| Abstrakt: |
Only in 1989, after forty-five years of Soviet domination, could the Holocaust in Hungary begin to be discussed openly and honestly. One scholar in particular, the author- editor of this mammoth geographical encyclopedia, Randolph L. Braham, has devoted his life and career to uncovering the truth about what happened within the borders of Hungary and the annexed territories. Since 1961 he has written or edited, co-authored or co-edited more than fifty books on the Holocaust. The masterful two-volume Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary (1994) appeared to be his definitive statement. But now, with a team of Hungarian Holocaust scholars and journalists, he uncovers, with maps and photos, how the Holocaust was implemented within each and every city, town, and village of every one of the forty-one counties in wartime Hungary. The authors document the histories of each location where Jewish families lived. The photos recover the multitude of synagogues that once were filled with a lively spiritual life, which today mostly serve other purposes, if they have not been destroyed altogether. The photos of the humiliating treatment of the Jews at the hands of the SS and Hungarian gendarmes, in conjunction with the maps showing the routes toward their final destination, depict how Jews were uprooted and discarded. Viewing the Holocaust in Hungary through a geographical lens creates a new perspective and fresh insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
