"Two-Time Enemy Alien" - The Curious Case of Victor Gondos Sr.

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The American immigrant experience in the 20th century was burdened with two World Wars. As Hungary fought on the opposite side in both wars, Hungarians living the United States were declared ‘enemy aliens’ both times. This carried the possibility of several types of discrimination and intolerance from the Federal Government as well as the American society. This original research, based on a wide variety of primary and secondary resources, aims to shed light onto the fact that not only US citizens of German and Japanese origins, but also Hungarian Americans could easily become targets of the American authorities. The presentation takes one Hungarian immigrant family, the Gondos Family's case as an example to demonstrate how the US wartime intelligence targeted American citizens with "enemy alien" descent in World War One and Two. The head of the family, Victor Gondos Sr was victim of wartime hysteria during both wars. In 1916, Gondos was imprisoned due to a false suspicion of participating in a bomb plot. Later, in 1942-1944, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an inquiry about him for (also falsely) suspecting him to be a Nazi supporter. Examining this story can be resourceful to better understand the situation of the wartime minorities in the United States.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Eszter RAKITA is a historian and a research associate in the Institute of History at Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, Eger, Hungary. She holds Bachelor’s Degrees in American Studies, and in Communication. She also holds a Master’s Degree in History. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in Modern History. Her research focuses on the Hungarian Immigrant experience in the United States in the 1st half of the 20th century, with a special focus on middle-class immigrants.