In the last two decades a large amount of previously secret documents on Jewish issues emerged from the newly opened Communist archives. The selection of these papers published in the volume will shed light on a period of Jewish history that is largely ignored because much of the current scholarship treats the Shoah as the end of Jewish history in the region. The documents introduced and commented by the editor of the volume, András Kovács, will give insight into the conditions and constraints under which the Jewish communities had to survive in the countries of the Soviet bloc. They may shed light on the ways how "Jewish policy” of the Soviet bloc countries was coordinated and orchestrated from Moscow and by the single countries. The archival material will prove that the ruling communist parties were restlessly preoccupied with the "Jewish question.” This preoccupation, which kept the whole issue alive in the decades of communist rule, explains to a great extent its open reemergence in the time of transition and in the post-communist period.
In the last decades, previously secret documents on Jewish issues emerged from the newly opened Communist archives. Even though the Shoa is frequently considered as the end of Jewish history, these documents make clear that the communist parties never stopped to be preoccupied with the "Jewish question." A selection of these papers, stemming mostly from Hungarian archives sheds new light on the "Jewish policy" of the Communist bloc countries.
In the last decades, previously secret documents on Jewish issues emerged from the newly opened Communist archives. Even though the Shoa is frequently considered as the end of Jewish history, these documents make clear that the communist parties never stopped to be preoccupied with the "Jewish question." A selection of these papers, stemming mostly from Hungarian archives sheds new light on the "Jewish policy" of the Communist bloc countries.