Illiberal Memory Politics and Its Institutions in Hungary: The Case of Holocaust Museums

A characteristic feature of “illiberal states” is the setting up of parallel institutions whose main role is to challenge the previously existing, democratically established institutional network’s function. In the case of Holocaust museums, this means new exhibitions which reinterpret the past in accordance with the government’s memory politics. As a result, “illiberal” Holocaust museums often gloss over the responsibility of the local government and the non-Jewish population in the Holocaust. Two Holocaust museums were recently established by the Fidesz government in Hungary: the infamous House of Fates, and the House of Jewish Excellences which exhibits the lives of famous Jewish scientists, artists, athletes etc. In this paper I compare the two exhibitions in order to provide an overview of how “illiberal” memory politics transforms and overwrites the existing Holocaust narrative, and to flesh out the complex ideological, political, and social motives behind this process.