Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1981 (9. évfolyam, 27-30. szám)

1981 / 27-28. szám

Ortutay, Gyula ed. CONGRESSUS QUARTUS INTERNATIONAL^ FENNO—UGRISTARUM: Budapestini Habitus 9-15 Septembris 1975. Pars II. Acta Sessionum. ed. by János Gulya. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1980.259 pages, colored and b&w illus. Ft. 200.00 (about $7.00) paper.

Volume II of the congressional proceedings contains transcripts of discussions, while the papers themselves were published in volume I (1975). The discussion material is mainly in German and Russian, some in French and Hungarian. Eight comments (a total of 17 pages) are in English, such as L. Honko’s comment on the state of the art; T-R. Viitso commenting on Finno-Ugric protolanguages; R.

T. Harms, K. Bergsland, and A. Rona-Tass reflecting on languages of northern Eurasia; J. Koos on Finnish arts and crafts; I. Rüütel on Finno-Ugric folk music; and D. Sinor on the controversy over the Hungarian conquest.

Petrie, Graham. HISTORY MUST ANSWER TO MAN; The Contemporary Hungarian Cinema. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó, 1978. 284 pages, biblio., philmography, illus. $8.95 paper. U. S. distributor: New York Zoetrope, 31 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003.

Every film has a message, especially for the social scientist. It may eminate from the theme of the film or from the way it was made, and it reflects the thinking and desires of the producer and the director, public or private, collective or individual. Because of their artistic and technical qualities, Hungarian films would deserve a larger audience than the Hungarian speaking populace. It is therefore of interest to note, that Hungarian cinema has received international recognition twice during the past 25 years. Credit for the achievement is given mainly to such directors as Miklo's Jancsó, IstvaVi Gaa'l, and István Szabó. Their names became known much beyond the borders of Hungary, and because of their work, international critics now speak of “the Hungarian school.” The author presents a historical sketch of Hungarian film making, then discusses outstanding directors, best films, and some technical achievements of the period under study. The bibliography is grouped into general works, works on Jancso/ and those on other directors. A philmography and an index conclude the well illustrated volume.

The author is a Canadian film critic, and is on the faculty of MacMaster U.

Phillips, Patricia. THE PREHISTORY OF EUROPE. Indiana

U. Press, Bloomington, IN 47401,31980.314pages, diagrams maps, illus. $17.50 cloth.

The volume describes aspects of man’s occupation of Europe from approximately one million years ago to the time of Christ. The area covered is from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, and from Iberia to the western U.S.S.R. Archaeological dating methods and recent ideas about interpretation of finds are discussed, e g. that early Europeans were of homo erectus as well as homo sapiens stocks. Reference to the area of the Carpathian Basin include Kretzoi’s recent discussion of Rudapithecus hungaricus (at Rudabanya), an approximately 10 million year old find of hominidlinked bones. Skull fragment and teeth found at Vertesszollos proved to belong to homo sapiens. Thorough discussion is given to finds at Erd, where tools make of pebbles of quartzite indicate considerable economy in the use of raw materials. Analyses of the bones found in two

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parallel gullies suggest that over 500 animals, mostly cave bears, had been slaughtered. Other sites discussed are those at Ista'llo's-ko'(about 40,000 years old), Balaton-lovas, Tiszapolgar, Lengyel, Nagyrév, Tokod, Hatvan, and Tiszaluc. Towards the end of the time period being studied, land boundaries were marked out in many parts of Europe, and the Hungarians were firmly settled in the Carpathian Basin.

The author is senior lecturer in prehistory and archaeology at the U. of Sheffield.

Remington, Robin Allison, THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF EASTERN EUROPE; A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research Co., Book Tower, Detroit, Ml 48226, 1978. 258 pages. $24.00 cloth. Vol. 8 in the International Relations Information Guide Series.

This bibliography has a general part on Eastern Europe as a region, and eight chapters on country-specific sources. Hungary (Chapter 5) has two subsections: one on relevant sources in general, and one on “The Hungarian Uprising of 1956.” There are a total of 77 entries in the Hungarian chapter, all but one published after 1957.

The compiler is assoc, prof, of political science at the U. of Missouri, Columbia.

Springenschmid, Karl. OUR LOST CHILDREN: JANISSARIES? Trans. with additional notes by John Adam Kohler and Eve Eckert Koehler. (Original title: Janitscharen? Die Kinder Tragödie im Banat.) Danube Swabian Association of the U.S.A., 1646 East Newton Avenue, Milwaukee, Wl 53211, 1980. 67 pages, $3.25 paper.

This is another timely attempt to record oral life histories of the Danube Swabians who in the 1940s suffered an unfortunate fate in Yugoslavia, not much different from that of the Jews in Germany. (The HSN has reported on two other related items in no. 25, p. 3.) While the book is not exactly on Hungary, Hungarian kings invited German settlers some 300 years ago into the areas of south Hungary, which now belongs to Yugoslavia. Once over V? million strong, the German ethnics of Yugoslavia now number not more than 12,000. In the course of the elimination campaign, many fled to Germany, and many died in concentration camps. The children of those whose fathers died and whose mothers were abducted into forced labor, were placed into orphanages and socialized into a culture alien to them. The question mark in the title of the book tries to express the disbelief of the author, and surely of many others, that this tragedy could have happened in modern times.

The author, 83, is a writer and lives at Elsbethen, near Salzburg.

Wytwycky, Bohdan. THE OTHER HOLOCAUST; Many Circles of Hell. A brief account of 9-10 million persons who died with the 6 million Jews under Nazi racism. The Novak Report of the New Ethnicity, 918 F Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20004,1980. 95 pages, maps, charts, biblio. $4.95 paper.

It has been long overdue to put the destruction of some six million Jews into the broader theoretical perspective of political mass murders “justified” by branding members of alien cultures or ideological persuasion as enemies. This monograph, as Michael Novak says in the preface, is only a beginning. It shows how thin the “veneer of civility and humanity, which covers over the seething evil in the human heart” is, as Seymour Siegel says in the foreword. The

NO. 27-28, SPRING, 1981, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER