Tag #154215 - Interview #94325 (Stepan Neuman)

In 1938 Subcarpathia was annexed to Hungary. [Editor’s note: Hungarian troops occupied Subcarpathia in March 1939. The western part where Ungvar/Uzhorod/Uzhgorod is was attached to Hungary as early as 2nd November 1938, together with Southern Slovakia as a result of the First Vienna Decision.] People of the older generation, those who had lived during the Austro-Hungarian rule, were enthusiastic about it. They never learned Czech, and Hungarian was their native language that they spoke even during the Czech rule. Only few understood that this was a fascist Hungary that was going to exterminate Jews.

Fascism was conceived in Hungary long before Hitler came to power in Germany. [The interviewee probably refers to the anti-Semitic, chauvinistic and reactionary Horthy regime that was in power in Hungary from 1919 until 1944.] Anti-Semitic literature was published. In one book it said that everything Jews were doing caused damage to the countries where they lived, but they were doing it to make the life of Jews better. There were maps of the contemporary world enclosed indicating the density of Jewish population, so that it became known where they should be chased away from in the first turn.

There was also a chapter describing how to distinguish between a Jew and non-Jew. That this and that shape of the nose will enable a gendarme to recognize a Jew despite any camouflage. So I believe that nationalism and anti-Semitism were propagated by such literature.

There was a manual for gendarmes, three volumes, published in Hungary. Jews were blamed for terrible things, and the book explained why they were to be exterminated. Knowing this, one does not get surprised at how indifferent and calm the gendarmes were taking innocent people to ghettos and sending them to concentration camps. They were trained in advance and taught to see an enemy in each Jew.