Florida Congressional Representatives Protest Hungary Honoring of Nazi Collaborator

As two of the co-chairs of the  Bipartisan Taskforce for Combatting Anti-Semitism, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., signed on a letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regarding a monument to a Nazi collaborator. 

Ros-Lehtinen and Deutch wrote to protest a proposed monument to Bálint Homan who played a key role in sending 500,000 Hungarian Jews to their deaths during the Holocaust. The other co-chairs of the taskforce--Republican U.S. Reps. Kay Granger of Texas, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Democratic U.S. Reps. Eliot Engel, Steve Israel and Nita Lowey of New York--also signed on. 

“We write to express our deep concern about plans to erect a statue in the city of Székesfehérvár, Hungary honoring Bálint Homan, who spearheaded Hungary’s anti-Jewish legislation and paved the way for deportations of and atrocities against Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust,” the representatives wrote. “We urge you to publicly condemn Homan’s role in the persecution and deportation of innocent Hungarians and to withdraw government funding for the construction of this or any statue in his honor.”