Magda H. László: Keepsake Album from the 20th Century
Diary is remembering, remembering is personal history: a precious historical source.
The methods of its historical elaboration are often defined: the author presents history through his personal experiences, from a peculiar perspective.
On the one hand it is something precious: history is put together from human stories and the result is history with flesh and blood characters participating, acting, suffering in it. These flesh-and-blood people are not the least different from the students and teachers present at the lesson.
prepared by Lajos Oláh
Methodological principles
Diary is remembering, remembering is personal history: a precious historical
source. The methods of its historical elaboration is often defined: the author
presents history through his personal experiences, from a peculiar perspective.
On the one hand it is something precious: history is put together from human
stories and the result is history with flesh and blood characters participating,
acting, suffering in it. These flesh-and-blood people are not the least different
from the students and teachers present at the lesson.
At the same time working with primary sources requires extra work, attention
and devotion both from teacher and student . Testimonies of course fail to
show the entire historical background, so more exploratory work needs to be
put in when elaborating them.. This provides excitement of discovery and
research and active participation for the student instead of being only a passive
recepient.
However, it is difficult to treat such memoirs as exclusive historical sources..
The history of the Holocaust, - undoubtedly one of major tragedies of the 20th
century - raises very important questions for consideration on humanity,
inhumanity. These questions are hard to ask and it is not the least difficult to
make an attempt to answer them especially if one only faces the
incomprehensible magnitude in terms of the number of victims. How can
students sympathize with 5-6 million faceless victims? It is a lot easier to get
close to a person, to someone with a name and a face. When working on the
memoirs we have to be aware of this important factor, and also we can, or
rather have to take the advantage of the personal character. This, of course,
adds to the possible interpretations: we can touch upon a number of important
educational aspects while working with the diary.
The two approaches, however, cannot be separated from each other. In fact,
these are not really two separate ways: rather two aspects of one process in
close connection with each other. The duality described requires proper
historical knowledge, careful attention
and empathy, moral and human sensibility from teachers and students alike.
In the following guidance we intend to contribute to this complex work.
Recommended age-group
The complete text of the memoir is recommended for middle school and high
school students in different disciplines detailed below, whereas for lower grades
(grade 5 and up) appropriate extracts should be selected.
Social-historical analysis
Magda László’s Keepsake album is a particularly precious social-historical
source. It informs us about a world that has completely, irrecoverably been
destroyed by the Shoah: the life of rural Jewry. Magda László’s unsophisticated,
concise sentences recapture this vanished world in snapshots. The reader is
faced with portraits, however fragmented they might appear, in flashlight.
The setting itself is exceptionally interesting. The town, Szentendre has been
very unique since its early development. It was formed on the border of the
northern settlement of the Hungarian Serbs. Teachers should present the
special history of the settlement. Let’s discusss how different nationalities,
ethnic-, cultural- and religious communities contributed to forming our
common history.
The family of the narrator arrives in this multicoloured society. We should
focus on the general and typical features of the story. Discussing them, we can
define the most essential issues of 20th century Hungarian social history.
Right at the beginning, in the first chapter we meet Mór Rosenberg. Magda
László mentions that his grandparents arrived from Moravia. This can lead us
to a discussion about the settling of Jews in Hungary. Until the middle of the
19th century the direction of Jewish migration was from Austria, Czech
Republic , Moravia and German speaking territories. From the second half of
the century other territories, like Galicia gained importance from this aspect.
We should follow the route of the ancestors, which most typically led to
Budapest for a while, even if it might not have been the final place for settling.
The history of the mother’s side contains specific and general features at the
same time. The mother comes from a Croatian Catholic family. The marriage
with Magda’s father is a mixed marriage: a Jewish father, a Catholic mother.
As well-known from statictics, the increasing number of inter-marriage is a
very important attribute of social integration at the beginning of the 20th
century. Let’s compare it with other inter-marriages mentioned in other
testimonies published on the site.
(http://www.emlekezem.hu/text/bartaagietten.html, and
http://www.emlekezem.hu/text/kutasmodszertan.html)
Teachers might analyze the social-historical tendencies deriving from the
intermarriage. We should examine how these social integrational processes get
broken . The mixed marriage mentioned in the testimony is not typical: the
Catholic wife converts to Jewish religion. This is an example for a kind of
reverse assimilation.
Schools play a crucial role in forming the society. Magda László’s father, a man
of Jewish origin, finished the first four years of high school at the Piarists in
Trencsény, and took his final exam at the academy of Commerce and Trade.
The history of his education illustrates the liberal educational system of the
period of dualism. Some of this attitude, this openness was preserved in the
Horthy regime too. The educational policy of the Klebersberg administration
belongs to the very few success stories of the regime. The history of Magda’s
education is a very good example of how the system worked: after the
multicultural school in Szentendre she attended the so called archiepiscopal
Girls’ school, followed by the grammar school in Pest.
The school in Szentendre represented this liberal mentality: non-Jewish
children too attended the Jewish school . „The elementary school teacher- Mr.
Tolnay -had a very good reputation, that is the reason why non-Jewish
children were also sent there.” In addition to this, the money to build the school
itself was left to the Jewish community by a Christian craftsman. It is of
extreme importance to focus on and speak about these positive examples,.
These examples reveal the changes occurred in the 30s and the 40s: they make
students understand the destruction the dominance of hatred politics caused.
Introducing the life in the town of Szentendre gets a very special role in the
memoir. Magda László gives very important details about the life of the
inhabitants of the town after WW1. Essential, typical Hungarian fates, life
strategies come one after the other: examples for that are the ethnic German
Gernédel couple, or the Hoecker couple that had immigrated to America, and
came back later. We can refer here to the immigration flow in the age of the
dualism, and discuss the reasons that made more than a hundred thousand
people leave for the New World. Another interesting question is, who came
back and why. (We know, that some people went to the United States only
temporarily in the hope of collecting some capital and after their return they
tried to get by at home.)
We can find important hints about the social contacts between Jewish and
non-Jewish inhabitants of Szentendre. However, as Magda writes: „there was
no real heartfelt relationship”, the neighbours were having fair relationships..
A good example for the social integration, assimilation process and patriotic
feelings of the Hungarian Jews is the case of the aunt in the chapter Patriotism.
She died of her sorrow over Trianon. Magda László – despite the fact that
her own fellow citizens wanted to kill her - writes: “Actually Hungarian poets,
the poems made me come back home: Petőfi, Arany, Vörösmarty. I could have
gone to the West.”
The history of the Holocaust, historical background
Rural Jewry was almost entirely exterminated in the Holocaust. Magda
László’s writing shows this process through the history of the deportation of the
Jews in Szentendre. The inhuman processes of 20th century history gradually
intrude into the life of the society in Szentendre, a richly layered society in
terms of ethnicity, language and religion. The anti-Jewish laws are the first
to radically modify the lives of Jewish families.
We learn about important events, which help us understand the history of the
Holocaust: Magda’s father works in Budapest and is disadvantaged by the anti-
Jewish laws. His boss offers to get him Christian documents He rejects the offer.
His niece invites the family to Pest. This too, is refused. We know now that this
could have been a way for them to escape. But the family (similarly to other
threatened families) believed that the problem was temporary.
”At that time we didn’t take it that tragically.”-writes Magda. We should
discuss what kept this fake sense of security alive! Why could the Hungarian
Jewry think in 1944 that they could survive, that they were safe? Let’s open
up the factors feeding this illusion. (This can be done by elaborating the
aspects recommended in the previous section on social-history)
Deportation starts in April. Let’s discuss its schedule, its milestones. The people
in Szentendre were taken on June 30th, they were marched to the brickyard
in Monor then. We can compare this with the chronology of events leading to
the suspension of the deportations. ( Horthy proposes to suspend the
deportation at the Crown Council on June 26th. Still the deportations went on.
Finally, Horthy announces a definite will to stop the deportations on as late as
July 6th, but they go on until July 9th)
The memoir tells us about the tragic monotony of the circumstances of the
deportation: the brutality of the gendarmes, the sufferings of the people
crowded in wagons.
She mentions the events in Kashau , when the Hungarian authorities hand
over the cattle cars crowded with people to the SS units. In accordance with the
memories of several survivors, she remarks that the SS soldiers often treated
the captives in a more human way than people of the Hungarian authorities.
Magda László shows the mechanism of the death factory very tangibly and
precisely. With the help of certain paragraphs of the memoir we can see the full
„schedule”.(Arrival, meeting the Sonderkommando, selection under the
direction of Mengele, disinfection of those sentenced to life, the role of C –Lager
and B3-Lager, transports)
When reading about the peculiar circumstances of „life” in the camps, its
strangely grotesque human and inhuman operation, we can refer to similar
descriptions in other memoirs of the site(e.g.
http://www.emlekezem.hu/text/bartaagietten.html)
An important feature in testimony dramaturgy is that the introduction of pre-
Holocaust life is suddenly and unexpectedly broken by recalling the fate of
exterminated people. Thus, historical tragedy is often embedded in nostalgic
childhood scenes.
A typical scene for example: „After his death the, Dr. József Óvári, the respected
and beloved doctor of Szentendre, became the next head of the school comittee. He
was selfless: no weather was bad enough to prevent him from visiting his patients,
even as far as Szentlászló. He would always ride his bicycle, and in stormy
weather he would walk it, if necessary to get to his patients. He was taken to
Sonderkommando together with his son. That was the end of his life.”The tragedy of a person, the tragedy of a morality, the tragedy of a culture, the
tragedy of a people – all told in a few lines.
We can find these details in the text and talk about the tragic human fates
they open up. Statistical data about millions of victims will break up into
personal fates comprehendable and understandable for students.
Discussing moral, human issues
The memoir allows us to discuss how and why the fate of the Szentendre Jewry
has changed. We can discuss the way politics influenced the life of Jewish and
non-Jewish inhabitants alike. In the Szentendre of Magda László, inhabitants
of different religions lived in enviable peace and harmony. We should find
positive examples on religious tolerance in the text. Yet, the inhabitants of
Szentendre finally watch with passive indifference the Jews being taken away.
In between the lines we can even find references for negative behavior beyond
indifference .
Magda writes about her keepsake album: „ I had a good friend and i gave it to
her to draw something in it. She didn’t give it back right away –and that’s how the
book was saved by chance. I got it back when I returned from the deportation. I
got the book back but nothing else. She had a lot of other things with her as well,
that’s the only thing she gave me back. But perhaps that book made me happier
than anything else could.”
Let’s discuss what the sentence : „ She had a lot of other things with her as well,
that’s the only thing she gave me back.” might refer to.
Elsewhere she writes: „ I first percieved that the situation had changed when the
yellow stars had to be put on. When I met a former classmate, he looked the other
way. It had not been like that before, when we had each other and spoken.”Why did people’s behaviour changed? What was the cause for distortion?
Here we have to discuss whether the society in Hungary has faced the fact that
hundreds of thousands of its citizens were killed in WW2 in the most inhuman
way just because of their origin with the active or passive assistance of the
majority population. Could that happen all over again? Do similar events take
place in the world today? This is the time to speak about the uniqueness of the
Holocaust, about phenomena such as Holocaust relativization and Holocaust
denial.
We have to find examples for gentiles in the text too. It is important to see that
there were people who could preserve at least the minimum of their humanity
and how important this small amount of humanity could be under the given
circumstances. The boss of Magda’s father is an example for that. He offers to
get fake exemption documents. An important question for discussion could be
the reason why Magda’s father rejects these documents, the same way he later
– when possibility arises - refuses moving to Budapest. „It was the only
conclusion:if others were taken away , we would leave with them too.”
Let’s discuss what ideas, what morality, what principles and human behavior
is incorporated in these lines.
The memoir provides several examples for critical decision situations: these all
characterize the absurdity of the camps with its constant balance between life
and death. The most tragic story of this kind is that of the three pregnant
women. Try to help our students understand the incomprehensible. Why did
they make the decision they made? No judgement should be passed , all we
should try to do is to fully consider the given situation .
For Holocaust Memorial Days
Discussions detailed above are to serve as preparation for Holocaust memorial
days.
Students should read either the full text of the testimony or selected pieces
prior to the discussion . The testimony can also be used at the commemoration
in the school. Certain dramatic extracts can be quoted separately.
Closing remarks
This methodological guidance is meant to be thought-provoking.Certain
elements of guidelines can be freely used, combined or left out. The testimony
and its analysis can be used in history classes, but not exclusively there. Other
classes (literature, ethics, civics, class times, e.g.) as well as preparatory
discussions of Holocaust Memorial Day or commemoration ceremony are also
domains for possible uses. Whichever classes the testimony is used at, the
inclusion of moral issues is indispensable, the simple enumeration of facts and
data is not sufficient even at a history class.