Jewish life re-starting in Győr after the Holocaust
From Manó Adler’s legacy
A very interesting document about the creation of the Jewish Community Committee of Győr was sent to us by my friend Gyuri Adler, with whom we were friends as kids in Győr in the 1950-60s. The document he found in the archive left behind by his deceased father, Manó Adler, had been typed on a tissue-thin sheet of copy paper.
Earlier, he already sent us a fascinating document from the legacy of his father: a diploma-like letter of appreciation written by Bandi A. Schima, jeweller artist, to Manó Adler, architect, on 18 June 1947, reflecting on the newly inaugurated Shoa Memorial in the Jewish Cemetery of Győr. The son’s notes about his father’s life will soon be published on this site.
Measures to revitalise local Jewish life – optimism and determination
The document on setting up the Győr Jewish Community Committee is only a draft.
There is no information about the origin of the document, its exact date, the identity of the editors, the final document and the implementation of its provisions. However, it is still an intriguing document.
It is probable that in 1945, Jews, our parents, who had survived labour service and the concentration camps and returned to Győr put down on paper a series of organisational measures with the aim of helping to reestablish Jewish civil life locally.
It is quite possible that Manó Adler was one of the editors, since the document was found in his archives, and his active involvement in the life of the Jewish community in Győr after the war is known from contemporary community records. What optimism, vitality and determination is reflected in this document, since those returning from the gates of hell, faced with immeasurable losses, could have justifiably asked the question “Tell me, is there still a home there…?”, as their murdered companion, the poet, did. (Seventh Eclogue – Miklós Radnóti, July 1944).
Steps to set up the Committee
The original document (PDF) is available as follows:
Passages that seem important are highlighted here-below:
– The committee should be composed of ten members and not all of these seats should be filled, to allow for the possibility of later arrivals (from labour service, concentration camps)
– Who is a Jew? Anyone who claims to be one. Everyone who has been victim of earlier regulations on Jews is protected.
– Everyone should do community work in a paid job or for free!
Freethinking and democratic ideas.
The Action Plan for Győr
The draft contains a number of specific, practical measures, such as
- The Committee Board should pay a courtesy visit to the secretariats of the political parties, the Mayor, the chief and deputy Government Representatives, the Police Headquarters and the Russian Military Headquarters.
- These offices should be requested to support future social work of the Committee. Board Members should stress that the Jewish community wants to participate in the reconstruction of Győr and to rebuild its devastated homes.
- The Jewish Committee should be recognized as an official advocacy body. The Mayor, together with the Committee, should issue Hungarian and Russian language Identity Cards to formerly deported Jews to ensure their unrestricted travel. A Jewish Affairs Department should be established in the City Hall.
- A Property Search Committee should be set up in consultation with the City Property Search Department.
- The Russian military command should support the advocacy activities, issue documents and certificates for free travel; returnees should be allowed to use Russian military vehicles for their movements.
- The Committee’s sections were also defined with main tasks in brackets: presidential, legal (the abolition of measures of property expropriation that ostracised Jews, the appointment of trustees for the protection of the expropriated objects and the interests of Jews), technical (repairing damage done to Jewish properties during the war, establishing workshops and warehouses), commercial (the recovery of former Jewish businesses, the replacement of current managers of businesses taken from their original owners, the sale of stocks by the caretaker, the leasing of business premises (the deported person is not obliged to pay the rent for the period of deportation (!)), trusteeship (the search for, inventorying and securing of Jewish valuables), deportation (the assistance of returning and migrating deportees and forced labourers), ritual (the organisation of religious and cultural life)
It is contradictory that the chapter on sections does not refer to the “Committee” as such but the ill-fated “Jewish Council”, a denomination formerly used for bodies run by the Nazis to control Jews to be deported. This is a clear indication of the draft’s lack of elaboration.
Firm action needed
Lastly, the draft recommends that the Committee “take firm action against the official authorities, because we who stand here utterly robbed have a right to expect the fullest support of Christians. We have had the greatest loss of blood in the massacres of fascism … but by firm action we do not mean insolent conduct … it is not necessary to fill emerging vacancies only by Jews”.
So far, the document detailing efforts to establish a Jewish Community Committee in Győr in 1945.
Epilogue from the editor – the drama of returnees in Hungary
Deported survivors were not usually welcomed with open arms. Neighbours, acquaintances, former business partners and the ostracising communities in general looked at them with suspicion, almost asking “by what right?”. There were exceptional, honest fellow human beings who honourably preserved and returned the property and memorabilia entrusted to them. An honest cabinet-maker from Győr gave my mother a set of furniture that my grandfather had ordered and made for his daughter’s marriage before the whole family was deported. But he was unable to return my mother’s first husband… and let’s remember the post-war pogroms (unbelievable, isn’t it?) in Hungary that turned deadly; see events in Kunmadaras as mentioned in one family story on our site.
Finally, an excerpt from an interview with historian Éva Standeisky on this highly charged subject.
“What was theirs” – Interview excerpts
Éva Standeisky, historian (b. 1948) on Silenced Past and Whitewashed Anti-Semitism, Magyar Narancs weekly, 27 June 2017
Magyar Narancs: So, in most of the places concerned, the return of some of the deported Jews was already traumatic?
Éva Standeisky: Of course, although I would add that in most places, the few Jews who survived the Holocaust did not return to their former homes. That is why we cannot have a complete picture of the arbitrarily dispersed, shattered property and Jewish possessions, because no trace of them remains. Only in those cases where they tried to reclaim what was theirs can we deduce the extent of the loss. From this point of view, we should not imagine the Hungary of the time as a well-functioning constitutional state. When the Jewish survivors returned home from deportation and labour service in the summer of 1945, they found an unformed, disorderly, hectically forming power structure. Nor could they expect support from the Soviet occupiers. They were only interested in one thing: an orderly administration in the smallest settlement, where the population would carry out the wishes of the Soviet commanders, meaning that it would provide the labour for their war targets and would feed the army.
Magyar Narancs: When Jewish Holocaust survivors return home, they meet those who actively participated in the deportations. How often have conflicts arisen out of accountability and denial of responsibility?
Éva Standeisky: It is a difficult question, because the local administration has been partially replaced in several waves in a short period of time. Some were brought before a vetting board, others were interned, sometimes with or without justification. The officials who were held accountable often claimed that they were only carrying out superior orders and that if they did not do so they would be dismissed. However, the locals were aware of those with right-wing or extreme right-wing leanings and others who behaved decently in difficult times. …
Thanks to György Adler for preserving and making available his father’s papers
Edited, published and English translation by Péter Krausz