Between the Holocaust and Trianon - Historical Culture in Hungary

In English The innocuous place of Hungary’s Jews in the historical culture of the country from 1945 to 2004 is an indication that the Holocaust has not set its stamp on this culture. It is noteworthy that in the last decade of the Kádár regime, there was a strong interest in Hungary in the fate of the Hungarians in the territories that had been lost at Trianon. This interest was an important factor in Hungarian politics in 1989 and again in the late 1990s. On this issue, Trianon and postwar communist rule became intertwined as two aspects of the Hungarian tragedy in the 20th century. This issue overshadowed the memory of the Holocaust in the political debate. The representatives of the Jewish community in Hungary chose not to accept the status of national minority for the Jews when the minority law was adopted in 1993. The message is that the Jews are an integral part of Hungarian society, and in matters of historical belonging on equal footing with the Hungarian minorities in the neighbouring countries.