Questions and assignments for students and teachers for Ágnes Bartha's The Two of Us - Memories from Dunaföldvár, Budapest and Ravensbrück

Questions and assignments for students and teachers for Ágnes Bartha's The Two of Us - Memories from Dunaföldvár, Budapest and Ravensbrück

prepared by Lajos Oláh
We have used the following abbreviations to help teachers orientation in using the questions.

Abbreviations:

Hh = History of the Holocaust

Sh = Social history

Js = Jewish studies

E = Ethical and moral issues

Hb = Historical background information

Dunaföldvár

1. Find Dunaföldvár on the map. (Hb)
2. Check how many Jewish inhabitants Dunaföldvár had before WWII. (Hh, Sh, Hb)
3. What does the expression orthodox mean? (Js)
4. Check when did the split in Hungarian Jewish community take place. What were the three main directions? (Sh, Js, Hb)
5. Why does meat and dairy have to be separated in Orthodox Jewish households?
   What is the source of this ritual? (Js)
6. What does the expression kosher household mean? (Js)
7. What did they sell in a grocery? (Sh)
8. What is Yom Kippur in Jewish religion? (Js)
9. What is celebrated at Rosh Hashana in Jewish religion? (Js)
10. What kind of cake is „ flódni ”? Find the recipe! (Js)
11. What is matzah ball ? How is it prepared? (Js)
12. What does the author mean by „ being Jewish was natural at home ”? (E)

Vienna

1. Check who the prime ministers were in Hungary in 1936-37. What was the relationship between Hungary and Hitler's Germany? (Hh, Hb)
2. Check who the prime ministers were in Hungary in 1937-38. What was the relationship between Hungary and Germany at that time? ( Hh, Hb)
3. What was the Anschluss? How did it influence internal politics in Hungary? (Hh, Hb)
4. What was the first anti-Jewish law about? (Hh, Sh, E, Hb)
5. What were the second and third anti-Jewish laws about? When were these orders introduced? (Hh, Sh, E, Hb)
6. What does inter-marriage mean? What is dispensation ? (Hh, Sh, E, Hb)
7. How could they manage to get Ágnes Bartha's husband to divorce at last? What is your opinion about the man's behavior? (E)
8. What do you think about the behaviour of the man's father? Why did he want to separate the young couple from each-other at all costs? (E)

Photography -Budapest

1. Check what role ceramist Margit Kovács had in the Hungarian history of art ! (Sh)
2. Why did people keep asking Ágnes Bartha about her religion everywhere? What was the basis of declaring someone a Jew in Hungary in 1943? (Hh, E, Hb)
3. What was forced labour mean during WWII? Who were called up for such sevice? (Hh, Hb)

1944-45

1. Check why the Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944? ( Hb)
2. Who was the leader of Hungary at that time? What was his attitude towards the occupation? (Hb)
3. What were the consequences of the occupation for the Hungarian Jewry? Check what happened to the Jews in the countries that had been occupied by the Germans earlier? (Hh, Hb)
4. What does internment mean?
5. Why does Ágnes Bartha write that her mother's decision to stay in the country and not to come to Budapest cost her life? (Hh)
6. When and why were deportations stopped by Miklós Horthy in Hungary? Who were deported from the country until that date? ( Hh, Hb)
7. When did Szálasi take over power in Hungary? What events preceded the takeover? (Hh, Hb)
8. Check where the front line was in Hungary in November 1944. (Hb)
9. In what way did the Arrow Cross takeover threaten the remaining Jewry? (Hh, Hb)
10. Check who the Gedarmes were. What role did they play in the history of the Holocaust in Hungary? (Hh, Hb)
11. Check what the Auschwitz protocol was. When could Hungarians first learn about gas chambers? ( Hh, Hb)
12. Why was it difficult for people to believe in the existence of gas chambers? (E)
13. Check where the KISOK field is! What role did it play in the history of the Holocaust in Hungary? (Hh, Hb)
14. Check how far Süttő is from Budapest. How many kilometres did the prisoners have to walk to Süttő? (Hb)
15. Why do you think the driver of the two-horse carriage offered to take a few people? (E)
16. What was the Volksbund? What kind of role did the organisation play during the war? (Hb)
17. Why do you think the daughter of the barman helped the author's sister? Why was it an unexpected and particularly brave action from her? (E)
18. Where is Ravensbrück? Why was it special among the camps? (Hh, Hb)
19. Check who wrote the poem Ravensrück Passio . Find poems with similar themes from the poet.
20. Why did Edit, Ágnes Bartha's friend make a suicide attempt in the Ravensbrück camp? (E)
21. What was the Appel? (Hh, Hb)
22. What did Ágnes Bartha risk when she talked to the SS men and the German engineers in her friend's interest? Why was her request fulfilled? (E)
23. Check what could be produced in the Daimler factory? See if the factory exists today, if yes, what is being produced there today? (Hh, Hb)
24. Why do you think civilians warned the prisoners „preserve, the front line is growing closer” ? Which do you think was a bigger help: food thrown in the litter-bin for them or this one? (E)
25. What does sabotage mean? (Hh, Hb)
26. Why did the author and her friend find it important to celebrate Easter for the prisoners? What effect could it have on the sufferers? (E)
27. Why do you think Edit drew caricatures instead of serious pictures about the life in the camp? (E)
28. What is the interpretation of the author of the expression „just to stay human” , which she uses several times in her memoir? (E)
29. Who was the lagerälteste? What was her job? (Hh)
30. Why do you think the Germans exploded the gas chambers at the end of the war? (Hh, E)
31. Why did Edit burn their striped clothes saying: „ that part of our lives is over ”? (E)
32. Why couldn't the author control herself when hearing that after the liberation people living near the camp said they had known nothing whatsoever about what had been going on there? Why do you think people said that? (E)
33. Check what role the Red Cross played during and after the war in saving the persecuted! (Ht, Th)
34. What is your opinion of the remark the first man made to Ágnes when she arrived in Dunaföldvár: ”Hey, you made it back alive?” (E)
35. Why do you think Ágnes stayed in Dunaföldvár for another three years in spite of all that? (E)

Remembering

1. Why do you think Ágnes decided not to speak about what had happened to her because nobody would believe her? (E)
2. What do you think the reasons are for some people still denying the Holocaust even today? (Hh)
3. What do you think would have been better for Edit and Ágnes: should they have spoken about what had happened to them, or was it better that they stayed silent? (E)