Magic at War

Rodolfo was one of Hungary’s best-known magicians, a master of sleight of hand and theatrical pickpocketing whose career would eventually span more than half a century. But he was also born Gross Rezső, into a Jewish family in Budapest, and during the Second World War Hungary’s anti-Jewish laws and labour-service system repeatedly took him away from the stage.  This two-part article traces Rodolfo’s journey through persecution and war — and asks what value being a magician could have when performance became something more than a profession. Image: A young Rodolfo at the start of his magic career. The wounded man needed treatment. Instead, according to the story he would tell many years later, somebody at the Hungarian military hospital looked at the Jewish labour serviceman and said simply: “We don’t treat Jews.” Then another question was asked. “Which one is Rodolfo?” The name changed the situation. Someone recognised the injured labour serviceman as Rodolfo, the magician, a...