Europas Os

ten im

20.

Jahr

hund

ert

Eastern Europe in the

Twentieth Century

Schriften de

s Imre Ker

tész

Kol

legs

Jena

Publications of the Imre Ker

tész

Kol

leg Jena

Herausgegeben von/Edited by

W~odzimierz Borodziej

Mich

al Kop

ecel

cJoachim von Putticamer

Band/Volume 7

Ctstro

naa

ea

U to

i a

Jewish Intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe in

the 1930s and 1940s

Edited by Fe

renc

Lac

zó and Joachim von Put

tkam

er

DE GRUYTER

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Foreword

Some of th

e core ideas of this volume wer

e first r

aised at the

panel Catastrophe

and Engagement: On Jew

ish In

tell

ectu

al Trajectories', which was part of Catas-

trophe and Uto

pia:

Central and Eastern European In

tell

ectu

al Hor

izon

s, 1933 to

1958, th

e 2013 annual conference of th

e Im

re Kertész Kolleg Jena hel

d in cooper-

atio

n wi

th the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. The volume too

lsmore con

cret

e shape as the result of a one -day authorial wo

rksh

op hosted by

the Center for His

tori

cal Studies of the

Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin on

9 May 2015. The editors are grateful to both institutions for

their cooperation

and hospitality. We are especially gr

atef

ul to th

e German Federal Min

istr

y of Ed-

ucation and Research fo

r its ge

nero

us fin

anci

al sup

port

of our

initiative. We

would also like to thank Ja

sper

Tilbury, Da

vid Burnett, Thomas N. Lampert and

Pete

r Sherwood for their excellent tra

nsla

tion

s of tho

se four chapters tha

t we

reor

igin

ally

submitted in Po

lish

, German and Hun

gari

an. Jonathan Lutes, Adam

Bresnahan, Dylan J. Cram and Ben Robbins put great eff

orts

into copy-editing

the re

maining papers. Daniela Gruber and Jaime Hyatt have held tog

ethe

r th

est

ring

s from all over Europe and suc

cess

full

y managed the

editing pro

cess

. Fi-

nally, we wish to thank Jai

me Hya

tt for all the

highly diligent and conscientious

work she

has invested into ironing out many minor and a few major fla

ws, and

for gi

ving

this manuscript it

s final touch.

Ferenc Laczó

Joachim von Puttkamer

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110559347.202

Tabte of contents

Fere

nc Laczó

Introduction —1

Part I:

The Rupture of 1933 and New Expressions of Jewishness

in the Age of Nazi Germany

Ines Koe

ltzs

chUt

opia

as Everyday Practice

Jewish Intellectuals and Cultural Tr

ansl

atio

n in Prague before and after

1933-15

Marija Vulesica

What Wi!! Become o f the Germon /ews?

National Socialism, Flight and Resistance in the Intellectual Debate of Yugoslav

Zionists in th

e 1930s-45

Gábor Schein

`Jewishness' in

the Diary of Mi

lán Fust-71

Part II

: Modernity and the Search for Identity

Eszter Gan

tner

The New Type of Internationalist

The Case of Béla Balázs-91

Mafgorzata A. Qu

inke

nste

in`Europ

e' —I

t's such a strange word forme!

A Portrait of Arthur Bryks against the Ba

ckgr

ound

of the Events of the

Mid-

Twentieth Century-113

Camelia Cráciun

`Virtually eer

nihilo'

The Emergence of Yiddish Bucharest duringthe Interwar Period-133

VIII

Ta

ble of con

tent

s

Part III: Un

prec

eden

ted Catastrophe and Lines of Di

scur

sive

Continuity

Clar

a Royer

A Liberal Uto

pia Ag

ains

t Al

l Odds

The Survivor Writers of The Pr

ogre

ss (H

aladás), 1945-1948 —155

Ferenc Laczó

From European Fascism to

the Fat

e of

the Jew

sEarly Hu

ngar

ian Je

wish

Monographs on th

e Ho

locaust -175

Ilse los

epha

Lazaroms

Across the Rup

ture

Jewi

sh Sur

vivo

r-Wr

iter

s and th

e La

ndsc

apes

of War in Po

st-w

ar Eas

t-Ce

ntra

l

Europe-205

Part IV: From Uto

pias

to Po

st-w

ar Tra

ject

orie

s

Tamás Scheibn

er

From the Jewish Re

nais

sanc

e to

Soc

iali

st Realism

Imre

Keszi in th

e Th

rall

of Ut

opia

s -223

Felicia Waldman

Avatars of

Being a Jew

ish Professor at

the Uni

vers

ity of Buc

hare

st in the

Firs

t Ha

lf of the Tw

enti

eth Century -263

Karolina Szymanialc

Rach

el Auerbach, or the Tr

ajec

tory

of a Yid

dish

ist Intellectual in Po

land

in the

Firs

t Half of the Tw

enti

eth Century -304

List of Co

ntri

buto

rs-353

Ferenc Laczó

Intr

oduc

tion

The present volume studies the

bio

grap

hica

l trajectories, in

tell

ectu

al agendas

and major acc

ompl

ishm

ents

of select Jew

ish intellectuals during the

age

of Naz-

ism, and the

partly simultaneous, partly subsequent period of th

e incipient St

a-linization of Ce

ntra

l and Eas

tern

Eur

ope.

l Th

is region may hav

e be

en the

pri

-mary cen

tre of

Jew

ish

life prior to th

e Holocaust, may have served as th

e main

geographical set

ting

of th

e Nazi genocide and may als

o have had notable com-

muni

ties

of su

rviv

ors,

but its highly varied Jew

ish in

tell

ectu

al his

tory

has

non

e-theless re

main

ed rel

ativ

ely underexplored in int

erna

tion

al sch

olar

ship

. Be

ing

guid

ed by the

lcey concepts of ca

tast

roph

e and uto

pia,

the

twe

lve ca

se studies

offe

red he

re thus as

pire

to ma

lse im

port

ant co

ntri

buti

ons to a Eur

opea

n Je

wish

inte

llec

tual

his

tory

of th

e twentieth ce

ntur

y.

Exploring sp

ecif

ic his

tori

cal ex

peri

ence

s in their div

erse

loc

al con

text

s, in-

dividual pap

ers analyze various Je

wish

rea

ctio

ns to th

e most aby

smal

disconti-

nuity re

pres

ente

d by the

Holocaust whi

le als

o ex

plor

ing more subtle li

nes of

continuity in Je

wish

thinking. They are

based on the

per

cept

ion th

at there is a

shor

tage

of th

eore

tica

lly in

form

ed and emp

iric

ally

detailed studies on how Cen-

tral

and Eas

tern

European Je

wish

intellectuals res

pond

ed to th

e un

prec

eden

ted

cata

stro

phe and renegotiated

their ut

opia

n commitments ove

r ti

me and how

the co

mple

x relationship between the

two evolved. All th

at seemed clear when

we fi

rst be

gan ou

r explorations was tha

t su

rviv

ing th

e Holocaust co

uld as

much

lead

one to su

ppor

t various fo

rms of uto

pian

ism -and in some cases, even to

temporary mo

ral blindness - as

it cou

ld foster pr

ofou

nd dis

sect

ions

of oppres-

sive

sys

tems

and res

ult in cou

rage

ous condemnations of their crimes. As the

case

s of several formidable intellectuals de

mons

trat

e, the

two would at times

form

a seq

uenc

e.Z

Upon the

end of th

e Cold War and the

fall of communism, hi

stor

ians

of Nazi

Germany have

increasingly tur

ned

their

atte

ntio

n eastwards without losing

sigh

t of the

all-European di

mens

ions

of th

e Holocaust.3 This tre

nd has more re-

1 I would like to

thank W}o

dzim

ierz

Borodziej for

his

helpful suggestions.

2 See the

exc

epti

onal

ly luc

id exp

lana

tion

of such processes in János IZ

orna

i, By Force of

Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Int

elle

ctua

l Jo

urne

y (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pre

ss, 2006).

See also Fel

icia

Waldman's contribution in thi

s volume in pa

rtic

ular

.

3 Dieter Po

hl, Vo

n de

r 7u

denp

olit

ik' zum Jud

enmo

rd: Der Distrikt Lublin des

Generalgouverne-

ment

s 19

39-1

944 (Frankfurt: Peter La

ng, 1993); Die

ter Po

hl, Na

tion

also

zial

isri

sche

Judenverfol-

gung in Os

tgal

izie

n 1941-1944 (Munchen: Old

enbo

urg,

199

6); Christian Ge

rlac

h, Kalkulierte

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110559347.001

2

Ferenc Laczó

Gently been complemented by the emergence of th

e Po

lish-language series Za-

g~ad

a Zydów as a lea

ding

forum for new research.4 In

nova

tive

stu

dies

int

o the

Eastern theatres of war res

ulte

d in alt

ered

images of both the perpetrators and

the Judeocide as suc

h.s However, this momentous shift was not

accompanied

by a sim

ilar

ly marked focus on Cen

tral

and Eastern Eur

ope as

a sit

e of Jew

ish

life

and death in the age of ca

tast

roph

e.b

In the German sch

olar

ly context in

particular, despite the laudable ope

n-

ness

of many res

earc

hers

towards Central and Eastern European the

mes,

Ger-

man Jew

ish hi

stor

iogr

aphy

has only pa

rtia

lly been transformed int

o a more in-

clusive Central and Eas

tern

European one. Beyond the

rather exceptional ca

se

of Pol

and,

Central and Eastern European subjects have not

yet

rec

eive

d su

ffi-

cient at

tent

ion in Jew

ish hi

stor

iogr

aphy

outside Germany either. This is all

the

more regrettable since few topics in the intellectual history of

several Central

and Eastern European cou

ntri

es —besides Pol

and,

Hungary and Romania also

offer lcey examples in this regard —have remained so

sen

siti

ve as the trajecto-

ries

, agendas and rol

es of Jewish intellectuals in the pe

riod

of St

alin

ism.

In light of the continued in

flue

nce of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth in Central

and Eastern Eur

ope,

it comes as no surprise that Jewish in

tell

ectu

als'

engage-

ment with and reactions to th

e pr

omis

es and pra

ctic

es of Sovietization in Cen

-

tral and Eas

tern

Europe remain especially controversial subjects. Co

nsid

erin

g

the an

ti-Zionist campaigns of th

e po

st-w

ar period ep

itom

ized

, above all, by the

even

ts of 1968 in Po

land

, a similar statement may be for

mula

ted concerning

how local Jewish intellectuals have rel

ated

to Jewish nat

ion bu

ildi

ng. We ought

to rec

all th

at the

imp

osit

ion of Stalinist reg

imes

implied ala

rge-

scal

e ta

booi

za-

Morde: Die

deutsche Wi

rtsc

haft

s- and Vernichtungspolitik in WeiJ3russland 1941 bis

1944 (Ham-

burg: Hamburger Edition, 1999); Chr

isti

an Gerlach and G~t

z Aly, Das leu

te Kapitel: Realpolitik,

Ideo

logi

e and der

Mord an den ung

aris

chen

Juden 194

4/45 (S

tutt

gart

/Mun

ich:

S. Fi

sche

r, 200

2);

Tatjana Tánsmeyer, Das Dritte Re

ich and die Slo

wake

i 1939-1945 (Pa

derb

orn:

Sch

~nin

gh,

2005); Christoph Dieckmann, Deu

tsch

e Be

satz

ungs

poli

tik in Lit

auen

1941-1944 (GS

ttin

gen:

Wall

stei

n, 201

1); Simon Geissbuhler, Blutiger Ju

li: R

umciniens Ve

rnic

htun

gskr

ieg and der

ver

ges-

sene Massenmord an den Juden 1941 (P

ader

born

: SchSningh, 2013).

4 See

Zagfada Zydów: Stu

dia

i Materiaty, I-X [Holocaust St

udie

s and mat

eria

ls, I-X] (2005-

2014).

5 See Ulrich He

rber

t, Holocaust-Forschung in

Deu

tsch

land

: Geschichte and Perspektiven

ei-

ner sc

hwie

rige

n Di

szip

lin'

in Der Holocaust: Ergebnisse and neu

e Fragen der

Forschung, eds,

Fran

k Bajohr and Andrea Lów (Frankfurt a.

M.: S.

Fischer Ver

lag,

2015).

6 In he

r re

cent

discussion of

the

aforementioned Ed

itio

nspr

ojek

t, pro

ject

coordinator Susanne

Heim hig

hlig

hted

in particular tha

t th

e ca

ses of

Hungary and Sou

th-East European cou

ntri

es

rema

in und

er-r

esea

rche

d. See Susanne Heim, Ne

ue Quellen, neue Fra

gen?

Eine Zwischenbi-

lanz des

Editionsprojekts "D

ie Verfolgung and Ermordung der

eur

op~i

sche

Juden"' in Ba

johr

and LSw, Der Holocaust: Ergebnisse and neu

e Fragen.

Introduction

tion

of Je

wish

themes in Ce

ntra

l and Eas

tern

Eur

ope,

which —ir

onic

ally

— coin-

cide

d in time with the foundation of the state of Is

rael

. The lat

e 1940s would

thus bring a rather pa

rado

ca

l re

asse

ssme

nt of Jewish int

elle

ctua

ls' re

lati

on to

Zion

ism;

cel

ebra

ting

the

accomplishment of the movements main goa

l and the

forc

ed suppression of any open affiliation to

it pro

ved to be parallel develop-

ments. It is widely agr

eed th

at upon the

pub

lica

tion

of th

e two volumes of Na

zi

Germany and the

Jew

s, Saul Friedl~nder's in

tegr

ated

his

tory

of th

e Holocaust,

the latest, ma

inst

ream

his

tori

ogra

phy has come to co

ncei

ve of th

e study of Jew

-

ish perspectives as an essential part of dep

icti

ng the

Naz

i er

a as it unfolded.'

Several ongoing sc

hola

rly publications, such as th

e Je

wish

Responses to Pe

rse-

cution, 19

33-1

946

series or the German-language Editionsprojekt Judenverfol-

gung

, aim to map div

erse

Jewish perspectives in th

e age of Nazi Germany and

the Ho

locaust on an unp

rece

dent

ed scale. The five volumes of th

e former proj-

ect, a lceypart of the lar

ger Documenting Lif

e and Des

truc

tion

: Holocaust So

urce

s

in Con

text

series re

leas

ed under the aus

pice

s of the United St

ates

Hol

ocau

st Me-

mori

al Museum, is

exc

lusi

vely

devoted to such perspectives in a tra

nsna

tion

al

manner.$ The pla

nned

16 volumes of the latter German-

language pro

ject

with

an all-European sc

ope may also be seen as a clear ste

p toward the

increased in-

corp

oration of such perspectives in a nat

iona

l academic context where they

7 Sau

l Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the

Jews: The Years o~ Pe

rsec

utio

n, 193

3-19

39 (New

York: Harper Collins, 1997); Saul Friedlander, The

Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and

the Je

ws, 19

39-1

945 (New York: Harper Pe

renn

ial,

2007). On Friedl~nder's work and historio-

graphical co

ntex

t in

English, see Christian Wiese and Pau

l Be

tts,

eds, Years of Per

secu

tion

,

Years of Ext

ermi

nati

on: Sa

ul Fri

edli

inde

r and the

Future of

Holocaust Stu

dies

(London: Con

tin-

uum, 20

10). For a most recent re

cons

ider

atio

n of

Fri

edl~

nder

's impact in

the

broader con

text

of

the tr

ansf

orma

tion

and new cha

llen

ges of

Holocaust culture, se

e Cl

audi

o Fogu, Wulf Izan-

stei

ner and Todd Pre

sner

, eds, Pro

bing

the Eth

ics of Ho

locaust Culture (

Cambridge, Mass.: Har-

vard Uni

vers

ity Pr

ess,

201

6).

8 See

: Jurgen Mat

tháu

s and Mark Roseman, eds, Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume I,

1933

-193

8 (Lanham, Md.: A1

taMi

ra Press, 2010); Ale

xand

ra Gar

bari

ni with Emil Ker

enji

, Ja

n

Lambertz and Avinoam Pat

t, eds, Je

wish

Res

pons

es to Persecution, Volume 17,1938-1940 (Lan-

ham, Md.: A1

taMi

ra Pre

ss, 20

11);

Jurgen Ma

tthá

us with Em

il Ker

enji

, Ja

n La

mber

tz and Leah

Wolf

son, eds, Jewish Responses to Pe

rsec

utio

n, Volume III, 1

941-1942 (Lanham, Md.

: A1

taMi

ra

Press, 2013); Em

il IZ

erenji, e

d., J

ewis

h Responses to

Persecution, Volume IV, 1942-1943 (Lanham,

Md.:

Rowman &Li

ttle

fiel

d, 2015); Leah Wol

fson

, ed., Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume

V,1944-1946 (Lanham, Md.: Rowman &Li

ttle

fiel

d, 2015). For a review essay on the

series, see

my own Ferenc La

czó,

Ag

ency

and Unp

redi

ctab

ilit

y' in Yad Vashem Stu

dies

44, no. 1 (20

16).

4 —

Ferenc Laczó

tended to be rather ma

rgin

aliz

ed in pr

evio

us decades or may even have been

entirely ign

ored

.9

There

is along-s

tand

ing hi

stor

iogr

aphi

cal de

bate

on the ext

ent to which

1945

ought to be qualified as a rup

ture

. Where Nazi mass violence and the

ir sur-

vivors are

concerned, recent yea

rs have not only se

en a spe

cial

sch

olar

ly int

er-

est in the last phases of the war,

10 but

several newer studies have als

o de

vote

d

attention to the aft

erma

th of li

bera

tion

.l' The deb

ate on con

tinu

itie

s was thus

rela

unch

ed in no

vel ways.

In recent ye

ars,

the plethora of early Jewish intellectual responses to th

e

Holocaust have been rediscovered and analyzed more thoroughly th

an ever be

-

fore. La

ura Jockusch published a wid

ely pr

aise

d transnational overview of ma-

jor hi

stor

ical

commissions and doc

umen

tati

on cen

tres

tha

t pe

rsec

uted

Jews had

already es

tabl

ishe

d during the

war yea

rs in oc

cupi

ed Pol

and and Fra

nce or sur-

vivors had lau

nche

d pr

acti

call

y immediately upon their lib

erat

ion.

Scholars

such as Boaz Cohen or Hasia Diner have in th

e meantime focused attention on

early post-war rea

ctio

ns to th

e Holocaust in the two major Jewish ce

ntre

s out-

side

Eur

ope:

the

newly founded state of Israel and the

Uni

ted States, re

spec

-

tive

ly.~

It may als

o be seen as

indicative of wider changes in Jewish his

tori

ogra

phy

that, in recognition of th

e irreparable de

stru

ctio

n, his

tori

ans of German Jewry

had long pr

efer

red to end their narratives with the tim

e of Nazism and the

ex-

puls

ion or

murder of German Jew

s, referencing the years since 194

5 in post-

scri

pts at mos

t, but

that more recently th

ey have als

o began to de

vote

detailed

attention to the

post-war pe

riod

. This ongoing pro

cess

is pe

rhap

s best sym

bol-

ized

by the rel

ease

of what might be see

n as an uno

ffic

ial fifth volume of th

e

9 The first volume in the series was published in 2008. At the time of writing in 2016, nine out

of the planned sixteen volumes have been released. According to current plans, all sixteen of

them will also appear in English translation.

30 Ian Kershaw, The End: Hi

tler's Germany, 1944-45 (London: Allen Lane, 2011); Daniel Blat-

man, The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni-

versity Press, 2010); Stefan HSrdler, Ordnung and Inferno: Das KZ -

System in leuten Kriegsjahr

(Góttingen: Wallstein, 2015).

11 For this, see David Cesarani, Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949 (London: Mac-

millan, 2015). On the consequences of liberation, now see Dan Stone, The Liberation of the

Camps: The End of the Holocaust and its Aftermath (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).

12 Laura Jockusch, Collect and Record! Je

wish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Eu-

rope (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

13 Hasia Diner, We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Si

lence

after the Holocaust, 1945-1962 (New York: NYU Press, 2009); Boaz Cohen, Israeli Holocaust

Research: Birth and Evolution (London: Routledge, 2012).

Introduction — 5

Leo Bae

cle In

stit

ute'

s German-

Jewi

sh His

tory

in Modern Times.l

` The growing in-

terest in the se

ven de

cade

s since 19

45 has alr

eady

yielded intriguing intellectual

hist

oric

al works as we

ll.ls

The present volume draws on key les

sons

of such doc

umen

tati

on and re-

search pro

ject

s with an all-European or

more nar

rowl

y Central European sco

pe

to offer case studies on the biographies, agendas and accomplishments of Ce

n-

tral and Eastern European Jewish intellectuals from the

interwar ye

ars up to the

Holo

caus

t, and, in

the cas

e of the

minority of sur

vivo

rs, from the

Holocaust un-

til t

he lat

e 19

40s in par

ticu

lar.

We are convinced that th

e st

udy of th

is rel

ativ

ely

negl

ecte

d region pro

mise

s to yie

ld imp

orta

nt original insights into Jewish int

el-

lectual history and, more par

ticu

larl

y, into Jewish intellectuals' complex neg

o-

tiat

ion of catastrophe and uto

pia.

After all, Central and Eas

tern

Europe se

rved

as th

e ma

jor stage of Jewish life

until the Ho

loca

ust.

On the eve of the Second World War in ea

rly 1939, th

e Pol-

ish,

Romanian, Hungarian and Czechoslovak Jewish com

muni

ties

con

stit

uted

the four largest in Europe west of the Soviet Uni

on. In the

cou

rse of the next six

year

s, the great maj

orit

y of them -and oth

ers from all over Europe -were mur-

dere

d by the

German Nazis and their accomplices within th

e te

rrit

ory of the his-

torical re

gion

stretching from the Baltics to th

e Adriatic -above all, in tha

t of

occu

pied

Pol

and.

These ter

rito

ries

were sub

sequ

entl

y Sovietized with momen-

tous

consequences for their post-war memory regimes and arg

uabl

y al

so for the

post-war memory reg

ime regarding Jewish history and the Holocaust across the

globe. The exa

ct def

init

ion of who qua

lifi

es as a Hol

ocau

st survivor may have re-

mained contested up to to

day,

but

it is among the uncontroversial facts tha

t in

the early post-war period, Central and Eas

tern

Europe had some of the largest

communities of survivors. Wit

h the nearly com

plet

e annihilation of the largest

and most p

rolific Po

lish

Jew

ish community, Paris, Bu

char

est and Bud

apes

t

14 See Michael Brenner, ed., Geschichte der Juden

in Deutschland von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart

(Munchen: C.H. Beck, 2012); the four volumes covering German-

Jewish history until 1945 that

were published in 1996 as Michael A. Meyer and Michael Brenner, eds, German-

Jewish History

in Modern Times I -IV (New Yorle: Columbia University Press, 1996). The original four volumes

were respectively titled Tradition and Enlightenment 1600-1780; Emancipation and Acculiura-

tion 1780-1871; Integration in Dispute 1871-1918; Renewal and Destruction 1918-1945. (Note the

telling change in the German title to a history of Jews in Germany.)

15 For example, leading Jewish intellectuals' relations to and activities in post-war Germany

serve as the subject of the following intriguing volume: Monika Boll and Raphael Gross, eds,

`Ich staune, dass Sie in dieser Lult atmen kdnnen': Jiidische Intellektuelle in Deutschland noch

19.45 (

Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 2013).

6

Ferenc Laczó

emerged as th

e three most sizable urb

an communities on the

continent.~

b After

the end of th

e Holocaust, two of th

e four lar

gest

Jew

ish communities in Europe

west

of th

e Soviet Union may have resided in its

wes

tern

hal

f - in Fr

ance

and in

Grea

t Britain -but the

other two liv

ed in Ce

ntra

l and Eastern Europe with Ro-

mani

a's being, des

pite

the

massive ear

ly involvement of Romania in th

e Ho

lo-

caust, the

lar

gest

of them all

.l'

The presence of

such su

bsta

ntia

l communities of survivors in what by 1945

belonged to th

e Soviet-d

omin

ated

parts of Europe mal

se the

que

stio

n of in

tellec-

tual

continuities and cha

nge -whether they ar

e of a personal, discursive or, to

employ Cla

ra Roy

er's

apt phrase from her

study in th

e present vo

lume

, illusory

kind -al

l th

e more rel

evan

t to explore. It stands to rea

son that, irrespective of

how much we may be in

clin

ed to perceive the

Holocaust as th

e ul

tima

te rup

ture

in human civilization, intellectuals of th

e time tried to re

spon

d to the

Naz

i gen-

ocide through means already at their di

spos

al. Ho

weve

r, we cur

rent

ly possess

too

little precise knowledge in which ways such

intellectual continuities we

re

mani

fest

in Central and Eastern Europe and, more par

ticu

larl

y, what specific ex

-

pressions such continuities found with reg

ard to the

unp

rece

dent

ed Jew

ish ca

t-

astrophe.

Scho

larl

y discussions of Jew

ish re

spon

ses be

yond

Cen

tral

and Eas

tern

Eu-

rope have in fac

t already re

peat

edly

addressed the

que

stio

n of continuity.

la As

illustrated by a recent scholarly exchange bet

ween

Bea

te Mey

er, Andrea Lów

and Dan Michman, a key point of difference seems to be whe

ther

to conceptu-

alize Je

wish

beh

avio

ur between 193

3 and 1945 asamore imm

edia

te rea

ctio

n to

the

dras

tica

lly wo

rsen

ing

circumstances un

der

Nazi

rule, as both Lów and

Meyer have done in their respective monographs on the

Litzmannstadt ghe

tto

and the

Rei

chsv

erei

nigu

ng der

Juden in De

utsc

hlan

d,19 or to try

to embed them in

16 For figures concerning 1948, see Michael Brenner, Kleine judische Geschichte (Munchen: C.

H.Beck, 2008), 365. With 234,000 Jewish inhabitants, London had by far the largest Jewish

community in Europe, followed by Bucharest, Paris and Budapest, with 160,000, 125,000

and 110,000 inhabitants, respectively.

17 Ibid., 3

64. According to the figures Michael Brenner provides, Romania had 380,000 Jewish

citizens, Great Britain 345,000, France 235,000 and Hungary 174,000.

18 See Andrea Lów, H

andlungsspeilr~ume and Reaktionen des judischen BevSlkerung in Ost-

mitteleuropa', Beate Meyer,

Nicht nur Objekte staatlichen Handelns: Juden im Deutschen

Reich and Westeuropa', Dan Michman, Handein and Erfahrung: Bew~ltigungsstrategien im

IContext der judischen Geschichte', all in Bajohr and Láw, Der Holocaust: Ergebnisse and neue

Fragen.

19 See Andrea Ldw, Juden im

Getto Litzmannstadt: Lebensbedingungen, Selóstwahrnehmung,

Veehalten (GSttingen: Wallstein, 2006); Beate Meyer, Tódliche Grahvanderung: Die Reichsverei-

nigungder Juden in Deutschland zwischen Hoffnung, Zwang, Se

lbstbehauptung and Verstrickung

(1939-1945) (

Góttingen: Wallstein, 2006).

Introduction

7

long

er continuities of Jew

ish history as was sug

gest

ed by Dan Michman.20 Re

-

garding th

e major in

tell

ectu

al act

ivit

ies of survivors in th

e immediate af

term

ath

of the

catastrophe, Laura Jo

ckus

ch's

abovementioned monograph sim

ilar

ly re-

vealed int

rigu

ing lines of methodological as wel

l as int

erpr

etat

ive continuity

with responses to brutal forms of anti-Jewish vi

olen

ce from th

e la

te nineteenth

century onwards.

One of th

e ke

y motivating factors beh

ind

this volume was our sense tha

t

Jocicusch's th

esis

would be wor

th testing on add

itio

nal pools of sources in fur-

ther languages of Central and Eas

tern

Eur

ope.

We sug

gest

ed to our gr

oup of au-

thors to try

to approach thi

s issue through analyzing th

e dialectic between

cat-

astr

ophe

and uto

pia,

hop

ing th

at they might be usefully em

ploy

ed as key ana-

lytical categories in th

e diverse ca

ses they study. As the

rea

der shall se

e, the

se

concepts, one might say ine

vita

bly,

ended up playing more central roles in

some case studies than oth

ers -they may not have proven esp

ecia

lly relevant

in all cas

es but

do guide cru

cial

arg

umen

ts of th

e majority.

We as editors fully re

aliz

e th

at the

concept of Ce

ntra

l and Eastern Europe

does

not belong among the

most fre

quen

tly em

ploy

ed reg

iona

l labels in Je

wish

historiography, th

e Je

wish

geographical-ethnic imaginary

bein

g do

mina

ted

rath

er by an opposition between Ce

ntra

l Europe and Eastern Europe. The pro-

found impact of extreme fo

rms of vio

lenc

e -a

nti-

Semi

tic bu

t also oth

erwi

se -

acro

ss the

reg

ion and their much con

test

ed rel

atio

n to

spa

tial

categories no

ne-

theless makes a special foc

us on Cen

tral

and Eastern Eur

ope wo

rthw

hile

for the

decades under analysis.21 To a cer

tain

ext

ent,

the

geo

grap

hica

l framing of our

volume overlaps with the

bloodlands as con

cept

uali

zed by Timothy Snyder.

However, our

doverage, while adm

itte

dly neglecting

. the

eas

tern

parts treated in

Snyder's much dis

cuss

ed book, als

o in

clud

es pla

ces to their sou

th and south-

west

, such as Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Cze

chos

lova

kia.

Not bei

ng di-

rectly impacted by the

Mol

otov-Ribbentrop pact with th

e sole exception of Ro

-

mani

a, the

historical tr

ajec

tori

es of th

e af

orem

enti

oned

places significantly dif-

fere

d from tha

t of Pol

and,

esp

ecia

lly re

gard

ing th

e roles played by Hungary and

Romania as we

ll as th

e newly established st

ates

of Sl

ovak

ia and Croatia during

20 See Michman, Handeln and Erfahrung'. See also his earlier: Dan Michman, Understand-

ing the Jewish Dimension of the Holocaust in The Fate of the European Jews, 1939-1945: Con-

tinuity or Contingency?, ed. Jonathan Frankel (New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1997);

see also Norman J. W. Goda, ed., Jewish Histories of the Holocaust: New Transnational Ap-

proaches (New York and Oord: Berghahn Books, 2014).

21 See, most recently, Jórg Baberowski, Ráume der Gewalt (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer Verlag,

2015).

22 Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe

beriveen Hitler and Stalin (New York: Basic Books,

2010).

8

Fere

nc Lac

zó

the Se

cond

Wor

ld War as allies of Nazi Germany and co-

perpetrators of th

e Hol-

ocaust.

It was the

fac

tum of

widespread and rel

ativ

ely autonomous sup

port

of th

eAx

is cau

se and profound in

volv

emen

t in the

continent-w

ide

radicalization of

anti-Semitism th

at led

us to raise ou

r second res

earc

h qu

esti

on, namely how did

the re

lati

ons of

Cen

tral

and Eastern Eur

opea

n Je

wish

int

elle

ctua

ls to the na

tion

alcu

ltur

es and pol

itic

al tra

diti

ons of

the

ir countries tra

nsfo

rm bet

ween

the 193

0sand the ear

ly post-war pe

riod

? More concretely, what characterized their int

el-

lect

ual re

acti

ons to pol

icie

s of

exc

lusi

on, persecution and extermination in com-

parative and transnational frames? How imp

orta

nt wer

e th

e often-remarleed ex

-ternalization attempts in Je

wish

int

elle

ctua

l ci

rcle

s —a

ttem

pts to symbolically

marg

inal

ize lo

cal re

spon

sibi

lity

by an almost ex

clus

ive fo

cus on the

rol

e of Naz

iGermany —and what was their exa

ct function in various con

text

s and at differ-

ent moments in time?~

Refl

ecti

ng on the

se two main questions in a, fo

r Je

wish

int

elle

ctua

l history,

rath

er original re

gion

al fra

me, th

e twelve cas

e studies ar

e ultimately meant to

offe

r in

sigh

ts into how the

Jew

ish ca

tast

roph

e and the

uto

pian

commitments of

intellectuals we

re negotiated. They are

fur

ther meant as a preliminary inq

uiry

into the

added val

ue tha

t a novel dialogue be

twee

n in

tell

ectu

al his

tori

es of Cen-

tral

and Eastern European co

untr

ies might br

ing.

The fi

rst s

ection Th

e Ru

ptur

e of

1933 and New Exp

ress

ions

of Jewishness in

the Age of Na

zi Germany' foc

uses

on divergent attempts of Jew

ish intellectuals

to redefine th

eir place and rol

e when the

Naz

i threat was alr

eady

tangible and

growing but no

t yet at its

most horrendously acute. As the

art

icle

s in this sec-

tion

show, the

refugee pro

blem

eme

rged

as a lcey co

ncer

n among Yugoslav

Zion

ists

and int

elle

ctua

l mediation tu

rned

into an eve

r more tim

ely and urg

ent

pursuit in Prague. How

ever

, a profound sense of ali

enat

ion fr

om all

things Jew-

ish and a deepening crisis of

the

self may also have res

ulte

d from the

rad

ical

-ization of

ant

i-Se

miti

sm. The sec

tion

beg

ins wi

th Ine

s Ko

eltz

sch'

s Utopia as

Ever

yday

Practice: Jew

ish Intellectuals and Cultural Translation in Prague be

-fo

re and after 193

3', which lo

oks at attempts of cul

tura

l mediation be

twee

n Ge

r-

23 Reg

ardi

ng Hungary in

part

icul

ar, Guy Mir

on has

foc

used

attention on Hun

gari

an Jew

ish

attempts at an externalization of an

ti-S

emit

ism pr

ior to the

Hol

ocau

st, their re

curr

ent ambition

to depict it

as something al

ien to the

true spirit of th

e country. In hi

s comparative st

udy,

Mir

onma

inta

ined

tha

t such att

empt

s had close par

alle

ls among Fre

nch Je

ws. Se

e Guy Mir

on, Th

eWaning of Em

anci

pati

on: Je

wish

His

tory

, Memory, and the Rise of

Fas

cism

in Ge

rman

y, France,

and Hungary (D

etroit: Wayne State UP, 2011). In

trig

uing

ly, th

e thesis of externalization is

cen-

tral

to th

e argument of Re

gina

Fri

tz in he

r book on Hungazian his

tory

politics' tre

atme

nt of th

eHo

loca

ust since 1944. Se

e Regina Fritz, Nach Kri

eg and Jud

enmo

rd: Ungarns

Gesc

hich

tspo

liri

kse

it 1944 (Góttingen: Wal

lste

in, 20

12).

Introduction — 9

man and Czech literatures, acultural-political st

rate

gy of special im

port

ance

in

inte

rwar

Czechoslovalua. Stu

dyin

g a loose and per

meab

le network of mu

tual

prom

otio

n of German and Czech, Je

wish

and non

-Jew

ish

writ

ers who did not

easi

ly fit

dom

inan

t co

ncep

tion

s of ide

ntit

y, Koe

ltzs

ch argues th

at the

eve

ryda

y

practices of the

se int

elle

ctua

l mediators could be see

n as a reaction to the

rise

of Nazi Germany and growing rad

ical

nationalism within Czechoslovalua, even

if such mediators did no

t fully break with nat

ion-ce

ntre

d vi

sion

s ei

ther

. The pa-

per by Marija Vu

lesi

ca tit

led "`What Wil

l Become of th

e German Jews?" Na

tion

al

Soci

alis

m, Fli

ght and Resistance in the

Intellectual De

bate

of Yugoslav Zionists

in the

193

0s' lo

oks at the

pos

itio

ns, opinions and demands articulated by three

cruc

ial Zi

onis

t pe

rson

alit

ies of interwar Yugoslavia in reaction to th

e ea

rly —but

alre

ady ra

dica

l —anti-Semitic

poli

cies

of Na

zi Germany and the

consequent

flig

ht of a sub

stan

tial

number of German Jews to Yug

osla

via.

Vul

esic

a shows

how imp

orta

nt the

German Jew

s' si

tuat

ion proved to be in th

e Yu

gosl

av Zio

nist

mili

eu, both as a pra

ctic

al mat

ter and as a topic in intellectual dis

cuss

ion;

yet,

she also notes tha

t th

e latter, be

ing influenced by ide

olog

ical

vis

ions

, did no

t

always address the

—often traumatic —e

very

day ex

peri

ence

s of persecuted Jews

in an adequate ma

nner

. "`

Jewi

shne

ss" in

the

Diary of Mi

lán Fust by Gáb

or

Sche

in off

ers psychological, aesthetic and soc

ial historical ref

lect

ions

on poet

and wri

ter Milán Fust, a wri

ter of Jew

ish

origin' in increasingly an

ti-S

emit

ic

Hung

ary.

As Sch

ein shows, Fus

t may have av

oide

d Je

wish

themes in his pub

-

lished wor

ks, bu

t on the

pages of hi

s diary, his

dee

p crisis of self-p

erce

ptio

n

became rr~anifest in rec

urre

nt —and at ti

mes,

poi

nted

—di

scus

sion

s of Jew

ish-

ness

as so

mèth

ing al

ien to the

aut

hor.

The pap

ers assembled un

der th

e he

adin

g Mo

dern

ity and the

Sea

rch

for

Identity' analyze three at

temp

ts by Jew

ish intellectuals to dea

l with the

preva-

lent

sense of cr

isis

of th

e interwar years: th

e ra

ther

des

pera

te search for new

arti

stic

exp

ress

ions

and net

work

s, the

con

scio

us construction of a new interna-

tion

alis

t ro

le, and the

red

eplo

ymen

t of Yiddish, a pre

viou

sly much-stigmatized

Jewi

sh lan

guag

e through key mediums of modern culture. In

her

contribution

titl

ed Th

e New Type of In

tern

atio

nali

st: The Cas

e of Béla Balázs', Esz

ter Gant-

ner pr

ovid

es new ins

ight

s into the

much-d

ebat

ed pre

senc

e and roles of Je

wish

inte

llec

tual

s in rad

ical-progressivist movements through a cas

e study of Béla

Balázs' biography and maj

or works. Gantner explains tha

t Balázs, a key repre-

sent

ativ

e of cul

tura

l mo

dern

ity,

was per

mane

ntly

seelung for communal bonds

and uni

vers

al bel

iefs

, and als

o shows how —having partially absorbed th

e often

anti-Semitically coded topoi of ro

otle

ssne

ss — he eventually co

nstr

ucte

d a cos-

mological model of a new int

erna

tion

alis

t in

tell

ectu

al. Ma~gorzata A. Quinlcen-

stei

n's "`

Euro

pe" —I

t's such a strange wor

d fo

r me! A Portrait of Art

hur Brylcs

against th

e Ba

ckgr

ound

of th

e Events of th

e Mid-

Twen

tiet

h Ce

ntur

y', a pap

er on

10 —

Fere

nc Laczó

a related the

me, fo

cuse

s on the

int

erna

tion

al activities of a Has

idic

emigré ar

tist

from Poland. Ske

tchi

ng the

rat

her unusual geographical mobility and net

work

sof Art

hur Bryks in the

decades prior to th

e Holocaust, Qui

nken

stei

n's contribu-

tion

embeds thi

s Je

wish

art

ist'

s po

st-w

ar att

empt

s to find hi

s pl

ace in a rui

ned

world in a bro

ader

context. Camelia Cr

áciu

n's "`Virtually ex

nih

ilo'

: The Emer-

genc

e of

Yid

dish

Bucharest during th

e In

terw

ar Period" in tu

rn pro

vide

s an ex-

plan

atio

n of how Bucharest emerged as a cen

tre of Yid

dish

cul

ture

in interwar

Romania. Highlighting th

e key ro

le of Yankev Ste

rnbe

rg and theatre in pa

rtic

u-lar, but noting also tha

t of

a newly eme

rgin

g Yiddish-la

ngua

ge bel

letr

isti

c and

pres

s, Crá

ciun

shows tha

t Yi

ddis

h cultural exp

ress

ions

att

ract

ed acculturated

Jews in interwar Bucharest and at th

e he

ight

of their po

pula

rity

cou

ld a

lso

count on non

-Jew

ish au

dien

ces.

Section three in

clud

es three stu

dies

under the

hea

ding

Un

prec

eden

ted Cat-

astr

ophe

and Lines of Co

ntin

uity

'. They explore publicistic, mo

nogr

aphi

c and

belletristic ear

ly pos

t-wa

r responses to what came to be conceived as th

e semi-

nal ca

tast

roph

e of twe

ntie

th-c

entu

ry Europe while also reflecting on the

mean-

ing of

personal and dis

curs

ive continuities in their or

igin

al his

tori

cal contexts.

Clar

a Ro

yer'

s A Li

bera

l Utopia Against All Odd

s: The Survivor Writers of The

Progress (Haladás), 1945-1948' foc

uses

on Haladás during th

e ea

rly post-war

years, a weekly wr

itte

n by rep

rese

ntat

ives

of th

e urbánus in

tell

ectu

al tra

diti

onof Hungary.

It shows tha

t ke

y co

ntri

buto

rs of Haladás

rele

ntle

ssly

covered

topics rel

ated

to anti-Semitism and the

Holocaust (avant la

let

tre)

while pur

su-

ing an agenda of Hungarian

re-assimilation. As Royer u

nderlines, a widely

shared illusion of co

ntin

uity

' co

uld at times make their pol

emic

s ap

pear

lik

emere resumption of

pre

-war

quarrels -despite the

rad

ical

rupture of th

e war

years. Fer

enc Laczó's study

From Eur

opea

n Fascism to the

Fate of the

Jews:

Earl

y Hungarian Je

wish

Monographs on the

Hol

ocau

st analyzes and compares

the in

tell

ectu

al responses articulated on the

pages of three of the

most signifi-

cant Hungarian Jew

ish monographs pub

lish

ed on the

ver

y re

cent

cat

astr

ophe

right before the

Sta

lini

zati

on of th

e country. Emphasizing how sophisticated

and plu

rali

stic

ear

ly Hungarian Jew

ish in

tell

ectu

al res

pons

es wer

e, the

author

expl

ores

both th

e discursive tra

diti

ons Hungarian Je

wish

survivors in th

e ea

rly

post-war yea

rs drew on and their imp

ress

ive in

tell

ectu

al ach

ieve

ment

s which

have barely be

en matched since. Ilse Lazaroms' Across the

Rupture: Je

wish

Survivor-W

rite

rs and the

Lan

dsca

pes of War in Po

st-w

ar East-Central Europe'

probes the

literary imagination of Ern

b Sz

ép and J

irí We

il, two writers acc

om-

plishing significant wor

ks of documentary fi

ctio

n amidst the

ruins of th

e Na

zigenocide. As Laz

arom

s hi

ghli

ghts

, Szép's and Wei

l's re

flec

tion

s on the

recent

cata

stro

phe we

re embedded in a lon

ger -term per

spec

tive

on Jew

ish

life in Eu

-ro

pe. She also shows that, far from

offering heroic ta

les,

the

se ear

ly pos

t-wa

r

Intr

oduc

tion

— 11

work

s ra

ther

tell of living th

roug

h de

ath and re-emerging into th

e world, tat

-te

red and broken.

Last but

not least, From Utopias to Post-war Trajectories' foc

uses

on Jew

ish

intellectuals from Cen

tral

and Eas

tern

Europe whose current fame ste

ms p

ri-

marily from their po

st-w

ar activities. As all three art

icle

s underline and explore

in their different way

s, Jew

ish post-war int

elle

ctua

l trajectories need to be

re-

lated to tho

se of th

e pre-Ho

loca

ust and Holocaust era in order to be properly

understood. Felicia Waldman's overview

Avatars of Being a Jew

ish Professor at

the University of Bucharest in the

Fir

st Hal

f of the

Twentieth Century' s

yste

mati

-cally co

mpar

es the

various cho

ices

as we

ll as th

e divergent fates of Jew

ish pr

o-fessors in the

hum

anit

ies and the

sci

ence

s at Romania's lcey un

iver

sity

in th

eag

e of cat

astr

ophe

and uto

pia.

More concretely, Waldman's contribution ana-

lyze

s th

e respective l

evels of mer

it, concessions, suffering and p

rofessional

gain

s of professors ap

poin

ted at the

University of Buc

hare

st before 19

44, be

-tw

een 19

44 and 194

8, and in 19

48. Tamás Scheibner's From the

Jew

ish Renais-

sance to Soc

iali

st Rea

lism

: Imre Keszi in th

e Th

rall

of Utopias' provides an ex-

amin

atio

n of the

soc

ial and i

ntel

lect

ual ba

ckgr

ound

of Im

re K

eszi's career,

showing how Keszi conjoined several int

elle

ctua

l stimulants in th

e in

itia

l, more

impr

essi

ve pha

se of hi

s ca

reer

, being cl

earl

y influenced by contemporary pro-

fessional di

scou

rses

on the

German Vol

k in his

native Hungary when for

mula

t-ing his vision of th

e ro

le of Je

ws. Even though Ke

szi,

who became a fie

rce Marx-

ist-Leninist lit

erar

y cr

itic

of th

e ea

rly post-war period, has oft

en bee

n de

pict

ed

as a ren

egad

e, Scheibner's study hig

hlig

hts th

e continuities in his th

inlu

ng re-

volv

ing around lcey questions of Jew

ish existence. Las

t bu

t certainly not least,

Karo

lina Szymanialc's

Rach

el Auerbach, or th

e Trajectory of a Yid

dish

ist Intel-

lect

ual in Pol

and in the

Fir

st Half of the

Twe

ntie

th Century' shows tha

t Au

er-

bach -one of on

ly three sur

vivo

rs of th

e underground Warsaw ghe

tto ar

chiv

e -

was equ

ally

shaped by her

Polish ed

ucat

ion and cul

ture

and her

Yid

dish

ism in

interwar Poland. Szymaniak arg

ues th

at understanding both of the

se dim

en-

sion

s of her

int

elle

ctua

l fo

rmat

ion

is indispensable to fully ap

prec

iate

Aue

r-

bach

's lat

er act

ivit

ies as the

cre

ator

and manager of Yad Vashem's testimony

coll

ecti

on. Through he

r case study of Auerbach, Szymanialz also explores the

self-d

efin

itio

ns and ide

olog

ies of multilingual Yi

ddis

hist

s and their rel

atio

n to

other projects of Je

wish

modernity to ultimately reflect on lcey ch

alle

nges

of th

e

Yidd

ish-speaking intelligentsia in Eas

tern

Eur

ope in

an age of ca

tast

roph

e and

utop

ia.