Identifying the author of an anonymous diary from the Holocaust in Hungary

New post on the EHRI Document Blog follows the research carried out on a diary by an anonymous Hungarian Jewish author in wartime Budapest. The search for the identity of the author drew on clues in the text of the diary, photographs folded between its pages, census records, and school records. This successful research not only led to the name of the author of the diary, Jenő Politzer, broadening this history and making it more personal, it is also an example of the transnational nature of Holocaust research. The post also points to ethical challenges when dealing with intimate documents like diaries that were never expected to be published.

You can find the post online here: https://blog.ehri-project.eu/2023/04/25/more-terrifying-than-the-germans/

The paper is a continuation of research on the diary of an anonymous Hungarian Jewish author from wartime Budapest. Clues in the text of the diary, photographs inserted between the pages, census records and school records were used in the search for the identity of the author. This successful search not only led to the discovery of the name of the diary’s author, Jenő Politzer, thus expanding the research and making it more personal, but also became an example of the transnational nature of Holocaust research. The paper also highlights the ethical challenges of working with personal documents such as diaries that were never expected to be published.

The paper can be found here: https://blog.ehri-project.eu/2023/03/01/diary-from-the-holocaust-in-hungary

The Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS is a partner of the EHRI project.