Essay on Kati Marton's Article

Kati Marton's article "A Town's Hidden Memory" published in The New York Times on July 21, 2002 aroused the attention of the Miskolc population. Ms. Marton's Jewish-Hungarian grandparents were deported in 1944 from the city of Miskolc. She became angry when some young women working in the nearby pub did not know that there is a Synagogue across the street. Clearly, Marton had certain expectations, and when these were unfulfilled, she concluded that regular citizens in Miskolc were not dealing with their past Her conclusion was that all the citizens of Miskolc are collectively guilty in the deportation of Jews from Hungary to the Nazi death camps And, she felt, that they should acknowledge the terrible events of that period.

The New York Times received a number of letters from the supporters of the protesters, but instead of publishing any one of them, on July 26^ththe "Times published a letter from a Mr. Frank Shatz with the title "Hungary's Buried Past" in which he referred to Hungarians as Holocaust deniers.

„Indeed, Miskolc is proof that ignorance of past atrocities is endemic even in places where they were perpetrated.”

I must admit that I know very little about this period of my city’s history. (On this point, Kati Marton’s claims about the buried past are correct.). But, is this my fault or that of my history teachers or the leaders of Miskolc?

So I tried to find some sources of history of Miskolc in the WWII.

In 1941, the Jewish population was in excess of 10,000 (about 13.5% of the total population). By the middle of 1942 the fortunes of war were not favouring the Axis powers. This was instantly recognized by Horthy's new prime minister, Nicholas Kállay who was determined to save Hungary from both the Germans and the Russians. Kállay and Horthy refused all demands of the Nazis for the branding, confinement and deportation of the Jews in Hungary. They promised to expel them from Hungary but only after Hitler won the war. Hungarian Jews were protected abroad and negotiations started with the Allies

The road to Auschwitz was opened in March 1944. The German army occupied Hungary and Horthy was forced to appoint a pro-German government. There was no resistance. Horthy and the people looked on passively. A few cheered, even fewer protested.

The British government forbade Palestinian Jewish commandoes to parachute into Hungary and arouse the Jews.(5) The Americans refused to bomb the railway lines leading to Auschwitz. The Canadian government declined to take in Hungarian Jewish children.

Shortly after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March, 1944, most of the remaining men were sent to labor service camps, and the rest of the Jews were confined to a ghetto. This concentration was carried out in an extremely cruel manner. For example, the police made the following announcement in connection with this action:

"We warn the Hungarian Christian public that certain individuals have placed poisoned lump-sugar by house gates with which they want to endanger the life and health of Hungarian Christian children."¹

By June 15, 1944, almost all the Jews had been deported. After the war, about 100 Jews returned from the death camp and some 300 others survived the labor camps. As of 1970, about 1,000 Jews lived in the city.

After the Nazi occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Miskolc was assigned to the third anti-Jewish operation zone (for the purpose of deportation, Hungary had been divided into six zones). The following month most of the remaining men in the city were sent to labor service camps, and the rest of the Jews were put into a ghetto. Those taken to the labor service camps at this time were saved from deportation, and many survived. The concentration of the Jews was carried out with great cruelty under the auspices of the city Prefect, Emil Borbely – Maczky. The gentile population was warned by the police not to interfere with their work. Some three thousand Jews from the surrounding area were concentrated in brickyards outside Miskolc .

The ghetto in the city was well organized. A Jewish Council was set up under Mor Feldman and Elemer Banet. The local city administration handed out housing assignments, and peasants from the surrounding area brought fruit, vegetables, and chickens to the ghetto marketplace. The main synagogue was turned into a storehouse for stolen Jewish property. Most of the city's many Jewish physicians were not moved into the ghetto, because the Hungarian authorities feared their deportation might cause a health crisis. They were placed in a special Jewish medical unit.

In August 1944 the doctors were sent to the town of Pusztavam. There, a group of SS men suddenly appeared, discovered that the doctors were Jewish, took them out of the town, ordered them to dig their own graves, and then shot and killed them. In the meantime, between June 11 and June 15, almost all the Jews of Miskolc

had been deported, including 1,422 children. A few craftsmen were left behind to work in vital war industries. One hundred and five Jews from Miskolc returned from the deportations and some 300 others survived in the labor service; only 20 of the survivors were under the age of eighteen. The Jews from the surrounding area shared the fate of the Miskolc community.

After the war, the government refused to admit a national responsibility for the Hungarian Holocaust. Although anti-semitism was officially banned, there were strong anti-Jewish sentiments among the population, which blamed the Jews for the country's postwar economic plight. This was felt particularly in the provincial towns, whose inhabitants resented the return of the surviving Jewish deportees.

Péter Veres, who was in charge of the land reform, did his best to exclude Jews from ownership of agricultural land.

On August 1, 1946, industrial workers staged a pogrom in the town of Miskolc. Two Jews were lynched. There were other anti-Semitic disturbances in many villages in which five Jews were killed and many injured. Anti-semitic feelings were also voiced in the political literature of this period, in which the Jews were warned "not to try to capitalize on their sufferings during the war."

In 1956 a smattering of anti-Semitic incidents in the countryside gave the ultimate incentive for emigration. A number of anti-Jewish atrocities occurred outside Budapest. Three Jews were murdered at Miskolc.

A common charge was that Jews were responsible for imposing Communism on Hungary, because many Jews joined the communist party or the social democrats. There they felt safe from nationalism.

In 1970, a thousand Jews were living in Miskolc

. By most estimates, about half the Jewish population is over the age of 65.

I have read some Internet forums dealing with this article. The persons writing their opinions can be divided into two main groups, the supporters of the article and the protesters against it.

Let’s see the Jewish supporter’s letters: