Hungarian Jews mark 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany invasion

(MENAFN- AFP) Several thousand Hungarian Jews marked the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Hungary on Wednesday with a memorial service outside the Grand Synagogue in Budapest. The service, organised by Mazsihisz, the country's largest Jewish organisation, was the first in a series of events marking the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of some 600,000 Hungarian Jews, most deported to Nazi death camps.The anniversary has been marred over Hungary's own role in the Holocaust including a row over a plan by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to build a monument in Budapest depicting Hungary under attack by Germany. Local Jewish organisations and historians say the monument appears to whitewash the central role of Hungarians in organising the 1944 deportations.Last month, Mazsihisz said it would boycott Holocaust memorial events organised by the government unless the plan was scrapped, but authorities agreed only to postpone the project until May. A commemorator on Wednesday held a sign that read - "1944: It was Hungary's sin too".