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dc.contributor.authorDeák, George
dc.date.accessioned2024-06-14T10:24:26Z
dc.date.available2024-06-14T10:24:26Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.identifier.urihttp://pea.lib.pte.hu/handle/pea/45132
dc.description.abstractThe purpose of the study. Lajos Esztergár, a former mayor of Pécs, is remembered with different emotions by different groups today. Suppressed during the communist regime, his memory was revived immediately upon the 1989/90 fall of that regime. On the one hand, conservative and nationalist intellectuals and politicians, with some nostalgia for interwar Hungary, celebrated him (and continue to do so) as a positive local representative of that system, ostensibly for having introduced a number of social reforms. On the other hand, those for whom his participation in the deportation of Jews from the city in 1944 outweighs his merits as a social reformer, criticize his celebration. The fact that he was brought before the People’s Court twice between 1945 and 1949 but acquitted has allowed his supporters to ignore or explain away his role in the Holocaust. This paper seeks to examine whether the judgment of the People’s Court provides sufficient reason to morally acquit him, as has been done by his supporters. It also probes the question of whether there was a connection between his social welfare goals and his willingness to participate in the deportations. Applied methods. Analysis of archival sources, especially the indictment and verdict of his first trial, as well as secondary sources, contemporary newspapers, and laws. Outcomes. We show that there is reason to doubt the objectivity of those involved in Esztergár’s legal acquittal. We provide new evidence to demonstrate that his actions before, during, and after the deportations point to his motives for retaining his position in 1944. It was so that he could arrange for the use of the confiscated properties of the Jews to fund a conservative and nationalist program for the amelioration of poverty.
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofhttps://pea.lib.pte.hu/handle/pea/45130
dc.subjectHolocaust in Hungary
dc.subjectPécs
dc.subjectEsztergár Lajos
dc.subjectWorld War II
dc.subjectPeople’s courts
dc.subjectSocial Reforms of the Horthy Era
dc.titleLajos Esztergár before the People’s Court: The Mayor of Pécs and the Ho-locaust
dc.typeKönyvfejezet
dc.identifier.doi10.15170/SESHST-04-15
dc.format.page250-280
dc.identifier.containertitleNew Investigations into the Economic and Social History of Hungary from the 18th to 21st Century
dc.identifier.containerpublisherWorking Group of Economic and Social History Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Pécs
dc.identifier.containerisbn978-963-626-285-3
dc.identifier.containerissn2732-3048


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