea where they were being taken.

Altogether 800,000 Hungarians were deported to forced labour camps, 200,000 of whom never returned, Retvari said. “Wherever communists came to power, they set up forced labour camps,” he added.

Noting that it was impossible to know early on how a war will end, Retvari said that at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, many European countries had promised to only send Ukraine non-lethal weapons, but this had completely changed by now.

“When we remember, we should also think of the present and should make decisions that ensure that the terrible situations of the past are not repeated,” the state secretary said.