Occupation and deportation History of the Jews in Hungary

1 occupation , deportation

1.1 nazis take on hungary
1.2 deportation auschwitz
1.3 efforts rescue jews
1.4 arrow cross rule

occupation , deportation
nazis take on hungary

adolf eichmann on trial in jerusalem 1961.



hungarian jews on judenrampe (jewish ramp) after disembarking transport trains, sent rechts! - right - meant labor; links! - left - gas chambers. photo auschwitz album (may 1944).



hungarian jewish women , children carpatho-ruthenia after arrival @ auschwitz deathcamp (may/june 1944). photo auschwitz album.

on march 18, 1944, adolf hitler summoned horthy conference in austria, demanded greater acquiescence hungarian state. horthy resisted, efforts fruitless – while attended conference, german tanks rolled budapest.

on march 23, 1944, government of döme sztójay installed. among other first moves, sztójay legalized arrow cross party, began organizing. during 4 days interregnum following german occupation, ministry of interior put in hands of lászló endre , lászló baky, right-wing politicians known hostility jews. boss, andor jaross, committed anti-semite.

a few days later, ruthenia, northern transylvania , border region croatia , serbia placed under military command. on april 9, prime minister döme sztójay , germans obligated hungary place @ disposal of reich 300,000 jewish laborers. 5 days later, on april 14, endre, baky, , eichmann decided deport jews of hungary.

a jew living in hungarian countryside in march 1944 had less 10% chance of surviving following 12 months. in budapest, jew s chance of survival of same 12 months 50%. although 1943, bbc polish service broadcasting exterminations, bbc hungarian service had not mentioned jews @ all. after german invasion in march 1944, hungarian service did broadcast warnings, late. however, according professor cesarani, although jews survived deportations claimed had not been informed leaders, no 1 had told them, there s plenty of evidence hungarian jews have known. of jews did not believe holocaust might happen in hungary: might happening in galicia polish jews, can’t happen in our cultivated hungarian state.

according yehuda bauer, when deportations auschwitz began in may 1944, zionist youth movements organized smuggling of hungarian jews romania. around 4,000 hungarian jews smuggled romania, including zionist youth movements organized smuggling , paid individual smugglers on border. romanians agreed let jews in, despite heavy german pressure.

deportation auschwitz

ss-obersturmbannführer adolf eichmann, duties included supervising extermination of jews, set staff in majestic hotel , proceeded rapidly in rounding jews hungarian provinces outside budapest , suburbs. yellow star , ghettoization laws, , deportation, accomplished in less 8 weeks enthusiastic of hungarian authorities, particularly gendarmerie (csendőrség). plan use 45 cattle cars per train, 4 trains day, deport 12,000 jews auschwitz every day countryside, starting in mid-may; followed deportation of jews of budapest july 15.

just before deportations began, vrba-wetzler report reached allied officials. details report broadcast bbc on 15 june , printed in new york times on 20 june. world leaders, including pope pius xii (25 june), president franklin d. roosevelt on 26 june, , king gustaf v of sweden on 30 june, subsequently pleaded horthy use influence stop deportations. roosevelt threatened military retaliation if transports not ceased. on 7 july, horthy @ last ordered transports halted. according historian péter sipos, hungarian government had known jewish genocide since 1943. historians have argued horthy believed jews being sent concentration camps work, , returned hungary after war. horthy himself not have been clearer in memoirs: not before august, wrote, did secret information reach me of horrible truth extermination camps. vrba-wetzler statement believed have been passed hungarian zionist leader rudolf kastner no later 28 april 1944, however, kastner did not make public.

the first transports auschwitz began in may 1944 , continued soviet troops approached. hungarian government solely in charge of jews transportation northern border. hungarian commander of kassa (košice) railroad station meticulously recorded trains heading auschwitz place of departure , number of people inside them. first train went through kassa on may 14. on typical day, there 3 or 4 trains, between 3,000 , 4,000 people on each train, total of approximately 12,000 jews delivered extermination facilities each day. there 109 trains during these 33 days through june 16. (there days when there many 6 trains.) between june 25 , 29, there 10 trains, additional 18 trains on july 5–9. 138th recorded train (with 400,426th victim) heading auschwitz via kassa on july 20. 10 trains sent auschwitz via other routes (24,000+ people) (the first 2 left budapest , topolya on april 29 , arrived @ auschwitz on may 2), while 7 trains 20,787 people went strasshof between june 25 , 28 (2 each debrecen, szeged , baja, 1 szolnok). unique kastner train left bergen-belsen 1,685 people on june 30.

by july 9, 437,402 jews had been deported according reich plenipotentiary in hungary edmund veesenmayer s official german reports. 1 hundred , forty-seven trains sent auschwitz, 90% of people exterminated on arrival. because crematoria couldn t cope number of corpses, special pits dug near them, bodies burned. has been estimated 1 third of murdered victims @ auschwitz hungarian. of time period, 12,000 jews delivered auschwitz in typical day, among them future writer , nobel prize-winner elie wiesel, @ age 15. photographs taken @ auschwitz found after war showing arrival of jews hungary @ camp.

the devotion cause of final solution of hungarian gendarmes surprised eichmann himself, supervised operation twenty officers , staff of 100, included drivers, cooks, etc.

efforts rescue jews

budapest, hungary – captured jewish women in wesselényi street, 20–22 october 1944



holocaust shoe memorial beside danube river in budapest. shoes represent hungarian jews lost lives during holocaust.

very few members of catholic or protestant clergy raised voices against sending jews death. (notable bishop Áron márton s sermon in kolozsvár on may 18). catholic primate of hungary, serédi decided not issue pastoral letter condemning deportation of jews.

rome liberated on june 4, d-day landing in normandy on june 6. on june 15, mayor of budapest designated 2,000 (5%) starred houses every jew (20%+) had move together. authorities thought allies not bomb budapest because starred houses scattered around town.

at end of june, finally, pope in rome, king of sweden, and, in strong terms, president franklin d. roosevelt urged halt deportations. admiral horthy ordered suspension of deportations on july 6. nonetheless, 45,000 jews deported trans-danubian region , outskirts of budapest auschwitz after day. after failed attempt on hitler s life, germans backed off pressing horthy s regime continue further, large-scale deportations, although smaller groups continued deported train. in late august horthy refused eichmann s request restart deportations. himmler ordered eichmann leave budapest

according winston churchill, in letter foreign secretary dated july 11, 1944, there no doubt persecution of jews in hungary , expulsion enemy territory greatest , horrible crime ever committed in whole history of world....

the sztójay government rescheduled date of deportation of jews of budapest auschwitz august 27. romanians switched sides on august 23, 1944, causing huge problems german military. himmler ordered cancellation of further deportations hungary on august 25, in return nothing more saly mayer’s promise see whether germans’ demands met. horthy dismissed prime minister sztójay on august 29, same day slovak national uprising against nazis started.

in spite of change of government, hungarian troops occupied parts of southern transylvania, romania, , massacred hundreds of jews in kissármás (sărmăşel), marosludás (luduș) , other places starting september 4.

a memorial plaque carl lutz, swiss diplomat saved lives of thousands of hungarian jews during holocaust.


the arrow cross rule

after nyilas (arrow cross) coup d état on october 15, tens of thousands of jews of budapest sent on foot austrian border in death marches, forced laborers under hungarian army command far deported (for instance bergen-belsen), , 2 ghettos set in budapest. small international ghetto consisted of several starred houses under protection of neutral powers in Újlipótváros district. switzerland allowed issue 7,800 schutzpasses, sweden 4,500, , vatican, portugal , spain 3,300 combined. big budapest ghetto set , walled in erzsébetváros part of budapest on november 29. nyilas raids , mass executions occurred in both ghettos regularly. in addition, in 2 months between november 1944 , february 1945, nyilas shot 10,000-15,000 jews on banks of danube. soviet troops liberated big budapest ghetto on january 18, 1945. on buda side of town, encircled nyilas continued murders until soviets took buda on february 13.

the names of diplomats, raoul wallenberg, carl lutz, Ángel sanz briz, giorgio perlasca, carlos de sampayo garrido , alberto teixeira branquinho deserve mentioning, members of army , police saved people (pál szalai, károly szabó, , other officers took jews out camps fake papers), interior ministry official (béla horváth) , church institutions , personalities. rudolph kastner deserves special attention because of enduring negotiations eichmann , becher prevent deportations auschwitz, succeeding minimally sending jews still horrific labor battalions in austria , saving 1,680 jews in kastner s train.