Hungary: portrait of pro-fascist wartime judge rehung in supreme court
A portrait of a far-right judge who served Hungary’s fascist wartime government has quietly been returned to the walls of the country’s highest court.
One senior judge told the Guardian he was appalled by the decision to hang a portrait of fascist sympathiser Jenő Szemák in the supreme court, saying that it sent “a strong symbolic message regarding the current political climate in Hungary”.
Szemák led Hungary’s Kúria, its highest court, for just under six months during 1944-45, after a coup by the violently antisemitic fascist Arrow Cross party. During this dark period, he was widely feared and led trials against the regime’s communist opponents and ordinary Hungarians. Szemák fled Hungary after the war and moved to South Dakota. He was later sentenced to death in absentia, but died in 1971 from natural causes.
According to a senior Kúria judge who wished to remain anonymous, Szemák’s photograph appeared in mid-2021 in the supreme court. Before then, an empty frame had been left in the sequence of portraits of former heads of the Kúria for nearly 10 years – although his portrait was briefly displayed more than a decade ago.
Inside the empty frame, a caption stated: “The portrait of Jenő Szemák, former head of Kúria, will not be displayed because of his role in troubled times.”
The new portrait is also accompanied by a note. “Jenő Szemák accepted the anti-constitutional appointment of the Arrow Cross government without compulsion,” it states. The text also notes that Szemák used threats to ensure the relocation of the Kúria to the west Hungarian city of Sopron.
One Budapest lawyer, Sándor Ésik, told the Guardian: “I think the empty frame was a good solution. It showed that what [Szemák] did was not acceptable by any means. It was a symbol that today’s judges don’t want to be associated with him.”
According to judicial sources, Szemák’s picture appeared a few months after pro-government loyalist András Zs Varga took charge of the supreme court. Varga was appointed head of the Kúria despite opposition from judges over his lack of experience and wider concerns about the political independence of the judiciary.
A former deputy prosecutor who had never served as an ordinary judge, Varga secured his nine-year term after parliament, which is dominated by Viktor Orbán’s rightwing Fidesz party, changed the rules governing election to the court.
Hungarian historian Krisztián Ungváry questioned why Szemák’s portrait was being exhibited. He said it was important not to deny the past, but put it in a clear context.
“If someone displays this image without making it clear that this person came to power in a usurper government, not a legitimate one [that can be problematic],” Ungváry said. “The question is not whether Jenő Szemák was head of the Kuria at the time, but whether his name can be used as a legitimate appointee of state,” he said, stressing that the Arrow Cross government was not legitimate.
“But if that is the case, what is the point of exhibiting the picture at all? What is the message here?” Ungváry added.
The ultranationalist, violently antisemitic Arrow Cross party governed Hungary from October 1944 until April 1945, unleashing a reign of terror on the Jewish population of Budapest, which until then had managed to avoid the most lethal Nazi persecution.
During this period the Arrow
Cross murdered 10-15,000 Jewish and Romany civilians and deported tens of thousands more to concentration camps. Nearly 80,000 Jews were expelled from Hungary on a death march to Austria. Many died along the way.
Responding to questions from the Guardian, the Kúria said the portrait reflected the historical fact that Szemák had led the Kúria, while the caption provided an evaluation of his time in office. The blank frame had only been a “temporary solution”, the Kúria said, pointing to the fact his portrait had been displayed in the court before.
It added: “We believe that the past cannot be erased but must be processed, and therefore the image of Dr Jenő Szemák cannot be removed from the list of Kúria presidents. Events and facts must be faced – and interpreted in a historical context.”