From the Monarchy to the Holocaust: The Zahler Family of Košice/Kassa

Authors

Veronika Szeghy-Gayer, Institute of Social Sciences, CSPS Slovak Academy of ScienceFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2139-0605

Abstract

The study aims to map the life and carrier trajectory of a Jewish attorney from the city of Košice between the 19^th century and the immediate post-WWII years. Based on archival documents and materials from the Zahler family archives documents, the different historical contexts in which the Zahlers lived are investigated including the Dual Monarchy, the first Czechoslovak Republic, the wartime Hungarian Kingdom and post-WWII Czechoslovakia. It aims to answer the following questions: How did the Jewish elite from this region of East Central Europe experience the shifting regimes? How did they relate to the minority policy of interwar Czechoslovakia? What characterized the language use of the Košice Jewry in the period under investigation? What survival strategies did Jews choose during World War II? And what do we know about family members who survived the Holocaust? It is argued that the investigation on the Zahler family represents an excellent case study for research on the Jewish upper middle class which settled down in historical Hungary in the first decades of the 19^th century, or earlier and lived in the Slovak – Hungarian border region until the immediate post-WWII years.

Recommended Citation

Szeghy-Gayer, Veronika (2025) "From the Monarchy to the Holocaust: The Zahler Family of Košice/Kassa," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 45 : Iss. 3 , Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2610
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol45/iss3/5