By Ernő Munkácsi
A gripping first-hand account of the devastating “last chapter” of the Holocaust, written by a privileged eyewitness, the secretary of the Hungarian Judenrat, and a member of Budapest’s Jewish elite, How It Happened is a unique testament to the senseless brutality that, in a matter of months, decimated what was Europe’s largest and last-surviving Jewish community.
Writing immediately after the war and examining only those critical months of 1944 when Hitler’s Germany occupied its ally Hungary, Erno Munkácsi describes the Judenrat’s desperation and fear as it attempted to prevent the looming catastrophe, agonized over decisions not made, and struggled to grasp the immensity of a tragedy that would take the lives of 427,000 Hungarian Jews in the very last year of the Second World War.
This long-overdue translation makes available Munkácsi’s profound and unparalleled insight into the Holocaust in Hungary, revealing the “choiceless choices” that confronted members of the Judenrat forced to execute the Nazis’ orders. With an in-depth introduction, a brief biography of Erno Munkácsi, ample annotations by László Csosz and Ferenc Laczó, two dozen archival photographs, and detailed maps, How It Happened is an essential resource for historians and students of the Holocaust, the Second World War, and Central Europe.
About the author
Ernő Munkácsi (1896-1950), a distinguished Hungarian jurist and writer, was general counsel of the Israelite Congregation of Pest and Director of the Hungarian Jewish Museum. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Hungary, he served as secretary for the Hungarian Central Jewish Council or Judenrat.
About the editor
Nina Munk is a Canadian-American journalist and author. She is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty.
