A hiány nyelve. A holokauszt utáni veszteség reprezentációja a kolozsvári magyar sajtóban (1945–1948)
The Language of Absence: Representations of Post-Holocaust Loss in the Hungarian-Language Press of Cluj (1945–1948)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines how post-Holocaust loss was represented in the Hungarian-language press of Cluj between 1945 and 1948, focusing on Világosság, Erdélyi Szikra and its successor, Igazság. Rather than asking simply whether the Holocaust was mentioned, it traces the changing public forms through which its consequences were made visible, including reports on returnees and missing family members, commemorative rituals, war crimes trials, relief efforts, property restitution and inheritance cases. These newspapers explicitly referred to ghettos, Auschwitz, gas chambers and crematoria, yet framed these experiences differently. Világosság more often individualised loss through reportage and family narratives, while Erdélyi Szikra and Igazság more directly linked suffering and remembrance to anti-fascist and, increasingly, communist political mobilisation. The article argues that trauma was articulated primarily through a language of absence. This public articulation preserved traces of personal loss while simultaneously translating them into communal, legal, institutional and political meanings.

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