Development and Bifurcation of an Institution
Development and Bifurcation of an Institution
The University Voluntary Labor Service and the Compulsory National Defense Labor Service of the Horthy Era
Author(s): András SzécsényiSubject(s): Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of the Holocaust
Published by: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Történettudományi Intézet
Keywords: Hungarian labor service; history of state institutions; prehistory of the persecution of Jews; anti-Semitic radicalization; interwar Hungary
Summary/Abstract: Previous studies of the Hungarian labor service have been characterized by an exclusive interest in the years between 1939 and 1945. Accordingly, they have tended to focus on its anti-Jewish impetus. However, the emergence of labor service in Hungary goes back to the mid-1930s, when a voluntary system was established. Placing this Hungarian institution into a transnational perspective, I trace the process of its ideological legitimation, its key practices, and its gradual growth and significant transformation over the years. I demonstrate that Hungary actually had two divergent systems of labor services in the war years, and I analyze the ways in which the infamous labor service of the post-1939 years could be seen as a continuation of its less familiar predecessor. I thus make a contribution to the historicization and broader contextualization of a key Hungarian institution of persecution during World War II.
Journal: The Hungarian historical review : new series of Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
- Issue Year: 4/2015
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 542-576
- Page Count: 35
- Language: English
