Writing 'Bystanders' into Holocaust History in More Active Ways: 'Non-Jewish' Engagement with Ghettoisation, Hungary 1944

Drawing upon case studies of the implementation of ghettoisation in the Hungarian cities of Budapest and Szeged, this article calls for renewed attention to be paid to Holocaust 'bystanders'. In both cities, significant numbers of 'non-Jews' responded to measures that they saw directly affecting themselves, and had some influence upon the final shape of ghettoisation. In short, 'bystanders' in these cities were active agents, whose role needs to be written into Holocaust history. However, such rewriting does well to jettison the traditional terminology of 'bystander', with its connotations of inaction and indifference, which fails to do justice to the variety of active responses by 'non-Jewish' neighbours.