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Antisemitism in Post World War II Hungary - violence, riots; Communist Party policy

Judaism, Spring, 2001 by Peter Kenez

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According to contemporary figures, no doubt imprecise, approximately a quarter of the Jewish population voted for the Communists in the 1945 elections. (Nationally the Communists received 17% of the vote.) [5] For the 1947 elections we have no comparable figures, but it is estimated that the Communists received an even larger share of the Jewish vote than in 1945. The Party not only did nothing to gain the allegiance of theJews, but on the contrary, it took steps to emphasize that it was not beholden toJews.Jewish voting behavior becomes comprehensible only when we remember that in 1946 there was a wave of antisemitic outbursts. The Party did nothing to prevent these; indeed, its anti "bourgeois" rhetoric contributed to the antisemitic atmosphere, yet from the point of view of the Jews the Communist Party remained their only protection. The unusual aspect of the Hungarian situation was that the government was largely in Jewish hands.Jews played prominent roles in the other Eastern European countries also, but nowhere was their domination as complete as in Hungary. All four of the most prominent and powerful leaders of the Communist Party were Jewish-Matyas Rakosi, Erno Gero, Mihaly Farkas, and Jozsef Revai. It is true that these Communists were not in full control of the government until 1948, but from the very outset, they had behind them the power of the Red Army. Unquestionably, the Communist Party was the decisive force in Hungarian politics. HowJewish Communists made possible, and in some ways even encouraged native antisemitism, is an interesting psychological and political phenomenon, which deserves further exploration. The communist leaders, of course, did not think of themselves asJewish. They naively believed that by becoming communists, they ceased to be Jewish. They all survived the Nazi era, not in German occupied Hungary, but in the Soviet Union. Perhaps if they had experienced the Holocaust in close contact, their sense of community with their fellow Jews who had just experienced an extraordinary tragedy would have grown stronger, and they would have understood that no one is entirely free to choose his or her identity.

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Nowhere else do we find such a clear example of antisemitic policies carried out by Jews than in post-war Hungary. The behavior of the top Communist leaders was entirely cynical. Of course a Rakosi or a Gero was not an antisemite in the narrow sense of the word. They nevertheless carried out policies that harmed their fellow Jews and on several occasions led to pogroms. They well understood that the association of the Party withJews was harmful to the communist cause. It was not only harmful within Hungary, but also was a serious handicap in their relationship with an increasingly antisemitic Stalin. It is true that he tolerated Jews in the top leadership positions in Hungary, but thatwas perhaps, because these were the people who had lived through the war years in Moscow and therefore Stalin knew them or knew of them and consequently believed that they could be trusted to carry out obediently policies that were favorable to Soviet interests.

Antisemitism in Post World War II Hungary - violence, riots; Communist Party policy

Judaism, Spring, 2001 by Peter Kenez

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