Mihály Kálmán
Escaping Communist Hungary: My Grandparents' 1949 Aliyah Attempt
Examining Secret Services Archive documents and talking to a 92-year-old ex-spy to learn about my grandparents' 1949 aliyah attempt.
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YIDDISH TRANSLATIONS
Bringing your family history alive,
one letter at a time
Mihály Kálmán
Apr 123 min read
My grandfather’s aliyah that never was and the 96-year-old who told me about it
My grandfather survived the Holocaust in Hungary and went to Germany. All this was a family secret. A nonagenarian now told me the back...
188 views0 comments
Mihály Kálmán
Mar 234 min read
Handwritten Yiddish and the art of deciphering it
A Yiddish translator's view on the difficulties of deciphering Yiddish handwriting.
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Mihály Kálmán
Jan 276 min read
Survivor's Silence: My Grandfather and the Holocaust in Hungary
My quest to learn about my grandfather's fate in Holocaust-era Hungary and his attempt to make aliyah through Germany.
202 views0 comments
Mihály Kálmán
Jan 911 min read
Jewish Hostages, Ukrainian Bandits, and Soviet Counterinsurgency in Ukraine
Why Jews were considered a counterinsurgent nationality in Soviet Ukraine and how this helped them from turning "hostages."
69 views0 comments
Mihály Kálmán
Aug 12, 202315 min read
Retaking the Shtetl: Pogrom Refugees and the Jewish Self-Defense Network in Ukraine
How the Jewish self-defense network in Ukraine helped pogrom refugees retake and rebuild their home shtetls? Read and find out!
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Mihály Kálmán
Jul 30, 202313 min read
Jewish Refugees and Self-Defense in Ukraine, no. 1
How Jewish self-defense groups in Ukraine helped pogrom refugees to survive – and vice versa.
213 views0 comments
Mihály Kálmán
Apr 5, 20235 min read
KGB, FSB, SBU: In the Archives of Post-Soviet Three-Letter Agencies: Archival Escapades, no. 2
Adventures in (and outside of) the archives of post-Soviet intelligence services.
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Mihály Kálmán
Mar 25, 20235 min read
How Ukraine's Commander in Chief Got Me into a Tank Base after Five Years: Archival Escapades, no. 1
I might just be the only foreigner to have ever visited the archive of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. It took me half a decade.
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Mihály Kálmán
Mar 21, 202311 min read
A Jewish Warlord in Ukraine and the US: The Jacob Rachlis Story
Jacob Rachlis headed a mighty Jewish paramilitary network in Ukraine. I am now trying to learn more about him and tell you what I know.
339 views0 comments
Mihály Kálmán
Mar 6, 202310 min read
Two Dovids, Six Red Armies: Yiddish Military Newspapers in the Russian Civil War, 1919-1924
Top to bottom: the Jewish Military Section's, the Poalei-Tsion's, and the Vitebsk Jewish Section's Di royte armey Two Dovids In February...
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Mihály Kálmán
Nov 12, 20222 min read
Yiddish Translation Stories: From Diary through Serendipity to KGB Files
In early 2022, I was contacted by Rachel,[1] an Australian 30-something who had in his possession a very interesting piece of...
137 views0 comments
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