ABSTRACT
The pogrom in Diszel, a small village located on the shores of Lake Balaton in western Hungary, exemplifies the transmission between different forms of violence. On the morning of September 9, 1919, the news of a pogrom in the neighboring spa town of Tapolca reached the community. As the pogrom in Diszel shows, the border between robbery and sexual violence, on the one hand, and sexual and autotelic violence, on the other, was fluid: pillaging often led to rape, and sexual assault, in turn, to mutilation and murder. Sexual assaults recounted as stories functioned as a form of entertainment in the militias; they empowered torturers and increased their self-respect, reinforced internal hierarchies, strengthened the ties of friendship and camaraderie among equals, and made subordinates and the rank and file more dependent on the commander, who had helped cover up their crimes.
