Timothy Snyder. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Pp. xix. 524. Close to one of the blown-up gas chambers and crematoria of the Nazi death factory Auschwitz...

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin

A two-volume set which relates in great detail the horrors that befell Hungarian Jewry during the Nazi era. The text examines the complex historical, political and socioeconomic factors that contributed to the Holocaust, and the unfolding of tragedy in both Jewish and Hungarian history.

The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary

A history of group traumatization exerts significant influence on group members as well as their outgroup relations. In particular, historical trauma events and their ongoing repercussions may lead to feelings of control deprivation within groups. Members of traumatized groups are prone to believe in conspiracy theories, including ones that are anti-Semitic in nature, in an attempt to find explanations for their trauma and regain some sense of control. Often, these narratives depict Jews as those who possess control. In our study, we examine how the frequency of thoughts about historical trauma as well as historical trauma symptoms (behavioral, emotional, and depressive tendencies) are related to three forms of antisemitism: traditional antisemitism, secondary antisemitism, and a belief in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The study was conducted in Hungary (N = 350) where traumatic historical events often reverberate in the national narratives. The results indicate that a higher frequency of thoughts about historical trauma is associated with higher prejudice across all three forms of antisemitism. The effects of historical trauma on secondary and conspiracy antisemitism were partly driven by behavioral symptoms of historical trauma. The explanations and implications of these results are discussed. 

“Remember that we suffered!” The effects of historical trauma on
 anti‐Semitic
 prejudice

Abstract In the 20th century, the two world wars reshaped the map of Central Europe as well as the status of Central Europe’s diverse societies. In my article, I focus on the Hungarian and German minorities in Slovakia and the representation of their problematic historical past in contemporary Slovak museums. More specifically, I zoom in on the exhibition Exchanged Homes displayed in Bratislava, which aims to commemorate the fate of Hungarians, Germans, and Slovaks, all of whom were affected by the population transfers after World War II. Based on the concept of memorial museums theorized by Paul Williams, I aim to show how the different exhibitions engage with the traumatic past of forceful resettlement. By offering multifaceted memories of a troubled past, these exhibitions avoid categorizing “victims” and “perpetrators” along national or ethnic lines. My paper thus analyzes the concepts and components of the exhibitions—the context of the postwar events, oral history interviews, and objects of everyday use that should bring the visitor closer to the experience of the people who were forced to leave. I argue that exhibitions of this sort have the ability to challenge the dominant historical narrative focusing on a national “Slovak” history and help the process of reconciliation between the Slovak majority society, and the Hungarian and German minorities.

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The Troubled Pasts of Hungarian and German Minorities in Slovakia and Their Representation in Museums

More than thirty years after the fall of communism, both Hungary and Poland are still trying to reinvent their national identity by understanding their pasts. As flagship museums of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary Civic Alliance (Fidesz) in Hungary and Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland, the House of Terror in Budapest and the Warsaw Rising Museum have been used as epistemological tools in advancing the governing party’s respective memory politics. Within their portrayal of the nation’s contemporary past, these museums also endorse a particular national identity that serves the political desires of both Fidesz and PiS. This article traces how the museums present and signify the nation and how they articulate the national identity espoused by the museum. The author borrows methodological approaches from museum studies and formulates her own research protocol, which identifies three layers of national identity articulation: the presentation of the nation, the representation of the nation, and the political production of national identity.

The Museal Production of Hungary's Inorganic Past and Poland's Postponed Victory / The Case of the House of Terror and the Warsaw Rising Museum

The article examines the way three contemporary Hungarian museums–the House of Terror Museum, the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial and Documentation Center–represent the history of the Holocaust and the history of Jewish/non-Jewish relations. Reflecting different political agendas, each of the three museums offers a different interpretation of how the Holocaust fits into the larger narrative of Hungary's 20th century history. The article argues that post-communist public memory has been constructed through debates about these histories. By analyzing the three museums' displays, narratives and the debates surrounding them, the article argues that Hungarian public discourse has yet to come to terms with the meaning and place of “Jewishness” (and the way it has informed “Hungarianness”) in modern Hungarian history. Despite the centrality of Jews and Jewish-non-Jewish relations to the museums' narratives, none are able to offer a clear definition of what “Jewishness” means and how it functioned at dif...

Anna Manchin

Papers

Staging Traumatic Memory: Competing Narratives of State Violence in Post-Communist Hungarian Museums