Anniversary of János Esterházy’s Death Brings Nationalities Together

János Esterházy, the former political leader of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, was remembered in Prague on Saturday.

The ceremony was held at the memorial to the victims of the communist regime in a cemetery in the town’s Motol district. The event was organized by the János Esterházy Association for Christian and Human Values in Prague, the János Esterházy Memorial Committee of the Coexistentia political movement and the Hungarian Catholic Parish in Prague to mark the 68th anniversary of the death of the politician, who died in prison under the communist regime.

Hungarian Ambassador to Prague András Baranyi and Hungarian social organizations in the Czech Republic laid wreaths at the memorial plaque of János Esterházy. The wreath was also laid by representatives of the Alliance for Common Goals in Slovakia. Cardinal Dominik Duka, retired Archbishop of Prague, brought a bouquet of flowers to the memorial.

The speeches at the ceremony were unanimous in their praise of the life and work of the Hungarian political martyr. Zoltán Balga, head of the Hungarian parish in Prague and President of the Esterházy Association, said that

the values of János Esterházy pointed to the future and are worth taking up today.

Ambassador András Baranyi explained that János Esterházy’s personality united Czechs, Hungarians, Poles and Slovaks, and therefore the spiritual legacy of the politician should be cherished. In this respect, he described the memorial site in Motol as very important and symbolic.

Dominik Duka said he considered it a great honor to receive the Esterházy Prize in Budapest on March 8. The retired archbishop stressed that János Esterházy is worthy of the honor of posterity.

The memorial site was created by the Confederation of Political Prisoners of the Czech Republic after the end of communism in 1989 on the site of the Motol cemetery where dozens of victims of the former political regime were buried anonymously in the 1960s and 1970s. The urn of János Esterházy, who was born in 1901 and died in 1957 in Mírov prison in Moravia, Czech Republic, was placed in the then anonymous mass grave in the early 1960s.

The central memorial in Motol, rebuilt more than a decade ago, bears the names of two victims: former war-time pilot Josef Bryx, who represents those who died in the labor camps, and János Esterházy, a former leader of Hungarianism in Slovakia, who represents political prisoners who died by the hands of the communist regime.

On Sunday, a mass in Hungarian will be held in memory of János Esterházy, supporting his beatification at the Church of Saints Henry and Cunigunde in Prague.

Gábor Ervin Is a Role Model to Christians, Cardinal States