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JewishHistoryעברית

Kunmadaras pogrom

Date
21 May 1946Hebrew date: 20th of Iyyar, 5706
Location
Kunmadaras, HungaryHungary
Then part of
Republic of Hungary
Perpetrators
  • Local villagers (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
3 – 4[1]Jews killed. Péter Apor and a 7 June 1946 JTA report on the trial both give three killed on 21 May. A JTA dispatch of 5 August 1946 states that the death toll had risen to four after one of the injured Jews died. A later JTA trial report also says more than 20 injured.
Locality

2.5% – 5.7% of the Jewish population of Kunmadaras, Hungary[1]

Country

0.0016% – 0.0023% of the Jewish population of Republic of Hungary (c. 1946)[7]

Worldwide

0.000027% – 0.000036% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1945)[4]

Category
Pogrom, Blood libel
Confidence
DisputedApor and the 7 June 1946 JTA trial report give three Jews killed on 21 May. The 5 August 1946 JTA dispatch says a fourth injured Jew had died, bringing the toll to four. A 28 July 1946 JTA item dates the pogrom 26 May, against the 21 May date in Apor and the earlier JTA report.

Summary

On 21 May 1946 a crowd in the village of Kunmadaras attacked surviving Jews after a rumor that Jews had kidnapped a Christian child and killed him for his flesh. Rioters beat Jews in the marketplace and in their homes and looted shops; local police did not stop them. Two of the injured had returned from Bergen-Belsen about six weeks earlier. A military court later tried defendants for the killings.

Sources

  1. Péter Apor, The Lost Deportations and the Lost People of Kunmadaras: A Pogrom in Hungary, 1946. Hungarian Historical Review (2013)
  2. Trial of Rioters Responsible for Kunmadaras Pogrom Opens; Synagogue Fire Investigated. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1946)
  3. Report of Miskolc Outbreak Says Fascist Mob Utilized Workers Protest Against Profiteers. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1946)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 11,000,000[4]c. 1945DellaPergola's core estimate for 1 May 1945, matching the 11 million figure he and the 1948–49 Year Book use for the immediate postwar world total.
  • Republic of Hungary: 174,000 – 190,000[7]c. 1946Shapiro and Sapir (AJYB 1948–49) estimate 174,000 Jews in Hungary for 1947–48. USHMM 1945 remainder article gives 190,000 in 1950 (from 445,000 in 1933). Postwar Trianon-scale Hungary, not Greater Hungary.
  • Kunmadaras, Hungary: 70 – 120[1]Jews who had returned to Kunmadaras by the autumn of 1945, seven to twelve months before the 21 May 1946 pogrom. Apor gives 70 to 120.

Sources for population estimates

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