Explore the roots of antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe.
This interactive timeline is divided into four historical periods and allows you to move through time by scrolling or by jumping to a specific period, filter events by country, and view short descriptions by hovering over each event, with selected entries offering more detailed historical context.
EXPLORE THE PAST
2004 – 2024
The European Union
Across 2004–2024, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe persisted and adapted despite EU accession, shifting from overt violence toward politicised discourse, institutional discrimination, and digitally mediated hate. While legal frameworks and inclusion strategies expanded, weak enforcement enabled far-right actors, populist narratives, and online networks to normalise conspiracy theories, historical revisionism, and collective blame. Jewish and Roma communities continued to face symbolic attacks on memory sites, segregation in housing and education, police abuse, and renewed scapegoating during crises such as migration, COVID-19, and military conflicts—revealing a persistent gap between formal commitments to equality and lived experience.
2024
2022
2021
2020
2019
Assault of a Jewish Man in Békéscsaba
Antisemitic and Anti-Israel Posters in Budapest
Police Instruction on Handling Hate Crimes
2018
Foundation of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom
Attack on a Rabbi in Árkád shopping mall
2017
2014
Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation and the Living Monuments initiative
2013
Announcement of the House of Fates Holocaust Museum
Prime Minister Orbán declares a policy of zero tolerance against antisemitism
2012
Jobbik MP calls for list of Jews in Parliament
Journalist assaulted with antisemitic abuse at protest
2011
Antisemitic assault in a Budapest pub
Adoption of the New Fundamental Law
2008
2007
2006
Violent Clashes in Budapest
Launch of Kuruc.info
2005
1991 – 2004
The Time of Democratization
The collapse of state socialism brought democratic freedoms but also enabled the re-emergence of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe. As economies and national identities were rebuilt, far-right subcultures, nationalist rhetoric, and historical revisionism gained ground, leading to street violence, symbolic attacks, and hostile public discourse. Jewish communities faced vandalism and Holocaust denial, while Roma communities experienced severe violence, segregation, and police abuse amid economic upheaval. Although minority-rights frameworks expanded, inconsistent enforcement allowed racialised exclusion to persist, revealing the fragility of new democracies in protecting vulnerable groups.
2004
Hungary joins the European Union
Opening of the Páva Street Holocaust Memorial Centre
Anti-Christian Outcry and Flag Burning: The 2004 Tilos Rádió Incident
2003
2001
1997
Skinhead Attack in Gyöngyös
Compensation Law for Holocaust Survivors
First so-called Day of Honour event
1995
1993
Reburial of Miklós Horthy in Kenderes
Foundation of MIÉP (Hungarian Justice and Life Party)
1992
1945 – 1991
The Time of Authoritarianism
After 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe did not disappear but were reshaped under communist rule through surveillance, repression, and ideological control. Jewish communities faced postwar hostility, obstructed restitution, and later state-led “anti-Zionism” that marginalised Jewish identity, censored Holocaust memory, detroyed careers and forced to emigration[JW1.1]. Roma communities experienced systematic discrimination through forced settlement, cultural erasure, segregated education, and racialised policing, justified as socialist “assimilation.” While regimes proclaimed equality and antifascism, both forms of racism were embedded in state institutions and everyday governance, leaving Jewish and Roma communities silenced, controlled, and vulnerable on the eve of democratic transition.
1991
1990
Publication of Sándor Csoóri’s essay Daytime Moon
István Csurka’s radio commentary titled “Wake up, Hungarians!”
1989
1988
1965
1961
1960
1957
1956
Miskolc Murders
Lynching in Hajdúnánás
1953
1948
1946
Act XXV on Condemning the Persecution of Hungarian Jewry
Antisemitic Mob Justice and Pogrom in Miskolc
Attempted lynching in Szolnok
Antisemitic accusations and resettlement tensions in Mezőberény
Pogrom in Kunmadaras
Trial of Ferenc Szálasi
Nationwide Blood-Libel Hysteria in Postwar Hungary
1939 – 1945
Times of War and Genocide
Between 1939 and 1945, antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe were transformed into state-organised systems of persecution and genocide under Nazi occupation and collaborationist regimes. Jews were systematically stripped of rights, property, and livelihoods before being ghettoised, deported, and murdered in extermination camps, while Roma and Sinti were subjected to forced settlement, labour, internment, mass executions, and deportation as part of the Porajmos. These crimes were enabled not only by Nazi policy but also by local administrations, police forces, and societal participation, embedding racial violence into everyday governance. By the war’s end, Jewish life had been almost entirely destroyed and Roma communities devastated, leaving legacies of loss and trauma that would shape post-war marginalisation and memory across the region.
1945
1944
Arrow Cross Massacres Against Jewish Hospitals in Buda
Establishment of the Budapest Ghetto
Forced Labour Under the Arrow Cross Regime
Executions on the Banks of the river Danube in Budapest
Deportations of Jews from Hungary
First Deportation Transports to Auschwitz
Ghettoisation IN Hungary
Operation Margarethe
1943
The Dorosic Hospital Fire
Forced Labor in Bor
1942
Act XIV of 1942 legalizing the system of national defense (auxiliary) labor service
Law on the Israelite Religion
Fourth Jewish Law
Novi Sad massacre
Jewish Labour Service at the Don
1941
Third Jewish Law
Rounding up, expulsion, and deportation of Jews without Hungarian citizenship to Ukraine
1940
Hungary Joins the Axis Powers
Hungarian Annexation of Northern Transylvania
1939
FROM MEMORY
TO MONITORING
You’ve explored the past – now see how history is connected to the present. View recent incidents of antisemitism and antigypsyism across Central Europe.