Trianon and the Holocaust
The Hungarian Traumas of the 20th Century
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Jews, who had lived in the Carpathian Basin as early as the 10th century, promoted Hungarian nation-building in the 19th century. They identified with the idea of the Hungarian state and made a decisive contribution to Hungary’s economic modernisation and cultural renewal. But as a result of the crises of modernisation and social upheavals, political anti-Semitism emerged around 1870. With the First World War, anti-Semitic interpretations of society put down roots. The national liberal idea of equal rights and integration eroded. The Peace Treaty of Trianon in 1920 and the Holocaust in 1944 are the fateful events of 20th-century Hungarian history. Both are closely interwoven and led to the tragic failure of nation-building and state-building in Hungary.
(Osteuropa 9/2012, pp. 57–72)