From the Fight Against “Speculators” to Murder
The riots were triggered by the postwar economic collapse and political propaganda. On 30 July 1946, workers at the Miskolc ironworks, protesting against alleged “speculators” and “price gougers,” seized the managers of the Flórián Mill, Sándor Rejtő and Ernő Jungreisz. Rejtő was beaten to death, while Jungreisz was brutally tortured and dragged through the streets.
On 1 August, the day the new currency, the forint, was introduced, tensions escalated further. A crowd stormed police headquarters to free those who had been arrested for the previous day’s lynching. They captured and lynched police officer Artúr Fogarasi (born Artúr Frenkel), the Jewish deputy head of the political division. The events demonstrated how economic hardship could still easily fuel antisemitic violence even after the horrors of the Second World War.
“Death to the forint-destroyers! Death to the profiteers of the Flórián Mill!“
Slogans used by the rioters and lynch mob in Miskolc during the summer of 1946
Further Reading / Sources
Blood Libel, Hysteria, and Mob Justice – Lynching in Miskolc (Hitel, May 2020)
János Pelle