This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.

According to the Budapest daily Népszabadság, the Budapest district attorney’s office has decided that the Nazi propaganda film Jud Süss can be used for incitement, but only if shown to a sympathetic audience. There will therefore be no prosecution of the Neo-Nazi group which showed the film last July to a paying audience. The liberal party (SZDSZ) is protesting and is ready to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

David Merker, vice-leader of SZDSZ in the Budapest 13th district, reported that the “generally known antisemitic nazi propaganda film” was shown in his district. The party argues that to show the film anywhere in Hungary constitutes incitement.

The investigation began with the Budapest police on July 18, 2008, based upon fears that the film, directed by Veit Harlan and released in 1940 in order to stir up antisemitism, could provoke incitement.