| The
“Jewish Question” in Hungary, 1848-1945
"The
hand of fate shall also seize Hungarian Jewry. And the later this occurs,
and the stronger this Jewry becomes, the more cruel and hard shall be
the blow, which shall be delivered with greater savagery. There is no
escape."
Theodor Herzl,
the Budapest-born founder of modern Zionism, prophesied this calamity
in 1903, a time when the Jews of Hungary were experiencing their "Golden
Era" in the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Generally assimilated and acculturated, the vast majority of Hungarian
Jews rejected the Zionist idea of a Jewish state as the appropriate
response to anti-Semitism.
Quite simply, the majority felt at home in Magyarorszag (the land of
the Magyars--ethnic Hungarians), regarding themselves as Magyars of
the Mosaic Faith whilst holding steadfastly to their perception of a
Jewish-Magyar symbiosis.
In the same manner, their co-religionists in Germany, who considered
themselves to be German citizens of the Jewish Faith, also spoke of
the indestructibility of the German-Jewish Lebensgemeinschaft (coexistence,
or fraternity).
Unfortunately for both communities, the Nazis and their collaborators
begged to disagree and, at the first available opportunity, began to
propagate the Endlosung--the Final Solution to the "Jewish Question"
in Europe.
Implementation of this policy began in Germany in 1933, with Hitler's
callous plan to destroy the socio-economic foundation of Germany Jewry.
In March 1944--on the eve of Allied victory--the Germans occupied Hungary.
Thus began the Hungarian Shoah, a tragedy constituting not only one
of the final chapters of the Holocaust but also, as the author succinctly
emphasizes, "a particularly bitter and controversial chapter in
the most tragic epoch of Jewish history" (p. 1).
The author,
Dr. Tom Kramer, the son of Hungarian survivors and, amongst other things,
Convenor and board member of the Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Descendants, has gained the deserved reputation of being
in the forefront of teaching and researching the "Jewish Question"
and the Holocaust in Hungary.
His lectures, conference papers, articles and book reviews bear witness
to this achievement. Regarding original research, his Ph.D. dissertation
stands out.
Supervised by Professor Alan Crown, and awarded in 1995 by the University
of Sydney (Professor Yehuda Bauer was one of its overseas examiners),
the thesis formed the basis of his book, “From Emancipation to
Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry”, recently
released by University Press of America, Inc.
A fine example of historical research, this monumental study of an often
sadly neglected topic presents new insights and interpretations within
the context of comprehensive narrative and cogent analysis.
Written in an admirably clear and readable style, the book displays
rare consideration for the non-specialist reader, as background knowledge
is not assumed and unfamiliar terms are invariably explained.
The work is dedicated to the author's late parents, and to the large
majority of his considerable extended family who perished during the
Hungarian Shoah.
Herzl's prophecy, quoted at the beginning of this review, serves as
a point of departure in constructing the road leading from Emancipation
to Catastrophe.
Although starting far in antiquity, with the first Jewish settlers in
Hungary, the author's main focus commences with Hungarian Jewry's "Golden
Age," the prosperous, relatively liberal period from 1867-1918;
continues through the inter-war epoch, a period characterized by politically
imposed exclusion and expropriation; and then concentrates on the final,
horrific stage of the destruction process in 1944.
Throughout the volume, particular emphasis is placed on the socio-economic
topography of Hungarian Jewry, a large, vibrant community that, in 1910,
numbered over 900,000 souls.
Light is shed on the community's emancipation, social integration, assimilation
and acculturation processes which transformed the structure of Hungarian
Jewry and enabled it to play a highly important role in the modernization
of its adopted, beloved country.
The author's comprehensive descriptions and analyses encompass the relevant
features required of such a study: demographic patterns, including urban
and provincial distribution; socio-economic status; communal structures;
religious denominations, which delineated the cautiously progressive
Neolog from their traditional Orthodox antagonists; political and ideological
affiliations; and, not least, the seemingly eternal internal conflicts,
especially between the Neolog, Orthodox and Zionist ideologies.
Equally illuminating is the chronicle and analysis of the government's
increasingly harsh policies of social exclusion and financial expropriation
that began to traumatize Hungarian Jewry immediately after the debacle
of World War I.
Following the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, and the failed Soviet-style
revolution staged by Bela Kun (a Bolshevik of Jewish origin), the forces
of anti-Semitism and xenophobia intensified their campaign to revoke
the Magyar-Jewish symbiosis.
During the inter-war period, anti-Jewish laws were introduced and systematic
measures taken to progressively exclude Jews from the nation's political,
social, cultural and economic life.
After the outbreak of World War II, many male Jews were conscripted
into the Jewish Labor Service, brutal work battalions under Hungarian
military command that, with considerable irony, eventually protected
many conscripts from deportation to Auschwitz.
Despite the defamations, discriminations and expropriations imposed
upon Jews during the German-allied Horthy regime, and despite news of
the persecution and murder of Jews in Nazi-occupied countries reaching
Hungary, until Spring 1944 the vast bulk of Hungarian Jews felt that
they were, as Dr. Kramer puts it, "residing in an island sanctuary,
insulated from the destiny of their European co-religionists" (p.
1).
The unopposed
German military invasion of the country in March 1944, however, exposed
Hungarian Jewry to the Final Solution process perfected elsewhere within
the Nazi domain.
The author's examination of the motives behind the occupation not only
re-invigorates a debate neglected by historians for many years but also
convincingly integrates several formerly disparate views in his conclusions.
At center of this aspect of his research stands the complex question
of whether the takeover was motivated primarily by military-strategic
considerations or by the "Jewish Question," that is, on the
German desire to enforce the Final Solution in Hungary.
Within days
of the occupation, Adolf Eichmann's SS Sonderkommandos commenced their
task of making Hungary Juden frei (free of Jews) as quickly as possible.
Much to Eichmann's joy, an effusive public enthusiasm to dispossess
Jews was quickly supplemented by the close collaboration of Hungary's
government, police, Gendarmerie and civil service.
Consequently, it took less than two months to identify, physically distinguish
(via the compulsory Yellow Star badge), financially expropriate, terrorize,
and incarcerate in ghettos the vast majority of Hungary's provincial
Jews.
Within the next two months, over 450,000 were deported to Auschwitz
and industrially murdered in the Death Camps' up-graded gassing facilities.
At this juncture, the author pays much appropriate attention to the
manifold, desperate rescue efforts undertaken by the German imposed
Budapest Jewish Council (Judenrat) and, above all, by the Zionists,
especially the Hechalutz (Zionist youth movement).
Of particular significance is his detailed portrayal of Dr. Gyorgy Gergely,
a Jewish activist and leader who made his post-War home in Sydney, Australia.
Based on his extensive evaluation of the hitherto unresearched Gergely
archives, and judiciously supplemented by protracted discussions with
that gentleman, Kramer reveals for the first time the pivotal, often
heroic role Dr. Gergely played in Hungary during the Holocaust period.
Especially important is the first detailed revelation of an event unique
in the Holocaust, and one in which Gergely was the sole authorized negotiator
on behalf of the Hungarian Jewish community--an attempt by a German
vassal regime to arm over 10,000 Jewish conscripts in order to protect
the regime's proposed armistice with the Allies.
Another undoubted highlight of this comprehensive (180,000 word) book
is the concluding section in which the international "rescue matrix"
for Hungarian Jewry is explored, a topic that has moved to the center
of Holocaust controversy.
Drawing on his own archival research, and his critical evaluation of
prior historiographic debate, Dr. Kramer formulates, and then integrates,
controversial explanations for both the Nazis' "sale of Jews"
strategies and the Allied attitudes towards Jewish rescue, particularly
in 1944/45.
From the beginning, the Allies left no doubt that the fight against
the extermination of European Jews was of marginal importance relative
to the absolute imperative of winning the war without diverting military
resources to the rescue of civilians.
In Allied political, military and intelligence command centers, as well
as in civilian public opinion, it was more or less a foregone conclusion
that in carrying out the Alliesí war aims, the massive loss of
Jewish life would have to be accepted.
The bureaucratic petty mindedness prevailing in many Allied quarters,
plus the indifference or hostility of their public opinion, generated
the prevailing view that diversion of resources to Jewish rescue would
jeopardize the war effort.
Furthermore, so the argument went, Allied soldiers were mobilized to
repel the Axis armies, and not as a sacrifice to rescue alien Jews.
Reinforcing these
attitudes was the West's paranoia, rightly emphasized in the text, that
if the Allies accepted some Hungarian Jewish refugees, the Nazis might
have used their remaining Jews as hostages in order to negotiate a favorable
armistice.
Moreover, Allied
politicians feared that if surviving European Jews were permitted to
seek refuge in their countries, the host nations would be flooded by
undesirable, impoverished and physically brutalized aliens.
Dr. Kramer's
conclusions are convincing, and will set the tone for public debate
and future research: "Jews in Axis countries were caught in a classic
lose-lose situation. We are left with the tragic paradox that, for the
West, the prospect of successful negotiations probably negated the very
possibility of negotiations.
Quite simply,
Europe's Jewish remnant remained, until the end, bound between the relentless
German hammer and the impassive Allied anvil" (p.357).
This is a rare compendium, one that chronicles within historical context,
and in a single, well-integrated volume both the rise and fall of a
national Jewry.
Admirably written
in a manner suiting the needs of both interested readers and specialist
scholars, it deserves the close attention of those concerned with anti-Semitism,
modern Jewish history, the Holocaust and genocide studies - including
professional historians, sociologists and political scientists.
In short, this
distinguished work, one that makes a substantial contribution to our
knowledge and understanding of a matter at the catastrophic centrality
of contemporary civilization, is deserving of both a widespread and
appreciative audience.
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