„Nagy módba kerülsz ilyen fiatalon, kegyelmes asszony leszel.” Presztízsvesztés, identitásőrzés Graefl Ilona emlékiratában
“You Come into Wealth at So Young an Age, You’ll Be a M’Lady”. Loss of Prestige and Preservation of Identity in the Memoirs of Ilona Graefl

Summary/Abstract: Ilona Graefl was a member of the political elite during the Horthy era. Her husband, Dr. György Bobory, served as a parliamentary representative, speaker of the house, privy councilor, and undersecretary at the Ministry of Interior during his career. They were first cousins and married in 1938. Afterwards, Bobory focused on family life. In the autumn of 1944, the couple fled to Austria ahead of the advancing Russian troops, only returning home in the autumn of 1945. By then, their Domaháza estate had been parceled out by the land distribution committee, and their life on the estate had become untenable. In the meantime, Bobory was also subjected to a people’s court trial. Although his guilt was not proven, the loss of their livelihood undermined his health, and he died of lung cancer in 1949. His widow and children were subsequently relocated to Poroszló, where Ilona Graefl survived on manual labor. In 1951, she was forced into a marriage of convenience to replace the Bobory surname. This eventually allowed her to move to Eger with her three children, where she took a job as an elevator operator in the county hospital. She wrote her memoirs in 1999 in a nursing home in Eger. The memoirs reflect the strong aristocratic identity rooted in her upbringing, which prevented her from recognizing the changes and longevity of the political situation. Although she spoke languages (English, French, German), she could never overcome the marginalized social status caused by her upbringing. Her aristocratic attitudes and lack of professional qualifications prevented a successful reconversion. The analysis of the memoirs provides an insight into the milestones of an adverse career path in the twentieth century, identifying the major points of inevitable trauma (relocation, loss of livelihood, blacklisting) in the lives of people upholding the attitudes of twentieth-century Hungarian nobility.

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