It was one of Europe's greatest and longest lasting empires. By 1914 its emperor had ruled for more than six decades. And under the reign of Franz Joseph I, Jews throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire had come out of the ghetto and into society. His picture adorned their living room walls; prayers for his health were in every siddur (prayer book). And the Empire's Jews hoped that the rising tide of nationalism would be kept at bay. But history had other plans. This film was produced in Vienna by Wolfgang Els and narrated by Morley Safer.
Study Guides
Historical Links
This short movie covers Hungarian history from the time of the Dual Monarchy (1867-1914) to Communism.
To learn more about Hungarian history, take a look at this time-line from the BBC and read about the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.
The movie mentions Hungary's rapidly developing cities and industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. Read more about the Austro-Hungarian economy during the Dual Monarchy and about the modernization of Hungary between 1867-1914.
This golden age began in 1867 and came to an end with the outbreak of World War I. Learn more about Austria-Hungary's participation in World War I. In order to learn more about and the situation of Hungary after the end of World War I, read this article on the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, which was signed by the allies and Hungary after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.
In this short movie, the speaker refers to the people that excluded those who were not Hungarian enough. This process of discrimination is often described as Magyarization. Read the definition of the concept of Magyarization. Learn more about Magyarization between the two World Wars in this article by Jan-Ruth Mills.
JEWS IN HUNGARY
This short movie tells the story of Jews living in Hungary during the twentieth century.
Read about the Jewish history of Hungary from the middle ages to nowadays in this article, taken from the private website of the Porges family.
Learn about Jews during Austria-Hungary's golden age (1867-1914), and during the interwar period (1918-1939) in this article by the Jewish Virtual Library.
Of the original 825,000 Jews in Hungary before World War II, 260,000 Hungarian Jews survived and 565,000 perished. In this article, read more about the Holocaust in Hungary.
Even though the Hungarian government abolished anti-Jewish legislation after World War II, anti-Jewish sentiments continued. Learn more about anti-Semitism in post World War II and Communist Hungary in this article by Peter Kenez.
FAMOUS HUNGARIANS
The film mentions the Hungarian winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, Robert Barany as well as the Hungarian author Pap Karoly. Read the biographies of Robert Barany and Pap Karoly.
Learn about the winner of the 2002 Nobel prize for Literature, Imre Kertesz.
Find out about the interesting similarities between the biographies of Joseph Pulitzer and Robert Capa.