Itt-Ott, 1974 (7. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1974 / 2. szám
A MAGYARORSZÁGI 7, SI DÓ SÁG HELYZETE Kedves ITT-OTTt Gondolom, '56 óta már Ti is hallottátok, hogy minden keresztyén ill. nem-zsidó magyar^fasiszta. ^E híresztelésekkel szemben érdekesnek találtam az AJC alábbi tanulmányát, melyet 1973» május l6.-án tettek közzé. A tanulmányért felelős? Seymour P. Lachman, Director, Foreign Affairs Dept., The American Jewish Committee, 165 E. 56th St., New York, NY 10022. — M.G., New York Az alábbiakban közöljük a Magyarországra vonatkozó részletét a tanulmánynak í ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE 1970s A Survey of the Foreign Scene (Excerpt) Hungary Historically, Jews in Hungary have regarded themselves as Magyars. After their emancipation in 1867 and legal recognition as a religious group in 1896, through the end of World War I, they were largely integrated into Hungarian society, contributing to the country's economic and intellectual life. Hungary never fell prey to the 19th century scientistic-political anti-Semitism so fashionable in the rest of_Europe, and there are still Jews alive today who recall with nostalgia that pre-World War I era when everything in that country was for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Between the two world wars, the situation of Hungary's 4-73»000 Jews (5*6 per cent of the eight million people in the country's radically shrunken territories) deteriorated sharply. In 1919>a shortlived Communist revolution led by Bela Kun, a Jew, was overthrown by the Allied armies. The reactionary regime of the anti-Semitic Regent Admiral Nicholas Horthy took over, and for two years Jews were a special target for abuse, because so many of them had supported the aborted revolution. A numerus clausus was introduced in the universities, along with discriminatory employment practices, and other restrictions. In an effort to recover territories lost in the peace agreements after world Warl, Hungary turned first to Fascist Italy in the 1920s, and finally to an alliance with National Socialist Germany in the 30s. When Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia, he returned some of the land taken away from Hungary after World War I. The number of Jews in the^country was increased, to about 725,000} at the same time, anti- Semitism also increased markedly. More moderate members of the Horthy government, eager to preserve contacts in the West, tried to control the spreading anti-Semitism} but when the Germans took over the country in March 1944, Hungary's Jews fell into the hands of professional exterminators? The Holocaust toll in that country is estimated at 200,000 Jews. The 140,000 Jews who returned and settled in Hungary after the war were still the largest single group in the professions and business, and still contributed disproportionately to the rebuilding of their devastated land. A number who were prominent in the Communist Party returned from wartime exile in Russia, among them Erno Gero, Mihály Farkas, József Révai, and Mátyás Rákosi — the foursome that ruled Hungary from 1947 to 1955. 19
