Atrocities towards former deportees ? people who had been persecuted for their race or political and religious beliefs ? did not end with the euphoria following the liberation of the concentration and labour camps. They continued to suffer from hunger and sickness, and their return home was at times delayed for months.
Back in Hungary, the survivors faced much hostility. The homes of many had been confiscated in 1944, and the new inhabitants were unwilling to return them to their rightful owners. In some villages there were pogroms, and many survivors were sent to labour camps in the Soviet Union.
Several aid organisations made efforts to provide survivors with support, but the Holocaust became a taboo in the newly established Soviet-style dictatorship. After meeting much opposition, many of the aid organisations were forced to stop their activities.
The exhibition ?Return and Resumption, 1945-1947? presents documents, photographs and everyday objects related to deportees? plight. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the revocation of the notorious Act XXV ? which allowed discriminatory action against the Jews ? in 1946.
Source: Múlt-kor/HDKE
