DIVISION B: THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, VOLUME III: MODERN TIMES / חטיבה ב: תולדות עם ישראל, כרך שלישי: העת החדשה || הגירת יהודי

World Union of Jewish Studies / האיגוד העולמי למדעי היהדות

/ הגירת יהודי הונגריה בזמן השואה ולאחריה HUNGARIAN JEWRY DURING THE HOLOCAUST AND AFTER LIBERATIONAuthor(s): TAMAS STARK and תאמאס שטארקSource: Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies / דברי הקונגרס העולמי למדעיDIVISION B: THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, VOLUME III: MODERN ,היהדות, כרך יאTIMES / חטיבה ב: תולדות עם ישראל, כרך שלישי: העת החדשהpp. 243-250 תשנ"ג / 1993Published by: World Union of Jewish Studies / האיגוד העולמי למדעי היהדותStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23536850 .

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HUNGARIAN JEWRY DURING THE HOLOCAUST AND AFTER LIBERATION

TAMAS STARK

There is no scholarly paper published about the

Holocaust which does not provide figures related to the

losses suffered by the Hungarian Jewry. It would appear that there is nothing left to be said on that issue; however, on perusal of these figures, one will soon find

that the plethora of data reflects a lack of certainty. Printed in various books and studies, the multitude of mutually contradictory total figures—whose values, in

regard to the territory of present day Hungary, range between the extremes of 123 and 294 thousand—prompt

analysis and further research.(1)

The fortunes and migration of the Jews surviving the

Holocaust is still a blank spot in our historiography. Here, it is the lack of research and data that challenges the historian.

What is often behind the divergent total figures published published are the differences between the various estimates

with respect to the number of Hungarian Jews in 1941. Based

on the census conducted in 1941 and taking into consideration the most recent analyses made by the Central

Bureau of Statistics, Budapest, the total number of the

persecuted, including converts to Christianity, can be

estimated at 800 thousand (480 thousand within the present

day territory of Hungary, and 320 in the North of Erdély

/Transylvania/, Felvidék /parts of present day Slovakia:

the Northern territories/, Kârpâtalja /Sub-Carpathia/, and the Délvidék /largely present day Voivodina: the Southern

territories/).(2)

The first stage of the physical persecution and

annihilation of the Hungarian Jewry was the deportation to Galicia of those not having Hungarian citizenship in the autumn of 1941. The deportees scattered around the region of Kamenec Podolsk were slaughtered by the Ukrainian

243



TAMAS STARK

militia and by the Einsatzgruppe C. The number of the

massacre's victims was 16 thousand.(3)

The deprivation of civil rights by anti-Jewish laws took the form of undisguised brutality in the Hungarian

Army. As a result of ill treatment, the battlefield

casualties of the Jews detailed for forced military labour

service exceeded, in relative numbers, the losses suffered

by regulars detailed for combat missions.

In the course of the military campaign against the

Soviet Union, the losses suffered by those in forced labour

service had totalled 24 thousand by the end of 1943 (KIA: 13 thousand; POW: 11 thousand). Of the forced labourers

deported to Bor, Yugoslavia, 4 thousand were killed.(4) If

we break down the number of victims accounted for so far

(44 thousand) according to provenance, i.e. to the

proportionate Jewish population of the present day

territory of Hungary and that of the territories returned to Hungary in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941, then we shall

arrive at the figures in Table 1.

The next stage in the tragedy of the Hungarian Jewry, the stage taking the heaviest death-toll, was their

ghettoization and subsequent deportation starting with the

German occupation.

Between 15th May and 8th July 1944, 435 thousand

persons were deported from the country. This figure,

frequently published in the literature of the subject, appears in two unrelated contemporaneous sources, too. The most precise number available is the one given by Lâszlô

Ferenczy, a lieutenant-colonel of the gendarmerie involved in the implementation of the deportations: 434,351. The

figure representing 401,439 people, as registered by the

headquarters of the Kassa (Kosice) railway station, is also

precise, as the approximate number of people deported via

places other than Kassa was approximately 20 to 30 thousand.

The above-mentioned statistics are in accordance with the list of figures totalling 412 thousand as recorded by the National Jewish Executive Committee (Orszâgos Zsidô Intézô Bizottsâg).(5)

The detailed data bases of the three sources permit the breakdown of the number of deportees according to

regional provenance as shown in Table 2.

244




Only those living in Budapest, and about 100 thousand

people forced into labour service escaped deportation. Of

the latter, however, battlefield death took its heavy toll.

Before the arrowcross takeover, the number of KIA's and

POW's had reached 6 and 8 thousand respectively.

It was under Szâlasi's reign (15th October 1944 to 4th

April 1945) that the Holocaust reached its climax. As

mentioned in the records kept by neutral embassies and

published in relevant scholarly sources, in the course of

the partially renewed deportations approximately 50

thousand Jews, mostly from Budapest, were handed over to

the Germans. ( 6 ) A further 15 thousand fell victim to

terrorist attacks mounted by the arrowcross organization, and to increased wartime mortality.(7) Several thousand

civilians were taken POW by the Red Army, too. However,

nearly 10 thousand Jews managed to emigrate or escape in

1944. (See Table 3)(8)

The joyful moments of the liberation were followed by the months of painful suspense. How many of the deportees were going to return?—was the essential question for those

who had remained at home. The returning deportees were

attended to by the National Relief Committee for Deportees (DEGOB, short for Deportâltakat Gondozô Orszâgos Orszâgos

Bizottség) Bizottség). Recorded on their books there are 74,657 people who had returned by September 1945.(9) If we add to that

number the 4,000 registered by May 1945, that is before the

setting up of DEGOB, together with another 5 thousand

recorded by the Ministry of Welfare in 1946, then we arrive at 80 to 85 as the total number of those returning to the

present day territory of Hungary.(10)

The number of Jews in Soviet POW-camps estimated at 20

to 30 thousand (approx. 20 thousand labour servicemen plus several thousand civilians), on the basis of reports made

by the Losses Department of the Ministry of Defence, is

corroborated by several Jewish sources published after the

war. However, the list of 8617 names, prepared and sent to

the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Jews in Moscow, is more

convincing. The minutes taken until the Autumn of 1948 by the POW-Repatriating Committee in Debrecen registers the

personal particulars of about 2 thousand labour

servicemen.(11) Presumably the same number of people had

arrived before the June of 1946, and a few hundred more

people may have been repatriated after 1948. In sum, the

number of those who perished in Soviet POW-camps was around

20 thousand.

245



TAMAS STARK

With With approximately 85 ,thousand survivors having returned, the number of Jews living in the territory of

present dav Hungary had, by 1946-7, theoretically reached

270 thousand, which figure includes the population estimated at 185 thousand at liberation.

The total number of martyrs, based on the mean of the

limit values, is 205 thousand. (Deportation in 1941: 8 thousand; + labour servicemen killed in the Soviet Union

together with deportees: 32 thousand; + deportation in

1944: 150 thousand; + victims of arrowcross-perpetrated terrorist actions and of increased war-time mortality: 15

thousand = 205 thousand.)

There is only an aggregate figure available for those

who returned to the Sub-Carpathian territories, to Northern

Transylvania, to the Northern Territories (Felvidék), and

to the Southern territories (Délvidék). The total for these

people, as received by the Hungarian Section of the Jewish

World Congress from a Joint source, is 56,500. Table 4

reflects the territorial distribution of the Jewish

population in 1941. In the territories lost after the war

the population of 1941 was depleted by 224,500 (if the

number of returned POW's was 1500). The loss, as

calculated, amounts to 219.000. (Deportation in 1941: 8

thousand; forced labour service: 13 thousand; deportation: 198 thousand.) Therefore, the total estimated number of the

Hungarian Jewish victims of the Holocaust in the wartime territory is 424 thousand. (See Table 4) With regard to the final statistics, it has to be emphasized that, due to the imprecise part figures, the number of those who returned is uncertain. The actual figures may diverge by 5 to 10 thousand from the ones given here.

The population figures deduced from the losses can, in

theory, be measured against the results of a direct

enumeration, i.e. those of a census. When the fighting was

over, there were three attempts at the registration of the

Jewry in Hungary's present day territories. While battles were still being waged in Transdanubia when, at the census moment of 25 March 1945, the Statistical Bureau of the

Capital City registered 86,910 Israelite survivors.(12)

The Central Bureau of Statistics carried out an instant survey of matters regarding public concern in the provinces in early June, 1945. The balance drawn up on the basis of reports submitted by the municipalities of the counties and cities establishes—in almost perfect accordance with our calculations—the number of deportees

246




at 176,207. The number of those who had returned by the end

Of July 1945 was 39,729.(13)

The Hungarian Section of the Jewish World Congress performed its survey at the turn of 1945 and 46. The result

of this job, which was carried out carefully and professionally by a large administrative machinery, resulted 143,624 personal files with the particulars of as

many Israelites.(14)

Of the territories detached from the country anew, it

was only in Northern Transylvania and in the Southern

region that censuses were conducted. The Romanian Section

of the Jewish World Congress registered 44,706 Jewish

persons in 1947. Its findings are corroborated by the Romanian census of 1948 and a survey conducted by the New

York-based Institute of Jewish Affairs in December

1948.(15) They registered 3532 survivors in the Southern

territories, but according to an interview given by the president of the Israelite community dr Zoltân Lorânt to

Hatikva. a magazine appearing in Buenos Aires, the actual

number of survivors is, in any case, higher.(16)

There are several reasons behind the considerable

difference (approximately 100 thousand) between our

estimate and the number of people actually counted.

With the intention of dispelling the mistrust of the interviewees in the census, several contemporary

publications and leaflets indicated that acting on the

impulse of self-defense, and in order to avoid being

registered in another list, even convinced Israelites refrained from supplying information.

Taking the above-mentioned circumstance into consideration, the Central Bureau of Statistics estimated

the number of survivors (Israelites and converts) at 220 to

260 thousand.(17)

The value of these statistics is limited by the fact

that they only provide a snapshot of the population in a

period when hundreds of thousands of people are on the move

in all possible directions.

The number of Jews who had left the 1944-territory of

the country by the mid-fifties is approximately 80 to 100 thousand.

Directly after the war, the emigrants' first stopover was at DP-camps in Germany and Italy. The reports prepared

247



TAMAS STARK

by the International Refugee Organizations only list 8445

Hungarian Jews (30 Sept 1947), but according to the

literature of the subject the actual number (including the refugees from the Sub-Carpathian region) was at least 30

thousand.(18) It is also a fact that in the October of 1946

the Information Department of the Hungarian Section of the

Jewish World Congress registered 51,230 absentees who had

sent news of themselves; the figure includes about 20

thousand DP's in the Soviet Union.

The majority of Hungarian Jews in the DP-camps were

heading for the West. The only precise figure in our possession is for those emigrating to Canada: the number is

1836.(19) If the proportion of Hungarian Jews to the entire

Jewish emigrant community in the USA is the same as the equivalent ration in Canada, then the number of arrivals in

the former is 8 to 10 thousand. Several thousand settled

down in Latin America, and 30 thousand of the Hungarian Jewish population of the DP camps found their home in Israel. According to the 1961 census taken by the Israeli

Bureau of Statistics, the total number of Hungarian Jews

involved in aliyah by the mid-fifties was 60 thousand. Of them, 6 thousand came from the Sub-Carpathian region, 25

thousand from Transylvania, and 28 thousand from Hungary's

present day territory.

The rapid emigration of the Jewry living in the 1944 territories is reflected to some extent in the statistics of censuses taken in the source countries too, as the census taken in Hungary in 1948 already registers only 134 thousand Israelites. In Transylvania the number of those "of Jewish nationality" was established at 23 thousand in

1956, and according to the 1961 census taken in the Soviet Union the number of Jews living in the Sub-Carpathian region had also shrunk to 10 thousand.

Although the emigrants found new homes, losing a large percentage of the Jewish population has meant an

irreplaceable loss for the peoples living in the region.

248




NOTES

1. 1. Arich Tartakover, ,The Problem of the European Jewry', in The Jews: Their History. Culture and Religion

(ed. L. Finkenstein) New York 1949, p 290.; American Jewish Yearbook 1947-48. vol. 49.

Jewish Publication Society of America, p. 740. 2. A zsidô nénesséa Macryarorszâaon telepulésenként. 1840

1941. Kôzponti Statisztikai Hivatal, Budapest 1993.

3. Artur Geyer, ,Az elsô magyarorszâgi deportâlâs', in Ui élet Naptàr 1960-61. Budapest 1960, p. 77.

4. Hadtôrténeti levéltâr (Budapest) HM Vkf. 1944 eln. 299

es.

5. Randolph Braham, The Politics of Genocide. Columbia

University Press New York 1981, p. 667.

6. Tamâs Stark, Maayarorszâa màsodik vilâahâborûs

e-mhf>rvp-szteséae. Budapest 1989, pp.38-41. 7. Budapesti Statisztikai Évkônw. Budapest 1948 p. 32.

8. Lâszlô Varga, A magyarorszâgi zsidésâa

rneasemmigTtése.A Macrvar Izraelitàk Orszàaos

Képviselete Évkônw. 1984, p. 400.

9. VIIAG. Budapest 28 Sept 1945.

L0. Uj Magyar Kôzponti Levéltâr XIX-c-1-n box No. 8. Ll. Uj Magyar Kôzponti Levéltâr: Reports of the Debrecen

POW-Repatriating Committee, and XXXIII-4. L2. Vârosi Szemle. Budapest 1945, p. 140.

L3. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle. Budapest 1946, pp. 10-15, vols. 1-6

L4. Uj Magyar Kôzponti Levéltâr XXXIII-3. L5. Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem C2 205

L6. Hatikva. 15 Aug. 1952

L7. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle. Budapest 1946, p. 4 vols. L-6 L-6. Uj Magyar Kôzponti Levéltâr

-XIX-3-1-C -XXX-3-1-C box No. 26. L8. Kurt Grossmann, The Jewish DP Problem. New York 1951,

p. 19.

Robert Ginesy, La seconde guerre mondiale et les

déplacements déplacements de populations. Paris 1948, p. 68.

Jacques Vernan, The refugee in The Postwar World.

London 1953, p. 72.

L9. Louis Finkelstein, The Jews. New York 1951, p. 1582._

249



TAMAS STARK

^abl^^|^ewishpopulatio1^bëfor^th<M3erma^ Buda pest

Prov inces

Total in pres. territ.

Sub Carpath ian region

North Tran syl vania

North ern terri tories

South ern terri tories

Total for wartime Hungary

Jewish population in 1941

240 240 480 110 150 45 15 800

Victims of the 1941 deportation and KIA/POW casualties of forced labour service

13 13 26 6 7 4 1 44

Population before occupation

227 227 454 104 143 41 14 756

Buda pest

Prov inces

Total in pres. territ.






Jewish population in 1941

240 240 480 110 150 45 15 800

Victims of the 1941 deportation and KIA/POW casualties of forced labour service

13 13 26 6 7 4 1 44

Population before occupation

227 227 454 104 143 41 14 756

Table 2 Hungarian Jews remaining under Hungarian jurisdiction (forced labour servicemen/ residents of Budapest) after the deportation x 1/000

Population in March, 1944

227 227 454 104 143 41 14 756

Deported in summer 1944

10 170 180 85 130 30 10 435

After the deportation

217 57 274 19 13 11 4 321

Population in March, 1944

227 227 454 104 143 41 14 756

Deported in summer 1944

10 170 180 85 130 30 10 435

After the deportation

217 57 274 19 13 11 4 321

The hypothetical number of Hungarian Jews at liberation x 1,000 Table 3

Buda pest

Prov inces (pres terr)

Total in pres. terr.






Jewish population after the deportation

217 57 274 19 13 11 4 321

Labour service men lost as POW/KIA, together with those murdered or deported under Szalasi and yith all emigrants

67 22 89 2 2 3 1 97

Population at liberation

150 35 185 17 17 8 3 224

Buda pest

Prov inces (près terr)

Total in pres. terr.






Jewish population after the deportation

217 57 274 19 13 il 4 321

Labour service men lost as POW/KIA, together with those murdered or deported under Szâlasi and with all emigrants

67 22 89 2 2 3 1 97

Population at liberation

150 35 185 17 17 8 3 224

Table 4 | The estimated number of Jews in 1945-6 x 1,000 ■ I I I I

Total for present day territories



North ern ter's

South ern ter's


Number of liberated

185 17 11 8 3 224

Number of returned

85 18 30 7 1.5 141

Sum total 270 35 41 15 4.5 365

Total tor present day territories


NorthNorth Tran syl vania

North ern ter ter 's

South ern ter's


Number of liberated

185 17 11 8 3 224

Number of returned

85 18 30 7 1.5 1.5 141

Sum total 270 35 41 15 4.5 365

250



Documents

DIVISION B: THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, VOLUME III: MODERN TIMES / חטיבה ב: תולדות עם ישראל, כרך שלישי: העת החדשה || הגירת יהודי