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Accepted Paper:

"We don't say much outwardly": Untold stories of the Holocaust memory in Hungary  
Richard Papp (ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences)

Paper Short Abstract:

In the context of the study of the local Holocaust memory in Hungary, I analyse research participants’ narratives of ignorance, mistrust, and refusal to speak about the subject, as well as protest memory strategies that go against the canon of official Hungarian memory politics.

Paper Abstract:

With the support of the Visegrad Fund, I conducted research using qualitative social science methods to explore meanings of the Holocaust memory in Hungary. The novelty of the research was the application of a socio-cultural anthropological methods and fieldwork to the analysis of the memory of the Shoah in various localities in Hungary. In this presentation and subsequent paper, I will analyse narratives related to the Holocaust memory in Hungary from a methodological perspective. While during my fieldwork, most of my interlocutors refused to participate in a recorded interview, the narratives analyzed in this paper are such that my research participants had have not shared before with anyone outside their family and private circles. The narratives that these interlocutors repeatedly used in relation to the research topic are those of ignorance, mistrust and fear related to the memory of the Shoah. Other than interpreting these, I will also explore the narratives in which my research participants explained why they did not want to participate in the interview, as well as protest memory strategies that go against the canon of official Hungarian memory politics and the shifting of historical-social responsibility for the Holocaust. Inextricably linked to these, I will examine the social context and patterns of the identity politics that characterise and shape the atmosphere of Holocaust remembrance in contemporary Hungary. Finally, I will reflect upon the methodological and ethical dilemmas of my research, arising from my position as a researcher and my relations to the research subject and participants.

Panel Meth03
Untold stories, unwriting ethnography: how to approach local memories outside official frames of remembering?
  Session 2