The Holocaust in Hungary
According to most historians, the Holocaust in Hungary represented a unique chapter in the singular history of what the Nazis termed as the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question” in Europe. More than seventy years after the Shoah, the origins and prehistory as well as the implementation and aftermath of the genocide still provide ample ground for scholarship.
In fact, Hungarian historians began to seriously deal with these questions only after the 1980s. Since then, however, a consistently active and productive debate has been waged about the history and interpretation of the Holocaust in Hungary and with the passage of time, more and more questions have been raised in connection with its memorialization.
This volume includes twelve selected scholarly papers thematically organized under four headings: 1. The newest trends in the study of the Holocaust in Hungary. 2. The anti-Jewish policies of Hungary during the interwar period 3. The Holocaust era in Hungary 4. National and international aspects of Holocaust remembrance.
The studies reflect on the anti-Jewish atmosphere in Hungary during the interwar period; analyze the decision-making process that led to the deportations, and the options left open to the Hungarian government. They also provide a detailed presentation of the Holocaust in Transylvania and describe the experience of Hungarian Jewish refugees in Austria after the end of the war.
Foreword
Randolph L. Braham and András Kovács
I. INTRODUCTION
Hungarian Intentionalism: New Directions in the Historiography of the Hungarian Holocaust
András Kovács
II. THE PATH TO THE HOLOCAUST
The Antisemitism of István Bethlen and Jewish Policy in the Horthy Era
Ignác Romsics
The Numerus Clausus and the Anti-Jewish Laws
Mária M. Kovács
The Coming of the Shoah in Public Discourse, State Policies and Social Realities: An Essay on Continuities of the “Jewish Question” in Hungary since the “Golden Age”
Victor Karady
III. THE AGE OF PERSECUTION
The Origins of the Military Labor Service System in Hungary
László Csősz
Master Plan? The Decision-Making Process behind the Deportations
Krisztián Ungváry
The Holocaust in Transylvania
Zoltán Tibori Szabó
The Sociology of Survival: The Presence of the Budapest Jewish Population Groups of 1941 in the 1945 Budapest Population
Péter Tibor Nagy
Across the Iron Curtain—Hungarian Jewish Refugees in Austria, 1945–49: The Letters to Enns
Rebekah Klein-Pejšová
IV. THE MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST
Hungarian Memory of the Hungarian Holocaust
Gábor Gyáni
Global and Local Holocaust Remembrance
Monika Kovács
Digitalized Memories of the Holocaust in Hungary in the Visual History Archive
Andrea Pető
Hungary: The Assault on the Historical Memory of the Holocaust
Randolph L. Braham
List of Contributors
Index