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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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TheJewish communist leaders were capable of using antisemitic code words and antisemitic slogans in order to free themselves from their unwelcome background, but in vain. It was historical justice that Rakosi was dismissed from his post as Premier by the post-Stalin leadership in 1953 at least largely if not entirely because he wasJewish. The one thing which recommended Imre Nagy to the Russians was that he was the only prominent person in the leadership who was not born a Jew.

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The source of Communist behavior is easily comprehensible. Given the antisemitism of a substantial part of the Hungarian people, open identification withJewish issues and interests would be damaging to the Communist cause. Able propagandists as they were, they clearly understood that it was in their interests to identify themselves as much as was possible under the circumstances with Hungarian nationalism. Communists made transparent efforts to cover themselves with the Hungarian flag. They claimed as their ancestors outstanding figures of Hungarian history and made every attempt to identify the party with nationalist symbols. In this respect, as in so many others, they learned from their Soviet comrades.

Of course, people, whose primary interest was to advance the Communist cause, had every reason to counteract the impression that the party was beholden to Jewish interests. The archives of the Communist Party from these years are full of news about antisemitic sentiments and outbursts. Reports came flooding in which demonstrated this prejudice. When the government decided to nationalize church-run schools in 1948, for example, women demonstrated against nationalization saying that the government was going to hire Jewish teachers. [10] In 1947 a silly rumor spread in the countryside that since the war in Palestine was not going well for the Jews, the government was going to import thousands from there to Hungary. (This was at a time when thousands of Hungarian Jews were in fact, going from Hungary to Palestine.) The peasants professed to believe that Jews did not have to pay taxes.

Antisemitism had a particularly long tradition in Szabolcs County, the district where in the nineteenth century the last Hungarian blood libel trial took place. A communist functionary reported from this county that in the village of Kisvarad a worker when he was interrogated said that "everyone knows that it is the Jews who are in power here." He also wrote: "In the village of Nyirbator, when someone is arrested by the police, people simply say: 'theJews took him.'" [11]

Antisemitism was also strong among workers. A functionary reported in 1947: "There is a strong antisemitic wave in the factories. There were no Jews among the workers before deportations and there is none there now. Among Communist leaders there are many Jews who defend the special privileges of Jews." And the widespread: "Minority rules and majority starves." In a trade union meeting of the bookbinding trade a communist speaker by the name of JozsefSarkozi said: "OnlyJews benefited. We have achieved nothing." Ferenc Katona, a trade union official went further: "In the past also Jewish capitalists ruled over us, and they still do. This cannot continue." [12]

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

Judaism, Spring, 2001 by Peter Kenez

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