Makó Imre - Szigeti János: „Vihar és vész közepette”. A holokauszt hódmezővásárhelyi áldozatai ((Hódmezővásárhely, 2014)
"Amidst Storm and Peril"
"Amidst Storm and Peril" VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST IN HÓDMEZŐVÁSÁRHELY Summary It is from the middle of the 18th century that written sources start mentioning a Jewish population in Hódmezővásárhely, a town reinhabited after the Turkish Wars in 1699. The first Jewish citizens were merchants, traders in raw hide, shop- and innkeepers. During the Reform Period they arranged for the building of a school and a prayer-house. Their religious community with a permanent rabbi was formed in 1841. According to the census of 1848, there were 127 Jewish families in the town counting 629 souls altogether. They were mostly traders, since they had no opportunity to enter guilds or work in agriculture. During the Revolution of 1848-49, the Hungarian Army enlisted several Jewish officers, warrant officers and infantry soldiers. Forty Jewish men entered the National Guard from Hódmezővásárhely. Later on, World War I. took a death toll of 30 Jewish heroes from the town. In 1857, one of the most imposing Jewish temples of the neighbourhood, or even the wider vicinity, was inaugurated in the town. It reached its present form after the reconstruction, completed in 1908. At the end of the 19th century, the local Jewish population was among the leaders of social, economic and cultural development. They were among the wealthiest taxpayers of the town. Assimilation and "magyarization" thus quickened. At the turn of the century, their community consisted of 400 families with 1760 members. According to the census of 1920, there were 1226 Jewish inhabitants of Hódmezővásárhely out of a total population of more than 60,000. The wage earners were occupied mainly in commerce and financial life and later on, in industry. Compared to their number, the percentage of those of intellectual occupation was relatively high. As a result of a search for scapegoats in the wake of losing the war and the territorial integrity of the country, anti- Jewish sentiment temporarily erupted in Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon. Normal conditions were restored during the consolidation period. In the 1930s, the cultural institutions of the local Jewry functioned as intellectual centres in town. Local and metropolitan artists, writers (both Jewish and Christian) were performing at the soirees of their community club. However, a prejudiced political program to strengthen the supremacy of the Christian middle class, under an increasing German influence, led to the gradual limitation of living conditions for Jewish people. Starting from 1938, the Hungarian legislature passed a number of Anti-Jewish Acts. The number of Jews in intellectual jobs was limited. Jewish people were not allowed to hold public offices as e.g. civil servants or teachers. The industrial activity of Jews was also limited, and Jewish landowners were forced to give up their property. Public discrimination included the restriction of political rights: limiting the voting rights of Jews and excluding them from municipal councils. The spirit of anti-Semitism became more and more widespread in Hungarian public life. The Sztójay-government, installed following the German occupation of Hungary on 19th March, 1944, issued a large number of anti-Jewish executive orders. These not only extremely narrowed down the living conditions of the Jewish population but also humiliated them in their human dignity. Their shops and later their industrial companies were all forced to close down. From the 5th April, it was obligatory for every Jewish person above the age of 6 to wear a yellow star on their clothing when not at home. 141
