Civil Servants, Holocaust Survivors, Non-Jews: Early Restitution in Hungary

In this article, I investigate early restitution efforts in Hungary based on two case studies: Ócsa and Újpest. Both towns are located in Pest County; however, Ócsa had a small Jewish population, while in Újpest, more than 10,000 Jews had lived before the Holocaust and at least 2000 survived. Most Hungarian survivors faced a similar situation at the end of the war: they had lost their relatives, their health was damaged, and upon their return, they realised that non-Jews had looted or claimed their property or even their apartments. In the post-war economic disaster, both Jews and non-Jews needed basic necessities such as furniture, clothes, bed linen, and so on—the former to restart their lives. Based on the two cases, I analyse whether early restitution for Holocaust survivors took a different course in a small town than in a big city, how the local leadership organised the restitution process, whether the survivors were involved in it, and what the outcomes were.