This song which has a poignant touch to it, was composed in
Budapest by Rezso Seress in the 1930’s when Hungary was under the
Nazi occupation (lyrics were later added by Laszlo Javor). It is
rumored that this song was ‘cursed’ and had caused many people (esp
ladies) to commit suicide while/after listening to it during that
time. Much of that is urban legend, and certainly there were plenty
of reasons to commit suicide in Eastern Europe in the ‘30s without
using a song as scapegoat. There is also a fiction novel and nice
german movie (“Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod”
based
loosely on this scenario.
