Circumcision in Hungary after the Shoah (co-author Júlia Vajda), in: Mark, Elizabeth Wyner (ed): The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite, Brandeis University Press, UPNE), Hanover/London, 2003: 177-186. Éva Kovács and Júlia Vajda: Circumcision in Hungary after the Shoah “ I have roamed around with forged documents and no yellow star. Once when I was stopped by the police I had to show my genitals. Fortunately I was not circumcised.” “It is a family tradition, my husband was born on the summer of ’44, but he wouldn’t be my husband, nor the father of my children, if my mother in law had been preoccupied with circumcision, because she could only save my husband, as it was not visible that he was a Jew. Who takes this amiss is a bastard, he should try to understand, we have to be able to decide, from the point of view of history and real-politics, that we have to survive in such circumstances, the survival of the Jewish people must come first, human life must come first…” “… this could cause him serious trouble one day… when my two uncles were trying to escape they were caught on the second corner, their trousers were pulled down and…” “… even then we were still afraid of… my son, if you’ll be standing at the Danube, and they pull your pants down, don’t let this be the reason for them to shoot you into the river…” The trauma of the Shoah made it unavoidable for the surviving Jewry to redefine its attitude towards its tradition and religion. The survivors had to find an explanation for the tragedy they suffered. A part of the believers experienced the Shoah as the manifestation the God of punishment, a divine act imposed upon the chosen people. As a Hassidic friend of Eli Wiesel, Akiba Drumer, has said in Auschwitz: “God has put us to the test. He wants to see if we can defeat our evil instincts, if we can kill the Satan within. We have no right to give way to despair. The more mercilessly God treats us, the more He manifests His love…” i On the other hand the Shoah gave rise to doubt as well: “But why should I praise him? My whole body protested. Was it because He had damned thousands of children to burn? Because He operated six crematories night and day, even on the holy 1