CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Moore, Isaac Daniel |
|---|---|
| Title | Subverting Modernity: Francoist Spain's Rescue of Sephardim in Greece and Budapest during the Holocaust |
| Summary | This thesis compares Francoist Spain’s rescue operations of Jews in Greece and Budapest along the dual framework of “the list” as the ultimate symbol of modern bureaucracy and her relationship to the Sephardic Jewish community. Using a list of Sephardic Jews rescued by the Spanish Legation in Budapest during the Holocaust, this study focuses on and explores the provocative motif of “the list” as an instrument of power, control, and authority and as a historical source rooted in modernity to question the nature of Spain’s assistance in Greece and Budapest. This thesis also explores Spain’s relationship to the Sephardim in both contexts and problematizes what that marker of identity meant for the Jews being saved as well as for Spain’s own self-image as a rescuer of Jews. It is argued that in assisting Jews during the Holocaust, Spain subverted the ultimate form of modernity, the Nazi system of dehumanization carried out through the means of an efficient and rational bureaucratic system, which culminated in the Final Solution. In analyzing the nature of Spain’s rescue of Jews through the lens of how the modern bureaucratic system allowed Spain to save Jews from the Holocaust on the one hand, and ascertain a leverage of power and authority with respect to the Jews she was rescuing, on the other, it is further argued that Spain ultimately remained a part of the very system which she was undermining. This study sheds an interesting light on how “the list,” as a means to rescue Jews during the Holocaust, exerted a particular kind of power and authority strikingly similar to that of the Nazi system. |
| Supervisor | Peto, Andrea; Casanova, Julian |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/moore_isaac-daniel.pdf |
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