The Self-Reflexive Antisemitism of a Young Hungarian Woman During and After World War II (1940-1947)
The Self-Reflexive Antisemitism of a Young Hungarian Woman During and After World War II (1940-1947)

Summary/Abstract: This paper is an analysis of two unpublished diaries written by young Hungarian Christian women: Éva Kornássy (pseudonym — 1925) and Matild Forgács (pseudonym — 1930). I discuss Éva’s worldview, social imaginary, and internalized prejudices, that were uniquely self-reflexive compared to the views of her contemporary peers, as my comp arative analysis of the diaries of Éva and Matild aims to show. As early as at age fifteen, Éva supported certain tenets of conservative feminism and her views on issues such as the oppression of women and inequality were remarkably progressive compared to those of other adolescent diary-writers. However, her internalized antisemitic prejudices greatly affected her political views and the development of her relationships until her early twenties, when Éva fell in love with a Jew and entered into a romantic relationship with him. The relations hip forced Éva to reflect on her own antisemitism and recognize her internalized negative views as prejudices, that resulted in a long struggle to overcome it. Although Éva ultimately failed to overcome her antisemitic prejudices, the fact that she acknowledged them and struggled to change her views makes her case atypical among other Christian adolescent diary-writers, including Roman-Catholic Matild Forgács. Both diarists were courted by Jewish men, but Matild’s entries show a typical, unreflexive antisemitism which differs from Éva’s account. Keywords: Hungary, antisemitism, life writing, conservative feminism, World War II

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