Hungary's minority ombudsman on Friday said the attitude of Hungary's mainstream society to minorities reminded him of Germany in the 1930s.

Addressing an international conference on the Roma Holocaust in Budapest, Erno Kallai said it was regretful that the scapegoating mechanisms which once characterised Germany was currently getting stronger in Hungary.
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Recent polls revealed that 70 to 80 percent of Hungarians supported actions aimed against some kind of minority, he said.
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The ombudsman called for legal steps to contain the trend, saying that political manifestos are no longer sufficient.
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Kallai also blamed the Roma community for its failure to develop an efficient intelligentsia and strong grassroots organisations.
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At the conference, historian Szabolcs Szita called for more efforts on local research of Roma communities and said that students could also be involved in such activities. He said that a museum was needed to focus on the history of Hungary's Roma.
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As much as possible should be taught about the historical co-existence between Roma and non-Roma in Hungary as well as the Roma community's fate during WWII because it will reduce the mistrust a large part of society feels against the Roma, the historian said.
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Szita added that school and kindergarten teachers, as well as social workers had a key role in combating anti-Roma prejudice.
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The conference is dedicated to the half a million victims of the Roma Holocaust. It was on the night of August 2 to 3, 1944, that the Nazi murdered some 3,000 Roma at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
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MTI
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