An important topic for local and family history, architectural and fine arts research
Talk with Vilmos Tóth, historian at the Rómer Flóris Art and History Museum in Győr and researcher of Győr’s cemeteries
Prepared by Péter Krausz
I read your article on the „Cemeteries of Győrsziget” with great interest [1], as well as your book entitled „Credo vitam aeternam”, subtitled ‘A record of Győr’s burial sites’ [2]. In this extremely thorough and informative database, which spans religions and cemetery fences, I was amazed and saddened to discover entries relating to the graves of people from my childhood and youth in Győr, including classmates, teachers, artists and public figures I had known.
PK: Why is it necessary to study cemeteries at an academic level? What motivates historians and museologists to research cemeteries, and how does this specific ‘field’ fit into other areas of the study of history?
VT: Exploring cemeteries is an important task of local history research everywhere. This is primarily due to the source value of gravestone inscriptions and the biographical and other information that can be found on gravestones. Another important aspect is the inventory of the historical and artistic value of cemeteries. Furthermore, cemeteries are an extremely important source for family history research. This has been confirmed in my previous books, including the one that was the first of historical studies to present the Jewish cemetery on Salgótarjáni Street (in Budapest – ed.), the former cemetery of the Pest Jewish community.
PK: What are the most important sources of information for cemetery research? How accessible are they?
VT: The most important sources are the gravestones themselves. It is always worth starting a complete survey of a cemetery by walking around the area and examining each grave. The most important written sources are cemetery records. These are not usually kept in archives, but are stored at the cemetery itself. Their accessibility varies accordingly and depends on the permission of the cemetery’s operator. It is generally the case that, for data protection reasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to access these records. At the same time, more and more cemeteries have online grave search engines. Other important sources include death records and obituaries.
PK: Your book covers church burial sites and the 18 cemeteries in Győr. One of these is the Jewish cemetery on Győr-Sziget, which you describe in great detail. What similarities and differences do you see between Christian and Jewish cemeteries in terms of layout, the style of the gravestones, their decoration and inscriptions?
VT: The unique Jewish burial culture is primarily represented by Orthodox gravestones, which have been the subject of considerable academic research. I find Neologue burial customs more interesting, where Jewish families have adopted many tombstone patterns from Christian cemeteries and combined them in extremely interesting ways with Jewish burial traditions. For example, distinct Jewish symbols have been preserved, but alongside them, general symbols have also appeared that can be found in any other cemetery. One of the most characteristic groups of urban mausolea are those of Jewish bourgeois families, a form of burial that was also incorporated from Christianity, and more distantly from antiquity. Figurative representations also appear on Neologue tombstones, although significantly more subtle than in Christian cemeteries.
PK: How would you evaluate the importance of the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget from the perspective of local history research and through the lens of the study of history?
VT: From a local history perspective, the Jewish cemetery in Sziget is the second most significant cemetery in Győr today, after the cemetery in Nádorváros. From a historical monument perspective, it is the most significant, as it is the only surviving 19th-century cemetery in Győr. Our knowledge of the Jewish community in Győr is still quite limited, and the gravestone inscriptions are a huge help in filling in the gaps.
PK: Let me ask you about some special gravestones. In many cemeteries in Győr, including the Jewish cemetery, groups of graves and memorials have been erected in memory of those who were deported and murdered en masse, soldiers who fell in battle, and forced labourers. What are the main characteristics of such memorials?
VT: World War I gravestones are much more representative and spectacular than the later ones, with extensive inscriptions that in many cases can be considered mini-biographies. Memorials to World War II are, for understandable reasons, completely different. Next to the modest gravestones of forced labourers are the names of those who were deported and killed, symbolically carved on family graves, and most importantly, the martyr memorial, which in a dignified manner preserves the memory of those who were deported and killed from Győr.
KP: Is it true that the poet Miklós Radnóti [3] was first laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery in Győr?
VT: The Radnóti question has become something of a hornet’s nest, similar to the Petőfi [4] question, which I would rather avoid. According to the traditional narrative, Radnóti’s first grave was in the mass grave in Abda, and that is where the “Bori notebook” [5] was found. After that, for a short time, a few weeks, the exhumed bodies were indeed placed in the Jewish cemetery in Győ-Sziget, and the remains attributed to Radnóti, but no longer identifiable, were taken from there to the cemetery in Kerepesi Road in Budapest. Nowadays, more and more people are questioning all this, and I don’t want to get involved.
PK: Among the unique tombs in Győr is the grave of Bishop Vilmos Apor, who died a martyr’s death, in the Győr cathedral church. During the Holocaust, this Catholic prelate, who stood up also for persecuted Jews both verbally and in writing and helped many of them physically by hiding them, was buried here in 1945?
VT: No, because the Cathedral suffered war damage and its physical state did not allow it. Vilmos Apor was originally buried temporarily in the Carmelite church in Győr. His tomb was completed in 1948, but the planned reburial was banned by the authorities. Thus, the Bishop’s remains were only transferred to the Cathedral in 1986, and even then, almost in secret, to the beautiful tomb that had been erected for him.
PK: In the database I couldn’t find the grave of my grandfather shared with his two sons, my father and uncle, in the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget. My grandfather was a metalworker at the Győr wagon factory, but true neither his occupation nor that of his sons was engraved on their tombstones. What were the criteria for selecting the gravestones shown, and did your research extend to the graves of “ordinary” people?
VT: First and foremost, the list includes well-known individuals and interesting tombs, followed by representatives of occupational groups that traditionally make up the political and intellectual elite. In addition, I made a special effort to include the merchant class, which played an extremely important role in the life of the city, as well as important and small-scale craftsmen in my book, which contains a total of approximately 3,000 names in its data section. This is obviously only a selection, as is the case with all similar compilations.
PK: Do you see any possibility of undertaking a survey of the graves in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Győr-Révfalu? If so, what are the preliminary conditions for making such research possible?
VT: The most important condition would be the involvement of an expert who can read and interpret Hebrew inscriptions. This also applies to the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget, where there are also a large number of graves with inscriptions only in Hebrew.
PK: How does the use of computers and even artificial intelligence applications help cemetery research today, and how can it help in the future?
VT: Computers are, of course, a colossal help in organizing and recording the data collected and in preparing manuscripts and volumes. Artificial intelligence, however, has not played any role in my research, nor do I plan to use it in the future.
PK: In which bookshops can your book be purchased?
TV: In Győr, at the Lokálpatrióta Belvárosi Könyves Polc bookshop, which is located on Baross út, in the library building. Another option is to purchase it directly from the publisher, at the Diocesan Archives building on Káptalan-domb.
PK: Thank you for the interview.
Edited and English translation by Peter Krausz
[1] ARRABONA 53–56. 2015–2018. Regional Scientific Yearbook
[2] Publications of the Győr Diocesan Archives; Sources, compilations 29. 2021
[3] Miklós Radnóti, one the most outstanding Hungarian poets in the 20th century, killed in forced labor camp (ed.)
[4] Sándor Petőfi, one the most outstanding Hungarian poets in the 19th century; circumstances of his death and burial site have long been subject of hectic debates (ed.)
[5] Radnóti’s last poems hand-written in a notebook found on his dead body named after the labour camp’s site in Serbia (ed.)