A week filled with occasions and it isn’t over yet! On
Tuesday my friend Roz Katz of the famous Harbord bakery family came to visit,
bringing with her the traditional Jewish gifts upon entering a new home – bread
and salt. Lovely to be ushered into another’s traditions in such a generous
manner. Martha came as well for our first eye-to-eye visit in many months. And,
Billie, our soon-to-be-10 granddaughter (or, as we call it, a double digit
person), stayed over with us two nights while her mom, Elizabeth, bore down on
material for the exam that will clinch her accreditation as an addiction
counsellor. Billie is such an interesting kid. I could say much more but I have
other things I want to get to this morning, so I will save Billie stories for
another day.
I don’t want to imply by any lack of note that we have
completed the task of settling our home. It is taking on definite outlines but
the details are still happening on a day-to-day, when time is available, basis.
Other than the on-going consolidation and disposal of the detritus of moving –
papers, boxes, and other assorted unwanted items, little was accomplished
yesterday, for example. Between sessions, Billie activities and visiting,
banking essentials consequent on the now completed purchase of our Puerto
Vallarta condo (Hooray!), I managed to attend a panel discussion after a brief
film at the Jackman Humanities Building just down the street from us at 170 St
George – the former Medical Arts building on the north-west corner of St George
and Bloor.
Since last fall when I attended a one day conference on
the Holocaust presented by the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of
Toronto, I have received emails from them almost daily announcing the vast
array of lectures, films, and discussions that they arrange on the university
campus, often in conjunction with other groups or faculties. Yesterday’s was
the first I have been able to attend since the fall and it was one of
particular interest to me, so I arranged to have Mark pick up Billie after
school. This event was co-sponsored by the Centre for Jewish Studies, the
Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at U of T, and, the Azrieli
Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Foundation. Its title was Hungary 1944:
The Fate of the Jews and the Roma. A brief film based on the Azrieli’s newly
published memoir by George Stern called Vanished Boyhood, was followed by a
panel presentation featuring: Laszlo Borhi, a visiting professor whose work has been
focussed mainly on the political life of Hungary; Anna Porter, author of Kasztner’s
Train; Susan Papp, who does research related to survivors’ memoirs; and, Tibor
Lukacs, founder of the United Roma of Hamiliton. The panel was ably chaired by
the head of the Centre for Jewish Studies, whose name eludes me at the moment.
Each speaker had 15-20 minutes to present one small piece of the huge mosaic implied
by the event’s title. This year is the 70th anniversary of the
invasion of Hungary by German troops and the rapidly organized deportation of
hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz where the vast majority
were immediately sent to the gas chambers and annihilation.
I will focus here only on the remarks made by
Professor Borhi because he was able to outline some of the decisions made by
the Hungarian government that had fateful consequences for the Jewish citizens
who had been a part of that society for centuries. After WWI and the Paris
Conference the outlines of Europe were drawn in ways accentuating the independence
of nation states that had formerly been part of large, multi-national empires.
Hungary had, for example, been an important part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
With its dissolution Hungary lost about a third of its land –Transylvania,
as well as an area given to the newly formed Yugoslavia – and, a large number of
its citizens. As in Germany there was tremendous bitterness about these losses.
The economically straightened circumstances and ideological upheavals across
the continent after the war and during the 1930s, contributed to the country
and its people turning inward. Losing the balance needed in
multi-cultural societies for tolerance and peaceful co-existence, the populous
veered more toward nationalism and a consequent marginalization of those who
were considered not to be “truly” Hungarian. Anti-Semitism found fruitful soil
in this climate, though never the ideologically driven anti-Semitism which in
Germany led to the deliberate enactment of the Holocaust.
When in 1938 the Munich agreement opened the
possibilities of reclaiming lands taken from countries in Eastern Europe, the Hungarian
government saw a possible advantage for itself. In 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union
moved to partition Poland. Hungary mobilized at the same time, taking back some
of its own lost territories, thus allying itself to Germany in the eyes of the
western powers. In fact Hungary remained neutral in the early global war, only
entering on the side of Germany when in 1941 Hitler ordered the invasion of the
USSR. During that part of the war Jewish men were called up for labour service.
Battalions were sent to various fronts to build roads, bridges, or other needed
facilities. The conditions under which they were quartered and cared for were abysmal
and about 40,000 of the 50,000 conscripted died from disease, starvation and cold.
Previous to this era Jewish men had fought alongside other Hungarian soldiers,
receiving identical treatment and being rewarded with medals and promotions.
The alliance with Germany and the right-wing, anti-Semitic climate in Hungary
militated against their equal treatment, but did not degenerate into the
establishment of ghettos or concentration camps for the Jewish population.
By 1943 it was clear to many observers that Germany
could not win the war. Hungary and other countries began secret talks with the
Allies seeking separate peace treaties. One advantage for the Allies in peace
with countries like Hungary and Romania was the possibility of mounting an assault
into Europe through areas bordering on or close to the Black Sea. However, plans were already developing to
mount the second front in Normandy. A major concern for the Allies was finding
ways to keep the Axis forces away from the Atlantic coast when the attack would
be launched. Professor Borhi quoted from correspondence among the Allies
revealing that it would be to their advantage if Hitler knew of the secret
peace overtures. Germany could not afford to have that vulnerable area left
open to Allied incursions and would most likely invade the “betraying”
countries. The Allies also had known for some time about the death camps in the
east and had been warned that should the Germans invade Hungary its population
of about three-quarters of a million Jews would be placed in extreme jeopardy. Nonetheless,
the “secret” talks were leaked or in some fashion discovered. On March 19, 1944
German armies marched into Hungary, assuming political and military control of
the country.
With them came Adolph Eichmann with his group of 300 assistants
to put into effect a prearranged plan to collect and transport Jews to Auschwitz.
Within weeks tens of thousands of Jews were forced into camps; between the
middle of May and the end of June, 1944 over 300,000 had been sent to
Auschwitz. Most were gassed immediately upon arrival, only a few were taken
into forced labour groups. A further 150,000 were sent over the next few weeks.
As the Soviet armies drew closer to Hungary, international pressure placed on
the Hungarian government to stop the deportations had effect by mid-July. The
Germans, under pressure now from several directions, acquiesced.
In the discussion following the presentations
questions about the co-operation of Hungarians in the round-up and deportation
of Jews during this period of German domination were raised. Clearly some members
of the Hungarian military and police, as well as private citizens, were complicit. Some panellists and people
in the audience had family members who had survived the attempts of the Germans
to kill them. These relatives told stories of Hungarians who betrayed or abused
them as well as other tales of Hungarians who protected and hid them from the
Germans. There are no easy demarcations that can be made within any population in
this respect.
The event was well attended; the room at the Jackman
building was full with a dozen or so people standing. Quite a few were
university people – teachers and students – but there were also others like
myself, drawn by their own reasons to attend, being interested in this profound
and disturbing period of our common human history. Being right here in the
heart of the Annex and close to the university, I can easily avail myself of these
opportunities.
Because this post relates to the blog that I wrote in
the fall when Mark and I traveled to Eastern Europe to visit sites of the Holocaust,
I plan to also post it on that blog, at www.ajourneytowardtheholocaust.blogspot.com
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