Photograph: SuppliedPhotograph: SuppliedA portrait of a far-right judge who served’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.
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 frame before the portrait was returned. The text in the frame reads: ‘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.
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