Publisher: Virágmandula Kft. - Kronosz Kiadó

28.00 €

Observed Freedom. Cooperation between the State Security Services of Hungary and the German Democratic Republic between 1964 and 1990

Megfigyelt szabadság. A keletnémet és a magyar állambiztonsági szervek együttműködése a Kádár-kori Magyarországon 1956–1990

Author(s): Kriszta Slachta / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Security Services; Eastern European state security cooperation; Stasi; Hungary; German Democratic Republic; 1956-1990

From the 13th August of 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall completely erected the passage between the two divided parts of Germany. As a result of this factor, this date proved to be a rather important turning point in terms of the relations between the two parts of the country. Neither friends not families were able to meet from this time in the territory of the German states for several decades. A rather intensive quest started for a possible venue for meetings, which was accessible under the effective statutory regulations for the citizens of both German states. The relative geographical proximity and the appropriate services of the possible meeting points for the citizens of both parts of Germany (accommodation, board and lodging) was also of critical importance. In historical terms, it can be valued as a real coincidence, that Hungary turned to be the meeting venue for these Germans. As a result of this “accident”, the Hungarian economy started to develop, and the situation also had a positive impact on the Hungarian society gradually from the 1960s. Thus, the two parts of Germany were divided by the Berlin Wall, however German citizens were able to meet in the territory of the Hungarian state, which remained accessible for both East and West Germans.It is essential to emphasise that during this period of time, the tourism was controlled by the Hungarian state authorities. Nevertheless, this practice gradually changed from the 1950s. Back at that time, attempts were made at the most thorough check of every foreigner who came from “non-friendly countries”. This indicates us that everybody, who arrived from the territory of the “non-friendly countries” was believed to be “a spy for the Western imperialist powers, a saboteur, a counter-revolutionary and reactionary force”. This preconception started to became a little bit looser after a while and during the second half of the 1960s, tourism became a valued branch of the state economy. Opening to the Western countries proved to be the most essential factor at that time, as Hungary had to break from its several-decades long isolation. Harmful effects of the “cold-war propaganda” that had been employed against the country also had to been stopped. For this, tourists having been travelled to Hungary and having been left the country with positive experiences proved to be crucial. The control of foreigners arriving to Hungary in increasing numbers proved to be a considerable challenge for the Hungarian intelligence services as well as for the border guard units. This process culminated in 1961 – irrespectively from the beginning of the construction works of the Berlin Wall on the 13th of August – when specific actions had already been taken. Close cooperation among the state security services of the socialist countries was a fundamental and obvious duty for the services of the Eastern Bloc. Parallel with the division of labour between the Moscow-controlled state security, secret services and most importantly, intelligence agencies, the cooperation and the information exchange between certain socialist countries by time started to work on a stand-alone basis as well. Contact and mutual assistance could have been self-initiated, as well as organized according to the interests and needs of the particular countries. In case of the cooperation between the Hungarian and the East German state security services we may observe the following issues: besides the close co-operation in the fields of intelligence and counter-intelligence as well as the joint actions supervising the economic and cultural life and the exchange of information, the control of tourism was meant to be the main field of cooperation. This particular counted as the most noticeable for the citizens of the German Democratic Republic. After the construction of the Berlin Wall had become complete (from 1964), the Ministry for State Security started to operate the so-called operative groups (Operativgruppe, OPG) with the specific aim for controlling tourism around all those socialist states, whose neighbouring countries belonged to the group of the western capitalist states. German theoretical literature connected to this subject-matter, in which the presence of the Ministry for State Security is elaborated in case of the Lake Balaton or in terms of Bulgarian coastal area, the “lengthened Wall” since from the perspective of the East German state security Hungary, or any other country that was bordering a western country, simply owing to its geographical position constituted a great opportunity for crossing the borders illegally.It is important to emphasize that we are able to follow two kinds of tendencies in terms of the presence of the Ministry for State Security in Hungary: on the one hand, the mutual cooperation is clearly visible between the subunits of the two state security services, which was accomplished on the basis of specific agreements in the form of joint actions, exchange of information, technical assistance as well as study trips and exchanges of experience. These functioned very similarly to the general cooperational systems of the “brother organs”, i.e. the friendly state security services. The other thread is indicated in a special form of cooperation; the ever widening range of activities of the so-called operative groups which were only hinted at even in the framework agreements. History of the operative group can be interpreted within the framework of the cooperation between the two state security services; however in practice, the operations of the East German unit positioned in Hungary have gradually became more and more independent from the Hungarian Ministry of Interiors, as well as from the other MfS units taking part in the cooperation.Presence of the operative group, its operations, its independent observations and network-building activities neither could not function nor were able to be successful without the knowledge of the “friendly” host country’s “brother services” and their willingness to help. It is also essential that this was laid down in the agreements of the cooperation. Specific agreements between the two state security services were signed towards the end of the 1950s and at the beginning of the 1960s. The year of 1956 gave the first boost to the bilateral cooperation between the state security services. During the fight against the “contra-revolutionary forces”, Hungarian officers were backed by the Ministry for State Security, which was also stated in the first cooperational agreement in 1958. This affected their work profoundly and it played a major role in the second mutual agreement of 1963 as well, which was signed after the construction of the Berlin Wall. In that document, we find hardly any remarks about the joint fight against the new type of dangers due to the building of the “imperialist barrier”, the Berlin Wall.The basis of this certain agreement between the two state security services is the civil legal assistance agreement between the two states, which was signed on the 30th of October 1957. Later on, it had been cited by almost every contract which regulated the state security relations. In 1963, a separate agreement was issued concerning the tasks which would have been performed due to the legal assistance agreement and which also concerned primarily the departments for investigations. Hungarian authorities often conducted investigations in a number of cases when the citizens of the German Democratic Republic were arrested in Hungary. When the 30-day investigation period was finished, the arrested person along with the documentation, which was collected and also put in writing, was handed over to the assigned authority in the Democratic Republic of Germany. The majority of these incidents were related to the acts of crossing the state border illegally and either assisting or preparing such acts. Nevertheless, it also has to be mentioned that the extradition practice of the East German citizens arrested in Hungary did not comply with either the legal assistance agreements of the era or the international legal practice of the time. In reality, it rather meant the practice of handing over the authority to conduct the prosecution that is the handover of the jurisdiction.Operative groups in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary were formed as the cooperation between the HA (Hauptabteilung, Main Department) XX and HA II. in 1964. The presence and the operations connected to the operative groups were regulated by the orders and implementation orders of the Minister of State Security, namely Erich Mielke, and were helped by the constant cooperative negotiations as well as by the agreements with the Hungarian organs. About their operations work plans, registry and inventory books, annual summary reports, photos, observations, and the files of not unofficial collaborators (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) bear witness. Budapest, Prague and Sofia i.e. the capitals of the “friendly countries” became the headquarters of these groups. During the touristic high season, officers were relocated in touristic centers as well. Eg. in terms of the Lake Balaton, they were placed to Siófok, Balatonfüred, Keszthely or Hévíz.The operative group of the MfS indeed enjoyed the friendship of the “brother organs”: they got flats and tools for operative purposes, cars with local numberplates to move around without any restrictions as well as identity cards so that they would be able to enter the state security departments of the county police headquarters. Yet most essentially, apart from the material needs, naturally, Hungarian colleagues helped them obtaining certain pieces of information i.e. they let them know the exact time of arrival and departure of the West German tourists, who were suspicious because they could have had contacts with East German citizens in Hungary. Nevertheless, officers of the Stasi had more and more problems with the ever decreasing willingness of the Hungarian partners to provide information.The operation of this group functioning in Hungary follows a certain tendency as well. Primarily during its first ten-years-operation, the activity of the unit established in 1964 was presented seasonally and was characterized by an intensive connection with its Hungarian “brother organ”. The Ministry for State Security was supported in an active way by the Hungarian state security during this period. The state itself even proved to be the initiator in some cases. As a matter of fact, this was the period, when we may talk about real cooperation in terms of the observation of East and West German tourists in Hungary on both sides. During the first years of the functioning of the operative group, officers employed by the Ministry for State Security worked around unknown grounds and territories. Besides this, in the sense of the “lengthened Wall”, they performed unknown tasks in Hungary i.e. they deepended on the help from the Hungarian colleagues even in their practical work.During this period, they made attempts to get further information about German–German joint holidays as well as about the so-called planned escapes, or actions of groups dealing with human trafficking. Hungarian or East German organs had learnt about these actions mostly accidentally. This means that their operation was basically confined to reacting to events about which they had been informed by other authorities or private persons. From these joint observation work, head officers of the operative groups drew conclusions, which served as bases for their later, more and more complex and elaborated, also becoming more and more independent work from the Hungarian colleagues. which aimed at delivering a complete state security control.In 1972, operative groups were reorganized, and from that period of time, the three units positioned in those friendly countries, which were popular tourist destinations for GDR citizens, belonged to the newly-formulated HA VI. The Main Department was formed in order to maintain an intensive and complete control on the passenger traffic circulating between Hungary and the GDR, this way, the repositioning of the operative groups served as an improvement of the „lengthened Wall”. This Main Department, which was previously formed from independent organs, was responsible for checking borders, circulating people, their papers and pieces of luggage. It was also responsible for the control and by the operative means for the security of tourism aimed at friendly and not friendly countries. After the HA VI. had taken over coordinating the previous duties of the operative groups, apart from its own officers, one of the agents of the counter-intelligence, the HA II. was working with the groups.During the first half of the 1970s, the main task of the operative group, due to its growing professionalism, became the exploration of the „hostile political-ideological diversion”. More and more information was collected from simple – and probably innocent – conversations, connections between East and West Germans, while only a small percentage of the data referred to a planned illegal crossing of the borders. Behind the tendency regarding the alternation of the elaborated information, we are able to see the appearance of the idea according to which, the officers intended to carry on the full observation of those East German citizens, who travelled to a holiday. This may be interpreted as the idea connected to the expansion of so-called “lengthened Wall”, and the all-encompassing observation, which had already been realized within the borders of the German Democratic Republic.Officials were to sign the new cooperation agreement between the Hungarian and the East German state security in September 1974. Nevertheless, we do not find any explanations on the bases the archives why this agreement remained unsigned. The text of the planned agreement was much shorter than that of the agreement, which had been signed in 1963, and its first part only praised the results of the cooperation that far, and after that, simply repeated, almost word for word, tasks and cooperation possibilities and areas detailed in the previous two agreements. The international situation that was in effect from a state security point of view in 1974 must have been also in effect until 1981, when the agreement that they had suspended for seven years, was signed without any modifications. In the 9th paragraph of the agreement, there is an allusion to the operative officers over the other side, that is practically to the operative groups: “The two Parties – in accordance with the agreement between them – position a certain number of operative officers on the area of the other state in order to secure its citizens visiting that state, during which they can use intelligence methods and implement concrete measures. Both Parties are to give help and support to the officers of the other Party so that they would be able to achieve their goals.”As a result of the growing professionalism related to the operative groups, cooperation between the two state security services were modified. Firstly, senior officers of the Ministry for State Security positioned in Hungary needed the help of their Hungarian colleagues less and less. Secondly, during the 1970s, the operation of this particular unit became more independent from the Hungarian state security. This tendency lasted practically until the late 1980s. Nevertheless, this undisturbed cooperation burst at the end of that decade, because the Hungarian party had a different, well-meaning point of view related to the control of the tourism opposed to the East German intentions, who made attempts to tighten the control. The beginning of the 1980s can be characterized as the era of the easy cooperation. Whereas towards the mid-1980s, mainly due to the alternations in the international relations and the national political affairs of the two countries, the conditions of the cooperation started to change.The operative group even built and operated an independent network in Hungary. The work of the group operating with an increased number of unofficial collaborators during the summer months at Lake Balaton was helped, on the one hand, by young Stasi officers, who spent their vacation there, by FDJ-members and by informers enlisted as IM and working for other MfS Main Departments during the non-summer months, too, who arrived to Hungary for a holiday. Yet, this seasonal „summer-network” (apart from the permanent, professional IMs) had to work with a constantly changing staff (practically in every some weeks), which made effective work difficult. By the time the IM had got around the scenes and had got to know his contact officer, the target person was found. Besides this, the first reports had been arrived as well as analysed and they were about to return to the GDR.The permanent IM-network, which was formed by the second half of the 1980s and made up by East German citizens living or working in Hungary for several years, was a lot more important and effective for the operative group. Among them, we can find exchange students, immigrant workers, a dentist, who got married and settled in the countryside, or an engineer working in Budapest as a language teacher. Besides this, we have information about the East German waiters of the so-called Raabe Diele restaurant which is very important. Based on the summer working plans, the annual report, the postal registry of the operative group and also based on a file that summarizes the IM personnel from the VI Main Department it was possible to isolate the members of those two separate networks that carried their operations. On the one hand, members of the network, who were positioned to Lake Balaton only during summer months, on the other hand, members of the other network, who carried out their non-official tasks under the control of operative officers from Budapest. During the late 1980s, we are able to isolate a network of about 18–20 IMs around Lake Balaton in the summer months, and besides that – in 1989 – a network of 17 IMs from East German citizens living permanently in Budapest or in the countryside and working as unofficial collaborators during the whole year.According to the workfiles, the task of the network, which operated during the whole year, was rather to report about the changes in Hungary and about the climate connected to the public opinion than to observe the East German citizens who were spending their vacation here. Those, who were stationed in Hungary for a long time, reported more often about their colleagues – often also as parts of the organization –, about their western connections. Reports connected to their fellow citizens, who visited their institutions, were less frequent. Nevertheless, being aware of the information, which is presented in the archive documents about the cooperation between the East German and the Hungarian state security services, we are able to claim that the Hungarian state security did not know about the operation, about the size or the measure of this permanent agent network.Within the cooperation of the state securities related to the two countries, control of tourism played an important part. Furthermore, the mutual exchange of information about the guest workers and the exchange students in both countries was a vital issue, as well as the exploration and control of the growing informal cultural and scientific connections. This direction of cooperation also expanded in the 1980s, but those were more likely to be independent investigations, rather than a joint observation and information gathering operation.In the course of 1989, Stasi and the entire leadership of the German Democratic Republic was primarily concerned about the newly-evolved situation, the news of pulling down the Iron Curtain, the physical obstacle built along the Austrian–Hungarian border section, and Hungary’s joining the Geneva Refugee Convention. Despite of the fact that in 1989, Hungarian state security organisation was no longer in the centre of interest, and practically did not have the capacity to deal with East German cases, people kept on coming in higher numbers, but in the midst of the increasing number of international events, neither the press, nor the public or the political participants paid much attention to them before their presence forced the borders open. The events that took place in August and in September of 1989, and responses of the high officials of the East German Ministry for State Security foreshadowed the events that took place in the autumn in the German Democratic Republic. Due to its structure and operating principles, East German state security organisation, which was operated in a military manner, gradually grew gigantic and consequently slowed down, having been become unable to follow the accelerating events. Even though information was available for them about the new developments in the making, they could not respond fast enough and prevent the events by targeted action. Reports and correspondences about the Picnic and about the border opening foreshadowed the condition characteristic of the Stasi, which then paralysed the “company” also during the demonstrations and opposition movement. Due to the size of this military and bureaucratic hierarchy, which had grown gigantic, the information flow had slowed down. By the time a piece of information was received from Hungary or from one of the provincial towns of the German Democratic Republic, and it became then assessed, summarised and forwarded to higher levels, organisational counter-productivity had gained a victory: by the time an effective decision was made, the events undermining the very existence of the GDR had already happened.The last traces proving the presence of the East German state security in Hungary also served as additional information and help us to retrace the history of the Hungarian state security and its transformation. No order or command could have been retained even among the documents of the BStU about the abolishment or the recall of the operative groups specifically. The last record about the activity of that particular unit was written on the 9th of November 1989 which refers to one of the operative group’s officers (presumably last) stay in Budapest between the 21st and 23rd of November 1989. In the mirror of the Hungarian changes, it is rather surprising that between the 27th of November and 1st of December 1989, two delegations from the transforming Stasi, by this time named AfNS, were received at the Ministry of Interior, and the last correspondence between the two organs was dated 9th of January 1990, just six days before the civil occupation of the centre for the East German state security in East Berlin.From the countries belonging to the Soviet Bloc, the KGB definitely had the most relocated operative officers in the countries within their sphere of interest. Yet, in my opinion, their activity cannot be regarded as a cooperation, since even their “partners” probably did not have much information about their operations, and the ‘researchability’ of this subject-matter is still seriously limited. From the state security services under the shielding of the KGB, it was probably the Stasi that developed the most elaborate state security cooperation network at that time, but in order to gain an accurate picture, it is important to distinguish a real, active, bilateral cooperation based on two equal partners from the presence of a state security service that delivered orders and commands – like the KGB – which cannot be considered as a cooperation in its real sense.I am convinced that it is an extremely important question how much the cooperation of the state security organs of the Eastern Bloc were controlled by the KGB, if they gave the orders, or to what extent the cooperation was agreed on or shielded by the KGB or how much they can be regarded as individual initiatives and real bilateral cooperation. As for the intensive period of the cooperation between the Stasi and the Hungarian State Security from 1961 to 1989, I did not find any documents or references – in those two archives that have preserved the documentation – that could have served as an evidence to the idea that those cooperations were initiated, controlled, commanded or even encouraged by the KGB. Due to this factor, I think that we can state that the idea of forming and operating these operative groups having been worked within the system of the “Lengthened Wall” for two and a half decades, was an idea coming especially from East Berlin. Since the main task of these units was to control their own citizens as tourists from their own country and to prevent them from leaving their home country even via a detour, these three operative units were separated even in the routine of the MfS from other units with an intelligence type of tasks, which are well-known from the documents of the Hungarian State Security as intelligence residency.Operative groups of the East German State security were able to work more and more independently in the countries of the Eastern Bloc – except for Romania and Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, from the Hungarian point of view, we may talk about an active and a real cooperation at all times, although this cooperation shifted gradually to the Stasi’s side. From the point of view of the Hungarian State Security divisions, the East-German connection must have been the most intensive state security cooperation, regardless of the fact that this cooperation became asymmetrical. This cooperation shows a distorted measure both in quality and quantity. During the period in question, there were more and more requests for information from the Stasi’s side that were delivered for the Hungarian state security. Parallel with these events, the whole spectrum of the cooperation shows a growing disproportion. Meanwhile the activity of the East German State Security in Hungary became more and more intense, active and professional. However, judging the weight of each and every cooperation of the Hungarian state security with partner services could be possible only if the systematic historical research of all the bilateral state security agreements could be done in the near future.On the basis of the history of the cooperation between the Hungarian and the East German State Security services, I believe that we can question the idea according to which cooperation between the state security organs inside the Bloc, even during the period that started in the mid-1960s, a rule which said that every connection, every activity and every operation could only happen once it was ordered by Moscow and was assisted by the KGB in an active way. Although, the cooperation between the Hungarian and the East German with each other only constitutes a small portion of their systems of cooperation, I think that the research of that small proportion still raises the possibility of the reinterpretation and revaluation of the results that we have about the whole Eastern European state security cooperation network.

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25.00 €

Witness to a change of an era. István Brodarics’s career

Egy korszakváltás szemtanúja. Brodarics István pályaképe

Author(s): Péter Kasza / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Battle of Mohács in 1526;Hungarian historiography;16th century Hungarian diplomacy;Hungarian humanism; István Brodarics

István Brodarics was born into a lesser noble family in Slavonia around 1480. Due to his education, language mastery and well-chosen patrons, he rose to the top and met almost all the rulers, significant politicians and prominent scholars of his time. He died as the bishop of Vác, a member of the Hungarian prelacy in 1539. Beside his career, the six decades spanning from his birth to his death were also extraordinary. When he was born, the Kingdom of Hungary ruled by Matthias I (Hunyadi) was one of the most significant middle powers of Europe and the royal court was the citadel of Humanism. However, two years after his death, Buda was captured by the Turks and the country became divided into three parts for 150 years. István Brodarics was one of the most prominent witnesses to these decisive years. He not only survived but also formed the events of his era and, what is more important, reported on them in his writings. Being the chancellor of the country, he participated in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and his account of the fight is one of the basic texts of Hungarian historiography. Hundreds of his letters offer an insight into the thoughts of a European-minded Humanist and, parallel to this, guide their readers through the thick of contemporary high politics, into royal courts, on dangerous diplomatic missions and some secret negotiations relating national affairs. Péter Kasza has been investigating István Brodarics’s literary and historical activity for more than a decade. Following his numerous conference lectures and studies, he published a critical volume of Brodarics’s correspondence in 2012. This Brodarics biography which boasts with several new achievements and is based on the historian-philologist author’s impressive familiarity with sources might arouse the interest of not only historians, literary historians and cultural historians dealing with the era but also that of the wider reading public.

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19.00 €

The „pensive gentleman”. Kálmán Darányi (1886-1939)

A „tépelődő gentleman”. Darányi Kálmán (1886–1939)

Author(s): Róbert Kerepeszki / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Prime Minister of Hungary;Interware Period; Győr Program; First Anti-Jewish Law;right-wing policy; Kálmán Darányi

When people come to speak of Kálmán Darányi, even those familiar with the era could only recall the Győr Program, the preparation of the First Anti-Jewish Law or his negotiations with the Arrow Cross Party. How could one of the greyest politicians of the era with a talent for executive role be the Prime Minister of Hungary? How and in what direction could such a wishy-washy personality influence the political life of the country? How could he, the Prime Minister, get from his attempt to liquidate Gömbös’s radical right-wing policy to his agreement with the National Socialists even more radical than his predecessor? What factors formed his political disposition which resulted in his controversial decisions sometimes tragically influencing the fate of the country? The young author’s scholarly yet readable book contains a lot of new information and answers these and many other interesting questions.

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22.00 €

“A politician of European stature”. Kuno Klebelsberg (1875-1932)

"Egy európai formátumú államférfi". Klebelsberg Kuno (1875-1932)

Author(s): Gábor Ujváry / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Ministry of Culture;Hungary Interware Period; Ideology of Hungarian Cultural Supremacy; Hungarian Educational Reforms;Modernisation of Hungarian Universities;Foreign Hungarian Cultural Institutes;Klebelsberg Kuno

Nowadays, beside Governor Miklós Horthy, István Bethlen, Pál Teleki and Gyula Gömbös, probably the name of Kuno Klebelsberg comes up most frequently in the Hungarian media and in public discourse. We are concerning a real renaissance of dealing with him, however superficial they often are. Lately, several institutions have been named after Klebelsberg and he has become an almost cultic figure. Nevertheless, his cult frequently and unnecessary goes too far. In the past decades, many people have investigated his activity, but they have mainly concentrated on minor details. Following 1942, this have been the first book to attempt to summarize Kelbelsberg’s whole career, presenting the partly known and well-founded achievements in the politician’s performance and some of his unimplemented plans. It also designates the new direction of research on Klebelsberg: namely the significance of the lesser-known period of his life preceding his ministry of culture, when he started to build up himself. “I trust that my book, intended to be readable yet written with due scholarly background and citing many of Klebelsberg’s writings and the responses given to them, will contribute to the respect for my hero that he had well deserved. I also think it important that we should value him objectively and consider him not a semi-god but a man and politician. However excellent he was, as a fallible man, he also made mistakes when he sometimes perceived the possibilities before him and his country inaccurately. However, these facts do not detract from his merit but rather strengthen it because we can approach him through them.” Gábor Ujváry

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15.00 €

Twenty Years After: the Gandhi School and Beyond. Secondary Education of the Roma/Gypsies in Hungary During the Transition Years

Twenty Years After: the Gandhi School and Beyond. Secondary Education of the Roma/Gypsies in Hungary During the Transition Years

Author(s): Renáta Anna Dezső / Language(s): English

Keywords: Secondary Education of the Roma/Gypsies; Hungary; Segregation; Gandhi School Pécs;

The Romani people have historically lived on the margins of Western society. Educational access on all levels for the Romani people has been particularly problematic throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Numerous studies have documented that Romani children underachieve and fail to complete school at rates significantly higher than the non-Romani population. One bright spot in the education of Roma is the work of the Gandhi School in Pécs, Hungary. The Gandhi School has been working to improve the future of Romani children in Hungary since 1994 and has numerous success stories to share. This current work by Renáta Anna Dezső is an important piece that helps to explain the education condition of Romani students and document the work of the Gandhi School. It is a substantial addition to the literature in English on this topic and will be a useful resource to a variety of educators, researchers and policy makers interested in Romani education.Dr. Jason M. MorrisFulbright ScholarGraduate DirectorGraduate School – Higher EducationAbilene Christian UniversityTexas, USAThe Romani people have historically lived on the margins of Western society. Educational access on all levels for the Romani people has been particularly problematic throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Numerous studies have documented that Romani children underachieve and fail to complete school at rates significantly higher than the non-Romani population. One bright spot in the education of Roma is the work of the Gandhi School in Pécs, Hungary. The Gandhi School has been working to improve the future of Romani children in Hungary since 1994 and has numerous success stories to share. This current work by Renáta Anna Dezső is an important piece that helps to explain the education condition of Romani students and document the work of the Gandhi School. It is a substantial addition to the literature in English on this topic and will be a useful resource to a variety of educators, researchers and policy makers interested in Romani education. Dr. Jason M. MorrisFulbright ScholarGraduate DirectorGraduate School – Higher EducationAbilene Christian UniversityTexas, USA

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24.00 €

From the Human Body to the Clockwork. Metaphors of State and Changes in the Nature of the State in Western Christendom 1300-1800

Az emberi testtől az óraműig. Az állam metaforái és formaváltozásai a nyugati keresztény kultúrkörben 1300–1800

Author(s): Endre Sashalmi / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Historical Development of the State; State Metaphors; medieval and the early modern period; absolute monarchy

The use of metaphors for the state is closely related to the problem already expounded by Kant, namely that the state is beyond the organs of human perception, therefore, it can only be imagined symbolically. Indeed, as Michael Walzer plausibly stated, the state cannot be perceived physically by the subjects/citizens as it cannot be seen or touched: “The state is invisible; it must be personified before it can be seen, symbolized before it can be loved, imagined before it can be conceived.” Our everyday phrases used with regard to the state clearly confirm his statement. We routinely speak of the organs of the state, or the operation of the machinery of the state without being aware of the fact that in the first case the state is conceived as a living organism, while in the latter we treat it an artificial creature. This phenomenon is none other than the living imprint of those successive metaphors in our language which once were used to imagine the state in the medieval and the early modern period. The other main topic of the book is the survey on the historical development of the state, presenting the specific features of the successive phases of its development through examples taken mainly from the history of Western European countries. Besides concentrating on the classical monarchies of Western Europe, the survey lays a great emphasis on territories which are generally much less known, namely the Scandinavian region. One of the main reasons for its inclusion into the analysis is the fact that in the 17th -18th centuries Denmark was the country in Europe which can be labelled as the model of absolute monarchy.

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20.00 €

Examinations and thoughts on the possibilities of preserving Boyash language

A beás nyelv megőrzésének lehetőségeiről

Author(s): Anna Orsós / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Gypsy language teaching; Boyash language; Hungarian public education system; Linguistic situation; language education; language teacher training

INTRODUCTION Numerous sociological studies have demonstrated that to belong to the Gipsy minority - anywhere in the world - presents a unique situation. Both the wider and proximate social environments have an influence on the reinforcement of identity, as well as on the overall language usage and on its extent. If the environment is receptive and it values otherness as an asset, identity reinforcement at the individual and community level will noticeably be higher due to the prestige gain. Otherwise a reverse tendency can be observed.There is a diverse collection of information available on the present-day life of Gipsy communities living in Hungary’s surrounding countries or in any other countries of the world, but there is a limited source of credible information or research data available upon their history and their use of language. These gaps in the literature are mainly due to the lack of written sources as Gipsy literacy has only evolved over the past hundred years. Written documents referring to the Gipsy population have been produced mainly during the conflicts between them and the majority society, so during the course of peaceful coexistence no such written documents emerged.Gypsies are scantily accounted for even in the population census statistics, since they live on the periphery of society in a rather inaccessible position, and it is hard to give a straightforward definition on exactly who can be considered as Gipsy at all. Numerous researchers have attempted to categorize the main features of Gipsy existence from various perspectives, but so far it has proved to be impossible to give a globally accepted definition. That is why, in each case, the issue needs to be approached with careful consideration, and it is the best to leave the self-definition to the individual.Mainly to historical prejudices, there are some segments of society in which being Gipsy is considered to be a low prestige status. Most of the Gypsies claim to belong to the majority society; they usually adopt the language and religion of the host country. Only some of the countries consider Gypsies a nationality, while other countries define them as an ethnic minority due to their lack of motherland. These factors partially account for the remarkable differences between the official census figures and the scientific estimations of Gypsy population all over the world. THESIS TOPIC The thesis aims to investigate the current situation of the Boyash population as well as the relevant issues of education and language policy regarding Boyash language teaching in Hungary.This choice of topic is mainly justified by the following contradiction: As a result of the past ten years of work, the Boyash population that used to exclusively nourish an oral culture has just started to have its language described. However, the shift of Boyash to Hungarian language had started long before among the Boyash language users living in minority. A tendency that shows a varied picture from one community to another.Since the scientific literature on the Hungarian Boyash population is rather scarce, it was important for me to collect all the information available on the situation and opportunities of Boyash communities living in Hungary.Neither the space of this essay nor the author’s competence allows for a broader elaboration of the topic, so this thesis paper will essentially focus on the current linguistic situation of the Boyash community and on Boyash language education in the Hungarian public education system. RESEARCH METHODS I would like to present the Boyash language speaking communities through the lens of two of my research studies.The first study is of a general nature: it aims to present a picture of language use and language status within six Boyash communities. The second study presents the results of a more wide-ranging examination carried out in a Boyash community in Manfa, Baranya. This complex research pertains to bilingualism. Within the framework of Project No. 5/126/2001 of the National Research and Development Program, a research study on language shift and bilingualism was carried out in eight minority communities (Boyash, Croatian, German, Romani, Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Death) using the same theoretical and methodological system.During the research, I aimed to give a sociolinguistic description of the Boyash language community, to examine the reasons why Hungarian language usage overshadows that of Boyash language, and to observe the language-using behavior of people of different age and sex. Based on the research data, I examined the personal language usage habits of the Boyash speaking community of Manfa to understand why and when do speakers alternate between the use of Hungarian and Boyash language. In the course of the examination, the language selection strategy of the speaking partners was analyzed on the basis of the speaker’s language competence, their attitude toward languages, and the age, sex, and occupation of the participants of communication, as well as the communicative situation, the location, the presence of a monolingual person, the relationship between the interlocutors, the nationality of the speaker’s spouse, the content of communication and the function of language choice. During the interviews, the informants were questioned about their Boyash identity and their personal opinion on Hungarian, Boyash and minority languages.In the course of the research, my informants were selected by pre-set criteria of sex, age, education. A questionnaire was used as a tool of data collection, but I personally conducted the interviews with the assistance of a Boyash-speaking social worker. The answers were recorded on a tape recorder.While conducting the questionnaire-based interviews, I collected further information about the language usage behavior of the Boyash families and communities as a participant observer.In processing the questionnaire, two statistical methods were used. On the one hand, I evaluated the statistical significance of the variables of age and linguistic attitudes in the course of language selection. On the other hand, with the statistical method of a two-way analysis of variance with independent variable, I studied the relations between linguistic attitudes and sex and age in the research sample. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY Besides the introductory chapter, the study consists of three sections: The first section presents a linguistic situation report in the form of a description of the Boyash language community. The second section describes the role of Boyash language in public and higher education. The third section explores the development potentials of Boyash language teaching.The relation of current language policy to minority languages does not seem to be adequately analyzed; the reluctance to address the tasks and problems can be dangerous to minority languages and the delay could lead to their extinction. THE RESEARCH RESULTS Both of the above mentioned research studies prove the existence of Boyash- Hungarian language shift process. At the same time, however, they also show that Boyash language speakers ’ attachment to their language is still rather strong, although the frequency of Boyash language use might suggest otherwise. THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION This section gives an overview on the occurrence of Boyash communities in Hungary, the size of their population and the legal regulations relevant to them. Their situation is greatly influenced by the fact that they have been in a diglossal situation from the very beginning, as the intermediary language for communication with the majority society used to be, and still is, Hungarian. Although the language of the Boyash communities living in Hungary is rooted in Romanian language used in Bansag, the Boyash communities have not maintained connections with either the Romanian language or with people living in Romanian-speaking neighborhoods: the language development of the two communities has progressed in an isolated way.Until the end of the 1980s, the Boyash language only lived in its oral version. The actual beginning of Boyash literacy can be dated back to the end of the 1990s and it can be associated with the activity of an educational institution unique in the world, the Gandhi Secondary Grammar School of Pecs.At the point of the emergence of Boyash language education, it was necessary to develop a standardized spelling method. The first pieces of Boyash folk collection were folksongs and folktales. These were all recorded in accordance with Hungarian spelling rules and were accompanied by a detailed reader’s guide on pronunciation. Boyash literacy began in 1994, when the first books were published in the language. These publications were soon followed by a Boyash language course book, which presented the very first attempt to systematize the Boyash language, hitherto only used orally.At this time, there are also Boyash-Hungarian and Hungarian-Boyash dictionaries available. In the recent years, several song and folktale collections and translations have been published.The importance of these publications is unquestionable, even though they were not edited with the utmost philological care and concern. The last decade has proven the durability of this spelling system, since the first folklore publications were soon followed by numerous similar books and also by different linguistic publications. This spelling system seems to be acceptable for not only the majority of Boyash intellectuals but also for the literate majority of the Boyash-speaking population.According to the research results presented in great detail in my thesis paper, there is a significant generation gap in the usage of Boyash language. In the course of communication, young people tend to choose Hungarian language more frequently than elderly people. When talking to their spouse or to their children, the informants tend to use Hungarian language more frequently than Boyash. While in communicative situations outside family circles - doing official errands, shopping, visiting the doctor, working - the dominance of Hungarian language use can be observed. It can mainly be explained by the fact that the usage of Boyash language is rather limited in official, formal situations; the appropriate language styles that would make communication fluent in formal situations have not yet developed.According to the research, 80% of the Boyash language community of Manfa learnt Boyash language in the family, although the use of language is slowly decreasing, especially in the generation under 40.Although their commitment to the Boyash mother tongue is very strong and they feel the necessity of passing on the language to younger generations, most Boyash speakers do not consider this to be their own task, but rather delegate it to the spheres outside the family. In their opinion, the majority language - in this case Hungarian - is the mean of social success. In parallel with the increase of Hungarian language competence, a feeling of loyalty to the Hungarian nation can also be detected in the answers of male informants.In this community, the loss of language does not also mean the loss of identity. The language use and the identity of the Boyash community in Manfa are reciprocally proportional.The Boyash language plays a much more important role in the lives of middle- aged people than in those of younger generation. Their childhood environment used to be mostly confined Boyash community sites where Boyash language use was absolutely natural: it was the mean of intercommunity communication.The older generation is the most tied to locality and thus the least effected by modernity. They are still preserving and are glad to use Boyash language. For them the community traditions are still alive; however, due to the increasing permeability of the once confined community life, there is less and less chance to live by these traditions.It is important for the Boyash communities to know their cultural values so that they shall believe in passing them on to younger generations. Education, especially the three-level (elementary, secondary and tertiary) language education, shall have a vital role in achieving this goal.The Boyash identity - even that of the younger generation - is fairly strong in spite of the decline of Boyash language use. In this situation, a well considered, conscientious language and educational policy may generate a recovery of community life and language usage as well. AN EDUCATIONAL AND LANGUAGE POLICY OVERVIEW In the second part of my thesis, I give a general overview on the legal background of Gypsy language education. While examining the issue, it seems to be advisable to distinguish between two periods. The first period lasts up to the latest modification of the Public Education Act, while the second period covers the events after 2003.The foundation of minority education was laid by the Article (2) of Paragraph 68 of the Constitution, which stipulates the right of mother tongue education for the national and ethnic minorities. Following the codification of the Minority Act, for the very first time, the Gypsy minority had an opportunity to request the establishment of a Gypsy minority education similar to that of any other national minority and thus to break the tendency to approach educational problems from the aspect of social disadvantages.At the elementary level, there is no independent educational institution for the Gypsy minority. At secondary level, there are only a few institutions operating on the basis of special pedagogical programs developed for the Gypsy minority (i.e. the Secondary Grammar and Boarding School of Gandhi Public Foundation in Pecs) that include the teaching of Gypsy languages in their educational plan. There are, however, several gypsy classes and groups operating separately in other educational institutions. In case of Gypsy languages, neither the linguistic requirements nor educational syllabi are available for the institutions wishing to teach the language.An amendment was made in 2003 to Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education in order to improve the general education of Gypsy children.The Ministry of Education has played a significant role in promoting equal opportunities in the field of education and also in promoting social integration.The main elements of the modification of the Public Education Act are the following: the definition of the notion of child with disadvantaged background and integration preparation, a ban on failing pupils in first, second and third grade, and the revision of qualification for private student status.The restructuring of Gypsy minority education has established a professional framework to progress but it also decreased the number of Gypsy language lessons to two per week. Although it makes lesson mergers easier, which allows for other forms of language education (i. e. employing guest teachers, organizing language camps), it also reduces the effectiveness of language teaching.Though very important from the perspective of educational policy, from the view of language policy this measure cannot be considered effective, as it does not provide for the necessary conditions of language teaching. In case of Gypsy language, there is a permissive clause in the modified decree that does not elevate the prestige of Gypsy languages in comparison with other minority languages.In accordance with the Public Education Act, the conditions of employment in a teacher’s position are different in case of minority language teachers than in case of foreign language teachers. According to the law:„In all types of schools, only applicants with a degree in teaching languages or teaching foreign language and literature can be employed.In case of national or ethnic minority languages, until 1stSeptember2006, applicants with a degree in teaching and at least an intermediate C level language examination certificate or an equivalent certificate can be employed in teacher’s position. In case of Bulgarian, Gypsy (Romani or Boyash), Greek, Polish, Armenian, Ruthven and Ukrainian languages, persons holding an advanced C level state language exam certificate or any equivalent document can be employed, without commencing higher education studies, for an unlimitedperiod of time.”In the field of Gypsy language education there are several issues still to be sorted that have long been settled in case of traditional national minority education. In case of teaching Gypsy languages, there is still a shortage of course books, audio materials, and audiovisual devices that can make the language available for anybody, but the lack of organized language teacher training is the greatest deficiency in all.Point 62. of Annex 1 to 1021/2004.(III. 18.) Government Decree on the Promotion of Social Integration of Gypsies living in Hungary formulates Hungary ’s commitment to the extension of the assumptions stipulated in the European Chart of Regional or Minority Languages. Based on this paragraph, the National and Ethnic Minority Authority considered it necessary to examine the possibility to extend this protection over the Gypsy languages (including Boyash) spoken in Hungary and also investigated what further professional measures are required. BOYASH LANGUAGE IN PUBLIC EDUCATION In the course of my research regarding the current status of Boyash language in the public and higher education in Hungary and also the language teaching development opportunities, I had a chance to visit institutions involved in Boyash language teaching and also to conduct a questionnaire survey investigating the language teaching conditions.According to this research, there are only two secondary grammar schools (with A level GCSE exams) and eight elementary schools teaching Boyash language in Hungary. In these institutions, Boyash language was among the subjects offered to students who - irrespective of their nationality - wish to learn the language. To do this, a written permission from the parents was necessary. The language lessons were inserted in the timetable separately or in form of merged lessons (two lessons per week - the method varies from school to school. Since there is no ongoing language teacher training in Gypsy languages in Hungary, there are no qualified teachers of Boyash language. In the schools examined, there were no native speaker Boyash language teachers holding a degree in teaching any other languages. Out of the ten schools, only two employ native speakers with teaching qualifications (but only one of them has a language exam), and two employ native speakers without a teachers qualification (but who have completed a language exam). Among the Boyash language teachers, there are two teachers who emigrated from Romania who speak Romanian language and also hold a Boyash language exam certificate. In the other schools, Boyash language is taught by teachers who are currently learning the language themselves as well. Since there is no ongoing Gypsy language teacher training in any educational institutions at any level, the qualification of the teachers currently teaching Boyash language leaves us with doubts - the professional opinion regarding their qualifications is extremely diverse.Linguistic competence is not a sufficient condition for teaching a language professionally. This is a valid requirement in the case of other languages, not just in case of Boyash native speakers.Based on the results of the survey, we can conclude that the proper preparation for teaching Gypsy languages in Hungary has not been accomplished. The aforementioned lack of linguistic requirements, educational syllabus, teaching materials, and audio-visual aids presents further difficulties in the daily educational activity of teachers who are not even qualified in teaching. In addition to all this, minority languages usually have a lower prestige in contrast with majority languages. The speakers of minority languages have less opportunity to use their language, and the usage of Boyash language is also getting more and more limited. BOYASH LANGUAGE IN TERTIARY EDUCATION In 1994, Csokonai Vitéz Mihály Teacher’s Training College started a two-year post- gradual course in Romology in Kaposvar. The course included the teaching of both Gypsy languages spoken in Hungary. From 1996, the course was turned into „sleeping” course and later it was completely cancelled after the tragic death of the head of the department.In 1996, the University of Pecs took on Boyash language teaching by integrating it into the program of Romology Studies at the Linguistic Department of the Faculty of Arts. This course is still ongoing.The two officially accepted Gypsy languages are taught at the academic level exclusively at the Department of Romology of Pecs University. However, this academic course has not yet issued a diploma in teaching. To fill in this gap, since 2005, it is possible to obtain a degree in teaching beside the MA degree in Romology at the University of Pecs. Until the establishment of teacher training program, it is the highest degree obtainable in Hungary that allows for teaching gypsy languages in educational institutions by teachers who have a good command of Gypsy languages. That would enable them to act as a sort of multiplicator in school environment. In the course of linear education - the so-called Bologna Process - the three-year bachelor course will include Boyash and Romani language studies, while the master’s program (4-5 years) will provide the students with a degree in humanities or in teaching. The Faculty of Arts of Pecs University launched a Ph.D. course in educational sciences in2006. One of its programs, Romology, provides the students with further training and offers the lecturers and Ph.D. students the opportunity to carry out scientific work. DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS The real solution for the problem of Gypsy language teaching in Hungary would be the completion of basic linguistic research and the creation of auxiliary sciences and background sciences that would provide the base for the establishment of teacher training in Boyash and Romani languages, similar to the teacher training in other languages.Establishing the conditions of language teacher training is becoming urgent, but there are other obstacles preventing high-level, widespread Gypsy language and mother tongue education. Apart from a few exceptions, basic material conditions are still not provided: there are no course books or auxiliary educational materials that are necessary to support such educational programs.Besides the insufficient personal and material conditions, the present condition of languages, dialects, the delays in scientific research all make it even more difficult to introduce language education to schools.Although the implementation of Gypsy language teaching and especially mother tongue education is a process that requires a long time, it is also a fact that no serious progress have been made in this field for years. My empirical data also substantiate the fact that the loss of language and the process of linguistic assimilation are still in progress and, before long, this process will become irreversible. It is obvious that the project needs to be commenced without delay.During the past years, the Ministry of Education has shown activity neither in the legitimating of language requirements, nor in the preparation of educational syllabi. The decree allowing for the teaching of Gypsy languages makes the teachers rather vulnerable, so professional help is essential for them in their daily routine.Since it is a state responsibility to establish the conditions for language teacher training, it is important that the state shall act as a coordinator between the parties interested in the establishment of language teacher training, or it should delegate its responsibility to an institution that would carry out this task.It is also necessary to conduct further scientific researches to investigate the linguistic status of Boyash Gypsy communities in order to formulate a well considered, thorough language planning strategy. Due to the lack of scientifically grounded language planning, there is a danger of being overwhelmed by publications devoid of scientific approach, triggered by the growing social interest.Besides research development, there is also an essential need for innovative developments. The need for recording and saving the resulting data provided by the researches on Boyash language communities necessitates the establishment of an up-to-date linguistic, scientific and information center that could support the dictionary building project as well as computerized corpus linguistics.Giving a dynamic start to the necessary projects cannot wait long because of the intensive process of Boyash-Hungarian language shift.

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The Gypsy Populatulation in the Sociological-Economical Structure of Hungary

A cigány népesség a társadalmi-gazdasági térszerkezetben

Author(s): Tibor Cserti Csapó / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungarian Gypsies; social-economical environment; demography;Migration;Segregation;Skills; Qualification; Labor Market

This study aims to represent the situation and life circumstances of the Hungárián Gypsy population while examining different fields of the problem-complex and tries to make it easier to understand the origins as well as the historical-sociological- economical aspects of those fields.First of all, we developed a model to imagine the society with the social-economical environment surrounding the people or the group in it. This model we call niche- model. The study presents the niche-model we use to analyse the situation of the Gypsy population in social-economical environment.The term, niche means chamber, place or hole in the different disciplines. Often used by ecology it refers to the imagined place of different populations in nature. Natural environment is composed of enviromental factors. On every axis of these factors we can locate the optimal range which ensures good life conditions. From these intervalls we can find out the niche which is the imagined place of the given species in nature.We interpret similarly the social-economical environment of persons or groups of people in the society, the factors here involved are: age, marital status, number of children, qualification, social status, odds at labor market, etc. We can follow on the axes the revealing parametres of the group to determine the niche the given group occupies in the structure. When the environment changes, the niche deforms and people must adapt, migrate, assimilate accordingly in the different historical situations. The Gypsies are doing the same. That is why we looked at the history of Hungarian Gypsies with a focus on the great changing, transforming periods of the social-economical environment examining how the Gypsy community was reactive to these changes of their former niche. We have found out that this history until today shows continuously decreasing opportunities of finding their place in the social-economical structure.In the model every factor is coherent with the others. That is why the policy helping Gypsies must observe and attend the interactions of the factors. Featuring certain axes of this model we can examine the situation of the Hungarian Gypsies from the given aspect as well as point out coherences with the other ones. 1. Status in demography The first data on the number of Gypsies in Hungary exists from 1782. The number that time was 43738 on the present area of the country. Subsequent data show a little growth (in 1873: 50040 person, in 1893: 65000 person). We can contrast it to the model of the demographic changes in Hungary. In this model the first period of the „demographical behaviour” of different populations shows a very high natality index and a high mortality index as well as a low level of growing trend of the population. After the industrial revolution due to modernisation and development of life conditions the mortality rate decreased and thus a rapid accession of the population began. However, not like in the Hungarian society this growth started only later among the Gypsies, after World War II and on, during the era of socialism. The latest data reflect the later period of the model. In 1971 the number of gypsies is already 320 000, in 1994 this number is 482 000 and 540 800 in 2003. (see figure 4) During this period the population of the country became a regressive and elderly group meanwhile the Gypsy community is a young and growing group. Although figures of natality index show a little change: they are 3,2 per cent in 1971, 2,87 per cent in 1994 and 2,53 per cent in 2003 (see figure 5). (Kemény-Janky-Lengyel, 2004) It seems like the same process would have started which marked the demographic tendencies of Hungary from the middle of the 20th century. Perhaps there are changes in the thinking of the Gypsy community about demographical behaviour, slow changes in norms and values. Results of different researches seem to affirm the supposal. 2. The settlement of the Gypsy population in Hungary Some centuries ago Gypsy groups in Hungary led a wandering lifestyle, which was their way of finding their role in the social division of labor, always looking for work opportunities, sources of living currently available to them in local micro- communities. Consequently, there is no efficient way of assessing their then spatial distribution. The Habsburg monarchs (Charles VI., Maria Theresa, Joseph II.), however, had a coherent policy on the Gypsy issues and aimed at settling these people down, hence making the levying of taxes on them possible also at having them gradually adapt to the norms of the majority society, thus, in the end, at assimilating these communities. The census of 1893 already showed that nine tenth of the Roma in Hungary led a settled life by then. This way of living became absolutely dominant by the 20th century.The present study analyzes the spatial distribution of today’s Gypsy population in Hungary, along with its historical roots and the problems related to it.The distribution of the Roma population within the country’s territory is not homogenous. It is a historical fact that some areas, regions are characterized by a higher proportion of Gypsy inhabitants. Today’s distribution patterns have been influenced by geographical, economic and social as well as historical processes. And, even though the great social-economic transformations of the 20th century left their mark on the distribution of this people as well, as they induced some typical migration processes with typical directions, this kind of historical stability is still reflected in some „classic” regions of settlement.In the first place, therefore, we are going to look for the reasons why some regions of Hungary have more Roma inhabitants, both in absolute and in relative terms, than some other areas where their concentration as compared to the total population is lower.However, we are not very likely to find one single factor which could account for spatial dif ferences on the whole. Various analysts have brought up a number of different potential explanations for the phenomenon. Chances are that these factors all had some influence, possibly varying in extent by region and that it is the combination of them which can provide the explanation we are looking for. 2.1. Factors affecting spatial distribution 2.1.1. Physiographic reasons a) Antal Hermann, in his analysis of the 1893 census of Gypsies, wrote that there were two densely populated areas protruding from Transylvania (Erdély) towards the inner regions of the country. One of them is the northern, northwestern part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld) in front of the mountain rim, while the other is the southernmost region of the Great Hungarian Plain directly neighboring Romania and former Serbia. The author gives an explanation of a physiographic nature for the concentration of Gypsy people in these areas: according to him, neither the mountains (where making a living is rather hard) nor the completely flat plain fit the Gypsy „nature” in terms of natural endowments (raw materials needed for traditional Gypsy crafts), the absence or presence of which explains the settlement patterns of Gypsies. 2.1.2. Social-economic environment b) Another important factor influencing the settling of people is the social-economic environment. It might have played a role where they could find a market for the output of their traditional crafts. c) It is worth mentioning the fact that the various counties and municipalities applied highly differing approaches in implementing the resolutions of the Habsburg monarchs. Obviously, Roma people always sought for regions where harassment by local administration was less severe or where the enforcement of those resolutions remained weak. d) The state and structure of the local economy and the relevant inequalities between the various regions might also have had an effect on settlement. Neither the more advanced state of embourgeoisement, the more developed industrial and agricultural sector in Northern Transdanubia (Észak-Dunántúl), nor the intense agricultural activities and the puritan lifestyle of local small-holders in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain supported traditional Gypsy crafts, therefore wandering Roma craftsmen avoided these regions (Pomogyi 1997). e) The process was further affected by the potential presence of other minorities and the receptiveness of local inhabitants. Roma people found it hard to settle down in towns with a German or Southern-Slavic population, especially because of the very rigid social structure of Germans. Hence one might find a settlement with hardly any Gypsy inhabitants while the neighboring village, with similar geographical endowments, is home to a large number of Roma. In Somogy county, for example, they constitute only 1.9% of the population of Csoma, a village previously inhabited by ethnic German people, whereas the equally populated Büssü, originally inhabited by Hungarians, boasts a 49.3% proportion of Gypsy citizens. f) Historical processes, the central government’s approach towards and measures affecting Gypsies, and the changing tendencies of the social-economic environment had an important role, without a doubt. During the era of socialist nationality policies, when their isolated gypsy camps on forests’ perimeter were abolished (which began shortly after 1961 as a consequence of the 1961 resolution on the abolishment of settlements not satisfying certain social requirements, passed by the MSZMP KB (Hungarian Socialist Working People’s Party, Central Committee)), they moved primarily into nearby townships, predominantly villages. Furthermore, attention must be given to where Gypsy communities had been moved to by the central administration (predominantly so-called „dwellings of inferior value” constructed on the outskirts of small villages, abandoned manor houses, mine camps, military barracks, etc.).During the 20th century, with traditional Gypsy crafts losing ground, and especially under the circumstances of socialist industrialization, natural factors were losing importance. Economic factors and interventions of a political nature, however, began to have an increasingly significant influence on the process of spatial restructuring. Starting in the 1950’s, the enormous demand for unskilled workforce created by fast-paced industrialization and the construction of industrial cities induced heavy migration towards industrial regions and towards the capital.After the political transition, as a result of the collapse of the socialist industry and soaring unemployment rates, the very opposite happened, and the Roma started to migrate back to the agricultural regions of the countryside. 2.2. Spatial distribution of the Roma population Today, some 20% of Gypsies live in the Southern Transdanubian (Dél-Dunántúl) counties (Zala, Somogy, Baranya and less typically Tolna), 51% belong to the north- eastern part of the country (Nógrád, Heves, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Hajdú-Bihar counties), with nearly 10 percent concentrated in the capital. It is apparent, however, that they are hardly represented in more prosperous regions, such as the counties in Hungary’s northwestern territories (Cserti Cs. 2006).The demographic transformation among the Gypsy population following World War II caused a kind of relative overpopulation in the regions traditionally inhabited by Gypsy people. Changes in the social-economic field, at the same time, also affected the spatial distribution of the group in question. The restructuring of Hungary’s economy - industrialization, development of the centers of heavy industry, urbanization process unfolding in the capital, in politically preferred rural cities and in heavy industrial regions - naturally affected the spatial distribution and the migration patterns of the Roma as well as those of the country’s entire population. Migration brought about some shifts in emphasis of their spatial distribution. During the migration process, the hope for a better living, a better wage or simply for a job was appealing (in this era of industrialization and huge state-funded investment projects, it was relatively easy to find a job as an unskilled construction worker). On the other hand, the economic underdevelopment of rural areas together with the collectivization and mechanization of agriculture acted against Gypsies’ attempts to enter the wage economy, thus remained a mitigating factor to migration.The concentrated distribution of the Roma population in today’s Hungary is well illustrated by the fact that 15% of the country’s area is home to 50 percent of all Gypsy inhabitants. (See figure 21!)Figure 23. illustrates the general state of Hungary’s micro-regions. It is apparent at first sight that underdeveloped and severely underdeveloped micro-regions (categorized employing a variety of complex indices) overlap with those territories of the country where Gypsies are overrepresented in the population.Looking at employment statistics of Hungarian micro-regions, we find that the areas with the least favorable labor market characteristics practically coincide with those where the absolute number and the proportion of the Gypsy population are highest. This indicates a self-fulfilling process. These parts of the country have a long history of an unfavorable economic structure and weak employment figures - a fact that encouraged the settling of Roma people, a group of society who had been crowded out of more prosperous regions where they could not find their place, nor any job opportunities. On the other hand, the majority of Roma people living in these regions are characterized by low school qualification levels and low levels of professional skills, thus they are multiply disadvantaged - in an environment where potential employers are rather scarce, anyway. As a result, employment figures of these micro-regions are further worsened by the large numbers of hopelessly disadvantaged people living there.The comparison of the demographic status of micro-regions with that of the territories inhabited by the Roma leads to mixed conclusions. Some of the micro- regions (Northern Hungary) boast much more favorable demographic figures as compared to the total population average. Probably, this is partly due to the younger age distribution of relatively large local Gypsy populations. There are some micro-regions representing the total population average in terms of demographics (primarily in the eastern border region and the Middle Tisza Region), and some with an unfavorable demographic status (mainly in Southern Transdanubia and Inner Somogy), where demographic aging, population decrease and the low number of births are most probably related to the micro-village settlement structure characteristic of the region. In these areas, the presence and the unique demographic characteristics (as compared to the majority society) of Roma people are insufficient to offset unfavorable demographic processes.The areas inhabited by larger numbers of Roma people are typically characterized by small settlements, which fact, again, is interrelated with the social-economic status and the breakout opportunities of this minority - as the disadvantages in transportation geography of these villages inevitably mean an unfavorable economic structure, the lack of job opportunities and difficulties in contacting employers in regional centers of gravity. Furthermore, it means a limited access to educational infrastructure, to further education, to skills acquisition opportunities, thus maintains the socially disadvantaged status caused by low levels of education.Regions with unfavorable educational qualification figures also appear to overlap with those having a high proportion of Roma inhabitants. This is clearly a consequence of Hungarian Roma lagging far behind in terms of educational qualification. 3. Life circumstances The analysis of living conditions, too, shows the backwardness of the regions traditionally inhabited by Gypsies. The share of so-called „full-comfort” dwellings (dwellings with a room of at least 12 m2, kitchen, lavatory, public utilities (electricity, potable water, sewage, hot water and central heating equipment)) is below, while the share of those „without comfort” (dwellings with a room of at least 12 m2, kitchen, access to outdoor lavatory and potable water, individual heating equipment) is above the average. The share of dwellings with access to the public gas distribution network, public potable water supply and sewage system is even lower. 4. Distribution of the Roma population by settlement type The census of 1893 reported 13.3% of the Roma population living in cities with the remaining 86.7% living in rural areas. The historical and economic processes we reviewed earlier caused changes not only in spatial distribution but the proportion of Gypsies living in cities has been constantly increasing, as well. The most important factors fostering Gypsies’ migration to the cities were the industrialization and urbanization processes of the socialist era also the attempts to abolish gypsy camps (the latter, though not solving the problem of „ghettos”, began to turn some of the suburbs and poorish downtown districts of cities into slums by driving large groups of Gypsies towards these areas). As a consequence, figures show the following changes: a 1971 study by Kemény report a 22% share of cities in Gypsies’ place of residence. By 1986, urban population reached 41.1%, with 58.9% in rural areas. This was still behind the average Hungarian urbanization level (58.9% share of urban population) and it has not improved since then as some 63% of the total Hungarian population now live in urban areas.Differences appear to be even more significant in the case of smallest settlements when analyzing the distribution by settlement type of the Roma and the non-Roma population. The share of total population living in settlements with less than 2,000 residents is 16.8%, whereas the same proportion for the Roma amounts to a stunning 40%; the figures are 7.8% and 20% , respectively, for settlements with less than 1,000 residents. In typical micro-village regions (Northern Hungary, Southern Transdanubia and the eastern territories, where Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg is the only county with a larger number of villages inhabited by less than 1,000 people), the share of those living in micro-villages is even higher (Havas 1999b). Thus the Roma population can typically be found in the rural areas of Hungary.In areas traditionally inhabited by the Roma, the share of urban resident Roma is still lower than the relevant country-wide average (15.3% in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, 15.5% in Heves county and 26.4% in Baranya county), which also implies that the Roma who had left their place of birth in the past primarily chose large cities and industrial centers outside their own county as their new home (Kocsis - Kovács1999). 5. Migration processes Notwithstanding our above statements on the spatial distribution of the Roma and the changes thereof, the traditional geographical distribution of the Gypsy population has not changed too much. The majority still lives in Northern Hungary, the northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain and in Southern Transdanubia, just like during the preceding centuries. Data rather suggest that we should focus on the changes in proportions within these regions.Comparing the data on spatial distribution contained in the 1893 census with those of today, Southern Transdanubian counties jumped forward in the „ranking” of areas most inhabited by Gypsies indicating that these areas received significant numbers of Roma immigrants of Romanian mother tongue at about the turn of the century and afterwards (Havas 1999). Later, intra-country migration patterns further strengthened this process.While at the end of the 19th century half of the Roma population lived on the Great Hungarian Plain, this figure dropped to about one third by the 1980’s, thus the Plain lost in significance among the regions inhabited by Roma. Their absolute number in this region, however, increased, it was only their share in Hungarian Roma population which declined. Migration flows started off from the (primarily rural) areas of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county heading towards Budapest and the cities in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county and Hajdú-Bihar county. The share of Northern Hungary in the total Roma population constantly increased until the end of the 1980’s (the decline of heavy industries). At the same time, Northern Hungary, too, is characterized by a high rate of natural population growth, thus the number of Gypsies living there has been and is constantly increasing. The situation is similar in the region of Hungary’s capital, as well. The constant growth in population was accompanied by the increase of their share within the total Roma population until the 1990’s. The last decade of the 20th century, though, witnessed a turnaround and the Roma in the capital now represent a lower percentage of the total Gypsy population of Hungary. The share of Transdanubia has been permanently decreasing. Increasing population but a decreasing share in total Roma population is characteristic for Southern Transdanubia, while in Western Transdanubia the relevant proportion increased, as well. These figures, however, only indicate some shifts in the spatial distribution of the Roma, whereas the actual size of the population has been constantly growing in each mentioned region. Inter- county migration, however, was lower from Southern Transdanubia, Gypsies rather moved to large cities and socialist industrial centers of the same region.Details of these shifts in distribution are reflected in county-level data. In the 1893 census the five counties with the largest number of Gypsy inhabitants, in ascending order, were: 1. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, 2. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, 3. Jász-Nagykun- Szolnok, 4. Bács-Kiskun, 5. Baranya. By 1984, the list showed some changes: 1. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemlén, 2. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, 3. Győr-Moson-Sopron, 4. Baranya, 5. Pest. When considering the share of Roma as compared to the total population of each county in 1983: 1. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, 2. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, 3. Nógrád, 4. Heves, while in 1984: 1. Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, 2. Nógrád, 3. Szabolcs- Szatmár-Bereg, 4. Somogy, 5. Baranya. The increase in comparison to 1978 was most marked in the counties Borsod and Zala, and Budapest. Gypsy population growth in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok and Baranya slowed down, Győr- Moson-Sopron and Tolna even witnessed a decrease in absolute terms (Kocsis 1989). Analyses by István Kemény et al. indicate similar tendencies (Kemény 1997).An increasing number of Gypsy communities began to appear in the cities - the Roma, previously typically found in rural areas, turned towards urban territories. The role of Hungary’s capital increased markedly. In the end of the 19th century, Budapest and Pest county together represented some 6% of the Roma population. Their share grew to 20% by the 1990’s. The Roma population of the capital was about 600 people in 1893, an estimate of 30,000 was reported in 1978, and data from 1984 center about 41,000. Today, their number might be somewhere between 80-100,000, nearly 20% of all Hungarian Roma (Kocsis 1996).In the years following the political transition, the cities, county seats and the Budapest agglomeration remained primary migration destinations for the Roma.In the cities, and in Budapest as well, they could settle in neighborhoods/ districts which were abandoned by their former inhabitants, primarily the more well-off communities (Józsefváros, Kőbánya, Pesterzsébet). They moved into gradually deteriorating apartment houses, starting off the process which has more or less turned these areas into slums by now. During the era of socialist housing estates projects - along with the government’s inclination to abolish slums and Gypsy camps - large numbers of Gypsies moved into housing estates in the cities. After the resolution restricting people from settling in the capital had taken effect, migration to Budapest came to a halt while the Roma population of the suburbs and the settlements surrounding the capital started to grow rapidly. It is a characteristic of the process of concentration that a large number of those who were unable to leave rural areas right in the beginning became commuters (on a daily, weekly or, in the case of some more distant places of work, on a monthly basis; primarily from counties in the southern part of the country). If they managed to „take roots” in the city after a while, their family and relatives also started to move in soon.Béla Janky based his analyses of the migration patterns of the Gypsy population on the 1993-1994 Gypsy study of István Kemény, Gábor Havas and Gábor Kertesi. Data in the following table suggests that Roma are characterized by a higher willingness to migrate as compared to the total population of Hungary. This might have a variety of causes.The probability of leaving one’s hometown because of marriage is higher in villages (due to the relatively small population, the chance of finding a spouse from somewhere else is higher). The share of Roma living in villages is, however, much higher than that of the total population (Janky 1999).Migration rates/mobility is higher amongst the youth. The Roma population, at the same time, is of a much younger age structure than non-Roma groups, which might also be a factor acting to increase Gypsy migration rates.Yet, at the same time, there is no sign that the Roma would leave their place of birth during their lifetime more or maybe less frequently than average. Looking at the data by age group - which seems reasonable, as there might be a high number of Roma who have not left their place of residence yet, because of the lower average age of this ethnic group - we do not see a significant difference in frequency of migration as compared to the population average.The same data arranged by settlement type show that the Gypsy living in settlements demonstrate a lower rate of moving, while urban dwellers’ figures practically coincide with those of the total population. It is striking, however, how much the Gypsies living in Budapest cling to Budapest.The share of migrations from Budapest among all migrations is twice as high for the total population as for the Roma. Migrations between villages, however, occur twice as frequently among the Roma as among the total population. Although if one takes into consideration the differences in the distribution of the two populations by settlement type (the higher share of Gypsies living in rural areas and the higher share of the total population living in Budapest), differences in the rate of migrations between settlement types disappear.As for the share of intra-county and inter-county migrations among all migrations, about two thirds of Gypsy migrants remain within the same county, thus the relatíve distance to the new place of residence is lower. This figure amounts to approximately 55% among the total population.No large wave of inter-regional migrations exists among the Roma. The majority of migrants (typically not more than 2 or 3 percent of total population in any given year) remain within the same county. Still, a slow flow towards Budapest and the Western territories might be observed (Janky 1999).Janky also analyzed the migration rates of the 1970’s but he could not find any significant differences between the two populations, nor their migration tendencies (Janky 1999).On the other hand, a relatively small difference in the age structure of the Beas and that of other Gypsy groups was detected by Janky. The Beas were characterized by a slightly older age structure than the rest of the Gypsy population. Janky reasoned that the tendency of „Hungarization” is much stronger amongst the Beas, which clearly affects younger generations to a larger extent, thus the age structure of those with Beas as their mother tongue will necessarily become older (Janky 1999).Janky also made some interesting conclusions about migration patterns by mother tongue. There were significant differences between the Beas and the other Gypsy groups in the number of previous places of residence, but the characteristics of those with Romani as their mother tongue were different from those of Hungarian- speaking Gypsies, too.Yet, there were not much more Beas having moved to another county or region than as compared to other Gypsy groups. Thus, they are also primarily characterized by intra-county migration. 6. Segregation Along with migration, it is inevitable to mention the process of segregation (settling in separate places) as a factor dramatically worsening the living conditions of the Roma.Segregation, as far as rural/urban sociology is concerned, denotes the phenomenon of the residential (spatial) separation of the various social groups. The area, settlement or district where a specific type of population is concentrated, gradually separates from the totality of remaining settlements or the remaining districts of the city both in spatial terms and in terms of sociology. Social distance, hence, turns into spatial distance.Thus segregation is the spatial separation of social layers, the over-representation of a given layer in the social structure of a given district or region, as compared to the share of that layer in the total population of the city or the country. Segregation, by enlarging pre-existing differences in socio-structural status, brings about social disadvantages and solid differences in residential conditions and standards of living (Farkas 1996).The Roma in Hungary have always been characterized by a tendency of settling down in separated areas - because of the social distance between the Roma and the non-Roma ethnic groups and the closed, inward nature of their communities, which again was a result of the prejudice and the offenses against them.As early as in the resolutions of Maria Theresa, the settling of Gypsies in ghetto- like, segregated areas was prohibited. Nonetheless, it was this era when Gypsy camps began to gain ground - a process that is still going on. (The 1779 census reports only one camp in Somogy county, whereas by the beginning of the 20th century there were more than a hundred of them.)According to the 1893 census, in nearly 40% of Hungarian settlements, the permanently settled Roma population lived dispersed among non-Roma inhabitants (not separated), with a share of 64% living in houses. These indicate a certain degree of integration70 (Pomogyi 1995).70 A Magyarországon 1893. január 31-én végrehajtott czigányösszeírás eredményei. Magyar StatisztikaiResidential segregation is estimated to have grown to 90% by the first half of the 1900’s (Csalog 1997).Camps, however, are only one form of residential segregation. A broader problem is the so-called „ghetto-issue”, several types of which were described by Zsolt Csalog (1997):- It was a frequent spontaneous phenomenon from the 19th century on that Gypsies concentrated in a given street of a settlement (for example Csurgó).- Efforts for the abolishment of the camps often resulted in the birth of very similarresidential patterns - the cheapest, technically most outdated streets and areas became ghettos of a more and more homogenous population (e.g. Siklós).- The abolishment of Gypsy camps often remained a formality; inhabitants wereassigned emergency dwellings in former military barracks or the servants’ quarters of abandoned manor houses (e.g. Kaposvár).- Even though the resolution of 1964 required former camp residents to be settleddispersed among the population, this was largely ignored in practice. The so- called „CS” (referring to „csökkentett színvonalú”, meaning „of inferior quality”) constructions were completed in closed units on the edges of the settlements, officially justified by saving in some ancillary costs.- The newest form of segregation is the process of spontaneous „Gypsyization” in today’s micro-village regions (Csalog 1997). This process will be discussed in detail below.One might observe that recent decades have witnessed a constant flow of Gypsies from the camps to inner areas of the settlements, which trend, however, has more recently been slowed down by migration flows of a similar extent in the opposite direction (Janky 1999). The former process was fostered by the socialist campaign of the 1960’s for the abolishment of Gypsy camps. These efforts, and most significantly the family home building programme built on interest-free loans, indeed yielded some results, but the reproduction of camp lifestyle is still going on. Many camps were largely abandoned, on the one hand as a result of the loan programme and, on the other hand, owing to the economic boom unfolding in the end of the 1960’s, but also because of better job opportunities. However, new camps came to life, as well (Berey 1991).The abolishment of camps became topical in the beginning of the 1960’s. Within the framework of the comprehensive political reform concept, the first 15-year housing development plan was developed, the passing of which was shortly followed by the 1961 resolution of the MSZMP on the abolishment of settlements not satisfying certain social requirements. Relevant time series data from housing records suggest that the programme must have been an enormous success. In 1964, a total of 48,966 affected dwellings were recorded, whereas the number of dwellings in camps to be abolished appears to have dropped to 6,277 by 1984, with the population of these dwellings recorded as 222,160 and 42,066 people, respectively. The truth, however, was by far gratifying. A camp, for the purposes of the resolution in question, was defined asKözlemények, Új folyam, IX. kötet. 1895.a spatially separated area with at least four dwellings not meeting relevant social requirements. Thus statistics did not account for the totality of socially unacceptable dwellings: what they included - and hence, what the measures targeted - was the most apparent, spatially concentrated form of this phenomenon only (Berey 1991).The 1980’s already witnessed a widespread decline in the construction and housing sector, the constructions of camp residences were also slowing down; in a number of areas the abolishment of camps came to a halt or even reversed. Construction rates began to decrease.- The wages of camp residents could not keep in line with increasing construction material prices. Saving for a home loan downpayment became difficult.- With real estate prices on the rise, loan amounts more and more frequently proved out to be insufficient to pay for a dwelling (even for one in a less favorable technical condition).- The re-settling of the ever increasing number of those below or above working age and of old, ill inhabitants, who did not have any kind of financial background. Local councils did not have the material resources to solve these housing issues and a portion of those affected was reluctant to give up their everyday environment and move to some other place.- Dwellings in the camps could not be demolished as they were usually inhabited by more than one family, and not all of them could take part in the relevant programmes. Thus by the beginning of the 1980’s efforts for the abolishment of Gypsy camps ran into a deadlock in the entire country.What is more, the process induced by successful re-settling projects must not be considered as a clearly positive one. The moving of Gypsies from their camps into abandoned rural dwellings had fatal consequences for the everyday life and the local society of affected settlements, as it did not only increase the tension between the two ethnic groups but it also set into motion an erosion of the housing markets of villages large enough in extent to turn the pre-existing selective migration trends of disadvantaged settlements into a wave of people running away from these villages (Kocsis - Kovács 1999). To make things worse, these measures even failed in abolishing the phenomenon of Gypsy camps and in prohibiting their reproduction. According to Zsolt Csalog (1997), a 40% share of today’s Gypsy population live in classic Gypsy camps, while more than 70% are estimated to be subject to residential segregation.The migration flows of Gypsies to the cities during the decades of socialism seemed to be slowing down in the 1980’s as a result of the then visible signs of an economic crisis and with preferences shifting away from previously glorified socialist industrial cities, and another migration process in the opposite direction, towards the rural areas appeared to unfold.In recent decades, Gypsy population most markedly grew in the disadvantaged, stagnating, secluded areas of the country, typically characterized by a micro-village settlement structure, with weak administrative, commercial, cultural functions and bad infrastructural and communal conditions, and in backward industrial regions (Cserti Cs. - Forray 1998).In these disadvantaged regions, a certain process of „ethnic homogenization” already started before the years of the political transition, however, the 1990’s witnessed an acceleration of this process. This has been particularly apparent in multiply disadvantaged micro-villages. Young, able-to-work, socially more mobile members of the population are leaving these aging villages for large cities with more favorable conditions, and the worthless houses of these abandoned villages are getting occupied by social groups of deteriorating social conditions, who lost their grounds and their living elsewhere - for example Gypsies. In former socialist industrial cities, the majority of job opportunities suitable for the unskilled, unqualified workforce disappeared during the years of the political transition. For them, it is still easier to find a secure livelihood in villages, where the conditions for household food production and collection are given.These disadvantaged villages, however, constitute the end station of geographical mobility, a kind of dead end street - social rise is nearly impossible. The chances of labor market integration, of acquiring a job are very low - just think of their distance from potential employers, the disadvantages in terms of transportation geography and the costs of commuting to cities with potential job opportunities (Cserti Cs.2000).Employment in these areas is very low and because of the lack of infrastructure and capital inflow there is no hope for improvement in the short run. A characteristic of these multiply disadvantaged groups of Gypsies is, furthermore, the disastrous housing conditions, clearly apparent in terms of hygiene, health and lifestyle, as well. These latter accompanying symptoms again hinder the acquisition of a job.It is a typical process that Gypsies concentrate or their share of the population increases significantly in settlements where social-economic development has come to a halt, the original population is aging or is „voting with their feet” and, if possible, move to settlements with better endowments, better opportunities promising a better quality of life. Our case studies detected this phenomenon in all the three settlements. The high share of Roma in the population means the concentration of poverty in these settlements - as it is a result of the moving in or the staying of the „outcast”. Ethnic tensions and social tensions disguised as ethnic tensions further worsen the situation (Bíró et al. 1998).The appearance, the gaining ground and the population growth of the Gypsy in villages, therefore, is a function of the economic and social status of those villages, and, thus, it might be interpreted as an outcome of a process (Szuhay 1997). Residents’ attitude towards the „Gypsyization” of villages is related to the population retaining ability and the economic opportunities of those settlements (Szuhay 1997).Families unable to leave segregation behind will not be able to assimilate either, and assimilated families hit by segregation in their place of residence will dissimilate (Csalog 1997).The public image of a district does indeed influence migration processes, the succession of some settlements was observed to have accelerated when changes in the public image of that area occurred.Members of a given social layer tend to appear dispersedly at first, later moving in in ever increasing waves. Simultaneously, original inhabitants slowly start to move out of the area and the process later speeds up and turns into a kind of escape. During the process, a so-called „clip-point” might be determined, where there is a sudden turn in the proportions of the two different population groups. The phenomenon was studied on the appearance of people of color in large American cities, yet the process can be generalized and applied to the process of Roma people replacing non-Roma people in Hungarian villages or some urban areas. First, when the share of low-status residents reaches 5%, house prices in the area begin to sink as a result. Original residents still tolerate a 5 to 25% share of newcomers, but if their proportion exceeds this „clip-point”, the original population starts to flee in panic, they sell their homes and the resulting devaluation of dwellings further accelerates the inflow of poorer groups (Cséfalvai 1994). The very same process took place in Hungarian settlements. In 1994, the number of settlements with the proportion of Roma above 8% was already 675. The figure was above 25% in 94 of them, and in 9 settlements, the Roma constituted the majority. (Kocsis 1996)In recent decades, Gypsy migration into some of the capital’s districts (districts 6 to 9) has accelerated to a similar degree. By 1986, a stunning 47% of Budapest’s Roma population already lived in these areas. The share of Roma children in primary education was 2.7% in 1971, whereas it climbed to 8.3% by 1986 in these areas. The then 3.5% Roma population in these districts induced a strong ghettoization process and its continuing growth causes even more severe social and ethnic tensions (Ladányi 1993). The Hungarian population seems to be even less tolerant to Gypsies as were the original inhabitants of American cities to people of color in the above example. 7. Skills, qualification Qualification and schooling are very important aspects of the problem-group of Gypsies. A low qualification means a low social status and this status is inherited from one generation to the other. The family can not teach the worth of learning, good attitudes nor can give a language-using habit wich is compatible with the language of the school, it also has bad financial potential for their children’s education so the next generation gets the same bad conditions in the school system and then on the labor market. What is more, the traditional community gives the example for girls to be mothers and wives just after the primary school and for boys to become skilled workers. Also the schools operating in the most disadvantageous areas inhabited by gypsies have worse facilities in instruments, teachers, etc.In the second half of the 20th century the qualification level of Hungarian Gypsies increased. Even so in 1994 only 0,2% of Gypsies had graduation from higher education and 1,5% of them had secondary school leaving exam. Most of the population get some craft (10,4%) or finish only the primary school (45,6%) or less (32,8%). 9,4% have never attended school. These data suggest not too good chances on the labor market. (KEMÉNY-JANKY-LENGYEL, 2004) 8. Positions at labor market In the socialist era the employment of the Gypsy men was the same like that of the non-Gypsies. But after the social and economical changes in the 1990’s this fall to 29% among Gypsy men and 15% among women (1993). Casuals have low skill level, in addition, the Gypsy population live mainly in regions of the country with low economical potentials and in little villages where there are no working places. Formerly they worked in hard industry and agriculture but nowadays these fields can not give work and there exists a racial discrimination and prejudice in Hungarian society, among employers as well. We can find casuals in bad health conditions, among women, more and more young children, in a hopeless situation finally giving up their search for work anymore.These different fields result in a very complex question of the situation of Gypsy communities. The government has to observe and develop all of the fields simultaneously considering the possibilities and own demands of the community parallelly with the experiences of coherencies of the axes in the niche-model.

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Child Welfare and Education

Gyermekvédelem és iskola

Author(s): Aranka Varga / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Child Welfare System; Education in Hungary; ’lookedafter by the state’; educational strategies; socialization process

INTRODUCTION The lives of children and youngsters who grew up without family has been handled in various ways throughout history. From the Middle Ages social provision was spreading continuously, and in modern times new orders were made in protection of the children. Nowadays the main question is what kind of care those children receive who are forced to live without their families. Whether we are looking at national or international research concerning child welfare, we can see that their life is harder than those children who live with their family.In this work we are examining how people’s lives change. in their transition from family life to being raised in the child welfare system. Can they make up for their backwardness, and will they have a chance to fit into the society by the time they are adults? These days one of the main concerns in fitting into society is how well educated one is when entering adulthood. This is already important when one starts life with a strong family background, but even more so if that is missing. The work will explore those factorss that promote or inhibit successful learning in the lives of people who grew up without family, and on this basis it will list some suggestions in order to give a solution for the problems. THE EXAMINED GROUP In colloquial Hungarian the term 'államigondozott’(’lookedafter by the state’) is used for all children and youngsters who grow up without family under the government's supervision. This term has been legal for decades, although the latest childcare law, which was introduced in 1998, does not use this expression. According to the law ’child welfare provision providing one with home’ (Gyvt. 52. §) (children's home and foster parents) we can talk about where children, who were taken from their family and brought up by the government are placed. In this dissertation the expression 'children in care' will be used when discussing children living in provision as the examined group. Children and youth in this group often refer to themselves as zacis ('pawnshop') and gyivis (a slang and pejorative abbreviation coming from the Hungarian name of the child welfare system). Those outside the system refer to the young people as ' állami gondozott’(’looked after by the state’)19 Szeretném megköszönni Karcagi Szilviának és Heather Tidrich-nek az angol nyelvű összefoglaló¬hoz nyújtott segítséget.• According to the protection of children law: ’Child welfare provision supplying one with a home (data from December 2006)• Temporary (~10%), transitional (~80%), permanent (~10%) foster• In children’s home (~50%), living with foster parents (~50%)• 0-18 years compulsorily provided (~eighteen thousand people), 18-25 years after- care (~four thousand people)’ THE TOPIC The reason for the choice of the topic of dissertation is complex. Currently in Hungary there is not enough research providing countrywide statistics and a closer look at the reasons for educational failure among children in child welfare. The research studies that were completed after the political transformation concerning the issue were limited and dated.We are lacking national social and educational policies that would specifically focus on increasing educational success among those growing up in child welfare. In the meantime we can see from the national statistical data prepared yearly by the social sphere, that most foster care youth start life with a type of education that they can hardly manage in the labour market. As a consequence the social integration of children growing up in child welfare is probably barely successful.A further aim of the dissertation is to make a more precise observation about children living in child welfare and about their education and their social integration, with the help of an empirical study. Another goal is to try to make a connection between the services provided in child welfare supply system and the educational success of the foster care youth. Another important purpose is to find out howthe educational and the civil spheres complement the work of the social sphere, and what type of opportunities do they use or fail to use in order to help children growing up in child welfare. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS The basic question of the study is what educational strategies the state uses during the socialization process for children and youth in the child welfare system, who are lacking social and economic capital, in order to facilitate the youths’social integration.- While looking at this question we shall see what kind of services the social supply system provides on a legal and professional basis.• Here we take into consideration that the social supply system has its historical heritage and a continuously changing nature, with a special emphasis on how it tries to respond to failures occurring in the field of education.• Another crucial aspect is to examinewhether there is any opportunity in the social supply system that takes into account the special educaional situation of those living in child welfare.• While answering the questions we relied on the opinion of the concerned (people living and working in child welfare) with the help of the regional empirical research mentioned above.- We further inquire how the educational, civil, and social sectors relate in the care of children in the child welfare system. To what extent is this connection systemetized: are the roles and responsibilities organized and shared among the different players, or are they deflected from one sector to another?• We will also touch on the role civil organizations or other players in the civil sphere can play in school success. We also examine what additional features are provided through the involvement of such organizations in the development of these youth. We hypothesize that only through the systematic involvement of all three sectors will they find success.• Different sources help to get closer to the issue such as: the above mentioned empirical research, the strategies on national educational policy and the documents of civil organizations.Besides these research questions we pose several additional questions, outlined below.1. We think that the reasons thatpeople living in child welfare have low education and an educational level rarely applicable in the labour market are because they already have backwardness when they enter the system, and the system is missing developmental services. So, the dissertation started from the assumption that although the child welfare system underwent transformations after the state socialist period that have created the conditions for successful education, in practice the services related to professional development are still incomplete. It means that the structure is suitable for children to get into a favourable placement (whether in foster care or in a children's home), but the necessary financial and human resources are still unavailable for the support of successful schooling. We looked for proof for this assumption within the empirical research.2. Another of our zero-hypotheses is that there are verifiable differences in the education and career of children living in various environments (i.e. with foster parents or in a children's home). The difference originates from the social opportunities and limits of these two types of accommodation. The foster parents' provision has a higher chance of providing family socialization and offers more options for successful education than does the institution of a children's home. However, this success also requires that the workers (foster parents, teachers) at both types of placement be well prepared and cooperative. We assume that implementation of the child welfare system, does not currently realize the full possibilities and advantages of the available types of placements and this problem is evidentin the degree of educational success among children living in child welfare. These statements were provenwithin the empirical research.3. We assume also that the educational policy took notice of the schooling problems of those living in child welfare, yet it does not have a well organized plan. There is not a wide range of cooperation either regularly or in the daily practice between the social and educational sector to improve the schooling situation of those living in child welfare. The review of the documents on educational policy gave a general answer and the empirical research gave a daily practical one for this topic.4. Our presupposition regarding civil sphere, namely that in civil organizational frame it is possible to give additional services, which efficiently and successfully completes the state supply system in order to help the social integration of those living in child welfare. On this field - primarily with the analysis of documents - we examined what are the activities possible to be carried out in civil organizational frame which work well in practice. We wished to prove our presupposition with this. RESEARCH METHODS The following gave the basis for the empirical research: the theoretical background and the results of research outlined in the previous chapters, the data of child welfare statistics and political documents. We wished to discover the reasons for school success and school failure. The purpose was to learn how those involved in the system (youngsters growing up in child welfare, young adults who are already out of child welfare as well as the workers in the system) see the question of schooling, from the perspective of their own life situation and experiences.Our presuppositions before the research included the following:1. That the the present tools and resources of the child welfare supply system is unable to compensate for the backwardness showed before getting into the sytem - which might be directly or indirectly connected to schooling -2. We also thought that the foster parents’ network is more suitable to make up for the absence of the child’s family, though the present foster parents’ capacity is not yet prepared to satisfy the needs for school success.3. From the overview of the educational policy it could be seen that there is not a systemic strategy to help the school success of those living in child welfare. We assumed that the emphasis of school in the young people’s progress is occasional even in daily practice and the youths’ cooperation with the workers in social and educational sectors is incidental.The areas for the empirical research were Baranya, Somogy and Tolna counties. When choosing the research sites a main factor was whether a study made among young people from one county would not provide us with comparison and show the differences in the counties’ child welfare systems. By having chosen these three counties we can get a picture about one region. This image may be different in some ways from the nationwide situation; however, we believe that the structure of the research makes it possible to draw some conclusions from the results regarding characteristics of other child welfare sytems in other parts of the country.The child welfare sytem of these three counties will be demonstrated through statistics, written documents and interviews made with the directors.After this we made a questionnaire. The sample is complete: all young people in the region in children's home from age twelve to eighteen got into the sample. The adults (foster parents, teachers) who look after these children served as sub- samples. They were asked their opinion about the children affected.The reason for the choice of the age group is that the young people aged between twelve and eighteen are most probably students and in the age where they can answer the various self-filling questions in the questionnaire without help. The questionnaires sent out for the adults working in child welfare were served to complete the answers of the young person and to represent the pedagogical aspect.The questionnaires were sent out for 1204 young people living in child welfare and for adults working with them. In Baranya county, 449; in Somogy county, 507; and in Tolna county, 248 young people received a questionnaire. When an adult was dealing with more young people he or she received as many questionnaires as young people he or she was involved with in the sample. From the county child welfare we received, crosschecked and checked the lists of the addressees.We sent out the questionnaires through the post in September 2006 and they were returned at the end of November the same year. About half of the questionnaires were sent back to us and out of these 99% were valid. (According to the technical literature this is a very good result, which can be explained by our previous contact with the individuals.) The questionnaires were processed with the help of SPSS software in the spring of 2007.When putting the questions together we relied on the ideas put forward in the study of Mrs. Veress (2004).- The first part of the questions were focused on how the young people's affections and their social network were shaped. We assumed that social capital of those living in child welfare were damaged, and this is one of the reasons for their failure in school. The research question explored how a stable social network could be re-established in this situation, and which persons had the potential to serve as social capital for the young person.- With the next group of questions we were trying to discover to what extent certain personal characteristics established in primary school - openness, interest, independence of decisionmaking - remain characteristics of the examined group.- We assumed that due to the barriers of the system, those growing up in child welfare, especially those living in children's homes, get have fewer opportunities in which their decisionmaking strategies concerning their lives would be shaped.- The third group of questions were examining what kind of role models the examined group had available in their environment at the age of self-identity formation, and in what ways they influenced the character they need for successful social integration. The conjecture behind this series of questions is that the points of reference of those growing up in child welfare are more insecure and varied than they are for their peers growing up in a family environment.In all the aspects of the questionnaire the emphasis was educational opportunities and failures. These series of questions were still crucial at the time that we later conducted deep inteviews, which also explored individual life events and with questions of ethnic identity.The questionnaire that was given to the caretakers included the same questions as that for the children, albeit from an adult and worker point-of-view. In addition, we asked the caretakers about their professional proficiencies and possibilities for cooperation with other sectors, in order to examine what kind of services the child welfare system can offer in the way of human resources.The interviews comprised the other empirical part of the research. Our purpose was to gain further answers from the research made up of questionnaires. We chose the interviewees with the ’snowball’ method. THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH THE FEELING OF INSECURITY One of the characteristics of the examined young people is that they repeatedly had to change accommodation, which reduced their feeling of security. In addition, their relationship with the caretakers responsible for them was no longer than three years. The reason for the unstable emotional connection of those living in child welfare is that at least half of them do not remember their caretaker from their childhood, and most of those that do remember do not keep any connection with their caretaker. Their relationships with their families are highly complex, ambivalent and intense: theycontain disappointment, love and lack thereof at the same time. According to the youth, they easily make friends with their peers, although from the number of their friends it is inferred that these relationships are neither very deep nor very long-lasting.When naming rolemodels, foster parents, fellow friends and blood-related members of family appear in high proportion, which suggests that in those cases where a lasting emotional connection is formed, the relationship is significant and meaningful..It plays a part in the relationships that most of the questioned young people have already had personal experiences facing negative discrimination. This leads to further separation, feelings of insecurity and barriers in personality development. The results of the research show that the child welfare supply system is unable to create emotional security for those living there, which could be a basis for their successful learning. ACCESS TO EDUCATION AND SERVICES Young people between the ages of twelve and eighteen who live in the child welfare system of the regionlive in smaller settlements at a higher rate than the national average. This factor can limit their access to education. As a consequence, the young people’s disadvantage is increased by the settlement’s limitations.The members of the examined group take part in the public education system just as such youth do in nationwide child welfare. So they are overrepresented in the education with different curriculum. In the course of their primary education their failure rate (repeating school year, retake exam, absence) is much higher than the national average. Their further studies are characterized by their choosing such professional directions thatare unlikely to be applicable in the labour market.The examined students have more free time than their peer group, they sacrifice less time for their study and their results fall considerably behind those of their contemporaries. This is the case in both types of placement (foster parents, children’s home), despite the fact that the foster parents are better supplied with materials, children may feel more at home, and these parents receive children with fewer existing problems. According to these facts you can therefore state that the emergence of a foster parents’ network has only created the frame for more home- like accommodation, but professional preparedness and awide range of services are still lackingin this field. This assertion is supported by the low educational level of the foster parents seen from our research data as well as the high number of young people answering the questions who neither ask nor receive help from their foster parents. YOUNG PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS AND MOTIVATION We should also point out that most of the caretakers did not report school-related problems despite the fact that the schooling data in our study lags behind the nationwide average. We conclude based on this contradiction that the caretakers do not emphasize higher educational attainment Additional services are necessary for these young people, who start with multiple disadvantages, in order to improve their educational attainment in this environmentBoth the young people and their caretakers outline a picture of those growing up in child welfare that shows repeated tendencies of assimilation into the lowest social strata. As long as this is the realistic image of the future - and why should it be otherwise? -, it means that both the young people and their caretakers are aware of the fact that the child welfarey system is unable to create instruments of socialization that would result in social mobility, and this also works as a self-fulfilling prophecy. INCLUSIVE PEDAGOGICAL ENVIRONMENT Most of the young people interviewed could recount a school experience when they were negatively discriminated because of their life circumstances. They experienced this discrimination primarily from peers but occasionally from teachers. This means that in many cases, a school environment without stereotype has not yet been developed, one which would result in the real acceptance of those growing up in child welfare. Meanwhile, their disadvantages are increased by exclusion and as a consequence by a lower sense of self-esteem.This is supported by the the fact that only a small number of the young people interviewed indicated that in the other series of questions (regarding learning, choice of career, free time etc.) they primarily received help from the school. So, for the school it is not a major task to create an individual educational (inclusive) environment for those living in child welfare. The education they receive in the schools is rather traditional and uses the homogeneous strategies that characterize the Hungarian educational system. This problem is intensified by the fact that some of the young people are placed in segregated education in lower qualified schools. COOPERATION WITHIN SECTORS The questionnaires made with the caretakers, the deep interviews and the discussions made with the focal group clearly demonstrate that there is no systemic cooperation between the educational and the social sectors. If the caretaker felt the need to contact the school then she or he will, but the school did not initiate connection with the caretakers, during the time that the research was carried out. This mirrors the view that those in the education system believe that the child is secure in all fields since he is in the child welfare system. This is supported by the fact that in the answers the young people provided concerning helpful characters in their school success, teachers hardly appear. A SUMMARISED CONCLUSION OF THE RESEARCH On the basis of our research results, we can draw the conclusion that the Hungarian child welfare situation is quite similar to the one in England.The similarity of the two systems would suggest similar results. Based on more comprehensive research in the UK, we conclude that the children and young people brought up (temporarily or permanently) in the Hungarian child welfare system, regardless of the their type of placement, will most likely be distributed in the bottom ten percent of society, as the UK researchers found was the case in their study Therefore, they will have a high chance for social exclusion. If we also take into account the fact that more than half of these young people will start their individual adult life without any family support or social assets, their successful social integration appears even more doubtful.The initial hypotheses were proved.• The child welfare system does not have the appropriate quantity or quality of resources for services supporting school success. This is demonstrated by the tightness in financial resources.• This can be observed in shortcomings like the limitations in human resources, especially in the areas of professional and educational attainment, which is principally manifested in the foster parents network.• There is not a systemic cooperation between the social and the educational sector. The education does not involve itself in the solutions of the problems in the amount that it could be represented in the school success of those living in child welfare. CONCLUSIONS The initial question of the dissertation was: what educational strategies the state uses during the socialization process for children and youth in the child welfare system, who are lacking social and economic capital,. in order to facilitate the youths’ social integrationThe school success or failure of children living in child welfare was first looked at on the basis of statistical data. These data clearly indicate that the degree of educational attainment of the examined group falls far behind the national average.While these outcomes reflect problems in educational attainment and inadequate support of education for youth in the child welfare system, the policies tell a different story. Support for school success is an important feature of the documents (laws, orders, conceptions) concerning child welfare.Through illuminating the situation and the needs of the affected (those growing up in child welfare and the workers in the system) and analysing national and international innovation, the main problems and solutions become visible, which empowers us to transform the system and decrease the distance between intention and reality.Our hypotheses were proved by the research1. It was proved that the low educational attainment of those living in child welfare is caused by their falling behind when getting into the system as well as the time spent in the system without adequate services. Although changes in the attitude and structure of the child welfare system already reflects the conditions of successful education, the services concerning professional development are still deficient. The necessary human resources are not available.2. The absence of human resources (absence of cooperation and professional preparedness of foster parents and other caretakers in the system) is reflected in the fact that even being taken care of by foster parents will not lead to the child’s demonstrable success in education. The reason for this could be that the preparedness (educational, professional) of the foster parents is not adequate.3. We proved that the relationship of the different sectors is unsystematic in child welfare; there is not an attuned plan of action and achievement, neither generally nor in daily practice.4. As partly introduced in the dissertation, the cases of the English child welfare development and the Hungarian civil service sector showed that there have already been some positive examples of attempts that have led to improvement in the educational success of those living in child welfare. In all cases, the additional services are characterized by sensitivity to the needs of individuals and cooperation, namely to make those kind of sytems work. Thus, we considerthese solutions to be inclusive, and we consider this inclusivity to be of crucialimportance in many ways for those growing up in child welfare.- For the perfection of a person, for self-actualization, one needs to be surrounded with an inclusive environment across different sectors. If we take the levels of hierarchy of needs written down by Maslow and well known as the basis of personality psychology, then as a first step for reception one's physiological needs must be met. (Carver-Scheier 1998). For a child, it means that his basic needs must be met. This is truly the first task, especially in the case of those children who were regularly suffering from hunger because of the social situation of their families or because they were neglected. It seems that on this level the child welfare system is able to do its job.- The next step is the satisfaction of the living needs, which gives a foundation for one's feeling of security. This is basically achieved while getting into the child welfare system, since soon after the placement in temporary accommodation the child's permanent placement should be organized. This can mean foster parents or a children's home and from a legal sense can be either transitional or durable. As our research has demonstrated, the accommodation that must make up for the family home may be changed many times, and with this instability the feeling of security decreases. As reported by the respondents living in child welfare, these youth have lost the secure environment of their family at least once, and they perceive that their placement in the child welfare system is temporary and can change any time. Being admitted to a children's home can mean a temporary solution for the children and even the most favourable form of accommodation will not result in total stability.- This is made stronger by the fact that at the next level of needs is love and the idea of belonging somewhere, which are uncertain factors during the process of getting into child welfare. The social relations of the child will be automatically disrupted when leaving the family and it will only get worse if he also has to change caretaker many times. The reason for this can be - as the research presented - that either the child changes places or the people change within the environment of the child. As a consequence, a close emotional relationship based on mutual, unconditional trust and acceptance cannot take shape and as a result the child's social capital will be harmed. The needs for esteem could be built on this, through which the individual could experience that his abilities are appreciated, his positive features are recognized and his self-confidence is strengthened by those important to him. The weak and continuously changing system of social relations stop the formation of self-esteem, since there are not any stable points of reference (people, groups) which would steadily keep up the feeling of respect. This absence of self-esteem and respect is exacerbated by experiences of negative social judgement, which surrounds the children under state care especially if they are of Gypsy ethnicity.- The process of self-actualization that sits at the top of the hierarchy of- which we can also interpret as the successful merging within society - cannot becompleted without satisfying the needs at the lower levels. According to Maslow the fulfillment of the needs at the lower levels is primary and the activities directed to them draw the attention away from the needs located at the higher levels. As a result only the needs from the lower levels - that are optimally satisfied - are able to make it possible for the individual to be engaged in his own self-actualization.For the young people living in child welfare this inclusive environment should be created which helps their understanding of themselves. They need an environment that effectively helps to get rid of the unpleasantness of the gaps in the lower levels and which secures the experience of self-actualization.- In order to fulfil the needs of physiology and security the child must get into accommodation which is not only supplied with appropriate tools but also which is seen permanent for the child. It is clear for those living in children’s home temporarily - their getting back to their family should be continuously supported - that creating a feeling of permanence is not simple but that uncertainity can be reduced if the child does not have to change their accommodation.- The social segment of the feeling of security is the environment of the welfare- centre. Its stability is just as important as its location. It is here where the social net must be formed, which means stable and permanent relationships for the child in order to secure the real feeling of belonging somewhere. In this field two important groups can represent the basis of the social assets: the caretakers (foster parents, pedagogue at the children’s home) and their fellow peers.• Placements with foster parents provide more of a chance for the development of personal relationships than does the children’s home, where pedagogues are kept on changing shifts. This is why it is necessary to support a higher rate of children’s placements with foster parents. However, this can only be effective if the foster parents have truly prepared for the task. The research demonstrated that the foster parents’ educational level as well as their knowledge on pedagogy and psychology are lacking. This results in the fact that the upbringing of the children living in child welfare and arriving with a lot of problems often ends up in failure. In puberty - when the problems naturally occur due to the age of the child - a large number of young people go back to the children’s home. The reason is that in the absence of individual social and developmental skills for processing repeated life failures the young person experiences significant personal difficulties. That is why along with the repeated training of the foster parents it is also important to form a foster parents network, based on horizontal study that would help their professional work on a daily basis.• The other group serving social security is the contemporary group. As we have covered it previously, for those growing up without family the collectivity of the young people who have experienced similar circumstances entails a strong social asset and emotional connection. This does not neccessarily happen, especially in the case of those young people who are deeply injured emotionally. In most cases the basis of their social relationships, their 'ancient trust' - to use the term by Erikson -was lost in their childhood (Carver-Scheier 1998). The reseach showed too that spontaneous peer relations are not strong or long-lasting. It is necessary to have pedagogical planning and direction to create stable and deep contemporary relationships among those living in child welfare. With the help of this, the peer group can become the basis of norms and values that can create a real connection. The case study in the dissertation about the Faág Baráti Kör Egyesület (Tree branch Circle of Friends Association) is an example of that.- To satisfy the needs of esteem (at the next level in Maslow's pyramid of needs), it is an essential condition to experience the feeling of belonging somewhere. Satisfying these conditions (physiology, physical security and a loving atmosphere) guarantees a sense of acceptance for children, who also need to experience a feeling of being appreciated through positive evaluation of their behavior by others. The basis of the evaluation is individual accomplishment, which in order to be reached requires a cohesive pedagogical course. As long as we look at the caretakers as those who should substitute the family roles then their task primarily is to create such environment which serves to satisfy needs such as: physiological, physical and psychological. The respect (the improvement, strengthening and positive evaluation of the features of the individual) must also come from the wider environment. It is necessary that in addition to the social sector, the educational sector also take part in the work aiming to develop the child's personality, the way it was illustrated in the English example. SUGGESTIONS The formation of a life-path plan (a document called PEP in the English example) should be created by the young people growing up in child welfare, together with their teachers and caretakers. It should be based on continuous improvement, follow up, positive feedback and cooperation.This can be built into the system of services if the Hungarian educational policy truly pays attention to the situation of those living in child welfare and it involves these children in the circle of the disadvantaged students. The professional network supporting the school success of students with a disadvantaged background could be completed with the other sector. This sector could formulate new types of cooperation and pedagogical processes through cooperative, mutual learning.The civil sphere should also be connected to these other sectors in order to create this greater sense of inclusion for the youths. Two important fields of social psychology could be covered with the help of the peer group: the youth's increased self-esteem from relations with peers could serve as a point of reference in the process of developing personal values and decisionmaking strategies, which would help the young person to process the negative effects coming from outside. The involvement of the civil sphere strengthens the horizontal cooperation of the professional network of child welfare workers.An inclusive pedagogical environment could be shaped in this way for children growing up without their family, helping them to enhance their school success and gain cultural capital. When attention to the youth is multi-faceted, planned and personal, it takes the individual child’sneeds into account sothe conditions for self- fulfilment are available.The child living in child welfare is surrounded with an inclusive environment, which promotes social acceptance, a feeling of security and positive future prospects in all ways.One of the main conditions for shaping an inclusive pedagogical environment is that the cooperation of the characters within and among various sectors should be based on the best interests of the young people growing up in child welfare.In this cooperation the following principles simultaneously operate: equal participation, parallel interactions, individual responsibility and testing, building and motivating interdependence. These features listed are also known as the principles of cooperation.This cooperation can also result in the existence of quality criteria in the schools amd childcare and in this way the child development process for these youths could be more effective, successful and equitable.- The effectiveness could be seen in characters making simultaneous and organized efforts for a mutual purpose, for achieving the success of the children. The effectiveness is strengthened by the tasks that makes one active during cooperation. The interdependence and the continuous communication makes up for the individual responsibility. The effectiveness is also increased by the fact that the development process is made for individuals (both from the aspects of the tasks of the helpers and and from the children involved in the improvement) which gives way for knowledge, opportunities and strengths to be opened up.- The development process becomes more effective because the child receives multiple, individually tailored influences from those participants taking part in the cooperation. The child also involves himself in his own development process so we can count on long-lasting results. At this point the mutual evaluation plays a major improving role where the child receives a continuous feedback about his development and about his role in this development.- The development will be more fair if the basic democratic rights of equal participation and access will be provided for all participants on the grounds of the principles of cooperation. This way all the participants, children and young people taking part in the development can personally (according to their abilities, directions, capacities and attitudes) shoulder tasks and receive services. The practical realization of the development intention directed to young people living in child welfare is completed with the collective collaboration along the principles of cooperation. The active inclusive environment can be formed this way, which creates equal opportunities for successful socialization and social integration.We can summarize the fact that the members of the examined group - those growing up in child welfare - are in a special situation concerning their family environment. Their shared characteristics are that they do not grow up in families, so their primary space of socialization is varied and unusual. A difference between those in the group is that some they grew up without family from birth or while others went into child welfare at a later stage. Whether they live in an institution (in a children's home) or a more familial environment (with foster parents) can be another point of difference. We can also notice comparisons in other areas too, as long as we examine these children individually and not as a group. It is demonstrable that the individual youths experience damage to both their primary area of socialization and their social capital. This situation fundamentally influences their degree of success in education.It is observable that in the case of these children there are many features of their life circumstances about which we have very little knowledge. We cannot expect educational success without the knowledge of the individual life-stories, the creation of the inclusive environment and the pedagogical services.Only an inclusive insitutional space for socialization - with the qualities of the inclusive pedagogy outlined above - can stop the social exclusion of young people growing up in child welfare. This environment should secure the youth's existing capital and promote his or her lacking capital on the basis of the youth's individual abilities and social peculiarities.In this way can the child begin the process of successful social integration.

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Two lives of a Secler

Egy székely két élete

Author(s): Bence Péterfi / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Medieval Kingdom of Hungary; Hunyadi family; Matthias I; Holy Roman emperor;Habsburgs;

How many people living in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary could be said for sure that they regularly visited the Holy Roman Empire, had substantial estates there, were frequent visitors at the Holy Roman emperor’s court and fought against the French in Northern Italy? Of course, not many. However, the hero of this book, Jakab Kövendi Székely did all these for certain. Was he really a relative of the Hunyadi family? Is that why King Matthias took notice of him and showered him influential positions? Why did he, nevertheless, opt for the Habsburgs following the death of Matthias I instead of his son, John Corvinus, and why did he remain their faithful supporter? How did he manage to preserve and later even increase his fortune and his network of relations built up in the Hungarian king’s service? Jakab Kövendi Székely’s eventful career raise several questions. The author, in an effort to answer them, guides the Reader to special places, among them to Aranyosszék, to the Carinthian-Styrian theatre of war of the 1480s or to the world of the nobles living along the Austrian-Hungarian border.

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25.00 €

Leonidas on the borderland. Miklós Zrínyi (1508-1566)

Leónidasz a végvidéken, Zrínyi Miklós (1508–1566)

Author(s): Szabolcs Varga / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Zrínyi family; Szigetvár 1566; Kingdom of Hungary; Hungary in 16th Century; Anti-Ottoman War; Hungarian military history

Due to the literary and specialist works published in the past two hundred years, all the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin have come across the name of Miklós Zrínyi. It is a joyful fact but in reality we hardly know the Captain of Szigetvár. Although several historical biographies have been compiled, neither the wider public have taken them into their hands, nor the new achievements has been embedded in popular fiction. The mental picture of Zrínyi of those interested and that of the professional historians are strikingly different. This book is both a historical novel and a scholarly biography. The author attempts to answer the most important questions about Zrínyi and, at the same time, show the latest achievements in a form easy to follow. Thus, it oversteps the usual framework of a biography and reveals Zrínyi’s place and role in the contemporary milieu. The readers learn about the origin and medieval history of the Zrínyi family, Miklós Zrínyi’s nationality and identity, as well as his relationship with the Habsburg rulers. The work also touches upon the decisive issues of the Kingdom of Hungary. Apart from settling accounts with some common myths, the book also uses new aspects when talking about the significance of the 1566 siege. Another novelty is its dealing with the cult forming around Zrínyi, because without this cult, we cannot understand the 21st-century interest that inspired the publication of this book.

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25.00 €

A civil aristocrat. Kálmán Kánya (1869-1945)

Egy polgári arisztokrata. Kánya Kálmán (1869–1945)

Author(s): Imre H. Tóth / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungarian foreign policy;Diplomacy;foreign minister;Interwar Hungary

Kálmán Kánya was one of the most important figures, and, from 1933 to 1938, the official leader of Hungarian foreign policy between the two world wars. His person and activity – among others – are even more extraordinary because he attempted to give a new interpretation to the position and scope of duties of the foreign minister. Compared with his predecessors, he followed an active and systematic policy, and his conceptions were often implemented even against the Prime Ministers’ convictions. Kánya’s activity and mainly his manners brought him many admirers and also a lot of opponents. As a member of the former imperial foreign policy, he could hardly accept Hungary’s serious loss of prestige following the First World War. As the first secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ambassador sent to Berlin and later as the minister, he attempted to restore and preserve the prestige of the old days. Beside the turns of Kálmán Kánya’s career and the foreign affairs intertwined with them, readers might get an insight into contemporary social and political life as well as the closed world of diplomacy which is often regarded as splendid by outsiders.

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19.00 €

Under the double seal. Pál Várday, the Archbishop of Esztergom and royal regent (1483–1549)

Kettős pecsét alatt. Várday Pál esztergomi érsek, királyi helytartó (1483–1549)

Author(s): György Laczlavik / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Kingdom of Hungary;Archbishop of Esztergom; Royal Regent; Battle of Mohács 1526; Hungarian political elite

Pál Várday rose to the top of Hungarian political life in the chaotic period following the Battle of Mohács. As the Archbishop of Esztergom (1526-1549) and royal regent (1542-1549), he was one of the most influential men of his era. However, until recently, posterity has not been familiar with him and has hardly known anything about his family, his rise and personality. This biography offers replies for these questions.The author has devoted great care to collect the sources about Várday from several archives. The scarce data paints a portrait of an exciting, versatile and out-and-out political figure. The book shows that Pál Várday coming from a lesser noble family in Somogy County deservedly rocketed to Hungarian political elite. His complex professional and official experience he had gained as treasurer before 1526 raised him above his contemporaries who were often reluctant to go for such a job. He showed respect for his office and the plentiful tasks he had to carry out as the regent, which made him a trusted and ideal partner in the eyes of Ferdinand I who wanted to fundamentally reorganise Hungarian public administration. Várday earned undying merits as a prelate when he managed to move the seat of the Archbishopric of Esztergom and preserved the rights of his diocese. As a royal regent he did his best to reinforce central government and to build up the new administration and border defence. Consequently, he played an essential part in preserving the Kingdom of Hungary remaining in Habsburg hands.

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32.00 €

Pécs Letters from 1944. Documents on the Solution of „the Jew issue” in Pécs

Pécsi levelek 1944-ből. Dokumentumok a „zsidókérdés” pécsi megoldásáról

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungarian Jews; 1944; the Jew issue; holocaust;antisemitism;Pécs;documents

This present volume of the Kronosz Publishing presents the results of two independent but still closely interconnected local history research projects.The introductory study, which was written by István Károly Vörös, functions as a narration, summing up the most significant events taking place in Pécs between the 19th March, 1944 and the spring of 1945. This part of the book also helps the reader to understand the circumstances of origins of the contemporary documents. It plays an important role in terms of the contextualization of the topic.The study starts the narration on the 19th March, 1944, when the troops of the Deutsche Wehrmacht and the SS groups invaded Hungary in order to prevent the country from the quitting from the war. German soldiers arrived to Pécs by crossing the nearby southern border. This brought fundamental changes in every aspect of fife both on national and on local levels. Governor Miklós Horthy stayed in his office and on the 22nd of March, he appointed the government of Döme Sztójay who proved to be ready to collaborate with the occupying forces. He made this all due to the fact that with the aid of the Germans, an old dream of “political racialists” could have been realized. Namely, a „surgical removal” of the Hungarian Jews’ could have occurred from the body of the nation and the complete plunder of the Jewish population.In Pécs, the personnel remained unchanged after the nomination of the new government on the basis of political reliability, therefore it was the mayor, Lajos Esztergár and his apparatus of municipal officials who accomplished the part of the city’s “de-Jewing” as well as the transfer of the Jewish people’s wealth to „the Aryans”. Their activities were justified by the regulations depriving the Jews of their rights, issued by the new government shortly after their inauguration.Jewish communities and Jewish associations were disbanded all over the country and they were replaced by the Hungarian Central Council of Jews, which was subordinated to the provisions of the SS. The formation of the local Jewish Central Councils were given instructions partly from the national centre and partly from the leaders of the local administration and the militia. In Pécs, the last head of the Jewish community, József Greiner lawyer became the leader of the local Jewish Central Council.The various statements and orders connected to the submission of the Jews’ personal belongings (radio, telephone, bicycle, typewriter) ordered by the government proved to be only the preludes to the ever escalating anti-Jewish legislation. These regulations included the census of the Jews, the travel ban, the obligation to wear yellow “Jewish Star”, restrictions on shopping at the market and on private bank transactions, as well as locking up of shops and factories of Jewish ownerships.This latter step affected more than 200 commercial and industrial businesses in Pécs. As a result of the war conditions, the public provision of goods and the supply of industrial production plants with raw material became rather difficult. Due to these circumstances, the unexpected closure of Jewish businesses caused serious problems: extensive damage occurred due to looting and the spoilage of goods. According to the prevailing perception of time, it was not the Jewish owners who suffered the damage themselves, but the nation as a whole. In order to relieve the tension accumulating in the population of the city, the local authorities, over time, opened some 25 major Jewish stores, naturally under the management of Christian leaders and staff.An important milestone during the “largest social operation” proved to be the regulation on the appointment of the residence of the Jews, which was released on the 28th of April, 1944. Mayor Esztergár selected the (contemporary) south-western outskirts of the city (close to the railway tracks) to the “segregated sector for the Jews”. This included apartment building called MÁV-bérház (Blocks of Flats of the Hungarian State Railways) with altogether 90 flats, and 50 houses in the surrounding streets. More than 2700 people were concentrated in this area whose gates were finally closed on the 20th of May 1944. The place was so crowded that some people lived in the basement and on the corridors of the building. The ghetto was surrounded by a fence of a two-meter-high hedge, and the construction works were paid by the Jews themselves. They even had to work during in the construction ground together with a squadron of forced labourers.The Jews were allowed to leave the ghetto only when they went out to work (i.e. in the city’s forestry or horticulture.). In these cases, they were accompanied of course by armed escorts. The ghetto was guarded every day and night by the agents of the city police authorized to open fire if it was needed. As a result of these instructions, Jews soon became completely isolated from the other inhabitants of the city: it was forbidden to keep any contact with other people, no letters or parcels were delivered to the ghetto, while the single phone line, which belonged to the Central Council of Jews, was cut off in mid-June as well.Details connected to the deportation of Jews lining in the Southern Transdanubian ghettos were discussed in Siófok, on the 22nd of June by the administrative and executive leaders of the affected settlements. On the 29th of June, the liquidation of the ghetto of Pécs began. Firstly, the last remaining values, personal documents, and food were seized from the Jews, then they were walked in groups of hundreds by gendarmes and German soldiers to the Lakits Barracks, where they were accommodated in riding stables with a ground covered by a mix of manure and straw.The existing disastrous hygienic conditions were further aggravated by the fact, that the inhabitants of the Mohács and Bonyhád ghettos were also transported here at the beginning of July adding some 2300 people to the crowd. The Jews of Pécs and its surroundings were deported from this “point of concentration” on the 4th of July, while the Jews, who had been transported here from Mohács and Bonyhád, were deported on the 6th of July.While the Jews, who had been forced into the ghetto and had been deported suffered immense physical and mental pains, certain sections of the society of the city made efforts to get some parts from the wealth of the Jewish inhabitants of the city. Due to the lack of government regulations, the mayor’s office was constantly exposed to tremendous pressure. Besides the shops and businesses, the largest demand was for the Jewish-owned houses and flats. The selling off the Jewish shops and their equipment started as late as in September. The coup by the Arrow Cross in mid-October, and the pernicious approach of the front led to increasing haste and total chaos in terms of the practical implementation of the distribution of Jewish property.After the Red Army occupied Pécs on the 29th of November, Jewish men, who had returned from the labour formed the Jewish Council of Pécs. This, after the rapid assessment of the situation, focused on the one hand on the saving of the remaining assets, on the other hand – after the spring of 1945 – it made efforts to help and care for the returning Jews, who had been deported from Pécs.The other independent study of the volume is the publication of sources, compiled by János Habel. The selected sources from 1944 reveal events, worries and hopes having been tackled by the government and the administrative bodies, the mayor and the chief bailiff, the “early Christian” population, the Jewish Council, and the people qualified as Jews. These present the „weekdays” of the Holocaust in Pécs serving as a kind of detailed illustration for certain parts of introductory study.The editor points out that the complete reconstruction of the 1944 events and loval decisions in Pécs are not possible by the elaboration of official and private letters despite of the fact that thousands of documents were preserved. This is caused on the one hand because of the fact that some instructions and commands were given only orally, and on the other hand, due to the fact that the archives of quite few organizations and authorities, playing important roles in the events taking place in Pécs (as well) have been preserved. These documents include the sources of the Hungarian Royal State Police Headquarters of Pécs, the Nr. IV. Hungarian Royal Army Command Station of Pécs, the 4th District of Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie of Pécs, The Housing Department of the Mayor’s Office of Pécs, the Pécs Jewish Council, and the Pécs Office of the Arrow Cross Party.The sources are classified by the editor around the following subject-matter: 1. Who is considered to be a Jew? 2 The ghetto; 3 Property, 4. Other aspects of the “the Jew issue”. In order to offer a better overview, the extremely diverse source material of these main topics was further divided into thematic sub-sections, and the letters are presented in chronological order. The editor used the daily newspaper of Pécs titled Dunántúl [Transdanubia] to illustrate the social atmosphere of the events flashed by the documents. He sought to demonstrate how the mayor’s office and the government respectively used the only remaining local public media to manipulate the population, and induce (further) anti-Jewish sentiments and emotions.The title of the volume suggests that the writers of letters, addressees of the letters (or in many cases, both parties) were from Pécs, and that the vast majority of the sources presented are found in Pécs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Der Band des Kronosz Verlags stellt den Interessierten die Ergebnisse zweier von einander unabhängig laufenden, aber durch ihr Thema miteinander eng zusammenhängenden ortshistorischen Forschungsarbeiten vor.Die Einführungsstudie von István Károly Vörös ist als Narration zu verstehen, die die wichtigen Pécser Ereignisse zwischen dem 19. März 1944 und dem Frühling 1945 zusammenfasst. Sie hilft beim Verstehen der Entstehungsumstände der Zeitdokumente, die den zweiten Teil des Bandes bilden und bei derer Einbettung in den historischen Kontext.Die Studie tritt in die Erzählung der Geschichte am 19. März 1944 ein, als um den Aussprung Ungarns aus dem Krieg zu verhindern, das Land von Einheiten der Deu-tschen Wehrmacht und der SS besetzt wurde. Die deutschen Truppen gelang nach der Überschreitung der nahen liegenden südlichen Landesgrenze nach Pécs. Dieses Ereignis brachte grundlegende Änderungen in allen Bereichen des Lebens mit sich. Reichverweser Miklós Horthy blieb in seinem Amt und er ernannte am 22. März die Regierung von Döme Sztójay, die bereitwillig mit der deutschen Besatzungsmacht zusammenarbeitete. Das machte er umso lieber, da mit deutscher Hilfe alte Träume der ungarischen Rassenschützer in Erfüllung gehen konnten: Das „Ausoperieren“ der ungarischen Judenheit „aus dem Leib der Nation“ und deren totaler Ausraube.In Pécs wurden von der neuen Regierung keine Beamten wegen politischer Unzuverlässigkeit gewechselt, so vollzog der Bürgermeister Lajos Esztergár mit seinem Apparat den auf die Verwaltung zufallenden Teil der „Entjudaisierung“ der Stadt und die Arisierung des jüdischen Vermögens. Als Grundlage seiner Tätigkeit dienten jene antijüdischen, entrechtenden Verordnungen, die von der neuen Regierung bald nach ihrem Amtsantritt in Kraft gesetzt wurden.Die jüdischen Kultusgemeinden wurden landesweit aufgelöst, an ihre Stelle trat der Zentralrat der Juden in Ungarn, der unter der Verfügungsgewalt der SS stand. Die örtlich gegründeten Zentralräte der Juden erhielten die Weisungen zu ihrer Tätigkeit einerseits von der Budapester Zentrale, andererseits von den örtlichen Verwaltungsorganen und Ordnungskräften. In Pécs wurde der letzte Vorsitzende der Kultusgemeinde, der Anwalt József Greiner, der Leiter des Zentralrats der Pécser Juden.Die von der Regierung für die Juden vorgeschriebenen Erklärungen und Abgaben (Rundfunk- und Telefonapparate, Fahrräder, Schreibmaschinen) bedeuteten nur die Eröffnung der immer härteren judenfeindlichen Verordnungen. Dazu zählten u.a. die Zusammenschreibung der Juden, das Reiseverbot, das Tragen des sechszackigen „Judensternes“ am Außenkleid, die Begrenzung des Marktbesuches und die Begrenzung der Verfügung über die Bankkonten, des Weiteren die Beschlagnahmung jener Geschäfte und Betriebe, die in jüdischem Besitz waren.Die letzte Maßnahme betraf in Pécs mehr als 200 Handelsunternehmen und Betriebe. Wegen des Krieges wurden die Warenversorgung der Bevölkerung und die Rohstoffsicherung für die industriellen Betriebe ohnehin immer schwieriger. So verursachte die unerwartete Schließung der jüdischen Unternehmen weitere große Probleme. Durch das Verderben vieler Waren und spontanen Plünderungen entstanden hohe Schäden. Laut der damals herrschenden Auffassung betrafen die Schäden nicht die jüdischen Inhaber, sondern die „Gesamtheit der Nation“. Um die in der Bevölkerung entstandenen Spannungen zu mildern, ließ die städtische Behörde mit der Zeit 25 größere jüdische Geschäfte wieder eröffnen, natürlich ausschließlich mit christlichen Leitern und Angestellten.Die Verordnung über die Bestimmung des Wohnortes der Juden am 28. April 1944, bedeutete eine wichtige Station der „größten gesellschaftlichen Operation“ in Ungarn. Bürgermeister Esztergár bestimmte am damaligen südwestlichen Stadtrand, in der Nähe der Eisenbahnlinie den „für die Juden abgesonderten Stadtteil“. Er bestand aus dem Miethaus der Ungarischen Staatlichen Eisenbahnen mit 90 Wohnungen und 50 Einfamilienhäusern in den angrenzenden Straßen. Es wurden mehr als 2700 Menschen in dieses Gebiet gepfercht, das Tor des Gettos wurde hinter ihnen am 20. Mai endgültig zugesperrt. Die unerträgliche Gedrängtheit kann damit gut charakterisiert sein, dass auch in den Souterrains und auf den Fluren der Häuser Menschen wohnten. Das Getto war mit einem 2 Meter hohen Flechtzaun umgeben, den das Magistrat von den Juden selbst bezahlen ließ. Er musste teilweise sogar selbst von den Bewohnern des Gettos und teilweise von einer aus jüdischen Arbeitsdienstlern bestehender Einheit verfertigt werden. Die Juden durften nur für Arbeit (z.B. in der Försterei der Stadt, oder in den städtischen Gärtnereien) das Getto verlassen – natürlich mit bewaffneter Begleitung. Rund um das Getto leistete die Stadtpolizei Tag und Nacht Wachtdienst und verfügte über Schießbefehl. Die Juden wurden bald von den anderen Stadtbewohnern gänzlich isoliert: Es wurde jedwede Kontakthaltung mit ihnen verboten, auch die Post stellte im Getto keine Briefe und Pakete zu. Mitte Juni wurde dann auch die einzige Telefonleitung des Jüdischen Zentralrats abgeschaltet.Die betroffenen Verwaltungsleiter und Befehlshaber der Ordnungskräfte erfuhren an einer Konferenz am 22. Juni 1944 in Siófok die Details der Deportation der Juden aus ihren Städten. Dementsprechend wurde in Pécs am 29. Juni mit der Auflösung des Gettos begonnen. Den Juden wurden ihre letzten Habseligkeiten, Identitätsbescheinigungen und ihre Lebensmittel weggenommen und sie wurden zu Hunderten unter Bewachung der ungarischen Gendarmarie und deutscher Soldaten in die sogenannte Lakits-Kaserne getrieben.Dort wurden die Menschen auf dem mistigen Boden der Reitschule und der Pferdestände der Ställe untergebracht. Die hygienischen Bedingungen waren schon an sich katastrophal, aber die Lage wurde dadurch noch weiter verschlechtert, dass auch die Bewohner der aufgelösten Gettos von Mohács und Bonyhád, noch etwa 2300 Personen, am Anfang Juli hierher gebracht wurden.Von diesem „Konzentrationspunkt“ wurden die Juden aus Pécs und aus dem Pé-cser Kreis am 4. Juli, die aus Mohács und Bonyhád am 6. Juli nach Auschwitz deportiert.Indem den ins Getto gesperrten und später deportierten Juden unsägliche körperliche und seelische Leiden zuteil wurden, versuchten bestimmte Schichten der Stadtbevölkerung sich aus dem Vermögen der Juden einen Teil zu sichern. Das Bürgermeisteramt wurde von diesen Menschen unter großen Druck gesetzt, da die Regierung teilweise verspätet, bzw. teilweise widersprüchlich ihre Verordnungen über die Nutzung der jüdischen Vermögenselemente verabschiedete und bekannt machte. Neben den Geschäften und Betrieben der Juden zeigte sich das größte Interesse für ihre Häuser und Wohnungen. Der Pfeilkreuzlerputsch Mitte Oktober und die schnelle Näherung der Front führten zu immer größerer Kopflosigkeit in der Ver- und Austeilung des jüdischen Vermögens.Nachdem die Rote Armee am 29. November Pécs eroberte, gründeten die aus dem Arbeitsdienst nach Hause kehrenden Männer den Rat der Pécser Juden. Nach der schnellen Lageeinschätzung konzentrierte er seine Tätigkeit einerseits auf die Sicherung des erhalten gebliebenen Vermögens, andererseits im Frühling 1945 auf die Unterstützung der aus der Deportation Heimkehrenden und derer Versorgung.Der zweite selbständige Teil des Bandes ist eine Quellenpublikation, die von János Hábel zusammengestellt wurde. Die ausgewählten Dokumente gewähren Einblicke in jene Ereignisse, Sorgen und Hoffnungen, die den Bürgermeister, den Hauptgespan, die christliche Bevölkerung, die staatlichen und Verwaltungsorgane, den Zent-ralrat der Juden und jene Personen aktuell beschäftigten, die laut des Gesetzes als Juden zu betrachten waren. Die Dokumentenauswahl führt den Pécser „Alltag“ des Holocaust planmäßig vor Augen und dient so als detailreiche Illustration zu bestimmten Abschnitten der Einführungsstudie.Der Redakteur weist auch darauf hin, dass die Rekonstruktion der örtlichen Entscheidungsprozesse und der Ereignisse im Jahre 1944 trotz der vielen Tausend erhalten gebliebenen Dokumente aus privaten und offiziellen Briefen nicht möglich ist. Einerseits, weil gewisse Befehle und Anordnungen nur wörtlich ergingen, anderseits, weil die Archive vieler Organisationen und Behörden, die in den Pécser Ereignissen eine wichtige Rolle spielten, nicht erhalten blieben. Dazu gehören die Pécser Kommandantur der Ungarischen Königlichen Staatspolizei, die Pécser Ortskommandantur der Ungarischen Königlichen Armee, der Pécser Distrikt der Ungarischen Königlichen Gendarmarie, die Wohnungsabteilung des Pécser Bürgermeisteramts, der Pécser Zentralrat der Juden, das Pécser-Baranyaer Büro der Pfeilkreuzler Partei.Die Quellen wurden um folgende Hauptthemen gruppiert: 1. Wer ist als Jude zu betrachten? 2. Das Getto. 3. Das Vermögen. 4. Weitere Bezüge der „Judenfrage“. Innerhalb dieser Schwerpunkte wurde das weitverzweigte Quellenmaterial im Interesse der Übersichtlichkeit in thematische Unterkapitel geordnet. In den Letzteren wurden die Briefe in chronologische Reihenfolge gestellt.Zur Illustrierung des gesellschaftlichen Ambientes der durch die Dokumente dargestellten Ereignisse verwendete der Redakteur das Pécser Tagblatt mit dem Titel Dunántúl (Transdanubien). Damit wurde veranschaulicht, wie das Bürgermeisteramt, bzw. die Regierung das einzige örtliche öffentliche Medium zur Manipulierung der Bevölkerung, bzw. zu der (weiteren) Schürung der judenfeindlichen Stimmung und Gefühle benutzte.Der Titel des Buches macht einerseits darauf aufmerksam, dass die Briefschreiber, oder die Adressaten (oft beide) Pécser Bewohner waren und anderseits, dass die überwiegende Mehrheit der veröffentlichten Quellen in Pécs zu finden ist.

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“...my homeland has to be called the house of prayer by every people!” The Israelite Religious Community of Pécs in the Mirror of the Written Sources (1837–1950)

„...házam imádság házának hivatik minden népek számára!”. A Pécsi Izraelita Hitközség dokumentumok tükrében (1837–1950)

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Hungary; Jewish community; religious community;anti-Jewish legislations;charitable organisations;Chevra Kadisa

The history of the Jewish community living in the city of Pécs dates back to the 1780s. The religious community was established at the beginning of the 1840s, and some years later, Jewish communities turned into “cultus prefectures”. After this period, these institutions concentrated primarily on the religious life of the community.The Israelite citizens of the country gained their equality before the law in 1867 as a result of the act titled Communitas Judeorum. Afterwards, they started to function as public political institutions, in the frames of which the following issues fell within its competence: cultural and charitable affairs as well as problems related to the administrative and legal cases of the population (approval of divorces, lawsuits etc.). In the case of Pécs, the first statues, which dates back to 1844, did not remained to our era, which means that about the existence of the organisation we have some pieces of information on the bases of certain prefectural records. The content of these document is discussed by József Schweitzer in his monograph on the parish.With the emancipation of the Jewish communities in Hungary, the Jewish civil parishes stopped their functioning, as the public administration of the citizens of Jewish origins became basically identical with the administrational structures of the other nationalities living in the territory of the country. This indicated that civil parishes started to alter into religious communities. As I have already referred to it, the 17th article in 1867 contained provisions about the legal and political equality of the people belonging to the Jewish community. However, it did not gave orders about the religious equality of the Jewish inhabitants. The first Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, baron József Eötvös urged the realisation of reception as well as the religious equality of the Jewish people, but firstly he intended to arrange the structural questions of the Israelite religious community. The result of his aim is the fact that by this time, the altogether 500 thousands of Jewish citizens in Hungary belonged to several hundreds of religious communities.The Izraelita Egyetemes Gyűlés [Israelite Universal Assembly], which started its two-months-long of negotiation in the December of 1848, made it clear, that the Hungarian Jewish community is rather divided. The progressive (the so called neologian) Jewish representatives framed their own structural statute. According to this, the Israelite religious communities dealt “only with tasks related to the religious groups, to the divine services as well as to the issues of education and charity”. However, the validity of this regulation was refused by the conservative wing of the Jewish community, and as a result of this they made efforts to the elaboration of their own structural book of rules. The so called orthodox religious communities, lived according to their “autonomous religious law”, indicating that – on the bases of their own viewpoint – the halakha can be the only legitimate basis of the Jewish religion. In the sense of their interpretation, this is the single law of religion, which is able to determine the life of the faithful Jewish people. Due to the several kinds of interpretations related to the neologian and orthodox wings, neither of these categories can be interpreted as homogeneous. Due to this factor, a smaller group of the religious communities did not join to these organisations, they became to the so called status quo ante groups, and functioned according to their own rules. In 1927, the Hungarian status quo ante religious communities established the Izraelita Hitközségek Országos Szövetsége [National Alliance of the Israelite Religious Groups], whose constitutions had been approved by the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs in the following year.The Israelite Religious Community of Pécs assumed the status quo ante point of view in 1869, however, in practice it followed the neologian ideas, and in terms of its structural organisation, it joined to the congressional parish only in 1924. According to the 42nd article in 1895, the Israelite religion was registered among the legally acknowledged religious groups. This indicated that the possibility of the conversion to the Jewish faith became also legally possible, while the religious communities had a chance to demand for state and local supports. Besides this, the parishes had the opportunity to pay the denominational tax as public tax, which might have been enforced in front of the administrative courtsAnti-Semitism, which started to infiltrate to the national political life with the 20th article of 1920, titled numerus clausus, intensified with the series of discriminative legal acts against the Jewish communities from 1938. The statutes (according to the theoretical literature, altogether 22 anti-Jewish legislations were issued until 1943. As a result of these acts as well as due to the closely interconnected ministerial executive orders, not only the primary rights of those people, who belonged to the Jewish communities or who were legally classified among the Jews, were damaged, but also the legal status of the Israelite Parish was violated. The achievements of the 19th century emancipation and reception proved to be rather fragile. The Hungarian Parliament gradually and imperceptibly eliminated the civic and religious equality of Israelites.Due to the Anti-Semitic legal acts, thousands and thousands of Jewish families had to face with an existential crisis as well as with the extreme poverty in the contemporary Hungary. We do not have accurate statistics about the number of Jews, who lost their Jobs in Pécs, because the written documentation of the religious community of Pécs only discuss the increasing intensity of the charitable work, the situation connected to the retraining courses as well as the organised supports until 1939. In connection with this, we must not forget about the fact, that not only Jewish people lost their jobs, but also those Christian employees, who worked in enterprises of Jewish proprieties. On the one hand, the maintenance of the hospice and the school, where the number of students started to decrease, proved to be extremely difficult. On the other hand, we do not have information about the activity of the charitable organisations. The written documents do not report about the effects of the labour service on the Jewish families, which meant an extremely large burden for the families. It is a generally known fact, that a number of local men died in the eastern front, among the members of the 4th commoner battalion, who left their home for labour service. However, we do not know the exact number of these men, who dies as a result of the horrible and sad trials.After the occupation of the German troops on the 19th of March, 1944, Governor Miklós Horthy remained in his office, and the orders of the government of Ferenc Szálasy, who was nominated by Miklós Horthy, were executed by the majority of the national administrative bodies. As a result of this, Hungarian Jews had to face with the direct life-danger. The chronology and the events of the Hungarian holocaust were elaborated by several scholars, which means that the details of these tragic period of time are generally known. Only 18% of the former Jewish inhabitants of Pécs lived here in the year of 1950, indicating that the majority of them lost their lives or decided to move away from Pécs. Although, the religious community revived, but its strength and prestige was lost.The disenfranchisement of the Jewish people – or of those, who were classified as Jews – was brought to an end by the 200/1945. M. E. order of the “popular democratic” Provisional Government in the March of 1945. The “emancipational and receptional” legislation, which followed the Second World War, was theoretically set in a higher state in the 20th article of the 1949 fundamental law (§54 of this document was on the religious and on the liberty of conscience). However, we cannot talk about a real success connected to this issue (and related to any other issues), as the fundamental law of 1949 declared the Sovietization of the country.The communist and Stalinist dictatorship, which started to develop in Hungary, did not tolerate any kinds of autonomy, and self-evidently, it made efforts to eliminate the autonomy of the different religious groups. The institutional control of the Jewish denominational life – similarly to the other religious groups in Hungary – was practiced by the Állami Egyházi Hivatal [National Church Administration], which was established in 1951. However, the operative leadership remained in the hands of the Magyarországi Izraeliták Országos Szövegtése (MIOI) [National Alliance of the Hungarian Israelites]. The independent scope for action in smaller regional religious communities terminated, but the larger groups, among them the community in Pécs, managed to preserve their relative large autonomy.This present book represents the parochial archives, and its primary aim is to illustrate the parish’s difficult system of functioning with the help of written documentation. The sources published in this volume demonstrate the certain elements connected to the functional structure of the parish, and provide a perfect possibility for the recognition of the everyday life of the society. The reader can be familiar with the daily routine of the Jewish community of the city, while the sources provide a panorama about the positive and negative aspects of the lives of the Jews. The presentation of the history of the Jewish religious community would have been more complex, if the sources of the state archives had been elaborated as well. However, due to the partial and sporadic characteristics of the background research work, I did not made attempts to analyse the documents. The introduction of the antecedents and consequences of the sources, similarly to the people mentioned by their names, is missing from the book. In connection with this, I have to mention that a research work like this is in several cases impossible.The first source, which is published in this book, dates back to 1837, while the “youngest” document was written in 1950. On the one hand, the drastic pressing back of the autonomy of the Jewish religious community dates back to this year. On the other hand, the documents, which were issued after this year – are rather unprocessed. The written sources of the book are naturally primarily letters, which were issued to the parish, as well as documents, which were written by the organisations standing under the authority of the parish i.e. the Chevra Kadisa. These documents can be read in the archives in a relatively small number, mainly in copies. The source selection focuses the content of the issues – instead of the date of their issuing – and as a result of this, the documents are not published in a simple chronological order, but according to thematic units. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Die Geschichte der auch heute lebenden Pécser Judenheit reicht bis in die 1780er Jahre zurück. Die Gemeinde wurde Anfang der 1840er Jahre gegründet.Vor der bürgerrechtlichen Emanzipation der Judenheit (1867) waren die jüdischen Gemeinden (Communitas Judeorum) politische Instanzen, deren Wirkungskreis sich außer den religiösen, kulturellen und wohltätigen Aufgaben der in der Gemeinde lebenden Juden auch auf ihre rechtlichen Angelegenheiten (Bewilligung der Scheidungen, Prozesse im Bereich des bürgerlichen Rechts, usw.) erstreckte.In Pécs ist das erste, aus 1844 stammende Statut nicht mehr vorhanden. Über seine Existenz wissen wir aus dem Vorstandsprotokoll, dessen Inhalt Dr. József Schweitzer in seiner Monographie über die Kultusgemeinde bekannt machte. 1848 gestalteten sich die Gemeinden zu Kultusgemeinden um, ihre Tätigkeit konzentrierte sich grundsätzlich auf das Glaubensleben.Mit der Emanzipation der ungarischen Judenheit wurden die jüdischen Gemeinden aufgehoben, da die Verwaltung der jüdischen Bürger mit der Verwaltung der anderen Bürger identisch wurde: Die Gemeinden formten sich zu Kultusgemeinden um. Der Gesetzesartikel Nr. XVII. im Jahre 1867 sagte die bürgerliche und politische Gleichberechtigung der Bewohner Ungarns israelitischer Konfession aus, die Gesetzgeber entschieden sich aber nicht für die Gleichstellung der israelitischen Konfession. Der Minister für Kultus und Unterricht, Baron József Eötvös, setzte sich für die Rezeption, für die Verwirklichung der konfessionellen Gleichstellung ein, dazu wollte er aber die organisationelle Frage der israelitischen Konfession ordnen. Die etwa halbe Millionen jüdischen Bürger des Landes waren in jener Zeit schon in mehreren Hunderten Kultusgemeinden gruppiert.Im Dezember 1868 setzte sich die Allgemeine Versammlung der Israeliten zusammen, die fast zwei Monate lang tagte. Deren „Ergebnis” war, dass die Spaltung der ungarischen Judenheit auch in organisationeller Hinsicht offensichtlich wurde. Die fortgeschrittenen jüdischen Vertreter (auch Neologen, oder Kongressjuden genannt) schufen ein Statut für ihre eigene Organisation. Demnach waren die israelitischen Kultusgemeinden „ausschließlich Kultusgemeinden”, d.h. Körperschaften, die alleine zum Versehen der „üblichen Aufgaben am israelitischen Gottesdienst, an der Zeremonie, am Unterricht und an Wohltätigkeit” berufen waren. Die Gültigkeit dieses Statuts wurde von der konservativen Judenheit nicht anerkannt, so trachtete sie nach der Schaffung einer eigenen Grundsatzung. Diese Satzung der „autonomen gesetzestreuen” (orthodoxen) Kultusgemeinden betonte die Ausschließlichkeit des Schulchan Aruch. Damit wurde ihrerseits signalisiert, dass sie die Halacha als einzigen legitimen Grund der jüdischen Religion betrachteten, d.h. jenes Religionsgesetz, das den Lebenswandel eines glaubenstreuen Juden gänzlich bestimmt.Wegen der mehreren Deutungsmöglichkeiten der Neologie und der Orthodoxie können selbst die neologen und orthodoxen Richtungen nicht als einheitlich betrachtet werden. Eine kleinere Gruppe der Kultusgemeinden schloss sich an keine Organisation an, sie blieben in der früheren rechtlichen Lage. Diese sind die status quo ante Kultusgemeinden, die sich aufgrund ihrer eigenen Statuten verwalteten. 1927 gründeten sie den Landesverband der ungarländischen „status quo ante” israelitischen Kultusgemeinden, dessen Statut 1928 vom Minister für Kultus und Unterricht bewilligt wurde.Die Pécser Israelitische Kultusgemeinde stand 1869 auf „status quo ante”-Grundlage, praktisch folgte sie aber der Neologie, deren Landesorganisation sie sich erst 1924 anschloss.Aufgrund des Gesetzesartikels Nr. XLII/1895 wurde die israelitische Religion in Ungarn zu gesetzlich anerkannter Religion. Es wurde rechtlich ermöglicht, dass man auch in die israelitische Religion einkehrt, die Kultusgemeinden wurden auf staatliche und kommunale Finanzhilfe berechtigt und die Kirchensteuer der Mitglieder wurde als allgemeine Steuer durch Verwaltungsgerichte einhebbar.Vom Anfang der 1930er Jahre verstärkte sich der Antisemitismus in Ungarn, der mit dem Gesetzesartikel Nr. XX/1920 („numerus clausus-Gesetz”) auf die Ebene der Staatspolitik gehoben wurde. Der Antisemitismus erschien in der Gesetzgebung ab 1938 wieder. Die diskriminierenden Gesetze (die Fachliteratur zählt bis 1943 22 sog. „Judengesetze”) und die Vielzahl der zu diesen herausgegebenen ministerialen Durchführungsverordnungen berührten einerseits die Grundrechte jener Bürger, die zu der israelitischen Konfession gehörten, oder durch das Gesetz als Juden zu betrachten waren, anderseits die rechtliche Stellung der israelitischen Konfession. Die Errungenschaften der Emanzipation und Rezeption der Konfession im 19. Jahrhundert zeigten sich sehr brüchig. Das ungarische Parlament hob zwischen 1938 und 1942 die staatsbürgerliche und konfessionelle Gleichberechtigung der Israeliten fast unbemerkt und allmählich auf.Infolge der judenfeindlichen Gesetze gerieten Zehntausende Familien in Ungarn in existenzielle Krisen und oft in Elend. Wir verfügen über keine genauen Daten, wie viele Menschen in Pécs dadurch arbeitslos wurden (darunter waren auch viele christliche Angestellte der jüdischen Unternehmen). Die Dokumente der Kultusgemeinde berichten bis 1939 über intensiver gewordene Beihilfen, Umbildungskurse und andere organisierte Hilfen. Die von immer wenigeren Kindern besuchte Schule und das Altersheim konnten nur mit großen Schwierigkeiten aufrecht erhalten werden, über die Tätigkeit der Wohlfahrtsorganisationen sind keine Informationen erhalten. Die Pécser Dokumente berichten auch nicht über jene schweren Folgen, die wegen der Abwesenheit des zu kürzerem oder längerem Arbeitsdienst einbezogenen Familienoberhaupts die unversorgt gebliebenen Familien betrafen. Es ist bekannt, dass viele Pécser Männer des IV. gemeinnützigen Arbeitsdienstbataillons infolge der furchtbaren Erprobungen und Grausamkeiten an der Ostfront starben. Über die genaue Zahl der am Arbeitsdienst gestorbenen Pécser Juden stehen keine Informationen zur Verfügung.Nach der deutschen Besatzung des Landes am 19. März 1944 blieb Reichsverweser Horthy in seinem Amt, die Verordnungen der von ihm ernannten und mit der Besatzungsmacht kollaborierenden Sztójay-Regierung wurden vom ungarischen Beamtentum weitgehend durchgeführt. Dadurch geriet die ungarische Judenheit in unmittelbare Lebensgefahr. Die Pécser Ereignisse des Holocaust wurden von mehreren Forschern bearbeitet, die tragischen Ereignisse sind auch in ihren Details bekannt.1950 war die Seelenzahl der Juden in Pécs nur 18 % der Zahl vor der Ghettoisierung und Deportation von 1944. Die anderen starben, oder zogen weg. Die Kultusgemeinde wurde wieder belebt, aber konnte ihr früheres Ansehen und ihre frühere Kraft nicht mehr zurückgewinnen.Im März 1945 wurde die Gültigkeit der Verordnungen, welche die Juden, oder die zu Juden erklärten ungarischen Staatsbürger entrechteten, von der nach dem Krieg gegründeten, sich als völkisch-demokratisch erklärenden provisorischen Regierung mit der Verordnung 200/1945 M.E. aufgehoben. Die Emanzipation und die Rezeption der Konfession in der Gesetzgebungsarbeit nach dem 2. Weltkrieg wurden auf einem höheren Niveau, im Grundgesetz (Gesetzesartikel Nr. XX/1949), im 54. § der Verfassung der Ungarischen Volksrepublik verankert. Theoretisch. Die Verfassung des Jahres 1949 deklarierte praktisch die Sowjetisierung des Landes.Die ausgebaute kommunistisch-stalinistische Diktatur, wie es in ihrer Natur lag, duldete keinerlei Autonomie. So wurde selbstverständlicher Weise auch die Selbständigkeit der verschiedenen Konfessionen aufgehoben. Die Aufsicht über das jüdische Religionsleben, wie auch die über die anderen Konfessionen, gehörte zum Aufgabenbereich des 1951 gegründeten Staatsamtes für kirchliche Angelegenheiten. Die operative Leitung blieb im Wirkungsbereich der MIOI (Landesbüro der ungarländischen Israeliten). Der freie Bewegungsraum der kleineren Kultusgemeinden in der Provinz wurde praktisch aufgehoben, die größeren, wie auch die Pécser Gemeinde, konnten ihre relative Autonomie innerhalb der Rahmen der Landesvertretung der ungarischen Israeliten aufrecht halten.Dieser Band repräsentiert das Archiv der Kultusgemeinde. Er ist bestrebt, mit Hilfe von Dokumenten das komplizierte Gewebe zu zeigen, wie die Kultusgemeinde funktionierte. Die Schriftstücke präsentieren einzelne Elemente ihrer Tätigkeit und ermöglichen Einblicke in die Alltage des Zusammenlebens mit der gesellschaftlichen Umwelt, in deren alltägliche, freudvolle oder düstere Situationen.Die Vorstellung der Geschichte der Kultusgemeinde könnte kompletter sein, wenn die Daten des eigenen Archivs mindestens mit Informationen der Dokumente der staatlichen Archive ergänzt würden.Wegen der fragmentarischen Hintergrundforschungen blieb die analysierende Vorstellung vorerst weg, durch welche ein tieferer Einblick in die Geschichte der Kultusgemeinde gesichert werden könnte. Sowohl die Beschreibung der Vorgeschichte der einzelnen Dokumente, als auch die Beschreibung ihrer – nicht immer erschließbarer – Folgen bleiben also aus und auch die in den Schriftstücken erwähnten Personen werden nicht vollzählig vorgestellt.Das erste Dokument des Archivs ist 1837 datiert. 1950 als Abschlussjahr der Dokumentenauswahl ist theoretisch damit zu begründen, dass in diesem Jahr die Autonomie der Kultusgemeinde drastisch beengt wurde, der praktische Grund ist, dass die danach entstandenen Schriften noch nicht aufgearbeitet sind. Die große Mehrheit der Dokumente sind eingegangene Briefe. Die durch die Kultusgemeinde, oder durch die unter ihrer Aufsicht stehenden Vereine (am meistens von Chewra Kadischa) ausgegebene Schriftstücke sind im Archiv in viel kleinerer Zahl und in Kopie zu finden.Die Auswahl fokussiert nicht auf die Entstehungszeit der Dokumente, sondern auf deren Inhalt, deswegen wurden sie nicht nur rein chronologisch geordnet, sondern in thematische Einheiten. Innerhalb der einzelnen Themen folgen die Schriften der Chronologie.

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