Jews, Nazis and the Cinema of Hungary: The Tragedy of Success, 1929-1944 (International Library of Twentieth Century History)

Between 1929 and 1942, Hungary's motion picture industry experienced meteoric growth. It leapt into Europe's top echelon, trailing only Nazi Germany and Italy in feature output. Yet by 1944, Hungary's cinema was in shambles, internal and external forces having destroyed its unification experiments and productive capacity. This original cultural and political history examines the birth, unexpected ascendance, and wartime collapse of Hungary's early sound cinema by placing it within a complex international nexus. Detailing the interplay of Hungarian cultural and political elites, Jewish film professionals and financiers, Nazi officials, and global film moguls, David Frey demonstrates how the transnational process of forging an industry designed to define a national culture proved particularly contentious and surprisingly contradictory in the heyday of racial nationalism and antisemitism. Cover Author bio Endorsement Title page Copyright information Table of contents List of Figures Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction Notes 1 When Silence became Loud: The Silent Era and the Origins of Sound Introduction The Silent Era The Transition to Sound The Founding Fathers: Hungary’s Film Elite The Film Profession and the State: Searching for Sounds of Life Help from Abroad: The Transnational Origins of the Early Hungarian Sound Film Industry Conclusion Notes 2 Constructing the Fantasy of Hungary: Elite Concepts of the National Introduction The Cultural Politics of the ‘Official Nation’ The Film Industry’s ‘Nations’, 1933–8 The National Interests: Film Industry Structure and the Intensification of the Jewish Question, 1933–8 Christian Nationalism in the Studios: The Turuls’ Antisemitic Attacks Conclusion Notes 3 National Cinema, International Stage: Film Trade and Foreign Relations Introduction The Regional Context: The Film Cultures of Europe’s Center and the Politics of Culture German-Hungarian Film Relations: The National Idea and the Centrality of Antisemitism The Dual Monarchy Sequel: Co-productions and Austrian-Hungarian Film Relations Hollywood Reasserts its Dominance: Hungary Takes a Sliver of the American Pie Conclusion Notes 4 Confusion and Crisis: The Jewish Question, the Film Chamber, and the Construction of a Christian National Film ... Introduction ‘Jews’ and ‘Jewishness’ in Hungarian Cinema Gleichschaltung, Hungarian Style: The Institutionalization of the Christian National System Part I: The Theater and Film Arts Chamber Part II: The National Film Committee Creating a Christian National Culture through Destruction: The Production Crises of 1938 and 1939 Conclusion Notes 5 The Flawed Christian National System Introduction Undermining the Jewish Laws: Miklós Kozma Undermining to the Jewish Laws: Movie Theaters, the Interior Minister, and Chamber Membership Undermining the Jewish Laws: Distributors The Demise of the Film Chamber Undermining the Jewish Laws: The ONFB and the Studios Undermining the Jewish Laws: The Return of István Gerő The Commissioner for Unemployed Intellectuals and the Antisemitic Crackdown Conclusion Notes 6 The War Introduction Yugoslavia, Springboard to Success On the Ascent: Hungary as European Film Power The Paradoxes of Success Sovereignty and Hegemony: Hungarian-German Filmpolitik Removing Hollywood from Hungary Removing Hungarian Film from Europe Conclusion Notes 7 The National Spirit Doesn’t Stick to Celluloid: Hungary’s Failed National Film Experiments Introduction Wartime Christian National Film Rhetoric and Practice Film Europe and Film Stasis: International Impediments to Hungarian Christian National Film Bureaucracies and Backwardness Censorship and the End of the Populist Experiment Antisemitism in Hungarian Film: The Changing of the Guard The People of Hungary? The People on the Alps Great Men and History Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Notes Bibliography Archival Materials Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library – Beverly Hills, CA Auswärtiges Amt Archiv – Berlin Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv – Munich Budapest Fővárosi Levéltár – Budapest Bundesarchiv – Berlin Bundesarchiv (Zwischenarchiv) Dahlwitz – Hoppegarten Bundesfilmarchiv – Berlin Hadtörténeti Levéltár – Budapest Institut für Zeitgeschichte – Munich Magyar Film Intézet/ Magyar Film Archivum – Budapest Magyar Országos Levéltár – Budapest Magyar Országos Levéltár – Óbuda Magyar Zsidó Levéltár – Budapest National Archives and Records Administration – College Park, MD Párttörténeti Levéltár – Budapest Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Special Collections – Budapest Történeti Hivatal – Budapest (currently the Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Washington, DC Film Screenings, Interviews, Conferences & Exhbitions Film Screenings Interviews Conferences and Exhibitions Published Sources Statistical/Documentary Collections and Period Writings Primary Sources – Selected Periodicals Secondary Sources – Unpublished Papers and Theses Selected Secondary Sources Index