"Carpati."  This film by Klezmer scholar Yale Strom and narrated by Leonard Nimoy deals with the gift of a Torah to the remaining Jews in Vinograd; this is the area of Northeast Hungary where the Friedman family lived.  New Yorker Films, 2000.

"Rivermen" (Tutajosok) - also called "Memoirs of a River"- about the 1882 trial of Ruthenian (sub-Carpathian) Jews...

I have a copy I made from the Bravo cable network showing of this movie several years ago.  I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of northeast Hungary.  This film and others are available on video and sold by European Video Distributors. Phone -1-888-848-5902/ e-mail hatv@earthlink.net, fax 1-818-848-1965. They have a catalog. When ordering, make sure you are asking for the version you want. That is, there may be a Hungarian with English subtitles or a version dubbed in English. Also try Blue Danube Gifts (they have a site on the web).

"Sunshine".  90% or more of the details in this movie are accurate concerning the Friedman family's experiences.  The "Sunshine" of the movie title is a liquor that is like the one made by William Friedman and most of the residents of Satoraljaujhely called "palinka."  Paramount Home Video, 2001.  Dir. István Szabó, perf. Ralph Fiennes.

"The Last Days." (Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, 1998).  Documentary about Hungarian Holocaust survivors returning to Hungary to re-visit sites where they lived and were imprisoned.

Books:

Denes, Magda, Castles Burning:  A Child's Life in War.  (NY, Touchstone, 1997).  Holocaust memoir. 

Gruber, Ruth, On the Doorposts of Your House.  (NY, Wiley, 1994).  Chapter on the Jewish history of Tokaj wine.

Lukacs, John.  Budapest 1900:  A Historical Portrait of a City & Its Culture.  (NY, Grove, 1988) Detailed and evocative.

McCagg, William O.  Jewish Nobles and Geniuses in Modern Hungary.  (Bouder CO, East European Quarterly, 1972).  An exploration of the phenomenon of upper-middle-class Jews in nineteenth century Hungary.

Naves, Elaine Kalman, Journey to Vaja:  Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family.  (Montreal, Mc-Gill-Queen's, 1996).  Family history search concerning Rakoczi tenant farmers (comparable to Friedman family).

Patai, Raphael.  The Jews of Hungary:  History, Culture, Psychology.  (Detroit, Wayne State University, 1996).  Comprehensive 730 page history by a major scholar.

Perlman, Robert, Bridging Three Worlds:  Hungarian-Jewish Americans 1848-1914.  (Amherst, University of Massachusetts, 1991).  Most useful in understanding how Hungarian Jewish experience differed significantly from the experiences of other Eastern European Jewish immigrants to America.

Spielberg, Steven, The Last Days.  (NY, St. Martin's, 1999.)  Companion book to the film.  Both depict the Holocaust in Hungary--short but brutal.

Suleiman, Susan Rubin.  Budapest Diary:  In Search of the Motherbook.  (Lincoln Nebraska, University of Nebraska, 1993).  Memoir of the return to Budapest by a woman who was a young child during the Holocaust and includes family history from Northeast Hungary (including references to a Czinner relative, p. 88). 

Varga, Susan.  Heddy and Me.  (Ringwood, Vic., Australia, Penguin, 1994)  Holocaust memoir and family search.

03/14/2008