History in my life: a memoir of three eras [Illustrated] 9789639776487

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Introduction and Acknowledgment (page 1)
My Family in Budapest in the 1930s (page 5)
With my mother, father and brother Ervin in 1935 (page 7)
The End of Childhood (page 21)
Dachau-and Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft's Conference in Munich (page 31)
The Gebirgsjägerschule in Mittenwald (page 39)
Where is My Home? (page 43)
The 1956 Revolution in My Life (page 59)
My Universities (page 75)
A Widening World, Learning by Traveling (page 95)
In the International Community of Historians; Friends all Over the World (page 107)
Experiencing and Writing History: a Special Friend, Books and Debates (page 119)
Teaching in Two Different University Systems (page 155)
My Globalized Family (page 169)
In the Establishment (page 175)
In the Storm of Regime Change (page 207)
Leaving Hungary for Los Angeles (page 233)
America (page 243)
References (page 275)
List of Photos (page 277)

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H Mlemoir of Three tras SER.

Ivan -T. Berend

Central burepean University Press Budapest — New York

© 2009 by Ivan T. Berend Published in 2009 by Central European University Press An imprint of the Central European University Share Company

Nador utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary

Tel: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000 , Fax: +36-1-327-3183 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ceupress.com

400 West 59th Street, New York NY 10019, USA Tel: +1-212-547-6932

| Fax: + 1-646-557-2416 E-mail: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher.

ISBN 978-963-9776-48-7 cloth

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Berend, Ivan. History in my life : a memoir of three eras / Ivan T. Berend. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-96397 76487 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Socialism--Europe, Eastern. 2. Socialism--Europe, Central.

3. Intellectuals--Hungary--Biography. I. Title. HX240.7.A6B474 2009 335.092--dc22 {B}

2009021684

Printed in Hungary by Akaprint Kft.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgement 1 My Family in Budapest in the 1930s 5 With my mother, father and brother Ervin in 1935. | 7

The End of Childhood | 21 Dachau—and the Sudosteuropa-Gesellschaft's Conference in Munich 31

The Gebirgsjagerschule in Mittenwald 39

Where is My Home? 43

The 1956 Revolution in My Life 5Q

My Universities 75 A Widening World, Learning by Traveling 95 In the International Community of Historians; Friends all Over the World 107

Experiencing and Writing History: a Special Friend, Books and Debates 119

Teaching in Two Different University Systems 155

My Globalized Family | 169

In the Establishment 175 In the Storm of Regime Change 207

America | 243 References 975 Leaving Hungary for Los Angeles 233

List of Photos , 277

I dedicate this book to my generation who experienced “the best of times

and the worst of times,” the tragedy, pain, success, and happiness of the 20th century. However, I recommend it most to Western readers, who ave often taught oversimplified interpretations of life behind the

Iron Curtain. While writing my memoirs, I thought a lot about the past: about my

late parents, grandmother, and brother, I though about my friends, | who are very important for me, but also about the thousands of stu-

dents I have taught in Hungary and the United States during my more than half-century caveer as a teacher. However, my thoughts soared even more often to the future, to the life of

my beloved family, wife, daughters and grandchildren, who may com-

pare their life experience with mine, and who may learn that we can

cope with the most dramatic challenges of life.

Introduction and Acknowledgement

_ bear witness to the most horrible times of twentieth-century Central Europe: its industrialized mass murder, genocide, oppression, hyperinflation and poverty, its revolutions and struggle for a better life. [ was born at an unfortunate time in an unfortunate place, Budapest, Hungary during the Great Depression. The authoritarian regime became a close ally of Hitler, shifted more and more to the Right, then established a Nazi system, which sent me the teenager to Hungarian prisons and Nazi-German concentration camp. I survived and returned to a Hungary that turned to democracy, land reform, and free elections, but in a few years, under Soviet occupation, intro-

|1

duced a terrible Stalinist-communist regime. After a decade, a heroic and bloody revolution destroyed it, but it was soon reestablished by the Soviet Army. Stalinism, nevertheless, was replaced with a more moderate, reformoriented system with freedom to travel and research. After a third of a century a new, this time peaceful revolution destroyed communism and established real democracy. I became part of a historical experiment to cope with traditional backwardness, experienced major failures, and learned important lessons from them. In the most troubled but interesting of historical times, I became a historian who did not remain a passive witness but decided to take an active part in those changes. Now, I am presenting my own history to illuminate life in a Central European country during fascism and communism. West-

Introduction | | ern readers often have an oversimplified view of the Cold War decades; they

do not differentiate between the Eastern countries and the various periods under communist rule, as if all of them had been the same, without any real difference between the 1950s and 1980s. What I experienced and the way I reacted to those experiences may help a better understanding of a unique and extremely interesting chapter of twentieth century history. When the best known Hungarian dissident, George Konrad, recently published his memoirs, one writer noted on the back cover of the book: “to read A Guest in My Own Country is to experience the recent history of EastCentral Europe from inside.” That is only partly true; inside, yes, but from

a certain angle. Nevertheless, one may approach this history from several viewpoints. Here I will present the experience of history from my own.

I have a special advantage to tell this story to the Western readers because my life, with a sudden change, continued in Los Angeles. I made a career in a Communist country and then a second one in the United States.

Writing my memoirs in the latter they may offer a better comparison and understanding. Besides, it allows me to share my impressions of my new home country as I see it parallel from within and without. My presentation here is not a strict chronological record: the past history of our life is always part of our present, and the future incorporated into our past. My childhood experiences became a part of my professional life, strongly influencing my way of thinking, while my high-school studies have determined my entire life. The historical events became part of my work as a historian, and as a historian I felt inspired to try and influence history. I consider myself lucky and enriched by the experience of hard times. Autobiography is a subjective genre. It reflects my perception of events, and my role in the history I experienced. I am sure that some readers will disagree with some of my views and my interpretation of certain historical events and phenomena. I tried to be as frank as possible regarding my motivations, my way of thinking, and my actions, and I checked my memory against the historical record when sources allowed that. This memoir is full of history: it is the memoir of a historian, but it is still not a history book.

I am strongly indebted to those who have read the manuscript and offered their views and even editing contributions. As always, I am most grateful to Kati, my wife and most honest critic of my manuscripts, includ2

Introduction

ing this one. A number of wonderful friends also made important critical remarks and good suggestions regarding certain parts and chapters, but I would like in particular to mention David Summers, who polished the first version of the manuscript, and Priscilla Heim, who also volunteered to thoroughly edit the entire manuscript. SER

3

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My Family in Budapest in the 1930s

am” vy rin g the first decade of my life between the Great Dep ression and

the beginning of World War II, I was not aware of horrible times, existential fears and dangers. I was born in December 1930 in Budapest. This was one of the worst years of the devastating Great Depression in Hungary and world-wide. Unemployment, bankruptcies, and poverty reached peak numbers everywhere. The world’s industrial output declined by 30 percent, grain prices by 60 percent; twenty million Europeans became unemployed.

Life expectancy at birth was less than 60 years in the United States and about 55 in Hungary. It was a very different world from the one we know today. Even small amounts of money had huge value. As a popular Hungarian song of those years put it, “havi 200 pengé fixszel az ember kinnyen vic-

cel,” (with a monthly salary of 200 pengé it easy to make jokes, i.e. easy to

live). The dollar value of that amount was roughly $40. This was quite a_ universal phenomenon: the price of a new house in the United States was about $7,000 and the cost of a gallon of gasoline 10 cents, although the Texas oil fields had just been discovered that year. My parents were certainly somewhat disappointed not to have a baby girl, as they had hoped, after already having a son. According to the family annals my grandmother went out to the corridor in the apartment house where my family lived and informed the entire house by shouting: “we waited for a girl but got a second boy!” The future was uncertain, and fear 3)

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