Masters of Apathy: Ordinary Bystander Mentalities about the Holocaust, as Reflected in Gentile Diaries from Hungary and Austria

During the Holocaust, the majority of people involved were not victims or perpetrators, but bystanders, a group scarcely studied to this day. Therefore, in my interdisciplinary book project, Masters of Apathy, I aim to explore the worldviews of bystanders during the Holocaust through a comparative analysis of the mentalities of gentiles in Hungary and Austria. My research is based on thirty Hungarian and thirty Austrian unpublished diary manuscripts, because I consider diaries key sources in studying contemporary mentalities in a given historical context. In my study, I focus on the intersectional study of the identities of diarists, comparing the religious, gender, political, and national relations of individuals in order to arrive at a better understanding of the reasons behind their passivity during the Holocaust. The theoretical framework of my project is centered on Alltagsgeschichte (historical research of everyday life), cultural studies, and social psychology.