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László Karsai, “The Last Chapter of
the Holocaust”
Götz Aly and Christian Gerlach in their
book, Das letze Kapitel, wanted to say something radically
new in two areas. One was that, according to them, the tragedy of
Hungarian Jews was the result of an interactive process. The cabinet
of Döme Sztójay, appointed after the German occupation, was not
merely an obedient instrument in the Nazis’ hands, but also took
initiatives and played an active part in what transpired. Secondly,
the wealth taken from the Hungarian Jews, according to Aly and
Gerlach, significantly contributed to the financing of the war
economy and the stabilization of the standard of living.
The article tries to show that it was
not a multi-phased, “interactive” process lasting for months that
led to the deportation of Hungarian Jews (800,000 people, including
converts). Rather, the decision to deport every Hungarian Jew was
already made by the relevant officials in the first days of April.
The article also tries to show that the wealth that could be
confiscated from Hungarian Jews did not significantly contribute to
offsetting the expenses generated by the war. |
