Polio and Disability in Cold War Hungary

Abstract

This chapter argues that concepts of an individual's role in society shaped medical treatment and views of disability, which contributed to the celebrated polio child in one environment, and her invisibility in another. Concerns over children’s physical health and ability were shared experiences across post- World War II societies, and the figure of the child was often used as a tool to reach over the Iron Curtain. However, key differences in how children with polio were perceived, and as a result treated, followed Cold War fault lines. Thus, through the lens of disability, new perspectives emerge on the history of the Cold War, polio and childhood.