After the Storm: The Long-Term Consequences of the Holocaust and Compensation in Hungary

Abstract

After the Storm: The Long-Term Consequences of the Holocaust and Compensation in Hungary "After the liberation, the Russians took us to Bromberg [Bydgoszcz] where they left us completely alone. We set off, naturally as free people already, to Lublin, where we were disinfected and after forming transports the Russians took us along to Chernovitz [Chernivtsi]. From there they took us with another transport to Szluck [Slutsk]; we came home, to Budapest, from there through Poland on 5th September." 1 This is how the testimonies or recollections of Holocaust survivors regularly end. Yet, this is far from being the end of the story. One of the characteristics of the Holocaust is that it had long-term consequences for the lives of the people it affected, consequences that are rarely discussed in historical research or popular history in Hungary.The long-term effects of the Holocaust were manifold: Most survivors returned emaciated, sick, and weak, carrying a trauma that prevented many from maintaining healthy relationships or re-entering society. Due to their health issues, they could start working only after first being hospitalized, and they had to rebuild their lives from scratch, often with no relatives or friends left alive.This paper focuses on the case studies of three women who submitted claims for West German compensation in the 1960s. Their stories highlight certain aspects of the lasting impact of the Holocaust, particularly the specificities of women's experiences. It is debatable whether men and women should be considered and studied as two distinct groups when it comes to the Holocaust. After all, as some researchers argue, that the victims all died in very similar ways. 2 However, as Zoë Waxman has emphasized, the Holocaust was a gendered process, because it targeted women as sexual beings, as humans, who are biologically capable of bearing children. 3 One obvious example of this was the forced sterilization of Jewish women in the Nazi 1 Deportáltakat Gondozó Országos Bizottság (National Committee for Attending Deportees, henceforth DEGOB), H. P.