‘Jewish Fate’: An Unknown Poem by Ottó Komoly, Chair of the Hungarian Zionist Association

Abstract This source publication translates a poem written by Ottó Komoly, the Chair of the Hungarian Zionist Association during the Second World War. Although Komoly’s involvement in rescue during the Holocaust is well known within the field, the history of his life lacks both wider recognition and a comprehensive understanding of his life beyond the years of the Second World War. Komoly was an assimilated member of Hungarian society who fought during the First World War, studied and qualified as an engineer, translated works of literature from German, and wrote his own poems. One of the great Zionist thinkers of Hungarian Jewry, Komoly’s contribution to the development of Zionism in Hungary was immense. By translating one of his poems where he reflected on the ‘Jewish Fate’, this publication presents a history of Komoly as both an individual and as the man who helped shepherd Zionism in Hungary in the mid-twentieth century.