Hungary Community

“More than half a million people fell victim to the labour service, the deportations organised by German Nazis and their Hungarian henchmen, the brutality of the Hungarian authorities, the death marches, the gassings in Auschwitz, the mass executions, and the terrible circumstances of the concentration camps” (“Holocaust”). The Holocaust greatly affected the Jewish communities in Hungary. After the war, the Jewish communities in Hungary were barely existing. The different ways different ways the Holocaust has affected Hungary have changed the country, and the country's population. The Holocaust has a historical, economic, and social effect on Hungary.
The history of the Holocaust greatly affected the Jewish population of Hungary. In April
1944 over 500,000 Hungarian Jews were deported outside Hungary to ghettos. The ghettos were places that were either former Jewish neighborhoods, or just old factories and buildings. “In some Hungarian cities, Jews were compelled to live outdoors, without shelter or sanitary facilities” (“Occupation”). The Jews were forced to live outside without any shelter, or sanitation. The food and water sources were dangerously low, and there was no medical help at all. Hungarian authorities forbade Jews from leaving the ghettos, and police officers stood around the whole perimeter. The ghettos only lasted for a couple of weeks before they were liquidated. In Mid May the Hungarians in the ghettos were deported on over 145 deportation trains. Within two month over 450,000 Jews were either taken to a concentration camp called Auschwitz, or they were sent to the border with Austria to dig deep trenches. By the end of 1944 there was only one Jewish community left in Hungary in Budapest.
The holocaust hugely affected the social aspect of the Jewish Hungarians. Almost all of the Hungarian Jews were extinguished after World War II. The majority of the Hungarian Holocaust survivors gradually left Hungary, but the ones who stayed are well educated middle class people. These people were well known, and considered very trustworthy. After the war, older people in the Jewish communities had university diplomas, and solid well paying jobs in public administration. “After the war, many Jews obtained university diplomas or started new careers in public administration, as civil servants, in politics, or in state security organizations”(Kovács).46 percent of Hungarian Jews have college diplomas, which is 20 percent more than the Hungary’s general population. Many of the survivors are still traumatized from what happened, and what they have lost in their previous life.
The Holocaust affected the economic aspect of Hungary, and the tourism aspect.
. There are many museums, and memorial is Hungary in memory of the holocaust. On the Danube river bank there are 60 pairs of iron shoes. The shoes are there to temper the people who were forced to strip, and were shot in the back, falling into the river, and being washed away. “Different sizes and styles reflect how nobody was spared from the brutality of the Arrow Cross militia (the shoes depict children, women, businessmen, sportsmen etc)” (Watkins). The different sizes and styles of shoes represent children, women, businessmen, sportsmen etc. Behind the shoes there is a 40 meter long, and 70 cm high bench with three iron points. On them there is text in Hungarian, Hebrew, and English that read: “to the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross Militiamen in 1944-45. Erected 16 April 2005.” At the memorial people may see flowers or light candles to honor the shot people. At night the glow of the candles and moon present a different image of solitude. The Holocaust has a historical, economical, and social effect on Hungary. In historical times the Jewish people were deported to ghettos and tortured to death. There are currently many museums and memorials in Hungary remembering these devastating times, and the current Jews have regrown as wealthy, successful, and well educated people. The Holocaust did many disastrous things to the Hungarian Jewish population, but the Jews have learned a lot from the Holocaust, and have become fortunate
people.