Yesterday I received four e-mails from four different people, all calling my attention to an article by Krisztián Ungváry, the well-known historian who specializes in modern Hungarian history, titled “Thirty-six million Hungarians? — Ernő Raffay, the historian.”
Raffay’s name has been bandied about a lot in the popular press of late in connection with a series of vicious articles that Árpád Szakács, a Fidesz ideologue, directed, beginning more than two years ago, against the mainstream literary, cultural, and scientific communities. His most recent targets have been historians who “consider themselves the exclusive interpreters of the past” because “their interpretation is not in the national interest.” One of his first victims was Ignác Romsics, the doyen of the Hungarian historical community, for his opinion that, in connection with the underlying causes of the collapse of historical Hungary, “some fairy-tale-like and divisive explanations” have emerged. For example, that “the disintegration of our country was the result of two decades of a subversive conspiracy, the threads of which lead to the Masonic lodges.”
This Masonic conspiracy theory was advanced by Ernő Raffay, whose four volumes on the subject were published by the above-mentioned Árpád Szakács, the owner of Kárpátia Stúdió, which specializes in books coming from the ranks of the far right. Predictably, Szakács was infuriated with historians who came to Romsics’s defense, and subsequently he became engaged in a furious, and in my opinion, fairly useless debate with them.
It looks as if mainstream historians, trusting in their general knowledge of the history of the period between 1867 and 1918, didn’t actually bother to read Raffay’s tomes. The excitement that Ungváry’s article generated is due to his careful analysis of one of the four volumes of Raffay’s work on the Freemasons. The one he chose was published in 2013 and concentrates on “political freemasonry,” with special attention to Oszkár Jászi and the subversive activities of the Masonic lodges.
We should be hopeful: March for Life, 2019
After reading the analysis of the work by Ungváry, one can draw two broad conclusions. First, that Raffay doesn’t deserve to be called a historian because he eschews historical methodology in favor of ideology. Second, that this book is less about the Freemasons than about the detrimental influence of Jews on the course of modern Hungarian history.
As far as Raffay is concerned, Jews were not part of the nation during this period. So, when he declares that the goal of the Hungarian nation should have been the total Magyarization of the Carpathian Basin, he must be excluding the “Jewish nationality,” which “prior to 1914 conquered the country,” with the result that “the most basic Hungarian interests were ignored.” In fact, “the new enemy in those days was one hundred percent Jewish.” He calls Budapest Judapest, and, according to him, the Jewish banks “systematically” bought up land in order “to annihilate” the Hungarian middle class. Raffay considers capitalism “neither Hungarian nor Christian” but “Jewish” and “unscrupulous.” He repeats the long since disproved tale that daily 3,000 Hungarians were forced to emigrate to the United States before World War I because of the exploitation of Jewish capitalists. The truth is that those emigrants were mostly poverty-stricken landless peasants, and the majority of them were Slovaks. When it comes to Jewish Freemasons, Raffay contends that “atheist Jewish Masons hated Hungarians and Christians,” but naturally he doesn’t, because he can’t, provide any support for that outrageous contention.
Ungváry finds Raffay’s frequent references to the radical Freemasons as suffering from psychopathological infirmities which “led to the bloody and murderous activities of the Bolsheviks ten years later” most disturbing because “Raffay takes over the traditions of the most extreme anti-Semites, who also see a kind of biological degeneration in Judaism.” Jews were responsible for Hungary’s collapse, according to Raffay, because “the Hungarian nation allowed immigrant elements to expropriate not only the nation’s wealth, production, and trade, but also higher education, the press, culture, and the arts,” and “such a nation’s days are numbered.”
Ungváry’s final assessment of Raffay’s position on the history of Hungarian Jewry cannot be more damning. The Jewish-Freemasonry conspiracy theory is of course not new, but historians of that period, despite all their prejudices, didn’t sink to Raffay’s level. Raffay’s “work” can be compared only to the “pathological anti-Semitic Zoltán Bosnyák,” who, in 1944, became head of a new research institute established for the sole purpose of “Jew Research.”
As a reminder, Ernő Raffay this year received the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, which Ungváry considers a travesty because Raffay received the honor as a historian. His other achievements were dutifully listed: researcher at the Research Institute of Hungarianism, one of the founders of the Trianon Publishing Foundation, former deputy rector and dean of Károli Gáspár Reformed University, etc. Although it is true that in 1987 he published a book that is allegedly adequate as judged by accepted historical standards, surely he received the Officer’s Cross for his recent works, which manifest an unmitigated Nazi ideology. “For such an achievement one could receive a prize in the course of Hungarian history in only one year: 1944,” claims Ungváry.
Ungváry’s parting words are worth contemplating. “Döme Sztójay and people in his government believed in what they preached. Today, one can find Slomó Köves and Ernő Raffay in the Fidesz camp at the same time.” Viktor Orbán cares not a wit about either the quality or the message of this book; it is politically useful, and that’s enough.
Raffay was a registered internal spy for the Communist secret services between 1980 and 1987 under the pseudonym “Kocsis Lajos”.
https://index.hu/tudomany/tortenelem/2017/12/11/a_rendszervalto_orszaggyules_minden_10._kepviselojerol_egyertelmu_allambiztonsagi_adat_van/
Very fine and comprehensive post.I agree 100% that someone such as Erno Raffy -who willfully disregards well establish historical research methods- should not be dignified with the title of historian. Both you, Professor Balogh and Professor Ungváry are correct in taking away the fig leaf of “historian” given the nonsense that Raffy perpetuates.
I have not ignored other recent posts, all of which I appreciated, I have just been busy and/or had nothing to contribute. Thank you again for all that you do to shine light on a multitude of terrible distortions and/or crimes committed by the Fidesz regime and the biological and adopted family members leading and/or supporting said regime. Additionally, your work highlights all that is good among individuals such as yourself and others committed to a rational, kind and democratic Hungarian culture.
Fidesz and the anti-Semitic far right? Hand in glove. This is an essential component of Orbán’s nationalistic and divisive policy. They are inseparable.
Criminal greed and divisive hate – in Hungary, that is what turns the wheels of government.
“Their interpretation is not in the national interest” was the most chilling phrase of all. Anyone who can say that cannot be regarded as a historian and should certainly be expelled from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences post haste.
These people and their ideology are part and parcel of the fascist regime that is flowering in Hungary under Orban’s rule AND direction. I may add (again and again) that this is all happening under the nose of the EU leadership, who are not ashamed sharing the same room with Orban and Szijjarto on their meetings with them… This is not diplomacy, but outright cowardice and the betrayal of everything that the EU supposedly stand for.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences wherever Hungarian is written on it, Hungarian is also in it.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Slomó Köves enable the hatred of Jews. I don’t know if I go out on a limb when I say they are like Nazis. It is not logical but there is still the infinite stupidity that is rampant in Hungary like a virus. Israel’s policy is very similar to the Nazis.
They once called me a Jew because I demanded money for a service. I found that shameful but not for me.
Interesting is the medium-term reaction of the EPP which obviously and proven (Roma) finances state racism. It worked in 1933 … for a while. Once the borders are closed and you can’t get out, what then? And if you follow the politics from where it comes and where it goes … if someone had read “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle), everything was already in there.
There is one thing I have always kept, if someone tells you how he is then believe him.
Don, I think it a mistake to call Netanyahu and Koves “Nazis”. They are enablers of Orban and in Netanyahu’s case, the Polish regime; that is bad enough. While I oppose many policies of the Israeli government, you are making a mistake to compare it to the Nazi regime i.e. there is still a large free press (unlike Hungary), independent court system (unlike Hungary), there are no death camps etc. As for Netanyahu and Koves enabling “hatred of the Jews”, I am afraid that virus has a long shelf life independent of what some Jews do or don’t do.
I acknowledge your objection although I wrote “I say they are like Nazis.” If you go into detail it looks even different. But there is oppression and hatred, which does not bother ex-military Netanyahu in the least. Sure, there is still a free press, but it happens anyway. Can you in good conscience call them Nazi enablers because they cuddle up with right-wing nationalists?
@ Don Kichote September 5, 2020 12.19 pm Beggars can’t be choosers, Don Kichote. Before Israel existed, Jews were persecuted for millennia, and finally mass murdered on an industrial scale. So, Jews decided they must have their own place under the sun. If Israel is to exist, the Palestinian Arabs have to give up their struggle against it. After all, they speak the same language, have the same culture, follow the same religion and belong the the same extended families as the Arabs of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and many other countries of the Greater Middle East, from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Persian Gulf. And this has always been so, long before even the establishment of the State of Israel. Palestinian “nationality” is in fact a risible piece of fairly recent fiction artificially created by the Arabs in response to Zionist (Jewish nationalist) settlement, and in particular to the Six Day War. Israel hasn’t got too many friends in this world, never had. Its survival has always been an uphill struggle, and its very existence depends on America’s support. Therefore, if the Israeli ethno-nationalist political right finds the support of the Hungarian ethno-nationalist political right strategically useful,… Read more »
Miksa beautiful essay, the Catholic Church was significantly involved in the stigmatization of the Jews. Now I am not interested in the old history but acting aggressively does not lead to a good life. Netanyahu sought and found the proximity of autocrats. The situation is such that one could say there is a concentration camp and Israel. No excitement, it was just mental gymnastics.
@Don Kichote September 6, 2020 8:51 Beautiful comments, Don Kichote, just beautiful. Ignorance is bliss, isn’t it? “…I am not interested in the old history…”. That is a pity, because without at least some interest in “old history”, there is absolutely nothing that you can understand about the present. Particularly in the case of Israel. “…acting aggressively does not lead to a good life…”. How true – under normal circumstances. But if you mean that Israel should not act aggressively, if it wished to lead a good life, you are just demonstrating your utter ignorance of the conditions in the Arab Middle East. In the Arab Middle East, good life is in a very large part the outcome of being demonstratively aggressive. If you are not, you are dead, literally dead, and this is so not just for the Jews of Israel, though yes, it is so especially the Jews of Israel. Like it or not, that is the neighborhood. “Netanyahu sought and found the proximity of autocrats.” Netanyahu sought and found potential allies in a world which tends to be very nasty, brutish and unforgiving, particularly for Jews. If some of those potential allies happen to be autocrats, so… Read more »
Miksa „Now I am not interested in the old history“ means now in that comment. By the way, the Gazans have a whole brain only certain people believe in something else.
„What matters is Israel’s national interest, and not the wishful thinking, on the part of a lot of people, particularly on the political left, about how Israel ought to best commit national suicide.“
Sounds a bit arrogant but good, I already wrote my opinion about it above.
Maybe you want to learn more about philosophy – here are some thoughts about it – maybe a look into the Torah will help. There you can also find useful thoughts. https://www.972mag.com/kufr-qaddum-protests-dehumanization/
I will never be able to respect Netanyahu as a smart person, nor Orban. Jitzchak Rabin was one of the people I mourned.
OT: Today the Minister for International Trade in the U.K., Liz Truss appointed former Australian PM Tony Abbot part of her advisory team on International trade negotiations. Whilst it is not a political position it is clearly motivated by mainstream Tory politics. Abbot is not flavour of the month with the woke left because, judging from his previous comments, does not go along with the blanket opinions that must be held by any person who has a job or access to a public platform. Whether Abbot knows anything about International trade negotiations is an open question. However what has emerged which is very interesting is that Abbot is a self declared Orbanist. A year ago today he was in Budapest at Orban’s invitation and spent his time showering praise of Orban’s anti refugee policies amongst other things. Whilst it is widely trumpeted that the appointment was made by Truss it is inconceivable that it could have been made without its approval by Johnson and the de facto PM Cummings. The U.K. is firmly in the grip of the populist right.
The first half of this post doesn’t match the second. Let’s be clear, Abbott is a loud-mouthed former politician whose views were too off the wall even for Australian conservatives, who revolted against his premiership.One of his recent offerings was that old people with Covid should be left to die at home. IE they weren’t worth wasting time and NHS money on. That Boris Johnson has appointed him to a job for which he has no experience says a lot about Johnson and his incompetent government.
Exhack, not really. I simply find some aspects of Abbott’s politics more objectionable than others. Until quite recently perfectly sensible middle of the road conservatives disliked feminism, wholesale equality and the promotion of gay sex as much as they condemned populist radical nationalism. These days you are cancelled if you don’t sign up to feminisms and the promotion of gay sex. I would defend the right to be heard of those who don’t agree with the statutory imposition of “the promotion of equality”.
Who said anything about “the statutory promotion of equality?” Anyone is entitled to hold whatever views they like. The problem arises when somebody with Abbott’s track record and mouth is appointed to a job where diplomacy may be required. This is a public appointment and criticism of the man and those who promote him is legitimate.
Further to above, we appear to have reached the point that in wokedom whatever the job, if you don’t measure up to PC tests you are cancelled. I don’t agree with Abbott on many things, but his lack of suitability is tested by his absence of relevant experience.
@Aida, 11:45 am
C’mon Aida, Abbott was a £ 10 pound Pom. (As the Oz joke sez, Jeez, now we got to pay 10 pounds for blokes like that we used to get for free”.) He is just coming home to roost and who better to invite him than the hapless pair of the old Etonian BloJo and “new scientist” Dummy Cummings? The majority in the UK election of 2019 voted for them and now, “they have made their bed, they mun sleep on it”. Alas the UK is trundling along to hell in the proverbial hand-cart.
I could not agree with you more. English morons will find how over rated they are. They have no national cuisine, a health service that beggars belief in Western Europe, an indescribable climate added to a falsely based national self belief.
Exhack, I had in mind UK Equality Act 2010. Also equal platform for any whacky view guaranteed by U.K. regulatory regime. Please see this as a taster: Explanatory note to The Equality Act 2010 which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone. Find out more about who is protected from discrimination, the types of discrimination under the law and what action you can take if you feel you’ve been unfairly discriminated against. Discrimination: making a complaintBefore the Act came into force there were several pieces of legislation to cover discrimination, including: Sex Discrimination Act 1975 Race Relations Act 1976 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 If you wish to complain about possible unlawful treatment there are 2 separate processes, depending on when it happened. Complaints: before October 2010If you were subjected to unlawful treatment (eg discrimination, harassment or victimisation) before 1 October 2010, the Equality Act won’t apply. Instead, you’ll be covered by the legislation that was in force at the time. For example, if you experienced race discrimination… Read more »
@Aida
September 5, 2020 3:58 am
Hmm. If you check it out, you will find that Abbot was actually a very deft hand in negotiating free trade agreements for Australia with Japan, South Korea and Communist China, in very short order.
Thanks Miksa, I did just that. The negotiations were, as usual conducted by trade negotiators. Abbott turned up to sign them. As for U.K. trade negotiations are concerned, those do not amount to a row of beans. There are a number already in place since the EU negotiated them. The new ones are a tiny fraction of U.K./ EU trade. Even the idiot English know they cannot replace the volume lost with Brexit outside Europe. Their strategy is obvious. It is set up a series of cheap export dumpings in the single market of goods manufactured to traditional, pre EU standard and/or made with state subsidies as with British Leyland cars of old. The cars were crap as was British Leyland. Return to the seventies is the name of the game. The EU, I hope tell these populist mafiosi just exactly what to do with their trade.
When reading the line:
“Raffay considers capitalism “neither Hungarian nor Christian” but “Jewish” and unscrupulous.””
I immediately thought [as a non-historian]: “That statement is the cornerstone of National-Socialism ideology, best known under the shorter name Nazi!”
Later on in the post my thought is fully confirmed by the line
“… his [Raffay’s] recent works, which manifest an unmitigated Nazi ideology.”
Then combining this with last line of the post:
“OV cares not a wit about…; it is politically useful, and that’s enough.”
Makes me conclude that:
OV does use all sort of ideologies, including Nazi, when they’re politically useful to him!
Values? Rule of Law? Democracy? Anybody? EU?
To every democrat at heart living in the EU and actually the whole wide world: Your action is urgently needed!!!
„Viktor Orbán cares not a wit about either the quality or the message of this book; it is politically useful, and that’s enough.“ For me this is wishful thinking …
Since 10 years a lot of things are politically useful therefore Fidesz is now also quite right-national with all attributes of hatred against Roma and Jews and leftists and homeless and foreigners and dissenters and journalists and scientists and teachers etc. … why do the Nazis march in Budapest that is not politically useful, but they march …
Von Magdalena Marsovszky´s FB-Seite
“Gerechtigkeit, Kraft, Erhebung. Zusammen machen wir das Karpatenbecken groß!”
– mit diesem Text erschien heute, dem 04.09.2020 eine ganzseitige Anzeige in den vielen regierungsnahen Zeitungen Ungarns.
Geschaltet wurde die Anzeige vom “Zentrum für Grundrechte” der Regierung.
Die Homepage heisst auf Deutsch: machteuchbereit.hu
https://keszuljetek.hu/
Ungarn zieht in den Krieg FB-Seite des Zentrums für Grundrechte. https://www.facebook.com/alapjogokert/posts/3585459618152751
” Unsere Urgroßväter haben auch nicht aufgegeben. Sie knien sich nicht nieder und baten um keine Gnade. Wir blieben wach und überlebten.”
From Magdalena Marsovszky’s FB page
“Justice, strength, exaltation. Together we will make the Carpathian Basin big!”
– with this text a full-page advertisement appeared today, 04.09.2020 in the many governmental newspapers of Hungary.
The advertisement was placed by the “Center for Fundamental Rights” of the government.
The homepage is called in German: machteuchbereit.hu
https://keszuljetek.hu/
Hungary goes to war FB site of the Center for Fundamental Rights. https://www.facebook.com/alapjogokert/posts/3585459618152751
” Our great-grandfathers did not give up either. They did not kneel down and beg for no mercy. We stayed awake and survived.”
Actually, the original ad that appeared in Nemzeti Sport is much worse because it is accompanied by an illustration of two or three World War I soldiers, brandishing bayonets.
Eva I think they play with fire until it burns. Orban needs enemies without enemies he is just an ant.
ants are nice and lovely animals, please don’t offend them with stating OV is one of them
OV is just an *ssh*l*, his enablers lickers of ‘is sh*t
Then we replace ant with big tick.
VH: Világ Háború
there’s a whole series, through the Wayback Machine found: Rakoczi / Hunyadi / Vajk (1)
all adverts by OV’s “AlapHazugságokért Központ” [Center for Fundamental Lies]
probably most of their team in quarantine or in isolation, because they organized the “Korona Kerti Parti” about 2 weekends ago [after which the official numbers exploded…]
PS: a question about the helmets in the advert
Last year I visited an exhibition about WW2, and there I understood that there were serious modifications to the helmets [like in all military equipment].
I haven’t got a clue, but may be somebody with knowledge [Istvan, Chicago?] can anwer if the helmets in the advert were really used by the Hungarian army in WW1?
A petition has been started against the “warmongering adverts by OV’s GONGO”, one can put signature at https://szabad.ahang.hu/petitions/tiltakozas-az-alapjogokert-kozpont-haborura-uszito-hirdetese-ellen
Looks like the apocalyptic Werewolf-cult (anonymous Nazis with monthly nocturnal ticks of heiling march-singing behavior) has raised a new generation.
How goes the saying: “The chickens come home to roost”?
Mrs. Merkel said in an university in BP. it is the development of the societies.
A bit strange – But no surprise.
A nation that stands by it’s solemn but fateful Gothic plight to conserve and nurture the last surviving strand of essential purity in The Aryan Bloodline, with such Wagnerian loyalty, naturally deserves the highest reward – Or???
Funny though that Viktor the Great European Defender of the Aryan Bloodline goes to Turkmen congresses of his historical Asian brothers from Mongolia or thereabouts and wants to belong to their associations.
Must be the best joke of Hungarian “white nationalism”.
Well – I’m confident the appointed defenders of The National Purity have that shame covered.
They could probably fit it in with the Aryan interpretations of The Messiah and his alleged mother’s secret blue Parthian bloodline.
After all, when they can interpret The Virgin Merkel’s DNA-sequence as half belonging to the bloodline of Saint Adolf The Innocent….
I can’t eat as much as I want to throw up – here’s a “historical” video of Greater Hungary:
https://keszuljetek.hu/
Unbelievable – who produced this cr*p?
In a way it’s funny …
The motto is:
EGYÜTT TESSZÜK NAGGYÁ A KÁRPÁT-MEDENCÉT!
Look for this on google – crazy!
Probably the single most extravagantly burlesque and specifically unkosher national fetichism in all of Europe.
What the hell – People seem to like it.
wolfi you were faster but I posted it too it fits so well with wishful thinking. https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/09/04/fidesz-and-the-anti-semitic-far-right-the-case-of-erno-raffay/#comment-196285
The government goes on and on and we are still far from reaching the end of the line.
Don, this is so ugly that it’s good to look at it from different sides!
PS:
Sorry, forgot to mention that I saw it on pusztastranger’s facebook page first.
https://www.facebook.com/pusztastranger
There you can also find that crazy picture of the three soldiers.
Re: Magyar historians today. Of apparently two types. A group committed to understanding and offering historical cause and effect with intelligence, detective work and deduction plus a keen sense of interpretation when turning over the multitude of facts before them. And they are aware of bias and attempt to hold it in check so as to not put their work in great question. But another group exists which is far from the above whose biases are all to plain to see. And from that their histories can only made within trash bins where the past’s detritus is served up on a plate custom made to the Magyar ideological zeitgeist. Unfortunately Raffay et al are historians are the type who would rally others to follow and join a bent coterie that also would see the past as they do and scribble and virtually repeat their conclusions after historical ‘investigation’ so as to supposedly ascribe validity. It is is obvious then these are historians who have ignored a past just staring agog at them in their faces. They simply will write what they wish to write. But they are a group so far gone that they come across as if they’ve wouldn’t… Read more »
Really to discuss the Hungarian immigration to the USA in the pre-WWI period is a very complex issue, because these immigrants were generally identified as citizens of the Empire in the records at Ellis Island for example, but in other cases as citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary. Between 1880 and 1914 possibly some 3.7 million people came from the Empire to the USA. The Habsburg Monarchy became the enemy of the USA once we joined in WWI and all immigrants from the Empire were declared enemy aliens and the men were not drafted in the US Army. This academic paper by László Ambrus published in 2018 http://real.mtak.hu/103346/1/ProContra-2018-2-01-L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3-Ambrus.pdf discusses estimates on the extent of Hungarian immigration to the USA prior to WWI. Of all Austro-Hungarian immigrants, an estimated one and a half million arrived from the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. Of those immigrants from the Kingdom of Hungary only about 46 per cent of immigrants from were actually Magyars according to the estimates that László Ambrus used. My Grandfather and Great Uncle were among that smaller number of Magyar speaking immigrants, actually it would be better to say immigrants whose home language was Magyar. Because in the case… Read more »
Amazingly I was able to trace the serial number on the rifle and determine it was likely not one of the Mannlicher’s sold off after WWI, with some even ending up in South America. It was produced well before WWI and was apparently not one of the rifles distributed to the Royal Hungarian Honved, but to Common Army K.U.K. (kaiserlicn und koniglich). The bulk of the Mannlichers used by the Honved were made by Budapest’s Fegyver és Gépgyár Rt. The rifle my grandfather had was made by Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft. So the origins story of that rifle appears to be legitimate. The modern firearms company Steyr Mannlicher retains the records of many of these rifles. I had doubts about my grandfather’s story of having brought the rifle over disassembled without it have been seized at Ellis Island and did try to research that issue as best as I could. The rifle fires and I have shot it, although not within the last 15 years to be honest. It uses an en-bloc clip as opposed to a stripper clip to feed ammunition into the chamber. An en-bloc clip holds the rounds within the clip and it is inserted into the rifle from… Read more »
On the truly chaotic scene surrounding Ellis Island:
https://www.history.com/news/immigrants-ellis-island-short-processing-time
Interesting history on WWI, Magyar immigration and Ellis Island. Record-keeping as noted in those early days of the century certainly was so far off from what’s done nowadays. Guess that’s why I virtually know about my grandparents time when they came around that time..not sure if it was pre-war or after. But have to say the like Columbus, they ‘discovered’ America and also like the Vikings they came to visit a bit and but left to go back to theIr original homeland. Always thought being of peasant stock they were told to come for ‘gold’ as no doubt they got wisps that the ‘New World’ had it. Not sure if they were ‘in poverty’ at home before they came but looking at their place in Kadar’s time I would have to figure that in Magyarorszag when it comes to villages they probably didn’t change much in time when compared to the days of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Anyway they didn’t say. They cut out to ‘go home’. Heard my grandmother didn’t like it. Not sure why. Maybe they thought it too much to get rich? Maybe they couldn’t pick up the language? Could be they saw too much… Read more »
We can only guess what immigrant life was really like.
Not so few of my grandparents’ closer relatives went to the USA during the early 1900’s, and judging by their, letters the going was quite tough and laws generally arbitrary and nearly non-existent if you could strike the right deals. None of the accustomed Old World order and no opportunity too small for merciless competition, but unlike Europe, opportunities weren’t in short demand or reserved the chosen few.
A few went West and Northwest settling in muddy towns there, and others preferred the provincial comforts of upstate New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
One condition seemed constant: For those who were homesick and didn’t “cut the umbilical” shortly after arrival, life in “The New World” was an endless challenge and returning to the old country the ultimate lifeline. Upon returning, regrets soon took over.
wrfree, do you know that there is plenty of information on the internet about your Hungarian ancestor? You’ll be surprised. I can help you, if you need it
Quote of this ‘historical’ day:
“Quis necsit, primam esse historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere audeat? Deinde ne quid veri non audeat? Ne qua suspicio gratiae sit in scribendo. Ne qua simultatis?”
”Who does not know history’s first law to be that an author must not dare to tell anything but the truth? And its second that he must make bold to tell the whole truth? That there must be no suggestion of partiality anywhere in his writings? NOR OF MALICE” (my caps) …Marcus Tullius Cicero
A useful and wise quote from one of the ancient parents of history. I am guessing that Raffay did not study such. Thank you wrfree.
OT, but it does start to look as if a certain Mr. Orbán can get ready to pitch in at the hootenanny of sinking Post Soviet dictators, with these lines:
“Trouble to the left of me, trouble to the right – Here I am,
Stuck in the middle with EU!”
https://balkaninsight.com/2020/09/04/djukanovic-had-to-fall-eventually/
Sorry about this OT. After an almost a whole week, I decided to look at the new Index. The quality struck me as pitiful. But here is one lead which really got to me. It reads:”Küzdenek a Velencei-tóért, bár a polgármester szerint nem is léteznek” (They fight for Lake Velence but according to the mayor they don’t exist). What do you think the article is all about?