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ABSTRACT
The relationship between popular culture and collective violence has rarely been made the object of inquiry in studies concerning post-WWII anti-Semitic atrocities. For many historians, the pogroms are explained as consequences of social and economic circumstances, in particular general privation and the widespread social discontent which accompanied it. For others, the violence appears to have been the outcome of political (Nazi or communist) propaganda, and it is explained by the vulnerability of these societies to exclusionary and racist ideologies. This article links the study of post-WWII collective violence with the cultural order mobilized by the perpetrators themselves. By examining a well-documented case from Hungary, the ‘lynch-law’ of 7 March 1946 in Szegvár, it explores how labourers (diggers) in a rural community perceived the difficulties and promises of post-war reconstruction programs and how they made sense of their collective actions in this context.
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Notes
1. Gross, Fear. Szaynok, Pogrom Żydów. Cichopek-Gajraj, Beyond Violence. 114–45.
2. The complexities of robbery and the restitution of Jewish property are explored in Dean, Robbery and Restitution, 19–32, 211–58.
3. Braham, The Politics of Genocide, 641, 649. Statistics of the Censuses in Hungary 1870–2011. http://mtatkki.ogyk.hu/nepszamlalas_adatok.php?ev=1941&ev2=1949&megye=&telepules=537&kod=&nemzetiseg=zsid%C3%B3&felekezet=&tipus=mind&keyword=&page=50 (Accessed 28 October 2018).
4. Klein’s police interrogation, 22.
5. Ibid., 23.
6. Reiner’s police interrogation, 19.
7. Oskó, “Medical report,” 7.
8. See note 4 above.
9. Minutes of the meeting of the village council, 14 December 1944.
10. Minutes of the meeting of the village council, 27 May 1944.
11. Berezvai, “Report“.
12. See note 4 above.
13. Forrai’s police interrogation, 26.
14. Haizler’s police interrogation, 33.
15. See note 11 above.
16. Thompson, “The Moral Economy.”
17. Károly Löbl was registered as a grain wholesaler and grocer in Szegvár n 1931. Magyarország kereskedelmi, 183. Löbl was one the eleven people in the village to own a telephone in 1943. A vidéki távbeszélő, 469.
18. Schmidt’s police interrogation, 17.
19. van Dülmen, Theatre of Horror.
20. See note 6 above.
21. See note 4 above.
22. Fazekas’s police interrogation, 21.
23. Mrs Puskás Nagy’s police interrogation, 24.
24. See note 6 above.
25. Mrs Puskás Nagy’s police interrogation, 24.
26. Wagner’s police interrogation, 34.
27. Oskó, “Medical report,” 9.
28. Forrai’s police interrogation, 26.
29. See note 11 above.
30. Ibid.
31. Szűcs, “Szegvár népi társadalma,” 437.
32. Turner, “Recent Developments.”
33. Douglas, Purity and Danger, 128.
34. Douglas, Purity and Danger, 138–9., 163–4.
35. O’Neill, “Five Bodies,” 37–53.
36. Meeting of the Szegvár National Committee, 4 February 1946.
37. Minutes of the meeting of the village council, 26 February 1945.
38. Puskás Nagy’s police interrogation, 29. Csenki’s police interrogation, 34.
39. See note 27 above.
40. Ibid.
41. See note 11 above.
42. Meeting of the Szegvár National Committee, 1 October 1945.
43. See note 37 above.
44. See note 4 above.
45. See note 11 above.
46. Meeting of the Szegvár National Committee, 28 January 1946.
47. Fodor, “Szegvári levél,” 2.
48. Mrs IL, “Szegvári levél,” 2.
49. See note 11 above.
50. “Szegvár és Mindszent dolgozói,“ 3.
51. See note 11 above.
52. Szűcs’s police interrogation, 27.
53. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World.
54. Bourdieu, Distinction, 190.
55. Bynum, The Resurrection, 256–278. Ginzburg, “Representation.”
56. Magyar Alföld (1 January 1946), 1.
57. Kaposi, Magyarország gazdaságtörténete, 324. Pető and Szakács, A hazai gazdaság, 19. Berend, A szocialista gazdaság, 11.
58. Nagy, “A föld népéhez,” 1.
59. “Nem munkakényszer,” 1.
60. See note 58 above.
61. Magyar Alföld (13 December 1946), 1.
62. Magyar Alföld (15 December 1945), 1.
63. See note 59 above.
64. “A házmegbízottak.”
65. Max Bergholz sees violence as a means which may generate ethnic identities. Bergholz, Violence, 19.
66. Wachsmann, “Nyílt levél Krauszékhoz,” 2.
67. E. g. Békésmegyei Hírlap (27 May 1944), 1.
68. Szentesi Napló (10 May 1944), 3.
69. Research on violence in cultural anthropology highlights its significance as a resource in terms of culture. Krohn-Hansen, “The Anthropology of Violent Interaction,” 370. Riches, The Anthropology of Violence.
70. Contemporary sociology of violence also stresses such aspects. Reemtsma, Trust and Violence, 56–62. von Trotha, Soziologie der Gewalt, 25–31.
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Péter Apor
Péter Apor is a permanent research fellow at the Humanities Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He obtained his PhD at the European University Institute, Florence in 2002. His main research interests include the social and cultural history of post-WWII Eastern Europe and the politics of memory in the region. Apor participates in several international cooperative research endeavors, and he serves as a member of the steering committee of EURHSTXX, the European Network for Contemporary History.