The Children’s Republic of Gaudiopolis

The History and Memory of a Children’s Home for Holocaust and War Orphans (1945–1950)
Author: 
ISBN: 
978-963-386-443-2
cloth
$75.00 / €63.00 / £54.00
Publication date: 
2022
April, 248 pages, 9 photos

Gaudiopolis (The City of Joy) was a pedagogical experiment that operated in a post–World War II orphanage in Budapest. This book tells the story of this children’s republic that sought to heal the wounds of wartime trauma, address prejudice and expose the children to a firsthand experience of democracy. The children were educated in freely voicing their opinions, questioning authority, and debating ideas.
The account begins with the saving of hundreds of Jewish children during the Siege of Budapest by the Lutheran minister Gábor Sztehlo together with the International Red Cross. After describing the everyday life and practices of self-rule in the orphanage that emerged from this rescue operation, the book tells how the operation of the independent children’s home was stifled after the communist takeover and how Gaudiopolis was disbanded in 1950.
The book then discusses how this attempt of democratization was erased from collective memory. The erasure began with the banning of a film inspired by Gaudiopolis. The Communist Party financed Somewhere in Europe in 1947 as propaganda about the construction of a new society, but the film’s director conveyed a message of democracy and tolerance instead of adhering to the tenets of socialist realism. The book breaks the subsequent silence on “The City of Joy,” which lasted until the fall of the Iron Curtain and beyond.

Foreword by Susan Rubin Suleiman
Acknowledgment

Introduction
Failures in Democratization: A Historical Overview

The History of Child Rescue in Budapest
Hungary’s Protestant Churches and the International Red Cross’s Attempts to Rescue Children
From Red Cross Children’s Homes to the PAX Orphanage

A Christian Orphanage with Doors Open to All
The Inhabitants of PAX
Art Therapy as a Means for Processing Trauma: Our Newspaper and On Our Own
Remembering the War: Poems by Children
The Cultural History of Halandzsa in Hungary
Freedom of Opinion

Gaudiopolis: Democracy as a Game and the Game of Democracy
The Legends and Sources of Inspiration Connected to Gaudiopolis
The Young People’s State of Gaudiopolis
Gaudiopolis in the Contemporary Media

Immortalizing Orphans and the War in a Communist Propaganda Film
The First Post-War Movie in Hungary: Somewhere in Europe (1947)
The Visual Storytelling of War-Time Rape
The Film’s Influence and Reception

Conclusion
Appendix
Sources and Bibliography
Name index

"Gergely Kunt’s The Children’s Republic of Gaudiopolis is a fascinating and rewarding read for anyone interested in European post-war history, the history of the Holocaust, Hungarian history or the history of residential childcare."
"Kunt weaves a great deal into this relatively slim, thought-provoking volume. He is largely successful in synthesizing the complex history and memory of the Holocaust in Hungary through the lens of PAX, the Children’s Republic of Gaudiopolis, and Somewhere in Europe. In doing so, he is to be commended for bringing this important, yet overlooked story of Sztehlo and Gaudiopolis to our attention, and further enriching the literature on both Holocaust memory and the experience of children in postwar Europe and the adults who helped them."
“Gergely Kunt’s new and novel work is a composite study of an orphanage created by the reality of post-World War II in Hungary and later by the communist state, and of how this institution was remembered and presented in narrative and film in the following years and decades. The force of this book is in the way in which it brings together several paths of study of the orphanage at its center, including history and culture, narrative and cinema, past and present, masculine and feminine heroes and heroines, domestic and foreign views, and more.”
"A key theme throughout the book is that of how Sztehlo’s humanitarian work went against the prevailing systems and authorities. Kunt paints a picture of Sztehlo as a fiercely independent man, yet one who knew how to maneuver within different organizations of religion, party, and state. In so doing, Kunt’s book offers an important contribution to our understanding of how people could navigate shifting political environments in Hungary."
"Gergely Kunt’s wonderful work talks about how a traumatized community that is almost fatally divided along various political and social fault lines can be reconstructed. The healing of wounds and the bridging of deep trenches dividing society are only possible through building a democratic society. No lesson could be more relevant in today’s Hungary."