Digitális Konfliktus Adatbázis

The Making of the Hungarian Anti-Semite

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Fight and identity

Human beings, while categorizing themselves into X and Y, construct identity and otherness simultaneously. Both constructions can be doubted and challenged. The duality of identity and otherness is contingent upon the same system of uncertainty, where negation (otherness) is more important than affirmation of self-identity (Heidegger, 1949).

Human identity, which is threatened continuously from nothingness, can be considered as a destructive and constructive force at the same time. Identity loves and incorporates everything that belongs to its own sphere of influence and hates everything that belongs to others’ sphere of influence. Identity is by nature an extensive striving to destruct or expropriate the sphere of influence dominated by otherness. Identity is born from the fight between “Us” and “Them”.

Ethnocentric love

From the perspective of the fighting partners, the cause of fight has always been the love for the ingroup. Primarily, love is directed toward the members of the ethnic ingroup. Ethnocentric love is particular about leaving no room for the love of strangers. Ethnocentric love that aims at destructing otherness is justified by the desire to grow and enrich the life of the ingroup, which is considered the only life worth protecting.

Christian love

Human groups have lived in war and peace for a long time without a universal perspective claiming to unite the human kind. Christianity has promised a universal equality of all people by abolishing the boundaries between human groups that had been imposed by particular ethnic categories. The Muslim religion had the same claim but it played a minor role in the Western world up until the 20^th century.

As a result of the emergence of this universal perspective, the fight between Us and Them has become the battle between Evil and Good through elevating the ground of the battle into metaphysics. The destruction of the Other has become a moral obligation, to be shared by the one that is to be destroyed in the name of the absolute Good by burning, torturing or putting to the sword. Christian love has singled out and persecuted the evil in women and the Jews. The cause, however, has been imagined to be good and has aimed at converting the Jews to Christian faith and to persuade women to give up debauchery.

Political love

As a consequence of the Enlightenment, the battle between Evil and Good moved from heaven to earth. The parties in modern society have fought with each other. Each of the fighters identify themselves with virtue and believe that the other one is the representative of vice. The fight between the true believers of virtue has not ceased yet. In the name of political love the parties have not stopped to destroy the believers of their political adversaries.

Anti-Semitic love

Actors motivated by the ethnocentric, the Christian and the political varieties of love are all willing good but they act by following different logics. The uniqueness of anti-Semitic love follows from the fact that the cause of the anti-Semite unites the aspects of ethnocentric, Christian and political affections. The mixture of the three affections result in the development of an extremely strong pattern of social, affective and cognitive elements in those persons who have grown up in the spirit of anti-Semitism by recognizing only Jews and non-Jews in their environments. Each variety of love forms a powerful motive to exclude the other from the symbolic and real space. Bringing the three varieties of love together the desire to exclude becomes even more intense and pervasive. The anti-Semite fanatic becomes obsessed and is willing to carry out the program of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semites feel the desire for a good cause that has no alternative, one that will be achieved by making the evil disappear, and the evil is identified with the Jews. In order to realize the good cause the Jews should be seen concentrated and finally annihilated.

The cause imagined to be good by fanatic anti-Semites is not subject to any doubt, conscience or guilt. Compared to the ethnocentric, the Christian and the political varieties, the good cause of the anti-Semite is total. As a chilling example, the secret speech given by Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler can be mentioned. On October 4, 1943 in Posen (Poznan) Himmler openly spoke about the ongoing extermination of the Jewish people and justified it by the love felt for the German people. He stated: “All in all, however, we can say that we have carried out this most difficult of tasks in a spirit of love for our people. And we have suffered no harm to our inner being, our soul, our character...”)

An empirical test of the nature of the anti-Semite love

In 2013 an empirical sociological investigation was carried out on a representative sample of the Hungarian adult population. The sample consisted of 1,000 persons. The aim of the investigation was to reveal patterns of anti-Semitism in relation to the affection felt by the respondents to the Hungarian nation.

Anti-Semitism was measured by five blocks of questions. In the first block questions concerned the degree of social distance between the respondents and the category of “Jews”. Social distance was measured by the willingness to be involved in three types of relationship with Jews (kinship, neighborhood and work).

The second block of questions consisted of two questions. First, we asked for the opinion of the respondent concerning the possibility of a Hungarian Premier of Jewish descent. In the second question the respondent was asked about the opinion of the majority.

The third block was about the estimated number of the Jewish population in contemporary Hungary.

Attitudes and attributions concerning the Hungarian Holocaust were measured in the fourth block of questions.

Finally, we faced the respondents with the points of the 1944 program of the Hungarian Fascist Party (Arrow Cross) and asked them to express their agreement or disagreement with the program which included the point “Jew-Free Hungary”.

Results

Table 1 shows the results of the measurement of social distance in the case of two minority groups. As we can see in the table the group called “Jewish” elicited a smaller social distance than the group named “Gypsy”.

Table 1

Social distance

(percentage of respondents in agreement)

	Partner	Neighbor	Fellow worker
Jewish	41	66	80
Gypsy	25	59	73

The political role taking of Jews can be considered as one of the most sensitive political problems of the society of contemporary Hungary. The consequences of World War I have been perceived by the Hungarians as tragic. The wound inflicted by the Trianon Treaty, however, has remained open. The cognitive dissonance caused by the defeat and its consequences (loss of territory, loss of population) has been reduced by an anti-Semitic interpretation blaming the radical politicians of Jewish descent for the losses of territory and population. This interpretation has endured. According to this interpretation the defeat and the peace treaty can be attributed to the Jewish leaders of the bourgeois revolution in 1918 and the Communist revolution in 1919 (Pastor, 2012.).

Anti-Semitic sentiments certainly have intensified after 1945, when, as a result of the defeat in World War II, the leadership of the new system imposed on Hungary consisted of persons perceived as Jewish by the population. Stalin was keen on sending new leaders who were not to be seen as ethnic Hungarians (except Imre Nagy). This is the historical context of the question that was formulated as follows: “Can you imagine that there will be a Jewish Premier in Hungary in this decade?” 44 percent of those responding gave affirmative response to this question. Table 2 demonstrates the responses to the whole set of categories included in this block of questions.

Table 2

"Can you imagine that there will be a Premier belonging to one of the following groups?”

(percentage of affirmative responses)

The likelihood of a Premier of Jewish descent has been between in the middle zone. It is worth taking a look at Table 3 which shows the results of the question “What do you think about the attitude of the majority?”

Table 3

What do you think about the attitude of the majority?

(percentage of the affirmative responses)

Table 3 clearly shows that according to the respondents the majority is less tolerant than themselves. The reduction of the percentage of the affirmative responses in every category is conspicuous. 43 % of the respondents would be ready to accept a Jewish Premier but only 27 % of them would think that the majority would accept him/her. The reduction is 16 %. In case of the female premier we see a greater reduction (23 %), but in all other categories we see less reduction.

Table 4 shows the results of the question “What is the proportion of the population in percent in Hungary now which can be considered “Jewish”? 19 % of the respondents did not respond to this question. The average estimated percentage of the population considered as Jewish by the respondents was quite high (13 %).

Table 4

"What is the proportion of the population in percent in Hungary now which can be considered “Jewish”?

underestimation (less than 100,000 alatt)	1
accurate estimation (between 100,000 and 200,000)	3
overestimation (between 200,000 and 500,000)	22
extreme overestimation (more than 500,000)	55
no response	19

Table 5 shows the results to the question in which the respondents were asked about their attitude concerning the Hungarian holocaust in 1944. The respondents had to select from a list of historical events three events which they rated as “most tragic”. The table demonstrates that the Hungarian holocaust is not in the list of the top two national tragedies where one can find the Trianon Peace Treaty and the 1956 revolution.

Table 5 Hungarian tragedies

(percent of respondents naming the given tragedy)

As we can see in the table, above 37 % of the respondents considered the Hungarian Holocaust as one of the three top tragedies of the Hungarian history. All respondents, however, were asked about the responsibility of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews in 1944. Table 6 shows the results.

Table 6 Responsibility of the agents for the Hungarian Holocaust

(percentage of respondents attributing responsibility to the given agent)

According to the overwhelming majority of the respondents the responsibility for the Hungarian Holocaust can be attributed to German agents. Every second respondent attributes responsibility to Hungarian agents such as the government, the Regent, the gendarmerie or the public servants. A minority of the respondents tend to blame the Jews themselves and the leaders of the Allied Powers for the deportation and mass murder of the Hungarian Jews in the summer of 1944.

Table 7 Holocaust as a Hungarian tragedy and attribution of responsibility for the Holocaust (percents)

Table 7 shows that there is a relationship between the attribution of responsibility of the individual agents and the attitude toward the historical significance of the Hungarian holocaust. Those who consider the Hungarian holocaust as one of the most tragic events of the history of Hungary have consistently been more willing to attribute responsibility to German and particularly Hungarian agents for the events.

And last but not least, it is worth taking a look at Table 8 which shows the agreement rates of the respondents in 2013 with the points of the Arrow Cross Party published in 1944. As we can see in the table there is no majority agreement concerning any of the 13 points. There are typical socialist points as that of the demand of limiting the monthly salaries or nationalization of the major private companies and establishing a classless national society. The program of a Hungary “free of Jews” which had been realized in 1944 almost in its entirety was acceptable for 15 % of the respondents in 2013. Racist and eugenic points were unanimously rejected.

Table 8 Agreement with the points of the Arrow Cross Party Program

Types and syndromes

On the basis of the responses given to the questions related to the category of “Jew” respondents were clustered into three groups. Table 9 shows the cognitive composition of the three groups.

Table 9

Cognitive composition of the three groups according to their responses to questions related to the category of “Jew”

The data of Table 9 help us to understand the nature of the three groups. Members of the group identified as non anti-Semite do not distance themselves from the Jews, they have no objection to have a Jewish Premier of Hungary, they consider the Hungarian Holocaust as one of the most important tragedies of the Hungarian history. Members of this group do not overestimate the number of the Jewish population in contemporary Hungary and tend to disagree with the idea of a Hungary free of Jews.

Covert anti-Semites distance themselves to some degree from the Jews and they do not think the emergence of Jewish Premier in Hungary would be feasible. Members of this group have not selected the Holocaust into the cluster of the most tragic historical events n Hungary and they overestimate substantially the number of Jews in the country. They do not share, however, the idea of Hungary free of Jews.

The measures of anti-Semitism not surprisingly score high in the group of overt anti-Semites. The estimation of the size of the group identified as Jews has just slightly been above the real number. The relatively real appraisal of the number of the Jews in contemporary Hungarian society corresponds with the representation of the Jews as a minority group whose members the overt anti-Semites keep in considerable distance, do not consider the Holocaust as a tragic Hungarian historical event and many of them share the idea of Hungary free of Jews.

Table 10

Non-anti-Semites, covert anti-Semites and overt anti-Semites in Hungary

Non-anti Semites Covert anti-Semites Overt anti-Semites

n=200 n=324 n=457

20 % 34 % 46 %

As Table 10 demonstrates, none of the groups forms the majority in contemporary Hungararian society. Overt anti-Semites form the most numerous group and non anti-Semites are in an absolute minority. One third of the population can be considered as covert anti-Semite.

The nature of the anti-Semitic love

According to our hypothesis formulated in the introduction of this paper the anti-Semitic love can be seen as a means of love for the nation to whom the anti-Semitic person belongs. The construction of our questionnaire makes it possible to control this hypothesis. Following the method developed by Dekker and Malova we have measured six dimensions of the stock of knowledge of the Hungarian national identity. (Dekker-Malova, 1995, Csepeli, 1992). Table 10 shows the scores of the national attachment in all dimensions.

Table 10

Dimensions of the stock of knowledge of the Hungarian national identity

Table 11 shows the average scores of the six dimensions of national attachment among the non-Antisemites, covert anti-Semites and overt anti-Semites.

Table 11

Dimensions of national attachment and anti-Semitism

.

Table 11 clearly shows the difference in the average scores of the six dimensions of national attachment between the non-Antisemites, covert anti-Semites and overt anti-Semites (1). The spontaneous national sentiment was found strongest among the non-Antisemites. Natonal preference was found most intense among the covert anti-Semites. Conspicuously enough the emotions stemming from national superiority and nationalism were most pronounced among the overt anti-Semites.

Based on the scores of the individual dimensions of the national stock of knowledge a single scale of „national love” was created. Table 12 shows the values of this scale among the non anti-Semites, covert and overt ant-Semites.

Table 12

National love and anti-Semitism

ONE-WAY ANOVA: F-test : 3.252, p: 0.039

It can be seen in the table that there is no significant difference between the covert and overt anti-Semite groups. There is also no significant difference between the non anti-Semites and the covert anti-Semites. There is a significant difference between the non anti-Semites and the overt ant-Semites . Overt anti-Semites can be characterized by the highest scores of National Love.

Conclusion

The results of our investigation into the attitudes toward the Jews and national identity seem to corroborate the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between anti-Semitism and love for the national ingroup. Anti-Semitic love, consequently, is an undifferentiated affection directed toward the national ingroup that has nothing to do with the love of individuals, rather, it is a passionate love for the imagined nation seen darkly in the glass of national ideology.

Notes

(1)

National sentiment: ANOVA, F: 3.531, p: 0.030

National preference: ANOVA, F: 3.567, p: 0.029

National superiority: ANOVA, F: 4.186, p: 0.015

Nationalism: ANOVA, F: 11.974, p: 0.000

Literature

Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined Communities.London:Verso

Dekker, H., Malova, D. 1995. The concept of nationalism. In Cross, M (ed.) Nationalism, ethnic conflict and conceptipns of citizenship and democracy in Western and Easterm Europe. Volume I. Theories and concepts. Utrecht: ERCOMER, pp. 15-56

Dekker, H., Malova, D. Hagendoorn, L. 2003. Natinalalism and its Explanations. Political Psychology, vo..24.no.2. pp. 345-376

Csepeli, Gy. 1997. National Identity in Contemporary Hungary. Social Science Monographs, Boulder, Colorado. ARP, Inc.Highland Lakes, NJ. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York.

Csepeli, Gy. 1996. In the captivity of narratives: the political socialization of populist writers in Hungary. In Held, J. (ed.) Populism in Eastern Europe. Racism, Nationalism, and Society. East European Monographs, Boulder. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York. 129-144.

Heidegger,M.1949. http://www.archive.org/details/HeideggerLetterOnhumanism1949

Pastor, P. 2012. Inventing Historical Myths-Deborah S. Cornelius. Hungary in World War II. Caught in the Cauldron. AHEA E-Journal. Vol. 5. (Review Article)

данильченко юрій броніславович