The Illusion of Safety: The Faith of Hungarian Jewry in National Identity on the Brink of the Holocaust
The Illusion of Safety: The Faith of Hungarian Jewry in National Identity on the Brink of the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: How was it possible in 1944, in the geographical center of a Europe being consumed by flames, where millions of Jews had already been murdered, that a large Jewish community could still believe that it would continue to live in peace? Why did Jews continue to nurture an idyllic picture of the past, even as it became increasingly inconsistent with the present? What motivated the Jewish leaders, and many ordinary Jews, to adhere devotedly to their Hungarian national identity? How can we explain such a chasm between the self-perception of the Jews and the attitudes of the surrounding society? What led a noted Orthodox leader to declare, just weeks before the invasion, which enjoyed widespread cooperation from so many Hungarians, that after the war Hungary would gain “eternal admiration thanks to its sublime thought and humanity?”

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