Bela Bodo

This article examines the social causes of the infamous Tiszazug murders (i.e., the poisoning of more than forty people, mainly men, by their female relatives) in interwar Hungary. First, it looks at those elements in peasant culture, such as the traditional neglect of the sick elderly and the disabled, which proved conducive to a violent solution of family problems. Then, the essay analyzes the changes in family structures and inheritance patterns and discusses the impact of political events such as the end of overseas migration, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the autarchic policies of the “successor states” and the failure of land reform on peasants’ lives. Finally, the article looks at the discovery of the murders and the peasants’ interpretations of the poisonings.

Introduction Long-term structural problems, such as the unequal distribution of power among ethnic groups, a cumbersome bureaucracy and a rigid and essentially undemocratic political structure, coupled with the tensions produced by industrialization and the Great War, led to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in October 1918. The demise of one of the oldest states in Europe failed to generate much sympathy among the Austro-Germans and the Hungarians, who had benefited the most from the existence of the Dual Monarchy, and was welcome by the oppressed minorities whose personal status had suffered from its legal system. The collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire was also welcome by the Western powers that considered Austria-Hungary, at least since the military debacles of 1916, as nothing more than a German proxy state. The Hungarian Republic that emerged, along with half a dozen small states, to take the place of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 was in a revolution ignited by war weariness and genuine desire for reform. The October Revolution created Hungary's first democratic government; led by the "Red Count," Mihaly Karolyi, the new government quickly initiated wide-ranging social and political reforms, and sought peace and reconciliation with the ethnic minorities in Hungary and the neighboring states. (1) These were formidable tasks, and the Hungarian government, like its Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Rumanian counterparts, could have accomplished them only with Western support. The victorious powers, especially France, were hostile towards Hungary: they considered the Hungarian aristocracy illiberal, arrogant and semi-Asiatic, and wrongly accused them for the outbreak of the Great War. They generally supported Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and even Austria in their border disputes with Hungary for a number of reasons: besides general antipathy towards the Hungarian elite and Hungarians in general, an attitude tinged with racism, and resentment over the oppression of ethnic minorities before 1914, geopolitical and economic considerations, i.e., the desire to build barriers around Soviet-Russia and Germany and to replace German capital with French and British investment in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, also pushed the Western powers to disregard Hungarian claims. The Western powers, in particular France, acquiesced, and in some cases supported, the policy of Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Rumanian governments to create facts on the ground and, in direct violation of the principles of national self-determination, grab more and more Hungarian lands. The French and British support for the neighboring states undermined the legitimacy of the first democratic Hungarian government, which, in addition to domestic reforms, promised to defend the country's territorial integrity and hoped for an honorable settlement of the border issues. The quick waning of popular support for democracy was in part the government's own making: pacifism, mistaken faith in the goodwill of the Western powers and belated land and social reforms certainly contributed to the decline in the regime's popularity. On the other hand, it is rather difficult to imagine that a strong government could have emerged in Hungary after October 1918 or that strong-armed policies would have been tolerated for long by the war-weary and increasingly disobedient population. Faced with renewed Western demands for more and more territories, the Karolyi government finally handed over power to a group of politicians who belonged to the Social Democratic and Communist parties in March 1919. The rationale behind this move was that Bela Kun and his comrades would obtain Soviet military aid to defend the country's independence and territorial integrity. (2) In spite of the backing of many Social Democrats, Liberal and Conservative politicians--support that, however, did not last long--the first National-Bolshevik experiment in East-Central Europe proved to be a complete failure. …

This article examines the life and political career of Iván Héjjas, one of the most important paramilitary leaders in counterrevolutionary Hungary. The essay sheds additional light on the conflict-ridden relationship between the politicians of the radical right and the members of the conservative authoritarian elite during the interwar period. It portrays right radicalism in Hungary as a political cul-de-sac, which helped prepare the ground for the emergence of the Arrow Cross and similar movements in the 1930s, but did not lead directly to fascism. The articles examines the rise of paramilitary violence in the Hungarian countryside, analyzes the social composition and organizational and motivational structure of rural militias and the role of charismatic leaders. Finally, the article compares Héjjas to other fascist leaders, such as Balbo and Mussolini, and highlights both personal and political structural reasons for his failure to successfully imitate their example.

The history of foreign students in Nazi Germany has so far escaped the attention of historians. This neglect is difficult to explain, considering the number of books written on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities and the important role that visa students play today in the globalization process. The topic should be of interest to both German specialists and those who axe interested only in Nazi foreign policy for a number of reasons. First, it promises to shed additional light on the nature of Nazi foreign policy, especially towards the population of Eastern Europe, and on the intimate relations between ideological obsessions and traditional (diplomatic, economic and cultural) concerns. Second, the examination of foreign students' lives in Nazi Germany can also make an important contribution to current historical debates on the nature of Nazi Germany, such as whether the most important decisions in the Third Reich were made by the Nazi leadership or were they locally initiated, and whether conflicts between state and Party organizations hindered Nazi plans or promoted further radicalization. Finally, the discussion of sexual relations between German women and foreign students I. whether such relations should be perceived as the inevitable result of the war which removed German men from the campuses or as a form of political opposition) raises important questions about non-conformity and political resistance in the Third Reich. (1) THE POSITION OF FOREIGN STUDENTS IN WEIMAR GERMANY We cannot talk about the existence of a clearly defined state policy towards foreign students during the Weimar Republic. There were a number of organizations, each with its own philosophy and particular set of objectives, which dealt either on a full or part-time basis with foreign students. The two national organizations, the Foreign Office (Auswartiges Amt or AA) and the Reich Ministry of the Interior (Reichsministerium des Innern or RMdI), established their own cultural department after the First World War; the first focuses on the recruitment and the second on the control of foreign students. Between the two organizations, the Foreign Office had more power because it also controlled the German University Conference, which served as the most important forum for the discussion of university concerns, including the admission of foreign students, in the 1920s and early 1930s. However, the German University Conference was a lame duck because it lacked constitutional power to enforce its resolutions. (2) During the Weimar years, the education ministries and the individual universities had the ultimate say over the admission of foreigners to German universities; the same institutions provided the better part of social assistance for needy foreigners or helped to organize their extra-curricular activities. (3) The most important of these state ministries was the Prussian Ministry of Education (Preussisches Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Kunst und Volksbildung or PrEM). In 1922, the PrEM established the Central Office for the Study by Foreigners in Prussia (Zentralstelle fur das Studium der Auslander in Preussen) with the explicit task of standardizing admission requirements for foreigners. By 1924 the PrEM had created a fairly sophisticated system, which compared the value of foreign high-school diplomas with that of German Arbitut as the basis of admission. The University Conference in Cuxhaven in 1924 recommended this system as a model for individual universities to determine admission standards for foreign candidates. However, as a sign of the Conference's impotence, the universities and states continued to operate independently in the better part of the 1920s, and consulted Remme's institution only in controversial cases. Only during the University Conference in Berlin in February 1929 did the education ministries finally pledge to follow closely the model developed by Remme's office. (4) The organizations involved in the recruitment of foreign students also found it difficult to come to an agreement on the issue of tuition and other types of fees. …

This book examines political humor as a reaction to the lost war, the post-war chaos, and antisemitic violence in Hungary between 1918 and 1922. While there is an increased body of literature on Jewish humor as a form of resistance and a means of resilience during the Holocaust, only a handful of studies have addressed Jewish humor as a reaction to physical attacks and increased discrimination in Europe during and after the First World War. The majority of studies have approached the issue of Jewish humor from an anthropological, cultural, or linguistic perspective; they have been interested in the humor of lower- or lower-middle-class Jews in the East European shtetles before 1914. On the other hand, this study follows a historical and political approach to the same topic and focuses on the reaction of urban, middle-class, and culturally assimilated Jews to recent events: to the disintegration of the Dual Monarchy, the collapse of law and order, increased violence, the reversal of Jewish emancipation and the rise of new and more pernicious antisemitic prejudices. The study sees humor not only as a form of entertainment and jokes as literature and a product of popular culture, but also as a heuristic device to understand the world and make sense of recent changes, as well as a means to defend one’s social position, individual and group identity, strike back at the enemy, and last but not least, to gain the support and change the hearts and minds of non-Jews and neutral bystanders. Unlike previous scholarly works on Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, this study sees Budapest Jewish humor after WWI as a joint adventure: as a product of urban and Hungarian culture, in which Jewish not only played an important role but also cofounded. Finally, the book addressed the issue of continuity in Hungarian history, the "twisted road to Auschwitz": whether urban Jewish humor, as a form of escapism, helped to desensitize the future victims of the Holocaust to the approaching danger, or it continued to play the same defensive and positive role in the interwar period, as it had done in the immediate aftermath of the Great War. List of figures Acknowledgments Preface War-Time Humor Jewish Black Humor Anti-Defamation Humor Nobles and Peasants Humor as an Outlet for Internal Tensions Epilogue Bibliography Index

The second chapter looks as the origins and political and social functions  of Jewish black humor in  Hungary between 1818 and 1922. The chapter considers black humor both as a reaction to contemporary events (such as the Red and the White terrors) and as a Jewish cultural trait and literary tradition, which transcended linguistic and geographical boundaries and political systems.  What was unique about urban and Hungarian Jewish humor and what role did jokes play in the conflicts between Jews and non-Jews after WWI is the focus of this chapter.

This book examines political humor as a reaction to the lost war, the post-war chaos, and antisemitic violence in Hungary between 1918 and 1922. While there is an increased body of literature on Jewish humor as a form of resistance and a means of resilience during the Holocaust, only a handful of studies have addressed Jewish humor as a reaction to physical attacks and increased discrimination in Europe during and after the First World War. The majority of studies have approached the issue of Jewish humor from an anthropological, cultural, or linguistic perspective; they have been interested in the humor of lower- or lower-middle-class Jews in the East European shtetles before 1914.

On the other hand, this study follows a historical and political approach to the same topic and focuses on the reaction of urban, middle-class, and culturally assimilated Jews to recent events: to the disintegration of the Dual Monarchy, the collapse of law and order, increased violence, the reversal of Jewish emancipation and the rise of new and more pernicious antisemitic prejudices. The study sees humor not only as a form of entertainment and jokes as literature and a product of popular culture, but also as a heuristic device to understand the world and make sense of recent changes, as well as a means to defend one’s social position, individual and group identity, strike back at the enemy, and last but not least, to gain the support and change the hearts and minds of non-Jews and neutral bystanders.

Unlike previous scholarly works on Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, this study sees Budapest Jewish humor after WWI as a joint adventure: as a product of urban and Hungarian culture, in which Jewish not only played an important role but also cofounded. Finally, the book addressed the issue of continuity in Hungarian history, the "twisted road to Auschwitz": whether urban Jewish humor, as a form of escapism, helped to desensitize the future victims of the Holocaust to the approaching danger, or it continued to play the same defensive and positive role in the interwar period, as it had done in the immediate aftermath of the Great War.

List of figures

Acknowledgments

Preface

    War-Time Humor

    Jewish Black Humor

    Anti-Defamation Humor

    Nobles and Peasants

    Humor as an Outlet for Internal Tensions

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

This article examines the memory of the Red and White Terrors as they relate to public monuments after the collapse of state socialism. It shows how the memory of political violence has been exploited and instrumentalized by various actors to achieve political and cultural ends, and the role of civic organizations and private individuals in keeping the memory of these two key events in Hungarian history alive. Finally, the article discusses the commoditization of memory and memory practices in the last fifteen years, and the role of the Red and White Terror in identity politics.

The history of foreign students in Nazi Germany has so far escaped the attention of historians. This neglect is difficult to explain, considering the number of books written on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities and the important role that visa students play today in the globalization process. The topic should be of interest to both German specialists and those who axe interested only in Nazi foreign policy for a number of reasons. First, it promises to shed additional light on the nature of Nazi foreign policy, especially towards the population of Eastern Europe, and on the intimate relations between ideological obsessions and traditional (diplomatic, economic and cultural) concerns. Second, the examination of foreign students' lives in Nazi Germany can also make an important contribution to current historical debates on the nature of Nazi Germany, such as whether the most important decisions in the Third Reich were made by the Nazi leadership or were they locally initiated, and whether conflicts between state and Party organizations hindered Nazi plans or promoted further radicalization. Finally, the discussion of sexual relations between German women and foreign students I. whether such relations should be perceived as the inevitable result of the war which removed German men from the campuses or as a form of political opposition) raises important questions about non-conformity and political resistance in the Third Reich. (1) THE POSITION OF FOREIGN STUDENTS IN WEIMAR GERMANY We cannot talk about the existence of a clearly defined state policy towards foreign students during the Weimar Republic. There were a number of organizations, each with its own philosophy and particular set of objectives, which dealt either on a full or part-time basis with foreign students. The two national organizations, the Foreign Office (Auswartiges Amt or AA) and the Reich Ministry of the Interior (Reichsministerium des Innern or RMdI), established their own cultural department after the First World War; the first focuses on the recruitment and the second on the control of foreign students. Between the two organizations, the Foreign Office had more power because it also controlled the German University Conference, which served as the most important forum for the discussion of university concerns, including the admission of foreign students, in the 1920s and early 1930s. However, the German University Conference was a lame duck because it lacked constitutional power to enforce its resolutions. (2) During the Weimar years, the education ministries and the individual universities had the ultimate say over the admission of foreigners to German universities; the same institutions provided the better part of social assistance for needy foreigners or helped to organize their extra-curricular activities. (3) The most important of these state ministries was the Prussian Ministry of Education (Preussisches Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Kunst und Volksbildung or PrEM). In 1922, the PrEM established the Central Office for the Study by Foreigners in Prussia (Zentralstelle fur das Studium der Auslander in Preussen) with the explicit task of standardizing admission requirements for foreigners. By 1924 the PrEM had created a fairly sophisticated system, which compared the value of foreign high-school diplomas with that of German Arbitut as the basis of admission. The University Conference in Cuxhaven in 1924 recommended this system as a model for individual universities to determine admission standards for foreign candidates. However, as a sign of the Conference's impotence, the universities and states continued to operate independently in the better part of the 1920s, and consulted Remme's institution only in controversial cases. Only during the University Conference in Berlin in February 1929 did the education ministries finally pledge to follow closely the model developed by Remme's office. (4) The organizations involved in the recruitment of foreign students also found it difficult to come to an agreement on the issue of tuition and other types of fees. …

This article examines the life and political career of Iván Héjjas, one of the most important paramilitary leaders in counterrevolutionary Hungary. The essay sheds additional light on the conflict-ridden relationship between the politicians of the radical right and the members of the conservative authoritarian elite during the interwar period. It portrays right radicalism in Hungary as a political cul-de-sac, which helped prepare the ground for the emergence of the Arrow Cross and similar movements in the 1930s, but did not lead directly to fascism. The articles examines the rise of paramilitary violence in the Hungarian countryside, analyzes the social composition and organizational and motivational structure of rural militias and the role of charismatic leaders. Finally, the article compares Héjjas to other fascist leaders, such as Balbo and Mussolini, and highlights both personal and political structural reasons for his failure to successfully imitate their example.

This article examines the social causes of the infamous Tiszazug murders (i.e., the poisoning of more than forty people, mainly men, by their female relatives) in interwar Hungary. First, it looks at those elements in peasant culture, such as the traditional neglect of the sick elderly and the disabled, which proved conducive to a violent solution of family problems. Then, the essay analyzes the changes in family structures and inheritance patterns and discusses the impact of political events such as the end of overseas migration, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the autarchic policies of the “successor states” and the failure of land reform on peasants’ lives. Finally, the article looks at the discovery of the murders and the peasants’ interpretations of the poisonings.

This article looks at the response of the aristocracy to militia and mob violence in Hungary between 1919 and 1922. It argues that the experience with radical paramilitary groups in the era after the first world war colored the political behavior of the aristocracy and its political representatives, especially in their attitude to fascism, in the 1930s and 1940s.

The dissolution of theAustro-HungarianEmpirein the fall of 1918 inaugurated a period of rapid change in East Central Europe. Independent Hungary, which emerged as one of the “successor states” to the Dual Monarchy, experienced two revolutions in ten months. However, neither the democratic regime, born in the October Revolution of 1918, nor the more radical Council Republic, founded in March 1919, was able to solve the country's pressing economic and social problems and defend its sovereignty. The collapse of the Council Republic and the occupation of Budapest and the eastern half of the country by the Romanian Army in early August 1919 provoked a right-wing reaction. The next seven months experienced a rapid rise in paramilitary and mob violence. The militias targeted the supporters of the Left, poor workers, and peasants, as well as apolitical and middle-class Jews. Political violence in the second half of 1919 and the early 1920s took the lives of between fifteen hundred and f...

This article examines the memory of the Red and White Terrors as they relate to public monuments after the collapse of state socialism. It shows how the memory of political violence has been exploited and instrumentalized by various actors to achieve political and cultural ends, and the role of civic organizations and private individuals in keeping the memory of these two key events in Hungarian history alive. Finally, the article discusses the commodification of memory and memory practices in the last fifteen years, and the role of the Red and White Terror in identity politics.

This article looks at the history of the medical inspection and biological selection of students in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It discusses the emergence of regular medical inspection of various social groups, including students, in the 1920s and explains why the Nazis were so eager to make health inspections--complete with anthropological and racial surveys--an integral part of the admission process to German universities. It examines why certain individuals, mainly young physicians, complied with the Nazi laws and why others, such as female and fraternity students, older and established physicians in the university clinics, and university administrators, sought to sabotage the procedures. Finally, it explains the failure of biological selection on university campuses in the context of the evolving educational and social policies of the Nazi regime.

... Árpád Taby; István Szegheö; Tibor Rakovszky; Possible noble names: Imre Makay; György Tichy: Gábor Barothy; László Ujlaky; János Szente Varga; András, Dezsö and József Muraközy; Tibor Szaplonczay; Árpád Raád: Imre Kuthy, Károly Kmetty; Nándor Reviczky; László ...

This article examines the memory of the Red and White Terrors as they relate to public monuments after the collapse of state socialism. It shows how the memory of political violence has been exploited and instrumentalized by various actors to achieve political and cultural ends, and the role of civic organizations and private individuals in keeping the memory of these two key events in Hungarian history alive. Finally, the article discusses the commoditization of memory and memory practices in the last fifteen years, and the role of the Red and White Terror in identity politics.

The book looks at the causes and consequences of one of the most infamous murder epidemics in Central European history: the poisening of about 50 people (disabled war veterans, abusive husbands, bed-ridden elderly) in a remote agrarian region in Hungary between 1912 and 1929.