Fates and Heterotopias: Resistance, Retaliation and a Historic Turning Point in the Sopronkőhida Prison 1944–1945 (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
In times of crisis and transition, such as were the last years of World War II, it seems that everything is falling apart: political systems are collapsing, the fabric of society is torn apart, resistance and retaliation emerges, masses of people are forced to move away from their homes against their will. But is it possible to locate a geographically existing space in the tragic and dramatic turmoil which represents the crystallization of an era, hence provides the intersection of historical periods that is researchable and revealing to the historian? My paper attempts to integrate traditional historical methods from space theory, based on Michel Foucault’s heterotopology, and demonstrate how the Sopronkőhida prison has become such a historically essential space in 1944–1945. Firstly, the Court Martial of the Chief of the Hungarian Royal Army’s General Staff occupied the prison at the end of 1944 and operated there until March 1945. The court martial brought those to trial there who were arrested for high treason, including resistance. Four former prime ministers, many military officers, civilians, resisters, partisans and priests were held in the Sopronkőhida prison until they were relocated to Germany. Subsequently, a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp was established in Sopronkőhida, in which tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers were detained and deported to the USSR. The dramatic turnaround of Sopronkőhida simultaneously symbolizes the fall of persons representing an era, the rise of others, and the loss of the sovereignty of the individual and society during totalitarian regimes.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Domokos Szokolay is a research fellow at the Office of the Committee of National Remembrance (NEB). He is an ABD PhD student at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. His research focuses on the transition period of 1944-1945, with special interest in resistance and retaliation.