THEY'RE ALL NAZIS (OR NEO NAZI'S) : STEREOTYPES OF HUNGARIANS

 

Recently I was reading around the Jobbik party, watching some YouTube video postings that would have it that all Hungarians are Nazi's or Neo Nazi's, and this was based on incidents of Jewish people and Roma people being terrorized or the victims of violence in recent times.  Yes, these things are happening in Hungary.  I also read comments that were disturbing, including posters on YouTube, calling each other names like "Jewish Pig" and one poster, from Romania, that said all Hungarians are Mongols who "only have Lake Balaton."  For me it was upsetting reading.

I learned a lot about Hungary historically and about the people of my genetic line through research.  I know that Hungary was a very class identified society, and then in the mid 19th century it began to break from the rule of nobility. I know that Hungary is a country that may be striving to re-identify itself nationally because over historical time the borders have changed and people who self-identify as Hungarian live in other countries, as do people who self-identify as Romanian, or Slovak.  Yet, here in the United States some of you, reading this blog from Europe, may be surprised to learn that many people are "mixed" and are Hungarian, and Slovak, and German, or German and Romanian.  (I've also met a great number of people who are one half or one forth Jewish.)

I posted this video long ago and am posting it again!  (The music is interesting even if you don't understand the language and the pictures speak quite well.) I think the spirit of this video is in the right direction, and I think that from a spiritual perspective.  I'm not claiming to be religious.



As I understand it, the Jobbik party is the 3rd largest party in Hungary.  Some consider it radically RIGHT WING.  What is meant by LEFT OR RIGHT WING in Hungary?  Probably not the same thing as in the United States, because while the Right Wing in the United States is considered CONSERVATIVE or TRADITIONAL values and most associated with the Republican Party, it would be unusual to find it openly associated with Nazi Rallies.

Can people have a NATIONAL IDENTITY that is not about KILLING OFF PEOPLE OF ANOTHER NATIONAL IDENTITY?  I think so.

Certain Jews became Zionists and thus came into being the Nation of Israel.

Where do you suppose the Roma could found their own nation?

Note: this post edited July 2022 VIdeo that was hear expired and was taken down

C 2013 Magyar-American BlogSpot

WHAT DOES A HUNGARIAN LOOK LIKE? : STEREOTYPE or NATIONAL IDENTITY?

 
If you're a Hungarian-American you've probably looked in the mirror and said to yourself "How Hungarian do I look?" because you are probably from a family that is mixed, and mixed here or mixed there before they came. 

Lately I've been looking at YouTube videos that want to prove there is a look to an ethnic group.  While I'm watching I sometimes think of the Nazi's and their notions of what superior people look like, acknowledge that Germans into Hungary have probably changed the look and the genes of many, and that I simply don't see what these people are "proving" by presenting a series of videos.

It's the same with Hungarian women beauties.  Sure they are beautiful and women and Hungarian but there are beautiful women of all nations.  I'm sure some of these videos are posted out of national pride and others are gambits for finding grooms for brides, but maybe it is very American of me to be suspicious of them.

Reading also around this is the fascinating territory of DNA. I truly believe that DNA is the future and will prove a lot about the past.  I think we will find it's all more complicated than we thought.  Sex doesn't respect borders and neither does rape.  Borders changed. Ethnicity emerged.

I'm one who believes in Asian or Oriental aspect of Hungarianism because of the language.  I cannot speak it but I translate it with books - small phrases - and to me the MENTALITY of the language is so.  I think the language is picturesque.

C 2013  Magyar-American BlogSpot - All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

BOOK EXCERPT: REZSO KASZTNER : THE DARING RESCUE OF HUNGARIAN JEWS by LADISLAUS LOB

REZSO KASZTNER
The Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews : A Survivor's Account
by Ladislaus Lob C 2008
Pimlico is the Publisher

pages 269-270

"The charge that Kasztner made up the Bergen-Belsen group entirely of his relatives and his Zionist cronies from Kolozsvar also stands on shaky ground. Given the appalling task of selecting a few hundred from hundreds of thousands, no selection could have been "right."

(My note : his relatives were a count of ten, while other relatives were left behind and exported or murdered in Auschwitz.)

"The dominance of Ziolnists from Kolozsvar is hardly surprising, since Kolozsvar was Hungary's second largest city with the largest and most active Zionist community, and the whole rescue enterprise was founded on Palestine immigration certificates...

"My father and I were only two of many non-Zionists, and the point is strongly made by Peretz Revesz, a former leading member of the youth movement who carried out many dangerous rescue missions of his own in Slovakia and Hungary with Kasztner's help."

page 279

"One of the most impressive witnesses was Israel Szabo. He explained that "the ordinary Hungarian in the street knew about Auschwitz" but "mass flight" was impossible, and believing that the Hungarian Jews could have "organized any resistance" would have been a "fatal error." They had been methodically worn down by the "expropriation of their wealth, the loss of their place of work, ... the closure inside their homes, in the ghetto under inhuman conditions."

This process had left them drained of all confidence and energy.

WORLD WAR II : HOLOCAUST REMEMBERANCE DAYS

This week, linked to this year's Passover, people in the United States, especially those who live near large Jewish communities, are remembering the Holocaust of World War II era, which occurred on European soil, in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Russia, Germany, Belarus, Estonia... with various events produced by Jewish organizations for Holocaust remembrance. There are also remembrances staged by various religious and not religious organizations with the focus on peace; the idea is that we as citizens of the world should not forget or put up with Holocausts / ethnic cleansings anywhere in the world.

To me there is a difference between a soldier / an army who fights other soldiers/ armies and what has and is happening to civilians. Don't get me wrong. I'm for a strong defense of the United States and too realistic to think we can go without a military presence. At the same time there are atrocities committed on innocent people every day on this earth and that is wrong. I don't have all the answers or much power to do anything about it, just on a personal level to try and understand people of cultures different than mine, and decide if I like someone or not by my experience with them rather than prejudging them.

Although the United States did not experience the holocaust as personally as did the people of Europe, many survivors fled here, or got here through Israel or through organizations overseeing the resettlement of those who fled Europe after the war was over. To this day the International Red Cross provides services to help locate people who were or are separated by war.

I will soon be telling you all about an organization I learned about my going outside my own culture to attend a presentation by a French Catholic priest as a Jewish temple.

THE GLASS WALL : A FILM NOIR FILM FROM 1953

THE GLASS WALL film is one of four on a DVD put out by Columbia Pictures, on a DVD called Bad Girls of Film Noir Volume 1. All four films were original Columbia Pictures films from the early 1950's, and in black and white. The legend goes that it was "B" films in that period that actually gave actresses the "juiciest" roles.

It was unexpected that THE GLASS WALL would have a Holocaust and Hungarian refuge thematic. The basic story is of a man who stows away on a ship from the old world where he was in concentration camps from the age of 14 and, caught, he can't make it through immigration. Desperate to not be send back, his wish is to find the trumpet player whose life he saved, so that the musician can testify for him. Meanwhile, he befriends a woman in trouble - a woman who can't pay her rent. The trumpet player sees his picture on the front page of a local newspaper and wants to help him but the refugee is fleeing - all the way to the United Nations building - a modern building that is symbolic in design of a glass wall. The trumpeters girlfriend turns out to be a Hungarian exotic dancer who lives with her mother who is making goulash... and says "We're all honkies..."

Considering that some of the earliest Hollywood people, directors, studio moguls, photographers, cinematographers, etc. were of Eastern European including Hungarian descent, I thought about the stereotypes of Hungarians and their representation in movies. I believe the writers on this were Maxwell Shane and Ivan Tors.



C 2012 Magyar American BlogSpot

BOOK EXCERPT : REZSO KASZTNER by LADISLAUS LOB

REZSO KASZTNER
The Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews" A Survivor's Account
by Ladislaus Lob C 2008
Pimlico is the Publisher
page 266

"Nor were the Jews of Hungary as unaware of the danger as Kasztner's enemies assert. Some were misled by soothing lies. Others did not want to know the truth. They believed, or tried to make themselves believe, that such horrors might happen elsewhere, but not in Hungary: the Hungarians would reward the Jews for their loyalty or realize that by harming the Jews they would be harming their own economy and culture. However, by the time of the German occupation the majority of Hungarian Jews had some idea of the massacres in the east, thanks to reports by refugees or Zionists activists.


"Even though as a young child I did not understand what people in Budapest were fretting, speculating, arguing and agonizing about, I could tell that it was a matter of life and death..."

SISTER SARA SALKAHAZI BEATIFICATION FOUR YEARS AGO

This was passed onto me. It's from a March 2010 church bulletin from St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood California.


SISTER SARA SALKAHAZI: A MODEL OF SACRIFICE


"Sara Salkahazi was born in Kosice (at that time a part of Hungary) on May 11, 1899, now her FEAST DAY.  In 1929, she entered the Society of Sisters of Social Service in Budapest.  There she vowed her entire life to the service of God with the motto "Alleluia!  Here I am!  Send me!  Her love of Christ was manifested in diverse areas of social service, in Catholic movements, and by authoring a variety of literary works.  She was a talented teacher, journalist, and community organizer.


"In 1943, she consciously offered her life for the Society, particularly for the weak and ill, in case the Sisters of the Church were persecuted.  On December 27, 1944 the Hungarian Nazis surrounded the Home of Working Women where Sara was in charge.  She was arrested along with a co-worker and a group of Jewish refugees she was hiding.  That same evening, all of them were stripped naked and shot, their bodies falling into the icy River Danube.  Before her execution, Sister Sara knelt down, facing her executioners and made a great sign of the cross.  God accepted the sacrifice of her life.


The Eucharistic Celebration of Sister Sara's Beautification was in Budapest
on September 17, 2006.

I'm also linking to an article/interview about her from Catholic Online, and Cardinal Peter Erdo.

Note Septmeber 2019.  Clicking on the title of this old post should take you to the link.

BOOK EXCERPT : REZSO KASZTNER by LADISLAUS LOB

page 264


His world was "totally shattered..."For years, his activity in Budapest had been a source of pride to him", but now he needed "almost superhuman stores of strength, simply to get up in the morning, go out of the house and walk about the city streets as if nothing had happened."  Deeply hurt by the "badge of shame" that had been attached tio him, he remained "convinced that he was the victim of an unbearable injustice.  (Quoting another writer Weitz)


"Kasztner was not the only one to suffer.  His wife and daughter were also hounded by the rabble.  Their block of flats was daubed with graffiti saying "Kasztner is a murderer" and worse.  Their balcony was bombarded with rubbish.  Neighbours called Bogyo a "Nazi" and shopkeepers refused to serve her.  Szuzsi, form the gage of nine, was harassed, bullied and called a "murderess" at school and in the street.  The witch hunt was to continue for many years, and the lasting  emotional damaged caused to both women is easy to imagine...(The twi women are his wife and daughter.)"


.... "He was hounded by death threats, which the authorities took seriously enough to assign him two bodyguards, though ironically these were withdrawn shortly before he really needed them.  On the other hand, he receive many letters of support, particularly from member of the young pioneer groups who had worked with him in Budapest.  He was offered sanctuary in two kibbutzim, but refused to hide..."