Publisher: Múlt és Jövő

Past and Future

Múlt és Jövő

Frequency: 4 issues / Country: Hungary

The first issue of the new Múlt és Jövő Journal appeared, in the form of an anthology, in December 1988. (The Journal is often referred to as MéJ: in academic publications the letters "ÚF", that is, new series, are added.) In 1989 two issues were published, and since 1990 there have been four regular issues per year. Our bibliography, which will be completed in the course of 2000 and which will also be available on the Internet, will provide readers with information about our work over the past ten years. The main genres to be found in the Journal include essays; historical, sociological and Judaistic studies; literature; the fine arts; reportage; and interviews. Although only a small part of our photographic material and illustrations will be found on our Internet pages, we plan to create an illustrations archive, through which we will be able to assist those interested in related subjects. Due to the increasing numbers of foreign subscribers to the Journal we include an English-language contents page and summary at the end of each issue - this is also required by foreign university libraries that subscribe to the Journal. Most of our issues focus on a particular theme. During recent years successive issues of the Journal have focused on the Jewish population of individual countries, such as Israel, Poland, France and Germany, in an attempt to establish connections with Jewish spiritual forums and personalities in these countries. In terms of the themes chosen for the Journal and for our publications, the years 1998 and 1999 were dominated by the 150th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution and 1848 War of Independence, and the 50th anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel. We also publish an annotated bibliography of Jewish-related books published in Hungarian, thus familiarity with the Múlt és Jövő Journal is invaluable for those with an interest in Hungarian Jewish studies.

The Role of 1848-49 in the Life of the Hungarian Jews

1848-49 a magyar zsidóság életében

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: 1848 revolution; jewish laws; jewish life; memoirs;

The outstanding Hungarian humanist, Jenő Zsoldos has worked as the director of the Jewish Secondary School for Girls in Budapest. Three years after the Holocaust he has edited the publication “1848-49 in the Life of the Hungarian Jews” on the occasion of the Centenary of the Hungarian revolution 1948-1949. This revised edition is published on the occasion of the 150years anniversary of the revolution

In the Shadow of the Sun

A nap árnyékában

Author(s): Zádor Tordai / Language(s): Hungarian

After the communist system has collapsed, the socio-political and economical situation has changed in Central and Eastern Europe. In his essays Zádor Tordai is focusing on the analyses of the socio-political results of the system change in Central and Eastern Europe and its interpretation – from the view of a philosopher.

The Jewish Question in Hungary after 1944

Zsidókérdés Magyarországon 1944 után

Author(s): István Bibó,Ferenc Fehér / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: antisemitizm; Hungarian society; holocaust in Hungary;

In 1948 in his seminal study “The Jewish Question in Hungary After 1944” István Bibó did draw attention to the role of Hungarian society at large in the implementation of the logic of the Holocaust. Bibó bravely suggested “that the anti-Jewish legislative measures were supported, if not by a clearly visible majority, then at least by a force more massive than their opponents.” What Bibó saw to be a “slippage” from the 1930s onwards resulted in the events of 1944, which Bibó interpreted as evidence of “the moral decline of Hungarian society.” Bibó claims that the opportunities for upward mobility that ‘non-Jews’ seized in 1944 Hungary provided “an appalling picture of insatiable avarice, a hypocritical lack of scruples, or at best cold opportunism in a sizeable segment of this society that was profoundly shocking not only to the Jews involved, but also all decent Hungarians.” This question of postwar remembrance of the Holocaust is of continuing relevance. History is a subject of interest not simply to historians; it has contemporary implications. Whether the Holocaust in Hungary is remembered as a part of or apart from Hungarian history has important implications for the kind of past Hungary remembers. (Tim Cole in Hungary and the Holocaust/Confrontation with the Past/Symposium Proceedings/Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2001)

At the Edge of the Road

Az út szélén

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Holocaust,; Hungary in 20th century;Auschwitz;

The book contains three Holocaust narratives. They are the recollections of ordinary people whose experiences comprise their sole writing, story and message. The three pieces are not just the narratives of three different fates, but also present three different sociological backgrounds, all characteristic of Hungarian Jewry. And emphasis is placed on three different stages in the Holocaust narrative. Pál Kádár’s story (“A körgyógynapszámos” [The seasonal healer]) presents the life of a village doctor and his family – until their deportation to Auschwitz. The narrative featured in the collection’s title (Kornélia Terner: “Az út szélén” [At the edge of the road]) describes all three stages: the uprooting of a Jewish rural household, the events at Auschwitz, and the emotional difficulties of readjusting to ordinary life under the communist system, as well as the wounds that would not heal and finally the outburst after the last political upturn in 1989. Júlia Fodor-Wieg’s piece “Ezekből az emlékekből fogok élni” [I am going to live on these memories] describes the Holocaust as it was experienced by upper-middle-class Jews. The other great Hungarian narrative on the Holocaust is the hunt for men in the jungle of Budapest. The focus of her story continues until her departure from Hungary in 1957. She tells of the demise of a plundered Jewish middle-class, a great and credible document of the will and capacity for life. All three pieces bring us closer to ordinary people who are also heroes. Visual records of the destroyed world illustrate the book. In the epilogue The Holocaust as Narrative, János Kőbányai, who collected the memoirs, analyses and typifies the Hungarian Holocaust as a historical and cultural phenomenon on the lines of Imre Kertész’s “great narrative”.

Balkan Stories

Balkáni történetek

Author(s): Zádor Tordai / Language(s): Hungarian

States do have their own order, as cities have their own order as well. And all of them have backyards. You put everything in the backyard –according to the common sense, untidy and immoral -what does not fit into the general order, and in particular everything that does not want to fit in that order. In Europe, almost all countries have such backyards. It is true, that they are isolated from each other. But Europe as a whole has also its own backyard, which you can put under the category “the Balkans”.

The Auschwitz Protocol

Az Auschwitzi jegyzőkönyv

Author(s): György Haraszti / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Auschwitz-Birkenau; concentration camp memoirs;

The Auschwitz Memorandum is the fundamental text of the last century. Two Auschwitz concentration camp inmates who escaped on April 1944 from the largest Nazi death factory wanted to tell the world the bad news in order to save the lives of hundreds of thousands. What they really presented was the supreme anatomy of evil that they personally witnessed in full bloom. Our publication is a collection of all the historical documents that reached the world from Auschwitz from 1942 to May 1944. The historian György Haraszti edited the documents and wrote the introductory essay. The Burning Secret is as exiting reading as a mystery novel. With the help of the testimony of Auschwitz inmates the reader learns much about the family of Nicholas Horthy, the inner workings of Zionist organizations as well as the politics of Roosevelt, Churchill and the Pope. Janos Kobanyai’s The Auschwitz Gospel asks the question of how the Auschwitz Memorandum could save only the majority of the Jews of Budapest? His investigating essay, which concludes our volume, is a dramatic presentation in a world historical setting. The secret was out and as a result many escaped death but since the news was not fully aired many more met their end in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

The Train of History

A történelem vonatán

Author(s): Mária Ormos / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungary in the 20th century; Trianon; Horthy era;

“The Train of History” by Mária Ormos invites the reader to two different „journeys”. Reception of both, history and historiography. It is a comprehensive study with author’s vision on Europe, focusing on the Hungarian history and Hungarian identity.