Affären Tiszaeszlár. En ritualmordprocess i det s.k. liberala Ungern 1882

Authors

• Tomas Gergely Université libre de Bruxelles

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30752/nj.69356

Keywords:

Jews -- Hungary, Antisemitism, Blood accusation, Politics and Judaism, Murder, Persecution, Violence

Abstract

On April 1, 1882, the day before Palm Sunday which that year coincided with the Shabbat preceding Passover, a 14-year-old peasant girl, Eszter Solymosi, mysteriously disappeared in front of the synagogue in the Hungarian village Tiszaezlár. The peasants and the anti-Semitic members of Parliament Onody and Istóczy immediately accused several local Jews of ritual murder. The accusation was founded on the extorted testimony of a 14-year-old boy, Moritz Scharf, the son of the janitor of the synagogue. Later a corpse of a drown girl of the same age was found in the river Tisza. The originators of the plot were successful: Pogroms occurred in several places in Hungary, and the attacks lasted until 1884. By exploiting the fanatical emotions kindled by this episode, Onody and Istóczy soon founded the Hungarian anti-Semitic Party.