Geographies of Holocaust rescue: Spatial patterns and social geographies of Jewish rescue in Budapest, 1944

Abstract

In this article we seek to extend the literature on Holocaust geographies through a case study of geographies of rescue in Budapest in 1944. Drawing on mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, we place Raoul Wallenberg and the Swedish legation’s rescue work within the multiple geographies of wartime Budapest, as well as offer broader reflections on the value and limits of spatial analytical methods within geographies of the Holocaust. Working with an historical GIS of the Budapest ghetto, a database created from the largest surviving Swedish list and a post–war count of survivors, as well as the personal narratives of survivors, the article examines how social status and social networks may contribute to explain the profiles of those rescued. Rather than topographic distance being key, the article argues that another geography–one of socioeconomic power–was more significant. We see this article making two main contributions to the current literature. Firstly, it interrogates ideas of distance as both a topographic and a topological category, as well as signaling the need to consider both abstract space and lived place in developing ‘integrated’ geographies of the Holocaust. Secondly, in doing this, it explores the possibilities and limitations of a range of spatial–analytical tools and approaches to interrogate geographies of rescue, and other areas of interest to historical geographers.