Jews in Interwar Hungary

Hungary

• 1867 – autonomy• Trianon Treaty – lost 70% of its territory• 60% of its population• Nation-state• Social revolution– 1) Karolyi– 2) Bela Kun

Historical Context

• Acculturation, assimilation : „Hungarians of Mosaic faith“

• Jews supported by NOBILITY– Medium of – magyrization– - economic modernization

• Westjuden – esp. Budapest• Magyrization of Jewish names

Historical context

• 1868 – Neology– Orthodoxy– „Status quo“

• Jews as a RELIGIOUS GROUP

Historical Context

• Jews= industrial and business bourgeoisie – their children intellectuals and scientists (orientation towards the left)

• „Judapest“• conversions

The End of Old Order

• Jews present in Karolyi´s and Bela Kun´s government

• counterrevolution – Romanian military intervention

• Horthy – white terror, 1919-21– pogroms

Demography, Status, Culture

• Budapest – 23% of the city population– 45% of Hungarian Jews

• 65% neologs• Middle class: trade, industry, liberal

professions

The New Hungary

• 1932 Gömbös• Before Gömbös– Numerus clausus in the universities – JEWS AS

NATIONALITY

Jewish Politics

• Neolog x orthodox• Zionism only after Nov. 1938• Rich neolog leadership from Budapest -

politics of Hungarian nationalism

Hungarian- Jewish Relation in the 1930´s

• Radical right • Hungarian Germans• Nazi influenced army• 1932 – Gyula GÖMBÖS PRIME MINISTER– Alliance with Hitler – hoped in revision of Trianon

1930´s

• 1935 - Arrow Cross Party – extreme right• 1938 – 1st Viennesa Award (after Munich agreement)– May – 1st Jewish law– Late – 2nd Jewish law

Emigration New conversions Zionist youth

The War Years

• 1944 Horthy to Hitler: „I prefer to solve the Jewish question without having a recourse to brutal and inhumane methods.“

• 1942 Horthy appoints Miklos KALLAY as Prime Minister

• March 1944 – German ocupation– May 5- June 7: 300 000 Jews sent to death camps– Oct: Arrow Cross Party in control pogroms,

death marches