h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today is H for Hungary.

My mother-in-law was Hungarian, of Jewish family, though she rejected all religion. She was born in the rural south of the country but her family moved to Budapest. In those days, she might have been regarded as a blue-stocking, because she loved studying, particularly science and she got a PhD in Chemistry and Physics at Budapest University.
There was always antisemitism in Hungary and, when the Nazis moved into Austria, my mother-in-law must have realised that it was a good time to leave. She saw a description of a product by Laporte, in England and she wrote to say she thought she could improve it. They offered her a job but, by the time she came to take it up, war had broken out. She made a difficult and complicated journey across Europe.
At Laporte, she developed an industrial clay product, called Laponite, now widely used in industry. She remained in touch with friends and family in Hungary, though some of them died in the holocaust. Although not uncritical of Britain, she remained clear that it was a better place for her to be than Hungary. She said that, when she arrived in Britain, she was required to report to the police. When she got to the station, the policeman said "Do sit down, Madam." Such politeness surprised her.

I remember Budapest from a concert tour I was on in 2004 [the other two cities we visited were Prague and Vienna]. All three cities had some beautiful landmarks, but they also bore scars from the Nazi era. There was a memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Prague. It as flooded some years earlier, but was restored by the time we got there.

If I remember correctly, although anti-Semitism was widespread, some places were less awful than others for Jewish people. Budapest was tolerable. In Prague, Jews enjoyed the special protection of the state, though they had to live in specified places and stay out of trades [such as gold- and silver-work], and make sure their temple was not taller than the Christian churches. They solved this last problem by building a lot of floors below ground.

My late aunt Ildacor was also Hungarian -- her family sought asylum in the U.S. after the Soviet invasion of 1956.

Deb

We went to Budapest with my mother-in-law in 1990 and met her friends and relatives. It's certainly a splendid city, where we saw many historic buildings, went to art galleries and a ballet. My son, who was only four at the time, remembers the bendy buses and being given strawberries and cherries when we went visiting.

[Amy P]