The Phoney Peace. Power and Culture in Central Europe 1945-49 by Robert B. s> Pynsent (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I65 translation by Humphrey Tonkin. It provides details of daily life under the Nazis that have not frequentlybeen illuminated, especially the actions of the Arrow Cross; and it details how one family managed to escape deportation and death through both adhering to strict principles and deft improvisation- primarilythrough avoiding capturewith forged documents. It is, at bottom, a record of the impressions and even prejudices of its author: 'The Russians were a generally a good lot [. . .] and there was no reason to fear them, because they were decent guys, even if sometimes they were quick to anger' (p. 20I); the French in Hungary 'were devilishly smart and full of ideas' (p. I72). There are some outright historical errors, such as Soros's statement that Adolf Eichmann 'learned Yiddish and Hebrew' (p. I35) and that the attempted assassinationof Hitler on 20 July I944 'showed that the Germanpeople themselveshad had enough of the Hitler regime'(p. I23). Yet despite its occasional errors of fact, Maskerado is a fascinating glimpse of Hungarian Jewry as it was hunted and trapped by the Nazis and their accomplices. Above all Soros revealsthe bizarreentanglement of Hungarians andJews: A new decree from the Arrow Cross government required spouses of Aryans to move to the ghetto. In Hungary therewas a high level of assimilationand over time this had resultedin a great many mixed marriageswhere one partnerwas Christian and the other a converted or active Jew. The Jewish partner was known in Hungarian as an 'Aryan-spouse'(4ja-pada).Even Mrs Horthy was a descendant of such a Jewish-Gentile marriage, and so was the infamous anti-Semitic politician Bla Imredy. Up to now, members of mixed marriages had been exempted from the anti-Jewishregulations, but this now changed. New tragedies ensued. Sometimes , out of solidaritywith a marriage partner, the Gentile partner moved to the ghetto too, but therewas also a wave of suicides.(pp. I63-64) The Soros family succeeded in 'dancing around death,' but the vast majority of their co-religionists faced extermination. The fact that such a 'dance' was possible, however, makes Hungarian Jewry one of the more intriguing components of East Central European Jewry before the Holocaust. Department ofHebrew andJfewishStudies M. BERKOWITZ University College London Pynsent, Robert B. (ed). ThePhoney Peace.PowerandCulture in Central Europe I945-49. SSEES Occasional Papers, 46. School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London, 2000. xiv + 536 pp. Notes. Tables.Appendices .Index.?52.00 (paperback). SINCEI989 withtheopeningof archivesin CentralandEasternEuropethe possibilities forresearch intotheimmediate post-war yearsintheregionhave expanded enormously.Increasinglyhistoriesdominatedby politics and international relationsare beingcomplemented by workthatexaminesthe social dimensionsof war, reconstruction and dictatorshipin the region. Furthermore undertheimpactofthe'newcultural history'andthe'linguistic turn'in historicalwritingthe culturalhistoryof thisperiodhas receiveda good deal of attention. This large and extremely varied book reflects, in its i66 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 own way, the degree to which the studyof the immediatepost-waryearsin the region is changing. The book takesthe form of publishedconferenceproceedings ratherthan a coherent edited collection. Publishedby University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies it is based on a conference held in I998 called 'Another Transition. Politics and Culture in Central Europe, I945-49'. The organizer of the conference and editor of this volume has assembled an impressive and genuinely international team of authors. The voices of young and more established scholars from the region itself can be heard within the essays the books contains, alongside the work of North American and WesternEuropeans. The volume concentratesnot on Central and Eastern Europe, but on 'Central Europe' which is defined essentiallyas consistingof Germany, Polandand the formerterritoriesof Austria-Hungary. This ensuresthat statessuch asAustriaand what laterbecame WestGermany are given consideration, creating opportunities for comparisons to be developed. They are rarelydeveloped within the essaysthemselves,however, as most tend to concentrate on one aspect of an individual country. Furthermore little is done by the editor to tie the essays together in the introduction. This reviewer was left wondering whether the term 'Central Europe' was the best term to describe the region in the period between I945 and I949 given that most of the region was underRed Army occupation, part of the Soviet-sphereof influence and where, by I949, most of the stateswere ruled by dictatorships that sought to transform the...