An article appeared in the weekend magazine of Népszava yesterday with the provocative title “Can Imre Kertész become the new hero of the right?” The article is not so much about Imre Kertész as it is about the ambivalence of Hungarian governments toward the country’s Jewish community over the last 150 years.
It was the recent opening of a new institute named after Imre Kertész, Hungary’s only Nobel Prize-winning author, which inspired Gergely Bártfai, the author of the article, to ask this question because, by all indications, the Orbán government has taken the first steps toward rewriting the life and work of Imre Kertész, the author of Fatelessness. The recreation of Kertész’s heritage will not be easy, but the current Hungarian government has considerable practice in the art of falsifying history.
Kertész received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2002. By then, he had lived in Berlin for some time, where he settled comfortably among people who appreciated his work more than folks did in Hungary. In 2009, Szombat, a Jewish weekly, published an article summarizing an interview Kertész had with Die Welt. In the interview, the writer complained about the growth of the far right and anti-Semites in Hungary and expressed his preference for Berlin over Budapest. In fact, so much so that, as he put it, he “moved his literary heritage to emigration” by bequeathing it to the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
But the story didn’t end here. The widow of the writer, ten days before her death, donated the copyrights of all of Kertész’s works as well as his library to a government-sponsored foundation led by Mária Schmidt. As far as 444 knew in 2018, the government had already sunk some three billion forints into the Kertész Foundation, which would be in sole charge of preserving (or re-creating) the image of the writer in Hungary. Magda Kertész’s heir, her son from her first marriage, contested the agreement signed by his mother and Mária Schmidt, but Schmidt’s foundation won the case in January 2019. The most important part of Kertész’s literary heritage, however, remains in Berlin.
It was renovated with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s assistance; Mária Schmidt, director general; Tihamér Szalay, architect
After almost four years of litigation and preparation, the day arrived when the Imre Kertész Institute opened its doors.
Following Mária Schmidt’s introductory words, the prime minister delivered a speech which promptly was translated into English on the prime minister’s official website.
After a lengthy introduction about the beauty of certain upper-middle class homes of yore in Budapest and the tremendous strides his government has made in their refurbishing, the prime minister tried to minimize the disgraceful reception of Kertész’s Nobel Prize in Hungarian right-wing circles, including Fidesz’s very own Magyar Nemzet. The negative reception of Kertész’s prize was so obvious that not even Viktor Orbán could outright deny it, and therefore he touched on it in the following way: “When I think back to when Imre Kertész was awarded the Nobel Prize, here in Hungary were rather heated debates. I remember that among the Right in particular—perhaps more so among its more radical part, but perhaps the entire Right—there were some who took a certain view on this,” leaving the meaning of “a certain view” to the listeners’ imaginations. He continued: “It was an enormous achievement …, but everything is relative and other great authors didn’t receive the same honor between the two world wars, Ferenc Herczeg and several others hadn’t received the same honor, but Kertész did.” I guess this justifies the scandalous behavior of the Hungarian right, including utterances of Fidesz politicians and political analysts. Orbán admitted that these debates were not of “high quality,” and “some also said that he’d clearly won it because it was for a novel concerned with the Holocaust.”
What an expurgated version of those days! In the future, I will take the time to gather a collection of those “not such high-quality remarks” minimized in Orbán’s speech. For the time being, I am relying on Péter S. Földes’s recollections of some choice examples of remarks that appeared in Fidesz publications. In 2002, Magyar Nemzet declared that “now the only question is who will be the first Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian writer.” Péter Szentmihályi Szabó, a mediocre poet and political commentator who was named ambassador to Italy in 2014, in a television discussion in 2009 said that “for years he has been writing a book titled The Little Gardening Encyclopedia about the life and age of Imre Kertész. In the first part of it, I review the history of the Nobel Prizes in Literature, and I can attest to the fact that so far not one patriotic normal person has ever received a Nobel Prize in Literature.” For those unfamiliar with the Hungarian language, “Kertész” in Hungarian means “gardener.”
Orbán, in his speech, quoted from the many political comments Kertész made in interviews after he became famous. He chose quotations which made Kertész sound like a supporter of the current Hungarian regime. Kertész’s hatred of the Hungarian communist period has long since been well documented, and therefore it was nothing like “an atomic bomb,” as Orbán described it, that he thought that “national socialism and communism spring from the same roots.” Or that “communism is beyond redemption.” But what a joy it had to be for Orbán when his researchers found this quotation: “Ridding themselves of communist oppression, how much good can the countries of Eastern Europe bring to European civilization,” as if Kertész had foreshadowed Orbán’s own thoughts about the outstanding contributions of Central European countries to the European Union.
Orbán, of course, ignored statements that reflected poorly on him. For instance, in a 2012 interview with Le Monde, Kertész said: “Nothing has changed in Hungary, everything is the same as it was in the Kádár regime, only now it is Orbán who enchants the country.” In the same interview, he also said that “Hungary turns against Europe for the protection of national interest, which may give the impression that the country is regaining its sovereignty. Hungary is wrong, and this is not new in the country’s history.” And, bluntly, Kertész stated that “Hungarians will realize that they are heading in the wrong direction and Orbán will fail.”
In short, it will take a heroic effort to make Kertész into a man who fits the Orbán mold, but I’m sure that no effort will be spared to refashion him into a true “national” writer.
Substantial Schmidt-contributions such as a “Kertész’ Secret Mangalica Recipes” would probably be another popular official best-seller.
My daddy’s people (my great-grandparents) were Hungarian Jews who left the olde country in the 1870s to find a life with less obstacles to those with their blood.
They found that life in The United States and worked themselves to death becoming successes here, which they did, not only as grocers, busisnessmen, gamblers, and racketeers, but, scientists, as well.
That said, Hungary is not unique in it’s ‘ambivalence’ towards Jews, every Gentile country, certainly in Eastern Europe, fielding everything from a community solidly anti-semitic towards those who are very supportive of Jews.
That said, my great-grandparents and grandparents never lost their affection for Hungary, but, they felt here would be happier hunting grounds, which, in those days, it most certainly was.
In the end, I do not think that Gentile Hungarians have anything to apologize for, because, while individual people may choose to love, and be loved, by those from other tribes, different tribes never love each other.
Multiculturalism has always been a serious problem, precisely because of that.
Thanks for the post tonight. Of course, Imre Kertész was a complicated human being, let alone a complicated, but highly sophisticated writer. The regime will be unable to turn Kertész into something like a fellow traveler of this regime, not that they will cease their unpardonable efforts. The irony of Maria Schmidt managing the so called Kertész Institute is almost unbearable, but then again, Kertész anticipated the misuse of history by the likes of Schmidt et al. After all, Imre Kertész survived Auschwitz-Birkenau. When this regime and its stooges are long forgotten, Imre Kertész will still be a light in the darkness. The regime will always be associated with darkness.
“….not one patriotic normal person has ever received a Nobel Prize in Literature.”
Perhaps somebody should inform Péter Szabó that the Nobel prize is not given to normal people. Normal means the statistically largest majority average Joe Hungarian. The Nobel Prize is given to exceptional people.
“The Nobel Prize is given to exceptional people.”
Exactly!
“Ridding themselves of communist oppression, how much good can the countries of Eastern Europe bring to European civilization,”
It would be more accurate to put a question mark at the end of that sentence, and perhaps that was the thrust of Kertész’s remark in the first place.
As for the notion that “national socialism (a euphemism for Fascism) and Communism spring from the same roots.”, he is right, and all of the oppresive “isms” can be filed away under Totalitarianism, which is what they have in common, and Orbánism is in the same unhappy category.
Fascism and Communism are just words, but the actions they describe are all the same – the state controlling and oppressing and often destroying, its own citizens.
How good it is to read the quotations from Imre Kertész in the 2012 interview in Le Monde that conclude today’s blog:
“Nothing has changed in Hungary, everything is the same as it was in the Kádár regime, only now it is Orbán who enchants the country.”
“Hungary turns against Europe for the protection of national interest, which may give the impression that the country is regaining its sovereignty. Hungary is wrong, and this is not new in the country’s history.”
“Hungarians will realize that they are heading in the wrong direction and Orbán will fail”.
The odious hungarist team of Orbán and Schmidt, try as they may to force Kertész into a “National Magyar” box, are going to fail. Nobel Prize winner Kertész already dealt with them and their distortions eight years ago.
‘Nuff said.
Orbán’s illiberal regime gets a good summary in this article on a Swedish university study of the Nationalist transformation of the Republican Party in the USA:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/26/republican-party-autocratic-hungary-turkey-study-trump
The world outside knows very well what is going on behind the walls of the Kármelita…
For those readers of Eva’s blog who make comparisons between Fidesz, Orban, and Trump’s Republican party in the USA you have been provided with a report that supports your arguments. See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/26/republican-party-autocratic-hungary-turkey-study-trump
Cited Democracy Report:
“Autocracy surges – Resistance grows”
https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/de/39/de39af54-0bc5-4421-89ae-fb20dcc53dba/democracy_report.pdf
“[The US Republican party] has followed a similar trajectory to Fidesz, which under Viktor Orbán has evolved from a liberal youth movement into an authoritarian party that has made Hungary the first non-democracy in the European Union.”
The Republican party again appealed to the US Supreme Court demanding that Pennsylvania should not count the mail-in ballots arriving after November 3. A few days ago, the Court rejected their appeal by a 4-4 tie.
Republicans hope that the brand new justice in the Court will side with them.
The Pennsylvania law, supported by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court allows the counting the ballots that are postmarked on or before November 3 and arrive by November 6.
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/10/24/gop-ballot-lawsuit-supreme-court/
Another state example of the Republican & Trump suppression algorithm:
Fox News poll, October 17-20, sample size 1106
Pennsylvania:
in-person voting= early+election day:
Biden: 5.5% + 16.5% = 22,0%
Trump: 6.3% + 29.7% = 35.8%
mail-in voting= early+election day:
Biden: 24.5% + 2.0% = 26.5%
Trump: 7.2% + 1.4% = 8.6%
Biden total = 48.5%
Trump total = 44.4%
But if some of the mail-in ballots are disqualified by the US Supreme Court, 5-4, then Trump wins the state.
https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/10/Fox_October-17-20-2020_Complete_Pennsylvania_Topline_October-21-Release-002.pdf
Ms Barrett can also cast the decisive vote to suppress ballots for Biden in Wisconsin and in North Carolina in the next few days.
Barrett was just confirmed as justice, in a 52-48 Senate vote.
Autocracy? Antisemitsm? All embodied in the latest show of “tolerance” by the left, as a group of Jews for Trump were having a rally in NYC.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/ny/jews-for-trump-pelted-with-eggs-stones-punched-out-in-times-square/2020/10/26/
Yes, tappanch is right “Autocracy surges”. Anyone not conforming ideologically is met with violence, job loss and other forms of persecution at the hands of a vicious mob, incited by MSM, Academia, Business elites, deep state actors and an increasingly dominant big tech, which is apparently assuming the role of ministry of truth. Even Jews who step out of line are fair game!
Eggs thrown on Trumpists? Not the finest way to tell them that their president is an extremely dangerous idiot, but this is not anti-Semitic!
Anyway: Zoltán the multiple migrant and serial colonist should try to read and to understand (!) the report about a study before quoting 2 words….
Yes, the report looks outright ridiculous given the antidemocratic nature of weaponizing a mob to attack all those who dissent through physical violence as well as going after people by pressuring employers to fire them thus depriving dissenters of the right to earn a living. Also ridiculous given that in the US the left has a near monopoly on communication at this point. Big tech, which now has near-absolute power in controlling info that the masses consume is now openly interfering in what information reaches people along ideological lines of interest and they are clearly siding with the left. Academia is a near-leftist monopoly and the last few non-Marxists are being purged from universities at a furious pace, in part through the actions of the cancel mob. MSM is mostly on the left as well. A family at that rally, including four kids were pepper sprayed by an advocate of Marxist “tolerance”. Please let me know when CNN, NYT, WP, HP and other usual suspects will report on that!!! Yes, I understand the report. It is once more an exercise in pure cynicism. It takes advantage of the fact that too many of the sheeple still have confidence in such… Read more »
There are respectable Republicans zoli is none of them.
Since January 2002 Fox-News has been the most watched cable news channel in the USA.
In November 2011, a study by Fairleigh Dickinson University concluded that viewers of Fox News were not only significantly less well informed than those of other channels, but on average they knew less about actual political events than Americans who did not watch the news at all.
A study published in 2007 by the University of California, Berkeley examined the political impact of the introduction of Fox News in local U.S. TV markets between 1996 and 2000, and concluded that the introduction of Fox News had increased the Republican voter share in the Präsidentschaftswahlen 2000 (2000 presidential election) According to the study, Fox News convinced “3 to 28 percent of its viewers to vote Republican, depending on the measured audience.
Yes, studies done by leftist institutions came to leftist conclusions. Big surprise!!! Fact is that overwhelming volume of MSM is leftist. Yes Fox news also exists, but reportedly there is growing pressure from its sponsors to report in an ideologically correct manner, so not sure how much longer it will report on facts. BTW, how much time did CNN allocate today to reporting on the fact that 4 Jewish kids were pepper sprayed by a “peaceful” protester? And how well-informed can someone be by watching CNN?
I did´nt speak about leftist and rightist.
It might be me, as I am no multiple migrant and serial colonist, that I never found any larger left wing or even marxist US media outlet. Since my views are close to centre I see and understand the differences between conservative, liberal, social democrat, and (not only so called) socialists very well, not everybody not on the side of the Orbán regime is a marxist! And putting high-reputed academics into a communist corner makes it easy for the regime propaganda, but completely ridiculous as well. Understanding? Not at all! Throwing with dirt? As usual!
As for the antisemitism aspect of it? Anyone who dares to oppose Soros and his well-funded agenda is called “anti-Semitic”. It has been done countless times on this site, within Eva articles and on the forum. So what do we do when four Jewish kids are pepper sprayed by a member of a leftist mob, attacking them for being part of a Jewish caravan that advocates for a different point of view? Anti-Semitism no more, right? Cynical hypocrisy!!!
I am sorry Bimbi but when I posted on the same story you post had not yet shown up on my screen. Sort of related is this article https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/donald-trump-authoritarianism-after-the-election.html which for a life long US Republican and never trump advocate is pretty depressing and indicates my political exile will continue potentially indefinitely even if Trump loses the election. The Republican Party will march on in an illiberal authoritarian direction according to Jonathan Chait who wrote the article. But my own political dilemma is not the reason I have drawn attention to this essay for Eva’s readers who are concerned primarily with Hungary. It is because of this interesting sentence in the essay which reads: “The reelection of Donald Trump, unlikely but terrifyingly possible, would hasten America’s evolution into an oligarchy along the lines of Hungary, Turkey, and Russia, whose illiberal leaders Trump admires and who are, in some cases, working to help him secure a second term.” It has during this presidential election become the norm to compare Orban’s Hungary to the evolution of the USA in the more liberal media in the USA. That in itself I think says something about the popular perception of Hungary among the college… Read more »
Christ!!
If you need to look to the USA for orientation, you really don’t know who you are – In a European context.
Hi Istvan (Ch) Kudos for the link, I already had copied it to use it as the last nail on your coffin (joke). The rapport perfectly reflects my concerns about the republicans the last years. Not because I can not accept if the people in your country choose any idiot as their representing person in any representing body. The things that worry me are the facts that republicans seem to deny most of the important scientific evidence in important fields. We know that your country with a minority of the people living on this planet is consuming a disproportional amount of recourses, to put it mildly. Well, in your capitalistic view where one can deserve respect by getting rich is just supporting the mentality that everything that stands in the way of your personal wellbeing should be eliminated. And if other people or countries complain they are stupid not to do the same. A nice example for this are the republicans in Alaska. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/25/republicans-alaska-tongass-national-forest As long as it makes money we don´t care about the rest of the world. Just this example shows how republicans are only interested in material advantages in the near future, and are not interested in… Read more »
I thought you wrote you would never reply to anymore of my posts?
I thought that the Orbanregiem admires Ferenc Herczeg, József Nyíro and Albert Wass that are authors of the corporative state with fascist thinking. Of course, these writers are poor and primitive, but they fit the Orbanregiem and Orbanistan perfectly.
In 2012 MMA President “Hungarian Academy of Arts” György Fekete said about Imre Kértész that “in the West many people mistakenly believe that Imre Kertész is Hungarian” … that means he is not Hungarian, he is a Jew. And now the right wing wants him as a figurehead – I find that disgusting.
It’s the “lateral thinking” of Dugin’s Eurasian theory. Q = Querdenken = lateral thinking. Uniting the Right and the Left, the Jews with the Nazis, and so on. BUT only along the lines of Duginism: meaning Russia and Putin must be revered as leaders. This is the culmination of twenty years of troll work in the alternative media and alternative life. All the major Alt Right figures who are connected with Putin now profess to love the Jews and Israel, admire both Hitler and Stalin – and basically mix every ideology into one big Putinist stew – a globalist pro-Russian anomaly. In real life the Duginists have created and supervised a multitude of (apparently) leaderless cells – the QAnon, Querdenken and Identitarian movements – which are now beginning to unite according to the instructions they receive over the internet. They have both left wing and right wing members and they are purposely confusing people. The neo-Nazi magazine Compact has already admitted that the Querdenken cells in Germany/Europe are uniting with the QAnon “leaderless” movement in North America. This was all hatched in the Russian GRU labs by the fertile mind of Alexander Dugin and his international collaborators – and we’re… Read more »
Alexander Geljewitsch Dugin a right-wing extremist represents anti-Western and anti-liberal positions and propagates the geopolitical concept of a “neo-Eurasism” on the basis of a Greater Russian empire in opposition to the United States via international networks. Says Wiki
Michael Ballweg is the founder of the Querdenker movement. They are neither a political party nor an association, therefore they cannot issue donation receipts. They beg for money which one is to give to them as a present that must be indicated at the tax office within three months. Michael Ballweg probably noticed how much money one can earn with it. Let’s wait and see what else we hear from them.
No, this is a very simplistic approach, DK. A major political power like Fidesz which controls half of the active voters has an ideology that has internal contradictions and naturally wants to cover very diverse individuals. So of course, the most important is to spread Albert Wass, Jozsef Nyiro etc. ideas and works. That’s a direct objective. But it is also important to find other major household names who would not appear as fidesznik at first sight, and then coopt them. Janos Kadar’s system was not stablized and normalized by the hard core communist artists but by he coopted fellow travellers like Gyula Illyés, Zoltan Kodaly, Laszlo Németh etc. This leg of the Fidesznik ideology takes place by coopting somehow those who inherit the legal rights (e.g. copyright). They are usually people with low incomes who have only one asset: they are the descendants (relatives) of the big man. No one can possibly pay as much to Imre Kertesz’ widow or to the son of György Petri as Maria Schmidt can. FYI Petri was the most celebrated, beloved poet in SZDSZ. Petri’s son is a fidesznik and he can normalize Fidesz in a community which is full of opposition leaning… Read more »
Shrewd comment, just one thing: I don’t believe Kádár ever succeeded in coopting Kodály.
Well, although I’m no historian I’m not sure Kodaly was very critical of the Kadar system with 3 Kossuth prizes. In the 45 years between 1945-1990 there may have been no more than half a dozen top artists who received altogether 3 Kossuth prizes, which is the most coveted prize for artists (it’s a sad reminder that artists still to this very day covet a politically charged state prize). It seems Kodaly was happy in the Kadar system and his uncritical acceptance of the system can be regarded as cooptation. In any case the point for the autocratic system is to communicate that the big icons (Kertész, Petri etc.) are – from now on: were not – “opposition-leaning”. To show that the opposition lacks brand name icons because their icons are in fact right-wingers, that “these liberals are such losers, even their beloved icons are conservative…”. And so on. Meanwhile there is also this message that if you don’t cause trouble (don’t criticize us), you accept the supremacy of MMA (the Hungarian Artist Academy, which is Fidesz’ corporation for non-critical artists) then you can get prizes, get published, you get a stipend, your dad will get a statute, an own… Read more »
CoViD-19 statistics,
Comparison of Slovakia and Hungary.
Population of Hungary/Slovakia = 1.79.
1.79* Slovakia vs Hungary:
October 25, reported on October 26.
NT:= new tests: 11053* vs 10010 *PCR test only
NP:= new positive results: 2348 vs 2316
NP/NT= 21.24% vs 23.14%
in hospital: 1949 vs 2602
on ventilator: 143 vs 233 !!
ND:= new death: 11 vs 47
ND/NP= 0.47% vs 2.03% !!
CT:= cumulative tests: 1,253,523 vs 990,383
CP:= cumulative positive 80827 vs 61563
CP/CT= 6.45% vs 6.22%
CD:= cumulative death: 295 vs 1472 !!
CD/CP= 0.37% vs 2.39% !!
Confirmed cumulative infection rates.
Qatar: 4.7%
Israel: 3.4%
Belgium: 2.8%
USA: 2.7%
Brazil: 2.5%
Czechia: 2.4%
Spain: 2.4%
France: 1.7%
UK: 1.3%
Italy: 0.9%
Germany: 0.5%
Romania: 1.1%
Slovenia: 1.1%
Austria: 0.9%
Croatia: 0.9%
Slovakia: 0.8%
Hungary: 0.6%
The infection rate in the rural Wisconsin county where our second home is, now is at 10.3% of those people who have been tested. Of course as we all know the positivity rate does not reflect the actual infection rate because many infected people are never tested.
The intimidating factor in our rural Wisconsin county is it has an average population density of only 28 people per square mile. There is no town larger than 2,450 people, even that town has a density of only 877 people per square mile.
The situation up there is driven largely by willful opposition to any masking mandates and other preventive measures like closing bars and restaurants, in fact the Republican controlled majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court have blocked enforcement of all such laws in the states, so effectively they are only recommendations. There are no employment sites in the entire county with large numbers of employees.
The the infection fatality rate, or IFR for the county is 2% based on confirmed case counts.
U.S.A.
Confirmed cumulative infections / population
[…]
WI 3.5%
IL 3.0%
[…]
NH 0.8%
ME 0.5%
VT 0.3%
USA: 2.7%
Canada: 0.6%
As you can see, rural New England has been largely spared so far, while rural Midwest has high infection rate.
“Covid-19 can cause male infertility by harming the testicular cells”
Success in the fight against overpopulation?
Some kind of Darwin Award?
As I said the confirmed rate per percentage of the total population is a highly inaccurate data set because the CDC in the USA indicates the actual rate of infection is likely much higher see https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-says-covid-19-cases-u-s-may-be-10-n1232134 . The numbers for Wisconsin I used for the county are the rates of positive tests that come back of those tested.
We also know that younger people into their 40s in the USA with suspected Covid based on symptoms are often sent home to quarantine for 14 days without ever being confirmed positive. They are not always formally identified as part of the infected group here in the USA. If you are ordered by a doctor to quarantine in the USA you do not have to prove to your employer you are infected based on testing, and have a legal right to claim paid sick days or medical leave under employment laws.
Mr. Kertész:
”Of hatred and sour stomachs one cannot create politics”.
Which when he turned his head to what Magyarorszag had become after ‘89, consisted of makings its political brand groveling in a politics of hatreds. And he believed nothing good can come of it.
He was correct on that point considering what we see in the country’s relationships today. Which makes embracing the great writer a pressing need figuring that be getting closer to him the right then will be able to feel its way in to his works and attempt to ‘control‘ and neutralize his ideas and defiance which he held against those who cannot countenance democracy.
Kertész is dead in his grave. The undertakers did their job. But apparently it’s time to for some literary ‘body snatchers’ who view the ‘Noble’ dead and their work to see a dead writer as useful in helping to flourish their ‘politics of hatreds’.