Alexander Karp - September 14, 1995
Politics
Do you remember there was an Arrow Cross party in Baktalórántháza?
Yes, yes. It was very few little communities that they wouldn't have had, it, now, I don't know the numbers, how many of them belonged to it. But there was always somebody whose peer these things. And they were very vocal and even the ones who did not participate in it, they may have not opposed it. Because the fear became so great that they didn't want to do anything against the trend that it took place at the time.
So this is the Hungarian Fascist Movement was growing?
It was going, it was growing daily, yeah.
Do you remember if you ever spoke about any of this in your, in your house with your parents even when you got a little older?
Certainly, it always came up.
Was there ever talk of Zionism?
There was a Zionist Movement in the '40's, 1940, '41, '42 and very few people, some of them even found their way to Israel at that time, you know. But it was very few, because you have to realize that in those years youngsters weren't as independent as we know it today, no. It was more like a closed community with close family life. Um, if somebody lived in a small town or in a larger rural city, the children married probably in between the surrounding areas. Now, with one word, everybody stayed together tightly, and even though we knew it, that things are getting worse, by the week, by the month, by the year. Now, very few of them had even the thought of migrating, because there just wasn't that much independence in a person and also the means, which way to do it. It was, ah, it was more difficult to exercise your thoughts into action than it would be today. So, subsequently, most everybody stayed right where they were.
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