Az üres hely. Janovics Jenő feltételezett naplójáról
Empty Space – Jenő Janovics’s Supposed Diary

Summary/Abstract: In the archives of Jenő Janovics, the legendary theatre director of the Cluj Hungarian (National) Theatre, there is a part of a diary of the author. The whole diary was never found, although this manuscript hints to the existence of such a writing. These pages describe the day-by-day events of the most turbulent times of the theatre: the period from December 1918 to September 1919, when the Hungarian National Theatre had to be handed to the Romanian authorities due to the changes of the borders of the country, i.e., the Paris Peace Treaty. But Janovics presumably takes out these pages in 1940 when again borders change due to the Second Vienna Award – he tries to prove his own faithfulness to the “Hungarian cause”. Janovics is threatened again – he is a Hungarian Jew, and he tries to escape. In my paper I have a close look at the diary, its language and history, stating that such important and “dangerous” writings as this – being a threat first of all for their writer – are condemned to be stolen, destroyed or getting lost.

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