Black Book, by Jenö Lévai

BLACK BOOK

on the

Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry

by

Eugene Levai

Edited by L a w r e n c e  P.  D a v i s

Published by

The Central European Times

Publishing Co. Ltd., Zurich,

in conjunction with

The Panorama Publishing Co. Ltd., Vienna.

1948

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

I. THE FATE OF HUNGARPAN JEWRY UNDER THE SHADOW OF HITLER/SM.

1. Gombos's Anti-Semitism on Racial Grounds…5

2. The First Jewish Bill…9

3. The Second Jewish Bill…13

4. The Third Jewish Bill - a Racial One…22

5. The Annihilation of Jews in the Adjacent Countries…39

II. HUNGARIAN JEWRY UNDER DIRECT NAZI PRESSURE.

1. Visit to Hitler - Occupation of Hungary…77

2. The Gestapo at the Headquarters of Hungarian Jewry…79

3. The Anti-Jewish Decrees of the Hungarian Government…89

4. The Hungarian "de-Jewification" Brigade…106

5. Intervention of the Christian Churches …117

6. The Concentration of Provincial Jews into Ghettos …123

7. Vain Efforts of the Jewish Council…129

8. Deportation Starts in Northern Hungary…138

9. General Deportation…146

10. Rescue Efforts of the Catholic Bishops …148

11. Endre and Co. Break Down All Resistance…153

Ill. THE CONCENTRATION OF JEWS IN BUDAPEST, PREPARATION FOR THEIR

DEPORTATION AND THE FRUSTRATION THEREOF.

1. The Internment of the Jews in Budapest …..161

2. The Flood of Decrees in May………………165

3. Deportation Threatens the Budapest Jews…174

4. Plans and Attempts to Resist……………….177

7, Intervention of the Neutral Ministers . . ….. 354

8. Intervention of the Christian Churches . …. 360

9. Szalai’s Instructions are Carried Out . ……. 362

10. Classification of the Jews . . . …………….264

11. Brick-works - Death-march to Hegyeshalom - Rescue Actions . . 371

12. The Ghetto of the Unprotected Jews . . . . . 375

13, The Ambulance Service as Rescuers of the Jews . . 379

14. The First Days of the Siege of Budapest . . 381

15. The Budapest Ghetto . . . . . . ……………. 385

16. Jews Illegally Hiding in the Capital . …… 395

17, The Nyilas Decimates the Capital's Jewry in the Course of -the Siege . . 400

18. Liberation . . . . . . . . . . ……………………418

APPENDIX.

I. Labour Service…425

II. Protocols and Reports Regarding the Annihilation of Hungarian Jewry After Deportation…431

III. Nyilas (Arrow Cross) Terror Acts…445

IV. Various Documents Granting Exemption…450

V. Reports Regarding the Rescue Actions of Jewish Organisations Abroad a) Sarossi, b) Dr. A. Kubowitzki…454

VI. Statistics of Hungarian Jewry. An Explanation of the "Statistical Table" . . . 469

VII. Retribution . . . 475

INTRODUCTION.

In the autumn of 1932, coinciding with the Nazi party' s decisive victory in Germany, events in Hungary took a particularly serious turn. On September 21st, 1932, Admiral Horthy, then Regent of Hungary, sent for General Gombos and entrusted to him the task of forming a new cabinet. Immediate unrest throughout the country: was the result. Gombos's past and his attitude to the Jewish problem were common knowledge. His circle of friends included men like Tibor Eckhardt and Ferenc Ulain, who with his associates had been in close contact with the National Socialist Movement ever since the days of the Munich coup d'etat in 1923, when Hitler made his first bid for power. These relations of the Gombos clique and other anti-Semitic groups continued to flourish throughout the years. A number of secret organisations were formed, among them the "Etelkozi Szovetseg" (Inter-Ethel League) and the "Kettoskereszt Szovetseg" (League of the Twin Cross), as well as several openly anti-Semitic terror organisations such as the "Ebredo Magyarok Egyulete" (The Association of Awakening Hungarians), all of which were hotbeds of terrorism and breeding grounds for extremist Right-wing movements.

While Hitler was struggling for power and National Socialism was continually gaining ground in Germany, anti-Jewish movements all over Europe, including Hungary, gathered impetus. Early in the nineteen thirties, in Hungary too, a whole series of "distorted cross" movements were launched - the German Swastika had been banned as a party emblem - for the purpose of aping National Socialism and its methods. The leaders of the movements, the Hungarian "Fuhrers-Designate" left for Germany one after the other and some of them, for instance Zoltan Mesko and Count Sandor Festetics obtained support, while Zoltan Boszormenyi was even received by Hitler. Both Mesko and Boszormenyi were given considerable financial support by the Nazi movement. Already at this early date anti-Jewish Hungarian newspapers, subsidised by Germany, began to make their appearance. Every political party published its propaganda weekly, whilst extremist daily and weekly organs took up anti-Jewish agitation. The conductor of this concerto of hatred was none other than Istvan Milotay, the leading "Nyilas" of later days.

It was a common occurrence for the streets of the capital to be teeming with shouting and fighting crowds after meetings had been held by the "Kaszaskereszt" (Scythe-Cross) organisation. Then, on the following day, disorder would generally spread to the universities, several Jewish students of either sex would be removed more or less forcibly and Hungarian Jewry would raise its voice in protest, stating that the humiliations inflicted on Jewish students were a matter of concern to every Jew. However, these incidents were but of secondary interest owing to the critical situation resulting from the economic crisis, which at this time was threatening Europe.

To all outward appearances, the Jews in Hungary enjoyed all the privileges of the Christian population. In 193~ Hungarian Jewry submitted a memorandum to the "Alliance Israelite", from which the following is an extract: " .. , The best service foreign Jewry can render the Jews of Hungary is to intervene in favour of a general improvement of the situation in Hungary and to remedy those grave injustices suffered by Hungary as a result of the Treaty of Trianon.

Again in 1932, at the time of Hitler's decisive victory, Raobi Stern in an address delivered before a mass meeting of the Hungarian Revision league on behalf of the Jews of Hungary, likewise called on the Jews of the world to help remedy the situation resulting from the dismemberment of the country through the Treaty of Trianon.

Part I.

The Fate of Hungarian Jewry under the Shadow of Hitlerism.

1933-1945.

I.

GOMBOS’ S "ANTI-SEMITISM" ON RADICAL GROUNDS.

Together with Gombos the characteristic figures of the counterrevolution of 1919 and the period of White Terror returned to public life. Most of them were men whom Count Bethlen during his ten years of premiership had, with considerable difficulty, succeeded in dropping. The familiar names of earlier days were heard again, among them Andrew Mecser, Ference Ulain and Bela Marton. They were accompanied by the newcomers, men like Emil Szakvary, Antal Petnehazy, Bela Jurcsek, Istvan Antal, Antal Kunder, Gyorgy Olah and a number of -others, who were also destined to play an equally infamous role in the events which followed. The so-called "Counter-revolutionary Youth" began to form itself into various associations and militant organisations.

Gombos's position was no easy one. For years past he had pledged his word to the youth movements and now their demands could not be met without reconsidering the Jewish question. As long ago as 1920, Gombos himself had openly demanded a solution of the Jewish problem and had published a treatise entitled "Die Juden in Ungarn" (The Jews in Hungary). In this essay, Gombos tried to prove that the only solution of the Jewish problem was to allow the Jews representation in any one profession or trade only in proportion to their percentage of the total population. As a consequence it was only natural for the Jewish population to receive the news of Gombos's appointment as Prime Minister with definite misgivings. These sinister forebodings, however, were partly dispelled when Gombos, on formally introducing his Cabinet to Parliament declared, in his statement of policy, that his attitude to the Jewish problem had undergone a revision and that the new Cabinet sought to ensure the maintenance of law and order regardless of race or creed.

At the outset, Gombos fulfilled the promise contained in his statement of policy, so that Jewry, both in Hungary and abroad, was full of praise for the manner in which the Gombos Cabinet had caried out its programme during its first year of office. "We must recognise the fact", states the annual report of the Israelite Synod of Pest, "that the Gombos regime has actually consolidated our position, although it is undeniable that many grievances still remain unremedied and in spite of many of our wishes yet having to be granted."

At the instigation of the Hungarian Government, leading Hungarian Jews sent a telegram to Colonel Lehmann, at that time Governor of the State of New York, appealing to him to draw the attention of the great powers then in conference in New York 2 Black Book (5) to Hungary, so that they might "render justice to a country, that ' has been so unjustly dismembered by the dictated terms of the peace treaties." The message stressed that Colonel Lehmann, himself a Jew, would be rendering a service of inestimable value to the Jews of Hungary as well and referred to the wave of anti Semitism, which was sweeping Germany and shocking public opinion throughout the world. At the same time it contrasted the state of affairs in the Third Reich with the progressive attitude adopted by the Gombos Government.

Gombos soon forsook this policy. As long as he professed ~ to be an ardent supporter of Mussolini, he adopted a policy of 1 understanding towards the Jews. However, as he fell increasingly under the influence of the German Chancellor he set off on a course continually more closely parallel to that of Hitler and openly condoned the anti-racial "Nyilas" agitation in the country. For that matter, the policy of the Hungarian Arrow Cross movement hardly differed from the confused counter-revolutionary phrasing of Gombos's 95-point statement of policy, promising the arrival of a new millennium. As Gombos succumbed more and more to the influence of German foreign policy, he filled the Army and the Civil Service with pro-Nazi functionaries of Swabian origin and sent Sztojay -the later war criminal-to Berlin as Hungarian Minister. While Nazi anti-Semitism spread in Germany (1935 witnessed the introduction of the Nuremberg Racial Laws; pressure was exerted on the Jews to compel them to emigrate and their property was confiscated) increasingly violent disturbances broke out at the Hungarian Universities as a sequel to the events taking place in Germany. The tone of the press became more bitter, the counter-revolutionary news organs increased their activity and a number of new daily and weekly newspapers subsidised by Germany made their appearance. These papers and periodicals knew no limit to their praise of Hitlerism and, later, of the Rome-Berlin Axis, which, according to Gombos, would never have been welded into a coherent whole, had it not been for him and his ideological views.

It was during this period that Hungarian Jewry first encountered the Swastika. On the Easter Sunday of 1933 a number of German students attended the performance of the Passion Play in the village of Budaors, not far from the capital. German students, their faces disfigured by livid scars and wearing the emblem of the National Socialist Party in their buttonholes, swarmed into the Swabian villages of Budaors, Torokbalint and Budakeszi on the outskirts of Budapest. They had left Breslau and Leipzig on a tour of the Balkans and their journey took them through Hungary. Their leader, a young man by the name of Toni Bergman, was a student of philosophy at Hamburg University. These youths arrived in Budapest wearing the customary brown shirts and one of their first activities was to lay a huge wreath, (6) adorned with a large white flag showing a black swastika in its centre on the memorial to the Unknown Soldier in Budapest. Crowds went to stare at the wreath, the first of its kind in Hungary. The students then canvassed the Swabian villages surrounding the capital, spreading the Nazi gospel and seeking fresh adherents to the Party. In June 1933, they were responsible for the first "swastika scandals" in Budapest, occasioned by their remarks about Hungary and their behaviour towards "non-Aryan" fellow-travellers on the trams.

From that time on, there was no halting the invasion of the Swastika. A whole colony of Nazi newspaper correspondents arrived and settled in Budapest in addition to the innumerable representatives of the German Government and the invasion of German "economic experts". The Gestapo took up its functions and the presence of the Reichsmark began to be increasingly noticeable.

The various economic agreements concluded with Germany by Gombos on behalf of Hungary finally resulted in the economic betrayal of the country to Hitler. The outcome of this development was that Bela Imrédy previously renowned for his pro-British sympathies - became more and more Germanophile.

During the period under review, the effects of anti-Semitism became more apparent from day to day in Hungary. As the economic crisis reached its peak, the Jewish problem was thrust into the foreground with ever increasing violence. The need of "taking the wind out of the sails of the extreme Right Wing" was often preached.

It was principally in the field of economics that Gombos and his clique supported and stimulated anti-Semitism, notwithstanding the fact that their own financial gambles, undertaken without any previous experience, failed one after the other. Gombos himself was twice faced with insolvency and the Regent was obliged to settle his debts for him. Gombos's duplicity is best characterised by his practise of awarding honours or decorations to leading Jewish industrials, while at the same time measures . aimed at restricting Jewish commercial activities were introduced by him. Titles like "Your Excellency" and even the highest order of merit were indiscriminately distributed or purchasable, particularly so just prior to the general election.

By this time, the plight of the Jewish populations, not only of Germany, but also of Poland and Rumania, was pitiful. The forty-four days, during which the Goga Cabinet held office in Rumania, were marked by a series of ghastly progroms and the wave of violent anti-Jewish sentiment spread from there to Hungary. Tension was at its height during the final days of the Gombos Regime.

Coinciding with the celebration by the Jews of the seventieth anniversary of their emancipation, the most violent charges were levelled against them. They were accused of having amassed huge fortunes and of living in unheard-of luxury at a time when, on account of the economic crisis, the remainder of the Hungarian population was engaged in a desperate struggle for survival.

A picture of the true state of affairs-as opposed to the charges  is contained in the following passages of an official memorandum:

“ ... Seventy years after our emancipation, increasing difficulties prevent our fellow-worshippers from prospering either in Trade or Industry, We are almost entirely debarred from public service and it is hardly possible for our co-religionists to obtain employment even in private industry. Having been deprived of their former positions, more and more members of our congregation are losing their livelihood, while, at the same time, Jewish youth is hardly able to obtain employment of any description. Despite the pressure exerted on us, the destructive and increasingly violent propaganda of the Arrow Cross movement pretends that was opposed to the remainder  fo the population of other denominations- live in plenty and even in luxury, and attacks more and more aggressively what it terms "Jewish Capital". The true and tragic state of affairs is that nine tenths of the Jewish population suffer the same penury as the remainder of the population. Indeed, it may be stated that our plight is even greater, seeing that the number of destitute Jews surpasses the figure of 5.1 per cent for the whole of the population by 0.7 per cent.

Statistical data combine to show that the tale of so-called "Jewish prosperity" is purely fictitious and invented by its anti-Semitic authors. The Jewish birth-rate has shown a disastrous decline, as a result of which the Jewish population is threatened with practical extermination. These circumstances are due primarily to the catastrophic set-back in the general standard of living and the difficulty of obtaining work …”

II.

THE FIRST JEWISH BILL.

Kalman Daranyi, who succeeded Gombos, closely followed the political example set by his predecessor. While Daranyi acted as Deputy Premier during the period of Gombos' illness, he introduced energetic measures in an effort to prevent Szálasi from organising his party. No sooner, however, had he finally become Premier, when he found himself quite unable to escape German influence. It was, for instance, due to his support that Endre became Under-Sheriff of County Pest, having been nominated for his position-which was in fact that of deputy chief of the provincial administration-after he had served as Senior Presiding Judge for the Godollo district. Daranyi, apparently, was quite unaware of Endre's association with Szálasi, which dates back to August 1937. It was in vain that Daranyi dissolved the Szálasi Party on March 5th, 1938, and instituted legal action against its members, as the whole of County Pest became, during Endre's term of office, - the largest material and spiritual centre of the "Nyilas" and anti-Semitic movements.

By that time, the "Weltdienst"—a radical-biological propaganda organisation directed by Alfred Rosenberg—had already installed its correspondent in Hungary in the person of Lajos Mehely, a well-known professor at the University of Sciences in Budapest. A weekly periodical, devoted to racial-biological problems and racial science, was published and a committee by the name of "Hungarian Committee for the Extermination of Noxious Insects" began its work of anti-Jewish propaganda.

After becoming Premier, Daranyi paid several visits to Germany and there he was compelled to take notice of the German demand for an early solution of the Jewish problem.

In a speech delivered at Gyor a few days before the "Anschluss", Daranyi emphasized the need to settle the Jewish question by the. introduction of legal measures. " . . . I believe that it is entirely superfluous to discuss whether or not we are right in referring to the Jewish question. The Jewish problem does exist and it is one of the questions held in suspense. To my mind the essence of the problem is to be sought in the fact that the Jewish elements living within Hungary play an unduly prominent part in certain branches of our economic life, partly owing to their particular propensities and position and partly owing to the indifference of the Magyars themselves. The number of Jews employed is considerably in excess of their ratio to the remainder of the population. This is attributable in part to the circumstance that the Jewish element has settled down mainly in the towns and particularly in the capital itself. Apart from this, the Jewish element is employed to an unduly large proportion in those professions where money is more easily made and where the work itself is least onerous. Jewish penetration into our capital has naturally influenced the cultural and economic life of the country; not infrequently these manifestations have not harmonized with the aims and ideals set themselves by the Magyars. The disputes brought about by this state of affairs have impeded the concentration of the nation's resources and act as a continual source of irritation on the communal life of the nation. In the interest of establishing a just state of affairs, this question must be settled both systematically and in keeping with the letter ol the law. For justice to be rendered, these social disparities must be levelled out or eliminated and the influence of the Jewish element on the cultural and economic life of the country must be reduced to its proper proportions. The nature of the solution of this problem is to ensure the rights, to which the Christian element is entitled in the fields of industry and commerce and in the financial and economic life of the country. When this has been achieved, the interests of the Jews themselves will have been furthered, as such a solution will materially help to reduce anti-Semitism and will thereby put an end to the spread of the extremist Right-Wing movements ... "

This speech of Premier Daranyi's in effect signaled the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in Hungary. This speech, delivered with the object of revealing the details of the Government's five billion pengő Five Year Investment Plan, stated' that, in keeping with the intention of reducing the power of the continually more aggressive extremist agitators, the settlement of the Jewish question was the most urgent of the mass of social problems awaiting solution. That clearly was the aim since, following Hitler's seizure of power, Germany had been devoting her ever increasing attention to the question of the settlement of the Jewish problem in Hungary. In 1938, the point was readied, when authoritative German quarters issued statements containing veiled threats, associating the realisation of Hungary's national aims more and more closely with the Jewish question and expressing views to the effect that the inconsequential manner in which the Jewish question was being treated in Hungary was largely responsible for the failure to obtain a revision of the peace treaties. Berlin no longer made a secret of the utmost importance it attached to a radical and prompt solution of the Jewish problem, while the Nazis endeavoured, by the use of more and more effective threats intermingled with promises, to blackmail the Daranyi Cabinet into bringing about a radical settlement.

On March 11th, 1938, as a result of the effected Anschluss, Nazi anti-Semitism was brought to the very doors of Hungary. While Austrian Jewry was made to suffer all the horrors to (10) which the German Jews had been submitted, the debate on the Jewish question was opened in the Hungarian Parliament.

Heated arguments in favour of and against the measure were published in the local press. The necessity of nominating a Government Controller of Jewish Affairs was urged with the object of investing this functionary with the. supreme central control over all Jewish affairs. Jewish circles, for their part, stressed that the Jewish question did not exist in reality, that the problem had been artificially raised and that the emotions of the masses were being stirred up in an attempt to divert attention from social injustices, primarily the failure of tackling seriously the question of agrarian reform. The more sober and serious political elements expressed as their opinion that the matter should not be subject to a debate in the House of Deputies, but rather that a peaceful solution should be sought by social means and possibly by seeking the intervention of the Churches.

While the debates continued both in Parliament and the press, the Hungarian Government charged a parliamentary sub-committee with the investigation of the problem and sat back to await its report. As next step Prime Minister Daranyi brought a "Bill for the More Effective Protection of Social and Economic Life" before the House.

By these means, feudalism succeeded in gaining an overwhelming victory, as it had silenced the ever increasing demands for a serious land reform. Capitalistic circles too were satisfied, as in their opinion the measure would be certain to pacify the adherents of an idea particularly dangerous to them: nationalisation of certain branches of industry.

The opposition did not ignore the challenge. To begin with, the three religious Jewish groups submitted a joint memorandum to Parliament, in which they protested energetically against the measure and refuted, one by one, the allegations contained in the Bill, emphasising that it would prove to be "a measure which every Hungarian would recall with shame in the future". They demanded that the House "should not allow itself to be led into disregarding the principle of equality of right for every Hungarian" and went on to refer to the country's dire need in those critical days of the support of every one of the nation's citizens. "Can we afford", the memorandum continues, "to exclude from our midst 400,000 fellow citizens? Have we forgotten the irrefutable lessons of history, which prove that those Hungarians were not merely participants in, but also the architects and defenders of, Hungarian culture?" The memorandum, signed by a large number of renowned Hungarian authors, musicians, artists and sculptors concluded with the following words: " ... We believe that these sentiments will awaken an echo in a country that owes her glory to the freedom of worship and thought and to the heroic struggle for the attainment of the rights of man."

The Liberal and Socialist deputies as well as a certain number of deputies of the Smallholders' Party delivered eloquent speeches (11) in Parliament, appealing to the nation on behalf of the ideals of equality of rights and humanity. The opposition to the measure expressed by Count Bethlen, at that time an independent member, was particularly valuable. In spite of all these combined efforts, the Bill was passed by a majority vote.

In the Upper House, the Bill was introduced by Bela Imrédy, who was Daranyi's successor as Prime Minister, Here, the opposition was even more determined and, indeed, the Bill might have been rejected, had it not been favoured by the spokesman of the various Christian Churches, at their head the Prince Primate, Cardinal Justinian Seredi. The only amendment the representatives of the Churches wished to be introduced was that certain modifications should be included for the benefit of baptized Jews. Apart from that they took the view that once the Bill had become law "it would be possible to avoid emphasis being laid on the Jewish question and thus to allay anti-Semitism".

This attitude turned out to be a fatal mistake. It was the stone that started the landslide, and it is all the more regrettable that the Christian Churches lent this Bill their support.

The Jewish Bill became law and was incorporated in the legal code under Lex XV ex 1938. The gist of this act was that the ratio of Jewish representation in the economic field was to be reduced to twenty per cent. As the percentage of persons of Jewish faith (Israelites) at this time was 6.2 per cent of the total population of Hungary, the law took into account the fact that certain intellectual professions, e. g, the Civil Service and the Army, were barred to Jews, and thus arrived at the figure of 20 per cent. Under the provisions of the law, all persons of Jewish faith (Israelites) and those who had been converted to the Jewish faith since July 31st, 1919, were to be regarded as Jews. The date in question was that of the dissolution of the post-war Communist regime in Hungary.

As a result of the adoption of this law, the view "that the Jews are not members of a race, but simply confessors of a particular faith", held by the High Court of Appeal, no longer held good. The preamble to this act, which was drafted by Count Teleki states that "the expansion of the Jews is as detrimental to the nation as it is dangerous; we must take steps to defend ourselves against their propagation; their relegation to the background is a national duty."

The particulars regarding the execution of this law were published about the middle of 1938. When all necessary information had been collected, it became apparent that fifteen hundred Jews engaged in intellectual occupations were to be dismissed every six months, until the five years provided for by the law had expired, in other words, that a total of 15,000 Jews were to lose their positions by 1943. (12)

Ill.

THE SECOND JEWISH BILL.

Hungarian Jewry had not even had time to prepare to shoulder the grave social responsibilities thrust upon it as a result of the introduction and ratification of the first Jewish Bill - had not even been able to obtain from the Government the permission necessary to carry out the host of measures it was compelled to introduce in an attempt to mitigate the plight of those affected-, when a second blow was struck and it was compelled to face problems resulting from the introduction of the second Jewish Bill.

In the wake of the Munich Agreement came the Vienna Award, in which Ribbentrop and Ciano, the two arbitrators, awarded to Hungary the Magyar-inhabited districts of Upper Hungary. The re-annexation of these territories is perpetuated in the law promulgated on November 12th, 1938. This law contains the following passage: " ... with particular affection and with the fond love of a mother cherishing her child, the Hungarian fatherland welcomes back in its midst all those sons and daughters who have suffered so much."

Of the roughly one million Magyars thus re-incorporated as a result of the Vienna award, about 78,000 were Jews. On November 15th, on the occasion of the formal presentation of the Cabinet to members of his party, Adalbert Imrédy made following statement ...

" ... As a result of the restitution to Hungary of the territories awarded her in Vienna, the proportion of Jews to that of the remainder of the population, - a ratio which was already unfavourable previously, - has become even more unfavourable and the possibility of infiltration from the East has greatly increased. Consequently we are obliged to revise to a certain extent the views we held previously ... "

Imrédy had already established contact with the Nazi Party, who invariably demanded the introduction of anti-Jewish measures. They literally terrorised the Hungarian Prime Minister and regarded the energy with which he pressed these measures as the ultimate criterion of his reliability. On returning from Berlin after one of this trips, Imrédy finally called upon the members of the Government party to appoint a parliamentary sub-committee for the purpose of enquiring into the measures to be taken m respect of the Jewish problem.

Considering it was none other than the Jewish element of the restituted territories of Upper Hungary, who, for their pro-Magyar sentiments, had suffered most at the hands of the Czechoslovak regime and that, in many instances, it was due to this same 12 Jewish element that the Hungarian language was allowed to retain the position it deserved, it was more than tragic that it was first of all this loyal Jewish element which suffered so greatly, once the territories in question had been re-united with Hungary. Even while the preparations for the occupation of the districts concerned were still being made, army officers, who were expressing increasing pro-"Nyilas" sentiments, continuously spread false accusations and deliberate slanders in respect of the Jewish population. To begin with, these officers asserted that the Jews had assumed their Magyar traits by way of opportunism and then dropped them, as soon as they considered that no advantage could be gained by emphasising such origin. It was also said that the Jews had collected money for the purpose of providing the Czechoslovak Army with aeroplanes.

The Bill, to be known as the "Second Jewish Law", was presented to Parliament by Andras Tasnady Nagy, Minister of Justice under Imrédy, on December 23rd, 1938. The preamble to this bill was the work of Istvan Antal, Minister of Education in the Teleki Government. Its title was "Bill to Restrict Jewish Penetration in the Public Affairs and Economic Life of the Country." When the Bill was laid on the table of the House, the "Nyilas" deputies loudly voiced their approval and acclaimed it as "the most beautiful Christmas present they could have hoped for". –

The introduction of the Bill, against which Hungarian Jewry appealed to the conscience of all Magyars, was motivated by particularly grave charges. The Jews called upon "our Christian brothers, who, no different from ourselves, profess the sacred principles of humanity, to support us in our grief, to stretch out a helping hand, when we, from the depths of our despair, appeal for one favour and one favour only, that we should be treated in accordance with the principles of justice."

An appeal was made to Parliament, pointing out that the Bill

a) was not only contrary to, but represented a radical break with, the fundamental principles of the Hungarian Constitution, namely with the theory of a politically united Hungarian nation, with the principle of equality of rights, with the principle of equality in the eyes of the law, and with the principle of respecting acquired rights,

b) was contrary to human justice and to the sacred commands of law,

c) infringed the major interests of the nation. The memorandum further stressed that Hungarian Jewry cannot possibly be regarded as an isolated ethnic group and quoted statistical data to refute the allegation that the Jews of Hungary had felt the full weight of those times to a lesser extent than the remainder of the population.

The memorandum concluded with the following bitter complaint: " ... ls the maiming of their rights in common law, the restriction of their rights under civil law, the loss of a means of existence, the (14) proscription of their youth, what the Jews of Hungary deserve? ls that what the members of the Jewish congregations in Hungary deserve, when their sole ambition in the centuries gone by has been, while upholding their religion, to be looked upon as Hungarians and as Hungarians only? Let the trumpets of the War of Freedom sound, let the dead in the marshes of Volhynia and amid the crags of the Istrian Alps speak up on our behalf; when they lived and filled the trenches no one bothered about his neighbour's religion. May we finally be allowed to state that our faith, our. honour and our rights are not the prey of all and sundry, nor are they chattels to be bartered in an attempt to right social wrongs. Let the Courts of Justice introduce new laws in order to remedy social grievances, and let these laws be such that they are binding lor all, regardless of race or creed. That is our humble petition. On the other hand, should we be refused our rights, and should this Bill become law, then we and the thousands of our children will be compelled to change our domicile. Our domicile, but not our fatherland. For there is no human law that can deprive us of our Hungarian fatherland, even less does there exist a man-made law that can prevent us from worshipping our God. Just as the trials of bygone centuries - whether by lire or water, scaffold, stake, galleys or chains - were unable to confound us in our faith, so we shall stand by our Hungarian country, whose language is our language and whose history is our life. Just as our fellow-worshippers retained the use of their Spanish tongue, their culture and their love for their ancient homesteads, so we too shall wait and watch for the day to break, when the righteousness of our cause has been proved and when Hungary Jias been resurrected ... "

In addition to the official memoranda, a whole series of propaganda leaflets were distributed. The "Social Labour Committee", a body formed by representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia, was particularly active in its efforts to rouse public feeling by publishing large numbers of leaflets, striking posters, quantities of postcards and other material, thus bringing the appeal and the arguments of the Jewish element to the notice af the more reasonable Christian population.

The propaganda campaign and especially the just arguments met with considerable response. The Hungarian peasant population made its voice heard. Ferenc Nagy, Peter Veres, Pal Szabo and their associates, the Christian authors of the "March" group, addressed an open letter to the cultured youth of Hungary. This letter closely examined the whole of the Jewish problem and stated that by bringing the Jewish question into the foreground, an attempt was being made to divert the attention of Hungarian youth from other vital problems affecting the destiny of the nation “…The Hungarian peasant population sees the Jewish question in a different light. We did not have to compete with Jewry for positions or financial profit. What did mean a tremendous burden io us during the last two decades, was the intermediary trade that 15 was carried out in a manner contrary to Christian principles, as well as the policy pursued by the banks and vested interests. While it is fundamentally right that a greater number of young Christians should work in the banks, this does not mean that the burden which will have to be borne by the Hungarian farmer will be reduced ... "

Every effort, however, proved entirely without avail owing to German pressure and the inflammatory propaganda of the Extremist factions. Parliament began to debate the Bill in January 1939 and continued its deliberations until the end of June of that year. Opposed to the measure were, in addition to the Jewish deputies, the members of the Rassay Party and all the deputies of the Social Democratic Party. Opinion among the members of the Smallholders' Party was, as in the case of the first Jewish law, again divided. Tibor Eckhardt and his associates were in favour of the Bill, Zoltan Tildy and Ferenc Nagy, together with the parliamentary group led by them, sought to have as many amendments included and as many exceptions to the measures threatened granted as possible.

Tension in Parliament was further heightened by the outrage committed by several members of the Szálasi clique led by Emil Kovarcz on February 3rd, 1939. As the congregation of the principal synagogue in Budapest was leaving the building after a service, a hand grenade was thrown into the crowd from the roof of a house opposite. As a result, a large number of persons was injured, some of them fatally. While this crime aroused indignation among the Christian element of the population, it did not prevent the Extremist press from continuing its campaign of agitation, nor did it deter the Right-wing deputies in Parliament from insisting on the immediate introduction of the measures proposed. It was on this very same day that Imrédy issued a statement giving the reasons for his change of front in respect of the Bill. Previously, after the introduction of the first Jewish law, he had stated that "the legal regulation of the Jewish question is now complete",

"Far reaching events", he now said, "have taken place since the spring of 1938, events which justify a revision of our former attitude. Certain steps taken by various countries since this House passed the first Jewish Bill have resulted, or at least show the tendency to result, in a large number of Jews seeking to leave those countries and to obtain employment in countries, where conditions are more Favourable for them. The most important of these anti-Jewish measures have been introduced by Italy and Germany. Since the Anschluss and the territorial changes in Czechoslovakia, very large areas have been added to the Third Reich. In Poland, too, the introduction of legal steps, which will bring about a change in the lot of the Jewish population, are being contemplated. In what remains of Czechoslovakia, and particularly in Slovakia, radical anti-Jewish measures are actually being enforced, or are about to be introduced even without the consent of the legislative bodies and it is quite conceivable that Jewish elements from these counties (16) might gravitate to Hungary. In Rumania too, a number orders and decrees have been promulgated, all of which place the Jews in a more difficult situation ... "

Consequently, Imrédy openly referred to the German measures when he desired to justify the introduction of the second Jewish Law. However, when the matter came up for debate in a plenary session of Parliament, Imrédy was no longer in a position to act as sponsor. The "Nyilas" elements, who ever since 1938 had been openly attempting to seize power, published leaflets giving details of Imrédy’s Jewish ancestry. Twice, in speeches made at Pees and Baja, Imrédy refuted the allegation that he had Jewish blood in his veins, and did so a third time, when he was obliged to make an official statement on the occasion of his being invested with the title of "Vitéz" (an honour awarded in recognition of services rendered during the first World War and the period following it). On February 15th, 1939, on learning that documents proving his Jewish ancestry were about to be produced in the House, Imrédy summoned a meeting of the members of his party. On this occasion, he informed those present that "facts of which he had formerly been unaware" had come to his knowledge and that those documents indicated the Jewish origin of his paternal ancestors; he informed the meeting that he therefore considered it necessary to bear the consequences and to resign from his office as Premier.

On succeeding Imrédy as head of the Government, Count Teleki's first action was to place a ban on Szálasi’s "Hungarist" movement; on the other hand he did nothing to modify the anti-Jewish measures, which were the legacy of the late cabinet.

Thus, the "great trial" of the Jewish elements continued, regarding which a well-known legal authority made following statement:

" ... The defendant in this trial is the Jewry of Hungary. Hardly has a verdict been reached and a sentence passed, when the defendant is again indicted, further charges are levelled and steps taken to pass another sentence ... "

Innumerable leaflets refuted the motives quoted as making the introduction of this bill imperative. The opinion of practically every person of note was quoted, beginning with that of G. B. Shaw, who considers anti-Semitism "madness", down to that of Wilhelm Steckel, the famous Viennese physician, who provided following psychological explanation for German anti-Semitism: "The Germans attribute to the Jews those bad qualities, of which they themselves generally stand accused." The theory of racial purity was debated at length and it was pointed out, contrary to the allegations of self-styled German scientists, that "the Indo-Germanic race, which is being so highly praised, cannot be the most perfect in view of the circumstance that such a race does not even exist. What does exist is the Indo-German language only." Historical facts were also exploited, thus it was emphasized (17) that Hungarian Jewry had helped to create the statecraft, based primarily on historical co-residence, practised by King (later Saint) Stephen. The famous statement made by Kossuth was also quoted: " ... There are two sides to the Jewish question. One is the legacy of the Dark Middle Ages, that of hatred of Jews. The other consists of certain economic and social grievances that serve to kindle its flames and that are used lor the purpose of stirring up discontent. The masses suffer from misery but are not able to establish the reasons lor their plight. It is then that mediaeval hatred comes forward and says: 'You poor , miserable creature. I will tell you who is the cause of your misery: the Jew!' And naturally, the echo is 'Let us smite the Jew'."

Reference was made to the War of Freedom (1848-1849), to the ten thousand Jewish soldiers, who lost their lives during the first World War, in which some Jewish families had nine and at least 250 Jewish families had five sons fighting at the various fronts. The names of Olympic champions were recalled, so was the fact that countless Hungarian sculptors, artists, authors, scientists, doctors and stage and screen stars of Jewish origin had rendered inestimable services to the cause of Hungarian culture and had made the name of Hungary honoured in many a foreign country. Reference was made to the Hungarian Memorandum laid before the peace conference and to the passages contained on page 359 of this document, where Count Teleki himself wrote: "The preponderant majority of the Jews of Hungary is completely assimilated with the Magyars ... The Jews ' have given us eminent Hungarian authors , scientists and artists . As a result of their assimilation with the national spirit of Hungary, it must be recognised that the Jews, from the racial point of view, are no longer Jews but Magyars ... "

Exception was taken to the great expansion of the Jews in the economic field. The argument put forward by the Jews in reply to this was that the sons of the upper classes and the members of the Christian community did not consider a business career gentleman-like and preferred to accept even the meanest post the civil administration could offer, rather than stand behind the counter or work in the offices of some business firm. The question put by one propaganda leaflet in this respect was "seeing that others are unwilling to choose these careers, is it not proper lor the Jewish elements lo devote themselves to these tasks, even if they do so in excess of their ratio to the remainder of the population , and is not this work useful to the economic structure of the nation as a whole?"  

However, even these arguments showed practically no results.  It was equally in vain that a statement made by Count Bethlen on February 9th, 1938, was referred to, in which he said: Are we blind to the fact, and are those sympathising with the Rightwing extremists unable to realise that a settlement of the Jewish question on German lines would immediately result in chaotic (18) disturbances in the economic and financial life of the country, and that the consequences in Hungary would be quite different to what they were in Germany? Do they not see that the economic and financial structure of the nation would immediately collapse, ii such means were employed? I wish to express a solemn warning to those members of the Hungarian land owning classes and to those representatives of Hungarian intelligentsia, who are letting themselves be swayed by Fashionable slogans. They will be first to suffer and the gentry which supports a government contemplating such steps will be the first to be destroyed. I must warn the intelligentsia, which is end owed with a sense of history and which desires to advance Hungarian politics on the basis of the historical tradition of Hungary, that it will - in it makes the mistake of pursuing this course - lay itself open to removal, in which case their place will be taken by partly educated individuals with no respect lor Hungarian history or traditions, individuals who will settle these problems in an entirely different way. Let me ask you further, how does this question affect our foreign policy? There is one thing I see clearly. Should a 'Gleichschaltung' of political life take place in the sense desired by the Right-wing extremists, then we shall no longer be the friends but the servants of Germany, and that will be the end, once and for all, of independence in our foreign policy."  

It was quite in vain that Count Teleki discussed with such eloquence the draw-backs of a Right-wing "victory", that he outlined the catastrophe which would befall the Hungarian people were the Jewish question to be raised. The anti-Semitic majority in the House of Parliament would not allow itself to be convinced. Count Teleki fell back on German assistance once more in respect of the re-annexation by Hungary of Sub-Carpathia and it was with regard to this fact, that the debate on the Bill was rushed through the Upper House and wound up. The final hopes of Hungarian Jewry were based on the Upper House, and it almost appeared as though the very considerable opposition headed by Count Gyula Karolyi might defeat the Government. However, Count Teleki succeeded in breaking this resistance by referring to the interests of foreign policy and by emphasising the weight of German pressure on Hungary.

Baron Gyorgy Pronay presented a memorandum to the Upper House, in which 101 distinguished Hungarian Generals of the first World War protested energetically against their comrades in arms being deprived of their rights. After the representatives of the Christian Churches had again spoken in favour of the Bill, the Upper House, before passing it, introduced some slight modifications in respect of the rights of Jews converted to the Christian faith and of war veterans.

The second Jewish Law stood on racial grounds and considered as a Jew all persons, one of whose parents or at least two of whose grand-parents confessed to the Jewish faith. Exceptions (19) were however , granted on religious grounds and the religion professed prior to August 1st, 1919, was taken as decisive. The numerus clausus, introduced in 1920, modified a few years later and finally revoked, was re-introduced in the universities and high schools. Generally speaking, the twenty per cent proportional ration introduced by the first Jewish Law was reduced to six per cent in the case of the various Government departments and to twelve per cent in the case of office employees.

The effect of the law was not what the more moderate Christian elements and, naturally, the heads of the Christian Churches expected it to be. During the disputes of the past eighteen months, when the anti-Jewish Bills were drafted, introduced and finally debated, the Christian elements in Hungary had listened to nothing but accusations, calumnies and attacks on the Jewish population. None of that moral capital amassed by Hungarian Jewry in the course of centuries was held sacred. It was consequently quite futile for well-intentioned politicians to pretend that they had, by voting in favour of the Bill, "taken the wind out of the sails of the Right -wing extremists"; in actual fact, the broad masses firmly believed everything that had been written or said about the Jewish elements in that campaign of hatred. Public opinion in Hungary was completely stultified and permeated with the most virulent anti-Semitism; the soil was well and truly prepared for the acceptance of Nazi ideology.

German propaganda realised that, in addition to exerting pressure on Hungary in respect of the treatment of Jews, the time had come to raise with open demands the question of the living conditions of the German minority in Hungary. Since the premiership of Gombos, the Civil Service was full of Swabians. Official statistics show that while the proportion of the German national minorities in the whole of Hungary to the remainder of the population was hardly more than 3 per cent, it was due mainly to General Gombos activities that over 40 per cent of the officers and personnel of the Ministry of National Defence were of Swabian origin.

By April 30th, 1939, Count Teleki was compelled to give way to German pressure to such an extent that he had to consent to the formation in the village of Ciko (County Tolna) of the V.D.U. (Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn - Union of German Nationals in Hungary). From that date onwards there were two points of continual controversy in the internal affairs of the country. The one was the Jewish question and the other the problem of the German minority.

Events soon forced Teleki to realise that he had made a mistake. It was in vain that he protested that "the policy had originally been formulated in Szeged, had been developing since 1935 and, because it was permeated with Right-wing ideologies, was both Christian and social and that by the introduction of legal measures the Jewish question had been settled". It was (20) in vain that he stressed and demanded that "this question must no Longer be regarded an open one, because we have other duties to attend to in this country". The only elements to profit from these measures were the Right-wing groups. In the 1939 elections, the Arrow Cross Party polled over 750,000 votes, while the Smallholders' Party, till then the second largest opposition party, polled only 540,000 votes. In the capital itself the Government Party obtained 95,000 votes, as against the 72,500 votes for the Arrow Cross Party! (When studying the progressive expansion of the Arrow Cross ideologies, it must be remembered that that part of the broad masses, which did not enjoy the right of suffrage, was whole-heartedly in favour of the Szálasi movement.) 3 Black Book (21)

IV.

THE THIRD JEWISH BILL-A RACIAL ONE.

The second World War broke out on September 1st, 1939. The Hungarian Premier at the time, Count Teleki, refused to grant a right of passage through Hungary first to German and later to Slovak troops on their way to Poland.

The second Vienna Award followed, by means of which territories in Eastern Hungary and Northern Transylvania were reannexed with a consequent addition of a further 700,000 souls to the Jewish population of Hungary. In the course of a special session of Parliament held to celebrate the re-annexation, - an occasion that was naturally devoted to expressing the gratitude of the population to Hitler and his Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, - Teleki laid a Bill before the House regarding the "Membership to the Upper House of the Representatives and Senior Dignitaries of the Christian Churches." The purpose of this misleadingly named decree was to deprive the Jewish elements further of their rights by making it impossible for them to hold seats in the Upper House. Another decree, referring to compulsory military service, stated that Jews who, in the past, had served in the armed forces in the capacity of officers or non-commissioned officers, were in future to serve in special ancillary detachments, without holding any rank whatsoever. During the last months of his life, Teleki, - subjected to continually increasing pressure from the German and Hungarian Nazis - began to view more favourably the introduction of yet another anti-Jewish law. In spite of this, the words he uttered shortly before his death - words that may be regarded in the light of a last warning - clearly reveal the distraught state of his mind: " ... Time shakes off its shackles with ease: the yesterday recedes to distances measured in thousand of years, while the morrow ... Who knows what the morrow holds? No one knows what it has in store and no responsible factor living can avoid the consequences of its actions. We are stumbling in the dark, but we are advancing towards the light. While on their road towards the light, let the leaders of the nations beware, lest, with hands blindly feeling the way, they sweep aside those intrinsic values whose shattered remains they will sorrowfully collect on the morrow. There is a to-morrow and a continuation for the affairs of this life . . ,"

It was clear that Teleki shrank from pursuing the Jewish problem still further, as he found it necessary to concentrate his attention on the grave international situation. On December 12th, 1940, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Stephen Csaky, and the Jugoslav Premier signed the "Pact of Perpetual Friendship" between Hungary and Jugoslavia. A formal exchange of the ratified (22) documents took place on the Jugoslav Foreign Minister's visit to Hungary on February 26th, 1941. In March of that year, the German Government endeavoured to persuade Jugoslavia to join the Tri-partite Pact, but was thwarted in its efforts when, as the result of a coup d'etat, General Simovits seized power. On March 27th, Hitler, through the Hungarian Minister in Berlin, informed Horthy of the recognition by the German Government of the validity of Hungary's territorial claims against Jugoslavia. Fatal events followed in rapid succession. Despite the Premier's opposition, Foreign Minister Bardossy and the military camarilla (led by the Hungarian Chief of Staff and the Minister for National Defence) pledged Hungary's participation in the attack on Jugoslavia contemplated by Germany. The Supreme National Defence Council, defying Teleki, expressed itself unanimously in favour of this step. A resolution to this effect was passed - also unanimously - by the Crown Council on April 2nd, 1941. This was the grim chain of events that drove Count Paul Teleki to commit suicide on the night of April 4th. In his farewell letter to the Regent 1 he wrote:

", .. We have committed perjury. The speech delivered by Your Excellency at Mohacs in 1926 won us the friendship of Jugoslavia, our southern neighbour. We signed a pact of perpetual friendship with the South Slavs and yet, out of cowardice, we have now allied ourselves with criminals. There is no foundation of the reports of maltreatments of the Magyar minorities in Jugoslavia: the allegations referring to anti-Magyar atrocities are downright lies. I accuse myself and consider myself guilty of not having been able to prevent the decisions taken by Your Excellency. It may well be that I shall render the nation a service by my death ... "

On the night of Teleki's suicide, German motorized columns crossed the Hungarian frontier and advanced in direction of Jugoslavia. On the following day, the Regent called on Laszlo Bardossy to form a cabinet.

 As the result of conversations he had with Hitler and Ribbentrop, Bardossy decided to copy to the letter Nazi methods in the solution of the Jewish problem. With the re-annexation of the territories in southern Hungary, the Jewish population of the country increased by between twenty and twenty-five thousand souls. True to the Nazi formula, Bardossy, in making his statement of policy to the House, declared that the Jewish question was not something peculiar to Hungary but to the whole of Europe and that therefore any radical and final solution must take into account its international character until a solution of that nature could be arrived at, it was necessary for Hungary to settle the peculiarly Hungarian angles to the question. In his, Bardossy's, opinion, every possible measure had to be taken to prevent an assimilation of the Jewish with the non-Jewish elements. Like all Hungarian Premiers that followed the course set by Gombos, Bardossy was eager to win Hitlers approval by his attitude towards the Jewish problem and thus to give proof of his absolute reliability as an ally. The draft of a Bill introduced a few days later referred to "the completion and modification of Lex XXXI ex 1894, as well as to the introduction of measures necessary for the protection of racial purity". This measure was copied on the lines of similar legislation in force in Germany. At the same time as this Bill was being considered by the House, the provisions of the second Jewish Law were enforced with the utmost rigour.

Despite the severity of these measures, the extremist press continued to express its dissatisfaction. It complained that the terms of the law were not applied with sufficient severity and speed. Hardly an interpollation was made in the House of Deputies in which the speaker did not demand a solution which would promote Jewish desire to emigrate.

German pressure on Hungary further increased on January 1st, 1941, when Hitler declared the annihilation of all Jews to be his aim. Already pogroms and atrocities were a daily occurrence in Rumania, where thousands of Jews perished. In Bulgaria, the Jews were issued with red identity cards and subjected to a number of restrictions. In Serbia, the Jewish population was compelled to wear the distinctive yellow star. In Croatia, all Jewish property was confiscated and the Jews sent to labour camps. Following the proclamation of the autonomous Slovak Republic, the Hlinka Guard introduced and enforced a ruthless anti-Jewish legislation in that country. Wherever there were Germans to be found, in the Bohemian-Moravian Protectorate, in Poland and in the Baltic States, darkest terror raged. Until 1940, the Nazis had sought to force the Jewish population to emigrate; between 1940 and 1942 on the other hand, they took the view that the solution of the Jewish problem was to force them to live in ghettos. Until 1940, even German Jews were allowed to emigrate; in. 1941, those who still remained were deported to the occupied zones in the East, to the Polish ghettos and to specially reserved territories. The German point of view was that Central Europe must be rid of the Jews and that they must be transported to special Jewish reservations. (Soon afterwards it transpired that Himmler had given instructions for the systematic annihilation of the Jews forcibly deported to the East.)

While in the countries under German influence the physical  persecution of the Jews commenced and took its course between 1941 and 1942, the Hungarian Jews suffered strong economic pressure only and were left unmolested in so far as their property or lives were concerned,

Periodically the organisation created for the purpose of controlling foreign residents (KEOKH) rounded up Jews of Czechoslovak, German, Austrian, Rumanian, Serbian and Croat origin, who had sought shelter in Hungary. Jews caught in these raids were deported and, in most instances, met their end at the hands of German S.S. brigades. This state of affairs improved to a certain (24) degree following the intervention of leading Hungarian Jews and some of the refugees were issued with regular permits of residence; the remainder were sent to various internment camps (Riese; Csorgo, Garnay), where they were cared for by Jewish charitable organisations.

Regulations issued in 1941 ordered the internment of all Hungarian Jews unable to show proof of their nationality. As a result some twenty thousand Jews were seized and deported to Galicia, where they were massacred by the S.S. and Hungarian gendarmes.

Affairs reached such a climax that even the Christian Churches considered it necessary to protest energetically against Bardossy's racial laws, -- again to no avail. Lex XV ex 1941, introduced on August 8th, 1941, interpreted the question of who was and who was not a Jew in the same way as did the Nuremberg racial laws and banned marriages and sexual intercourse between Jew and Aryan. This naturally led to a further flood of denunciations and a number of persons were tried and punished for miscegenation. It goes without saying that these trials offered the extremist press a splendid opportunity for launching a further campaign of hatred.

Since the retrocession on two occasions of territories detached from the country under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, the number of national minorities living within the country had increased. This led to the adoption of the political dogmas propounded by St. Stephen. This principle, however, was not observed as far as the almost two million Jews were concerned; their political and civil rights were curtailed and the "Jewish element that is a foreign body in the life of the country" was excluded from any participation in the life of the nation.

When explaining the necessity for the introduction of a certain anti-Jewish measure, Balint Homan, Minister of Education, openly declared:

"Adherence to the Israelite religion points clearly and unmistakably to the fact that the individual concerned is not entitled, either as a national or under common law, to the rights enjoyed by the rest of the population ... "

In January 1942, Lieut.-General Feketehalmy-Czeydner, commander of the V. Army Corps was instructed to comb the area under his command for partisans. In a confidential memorandum issued at the same time, the High Command hinted that proof had lo be provided to the German Government of the fact that Serb partisans were infiltrating into Hungarian territory from the German occupied Bácska and Banat districts and that it consequently would be preferable for those regions to be placed under Hungarian control.

Lieut.-General Feketehalmy and his subordinate, General Joseph Grassy, both of whom were notorious for their out and out fascist sympathies, were responsible for the brutal execution of 3,309 unfortunates arrested in the course of these raids. Entire (25) families were wiped out with the utmost brutality. The victims, among whom there were 700 Jews, were mutilated and their bodies thrown into the Danube through holes in the ice, so that no trace might be left of the atrocities.

Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinsky, one of the leaders of the anti-German  movement, wrote strongly worded memoranda to the Minister of the Interior and later to the Regent, demanding the punishment of the men responsible for the Ujvidek massacres. A year later, these men were indeed brought before a court-martial, but even then the principal criminals, aided by Archduke Albert of Habsburg, were able to escape the punishment they deserved. (When Sztojay became Premier and the Germans marched into Hungary, the perpetrators of the Ujvidek crimes returned to the country and played a leading part in the deportation of the Jews right up to the time of Szálasi’s overthrow).

The downfall of Premier Bardossy was a direct result of the defeats suffered by the Germans in the field, quite apart from the effect on the population of the Ujvidek massacres. (Bardossy must be held responsible for having involved Hungary in the war. He ignored the repeated warnings of the Hungarian Minister in London and permitted German troops to pass through Hungary on April 5th, 1941. The British Government severed diplomatic relations with Hungary on that very day. Bardossy was further responsible for having declared war on Soviet Russia on June 27th, 1941, without previously having obtained the consent of the Hungarian Parliament, thereby acting unconstitutionally).

Bardossy was succeeded by Kallay, who, in his statement of policy, simply referred to the Jewish question in following terms:

" ... The only final solution to the problem of the Jews, of whom there are some 800,000 in Hungary, is for them to emigrate. This eventuality, however, cannot be considered until alter the war has been won ... "

Kallay became aware of the German change of attitude in regard to the Jewish question on the occasion of his obligatory courtesy visit on Hitler. Shortly afterwards, the new point of view-which was to be the theme of Hitler's Reichstag speech of April 6th-became generally known. It was in this diatribe that Hitler, contrary to his previous statements, demanded the immediate and radical solution of the Jewish problem. Hitler, in this speech, violently apostrophised the Jews twenty-eight times.

Sztojay's report to the Hungarian Government dated August 15th, 1942, contained the following passages:

"... Since the speech recently delivered by the German Chancellor, there has been a radical change of attitude here towards the settlement of the Jewish question. While the Chancel lo./ and, in consequence, the National Socialist Party previously held the view that the solution of the Jewish problem in countries other than Germany would have to be postponed until alter the end of the war, this now no longer holds good and (26) the Fuhrer has issued categoric instructions to the effect that the question must best settled immediately .. .'' (It should be mentioned here that Germany's first opinion-that the Jewish question was to be solved only after the war-had materially facilitated the position of Hungary, where it had been possible to introduce gradual and partial solutions instead of radical measures.)

According to Sztojay's despatch, the Hungarian Legation in Berlin had been informed that ... "The Germans are determined to rid Europe of the Jewish elements without Further delay and intend-regardless of the nationality of these Jews, and provided transport facilities exist-to deport them to the occupied territories in the East, where they will be settled in ghettos or labour camps and° made to work. The authorities have been instructed to complete these deportations while the war is still on. According to absolutely reliable information, Reichsleiter Himmler has informed a meeting of S.S. leaders that it is the wish of the German Government to complete these deportations within a year.'' (152/Pol. 1942.)

At the close of his report, Sztojay stated briefly that, "Undersecretary of State Luther, when referring to the general solution of the Jewish problem by means of deportation, alluded in this way also to the Jewish population of Hungary. As mentioned in earlier reports, Under-Secretary of State Luther declared, when I called on him at the instruction of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to raise the question of the obligation of Hungarian Jews living in Paris to wear the Yellow Star, that he was sorry (ist betrubt) that so close a friend as Hungary should fail to understand Germany's attitude towards the Jewish problem and consider it necessary to protest against Hungarian Jews being made to wear the Yellow Star. When we discussed the radical settlement of the Jewish problem and the deportation of the Jews to the East, Herr Luther observed that there would be no difficulty in accommodating all European Jews there, including the nearly one million Jews living in Hungary ... "

Under these circumstances, Kallay, too, was forced to adopt -at least outwardly-the policy pursued by Teleki and Bardossy in respect of the Jewish question. Thus, Lex VIII ex 1942, approved and submitted to the House by Kallay,-a "set-piece" introduced for the benefit of the Germans-became law on June 19th. This law suspended the isonomia of the Israelite religion and rescinded the validity of Lex XLII ex 1895 concerning the admission of the Jewish faith as one of the religions accepted in Hungary. (153/Pol. 1942.)

A subsequent legal measure, Lex IX ex 1942 regarding the valorisation of war-loans issued during the first World War, ordained the seizure of the counter-value of these war-loan bonds owned by persons regarded as Jews. The object was to acquire funds for the purpose of financing post-war emigration of the Jewish elements! (27)

Lex XIV of 1942 ordained that Jewish youths were not to participate in pre-military training in the "Levante" organisations and required them to serve their time in labour battalions instead, At that time, labour battalions were already employed outside the frontiers of Hungary. There, owing to the callous attitude of the Chief of Staff, the army commanders and the pro-Nazi generals and staff officers, the plight of the men in these units rapidly grew from bad to worse. (Details of their dreadful sufferings will be found in the Appendix.)

With the introduction of Lex XII ex 1942, Premier Kallay went one step further and ordered the seizure of all landed property and forests owned by Jews.

Even these measures failed to fully satisfy the Germans. On October 8th, 1942, Dominic Sztojay, Hungarian Minister to Berlin, forwarded another report on the Jewish problem and its particular implications in so far as Hungary was concerned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He informed the Government that all foreign nationals of Jewish origin including Hungarian Jews would have to leave Germany and German occupied territory by December 31st, 1942, at the latest. Regarding the settlement of the Jewish question in Hungary, the view held by competent circles in Berlin was that "Hungary should introduce and enforce measures which would result in the immediate exclusion of all Jewish influence from every form of cultural, political and economic life in Hungary."

Replying to remarks made by the Hungarian Minister to Berlin, the German Under-Secretary of State observed that "in Germany too, difficulties had, at the outset, been thought far more formidable than they eventually proved to be". Herr Luther informed the Hungarian representative that agreement regarding the question of deportation had been reached with Rumania, Slovakia and Croatia, that Bulgaria, which would most probably adopt the same course in the near future, had already introduced a number of drastic anti-Jewish measures, and that Mussolini viewed the proposals with approval and had promised them his support. In so far as France was concerned, the German Government had approached the French authorities regarding the deportation of the Jews living in the unoccupied zone and those conventions were "full of promise". (193/Pol. 1942)

Dominic Sztojay reported to his Government that the German Minister in Budapest would shortly present to the Hungarian Foreign Office a note clarifying the attitude of the Wilhelmstrasse to the Jewish question.

As intimated by Sztojay, the German Minister to Budapest handed Jeno Ghyczy, Permanent Representative of the Hungarian Foreign Minister, a note on the Jewish question. In its opening paragraphs, this document referred to the question of Jews of Hungarian nationality living in the Reich or in territories occupied 28 by Germany. The last paragraphs were devoted to the question of the Jews living in Hungary. With regard to the question of Hungarian Jews living under German rule the German Government proposed that the basic principle to be adopted for the solution of the question should be, the right of either state to dispose unrestrictedly over the assets of its Jewish nationals living in the other.

The views submitted by the German Government on the (subject of the Jewish population living in Hungary was:

"For the purpose of a speedy and complete solution of the Jewish question in Europe, the Royal Hungarian Government is requested to take the necessary steps at the earliest possible moment, so that Hungary falls into line. The tentative beginnings made in this direction are welcomed by the German Government. They are, however, far short of keeping pace with the development in Germany and other European states. All circumstances favour a final solution of this question even before the end of the war. This is a problem of interest not only to Germany but to the whole of Europe ...

According to German ideas, the following steps might recommend themselves for adoption in Hungary:

1. To exclude the Jews without exception from the cultural and economic life of the nation by means of progressive legislation.

2. To compel the Jews to wear distinctive badges in order to facilitate the execution of the respective Government steps and enable the people to identify any member of the Jewish race.

3. To prepare their transfer and transportation to the East."

On December 5th, 1942, the Hungarian Government instructed its representative in Berlin to inform the Wilhelmstrasse that it categorically rejected the demands; that it refused to introduce regulations requiring the Jewish elements to wear a distinctive emblem (the Yellow Star) and that it was not prepared to consent to or make preparations for the deportation of Hungary's Jewish population to the East. (447/Res. Pol. 1942)

When, on December 14th, Under-Secretary of State Luther was informed of the Hungarian Government's answer, he expressed sincere regret at the attitude it had chosen to adopt and declared that the German Government was prepared - with regard to the Jewish question - to comply with any wishes the Hungarian Government might express, in other words to set aside a special reservation for Hungarian Jewish deportees and to assume full guarantee that these would be able to live in the territory in question. He also stressed that no credence must be given to the atrocity reports broadcast by British or American radio stations, as these were entirely unfounded. under-Secretary of State Luther continued by giving Sztojay a picture of "the steps taken for the deportation of the Jews in various European countries." (29)

Of the 90 to 95,000 Slovak Jews, only about 10,000 remained and their removal was proceeding. In Rumania, very large numbers had been deported; the relative figures had not yet been received and he could therefore not provide exact information. Strict anti-Jewish measures had been introduced in Bulgaria and the government of this country had already approached the German Government on the subject of the deportation of Bulgarian Jews. Transport difficulties alone had prevented Croatia from proceeding with the scheme. The German Government had requested Laval's assistance in the deportation of the Jews living in the unoccupied zone of France and, as a result, Jewish elements there were already being transferred from that area into the occupied zone. (212/Pol. 1942)

In January 1943, the Wilhelmstrasse insisted that the solution of the Jewish problem could no longer be postponed. The Hungarian Minister to Berlin was informed that "the German Chancellor categorically insists on the settlement of the Jewish question throughout Europe during the war." "

... We regretted even more the Fact that the Hungarian Government terminated the work of the Intellectual Government Commissariat of Kulcsar on December 31st, 1942. This office had dealt mainly with the Jewish problem. The impression thus created in leading local circles was most unfavorable, because, in their opinion, this meant that the Hungarian Government had no intention al instituting any serious steps as Far as the Jewish problem was concerned."

Referring to the deterioration of relations between the Hungarian and German Governments and to the lack of collaboration between the leading political parties in Hungary, Under-Secretary of State Luther informed Sztójay "confidentially and in the nature of a friendly warning, that the root al the trouble unquestionably lay in the lack of energy shown by the Government in settling the Jewish question." (23/Pol. 1943)

In spite of these various protests, the Kallay Cabinet was unwilling to meet the German demands. Although the Nazis constantly requested the Hungarian Cabinet to declare itself disinterested in the fate of Hungarian Jews living in Nazi-occupied territories, the Kallay Government, bearing in mind the safeguarding of personal and ownership rights of the Hungarian Jews in question, refused to conform to these requests and veiled threats. It instructed the Hungarian Minister in Berlin to inform the Nazi authorities of the Hungarian Government's insistence on its right to claim exemption from internment for those Jews, whose Hungarian nationality was established beyond a doubt. Through the Hungarian Legation at Vichy it protested to the French Government against the handing over to the Nazi authorities for deportation to Poland of Jews of Hungarian nationality, when this was intended by the French. (30)

The Hungarian Government finally took steps to repatriate the Hungarian Jewish families threatened after the constantly repeated claims of the Nazi Government became more insistent still and the date fixed for the proposed measures against them expired after already having been extended several times. In the first group, 21 Jewish families were repatriated from Brussels. On January 16, 14 Jewish families of Amsterdam, in June 1943, 57 Jewish families of Paris and 70 Jewish families of Berlin were repatriated by the Hungarian Government. From the Bohemian Protectorate 19 families, from Poland 16 families and from the Netherlands 16 more families were evacuated to Hungary. Repatriation continued without interruption till March 19th, 1944. More than 400 families were resettled in Hungary, among them many who had lost their Hungarian nationality and were only included on the lists for purely humanitarian reasons.

On January 19th, 1943, a Hungarian committee under the chairmanship of Andor Schedl was sent to the German-occupied territories of Western Europe with instructions to prepare an inventory of the Hungarian Jewish property remaining there _ and to safeguard the interests of the owners. On January 7th, 1944, Vilmos Frigyes Krafft, a retired Councillor of Ministry acting as Commissioner under the instructions of the Cabinet, was sent to Germany and the Western occupied areas for the purpose of safeguarding and taking over Hungarian Jewish property in those territories.

Hungary entered into negotiations with the neighbouring states with the object of safeguarding Jewish property and signed agreements with Rumania, Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic.

To escape persecution, more than 2,000 Jews fled from the Slovak Republic to Hungary. (Based on documents and records in possession of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)

On the occasion of Horthy's meeting with Hitler on April 17th, 1943, the German Chancellor attacked the Kallay Cabinet violently, protesting in vehement terms to the Regent against the lack of interest in the Jewish question displayed by the Hungarian Government. According to the Germans, Premier Kallay had informed the United States Ambassador in Ankara [Steinhardt] that " .... he, the Premier, would no longer place a single soldier, a single rifle, at the disposal of the Germans, that in spite of his incessant anti Semitic speeches he had in fact not harmed the Jews in any way, but was affording protection to 70,000 Jewish refugees in Hungary and that it was impossible, at the present, for his policy to take a different course, as in that case Germany would occupy Hungary and exterminate all Jews there ... "

Horthy defended himself by saying "he could not slaughter them (the Jews)", to which Hitler, in the presence of Ribbentrop, replied as follows:

"In Poland we settled this problem by very simple means. We shot those Jews not willing to work; those unable to work, were (31)  exterminated. The Jews are parasites undeserving of any forbearance, they must be dealt with like tubercular germs. I see no cruelty in this when I consider that innocent animals such as deer or hares are killed by their hundreds of thousands in order to satisfy the hunger of man. Why then, should we suffer these Jewish brutes to live, who wish to infest Germany with Bolshevism?"

Horthy referred to the fact that Hungary was a constitutional State and that also in the Jewish question he was unable to take any steps whatsoever without the consent of Parliament. To this Hitler made some very disparaging remarks on the parliamentary system and declared that the gist of the trouble lay in the fact that Hungary had no intention of switching over to the totalitarian system. The dispute produced no result. (This protocol was read at the Nuremberg trial during the cross-examination of Ribbentrop.)

Simultaneously with the Regent's stormy interview with Hitler, Ribbentrop raised the Jewish question with Sztojay. In the course of a conversation that continued until a late hour, Ribbentrop "reviewed all those reasons that had led the German Government to insist on a radical solution of the Jewish problem while the war was still continuing, and, furthermore, on the necessity of an immediate solution ... " Ribbentrop observed that practically every European country (with the exception of Sweden and Switzerland) had followed the course set by Germany and that Hungary alone refused to take the necessary steps. Ribbentrop added that, to the best of his knowledge, the Hungarian Government was not only not stringently enforcing the anti-Jewish measures already introduced in Hungary, but, on the contrary, had recently been permitting certain Jewish influences to prevail etc. etc., and was affording shelter to all Jewish elements who had fled to Hungary from the neighbouring countries.

" ... I understand from Ribbentrop", writes Sztojay, "that the German Chancellor is bitterly disappointed-as he himself has informed the Regent. Ribbentrop emphasised the absolute necessity of my informing the Hungarian Government of his views on this subject ... "

Further on in his report, Sztojay expressed the greatest anxiety as to the possible steps the German Government might be inclined to take:

"For the reasons given above, I ask Your Excellency to believe that the German Government is giving this question very serious consideration. Knowing, as I do, the mentality, of the leading Government circles and their determination in the life and death struggle in which they are involved, and conscious of my responsibility, I consider it my duty to recommend that the matter be settled in such a manner as to avoid at all costs the possibility of intervention by a third party ... " (32) Sztojay's full report on this discussion read as follows:

Royal Hungarian Legation, Berlin. April 23rd, 1943. No. 168/pol. 1943.

Secret! Subject: Foreign Minister Ribbentrop's point of view regarding the Jewish question in Hungary,

(A series of ten reference numbers follows.)

I have several times reported to Your Excellency (Kallay) as well as to your predecessors in office on the views held by the German Government - respectively the highest authority here - with regard to the Jewish question in its general as well as in its particular aspect as far as Hungary is concerned.

In my above-mentioned reports I particularly stressed the following points:

1) National Socialism deeply despises and abhors the Jews and considers them to be its greatest and most inveterate enemy, with whom it is engaged in a life and death struggle and with whom reconciliation is quite impossible and out of the question.

2) The Chancellor of the Reich has decided to rid Europe of the Jews. As in the course of the war it has been established that the Jews are actively serving the enemy, act a spies, commit acts of sabotage, undermine the people's morale and jeopardise to the utmost extent the prosecution of the war, the Chancellor of the Reich has decreed that within a year, i. e. by the summer of 1943, all Jews of Germany and the German-occupied countries are to be moved to the Eastern, i.e. Russian, territories.

3) The German Government has expressed its desire for the Allied Governments to take part in the action mentioned under (2). This, by the way, has been done by the majority of these countries.

4) Sooner or later a positive German intervention in the problem of the position of Jewry in Hungary must be expected. At the same time, I emphasized that it had been repeatedly brought home to me by German circles, that Germany, naturally, could not consider a country, which affords shelter to her pronounced, inveterate enemy, in the light of a real and true friend. In my report No. 23/pol. 1943, I mentioned that competent German quarters had told me bluntly and without ado that the Jewish question was, so to speak, the sole obstacle to the development of intimate Hungaro-German relations.

The first positive German intervention concerning the solution of the Jewish question in Hungary was the protest made last year by the German Minister, v. Jagow, when he presented to the Hungarian Government a memorandum summing up under three Points the German desiderata.

The second positive German intervention took place during the recent visit of His Highness the Regent to Salzburg, on which occasion the Chancellor of the Reich personally drew the attention of His Highness the Regent to the necessity of settling in a more thorough and penetrating manner the Jewish question in Hungary. No doubt His Highness the Regent has informed Your Excellency of this.

This time however, the German Foreign Minister discussed the Jewish question with me as well. In a talk lasting till long after midnight he expounded to me all those causes which had induced the German Government to solve, at a faster pace and before the end of the war, the Jewish question ( conspiring and sympathising with the enemy, i. e. supporting the enemy , spying, acts of economic and other sabotage, undermining the powers of resistance and the morale of the people etc. etc.). He declared that by this time almost all European states, with the exception of Switzerland and Sweden, had acceded to the German request. The Duce, for instance, on the occasion of his last visit to Salzburg, promised the Fuhrer that he would have all his Jews interned. To-day it is but friendly and allied Hungary which shrinks from a radical solution of the Jewish question. He remarked that according to his information the Hungarian Government not only did not carry out to their lull extent the stipulations of the Jewish laws hitherto enacted and has, for some time now, allowed a certain stagnation to become apparent, but even puts no obstacles in the way of certain Jewish influences, permits the Jews to undermine and weaken the people's powers of resistance and morale, and grants a peaceful and safe asylum to Hungarian Jews as well as to those which have sought refuge there.

He mentioned that according to reliable information our former Minister in London, M. Barcza, had not long ago been received in audience by His Holiness the Pope. On this occasion M. Barcza declared that Hungary did not wage war or fight against the Anglo-Saxon powers. In support of this thesis and to stress Hungary's position in this question, he is said to have declared - allegedly on Government orders - that Hungary offers a sale asylum not only to her own Jews, but, moreover, to 70,000 Jews, who have sought refuge there.

Ribbentrop, in order to add weight to his declaration that Hungary did not pursue the policy inaugurated for the purpose of settling the Jewish question, mentioned with particular stress the fact that according to his information quite recently two, respectively five, Jews (his words were "Volljude") had been elected into the Foreign Affairs, respectively Financial, Committee of the Upper House. Furthermore the Hungarian Minister of National Defence agreed to be godfather to a Jewish couple aged 57! Taking into account the events preceding, these gestures could, in his opinion, be eventually also interpreted as a demonstration in favour of the other side!

In connection with the aforesaid, the German Foreign Minister said he felt convinced that the Chancellor of the Reich was (34) disappointed and that he had also voiced this disappointment when peeling His Highness the Regent. He asked me emphatically to inform the Hungarian Government of his attitude.

He referred to the fact that Hungary's destiny is linked to that of Germany and that only by pursuing a pro-German policy and backed by Germany's help could she regain the greater part of the territories taken from her by the Treaty of Trianon and that in the future, too, Hungary would find her great and glorious destiny by the side of Germany and so on and so forth. With the same emphasis he asked me finally to try and gain Your Excellency's and the Hungarian Government's comprehension and sympathy lor the indispensable further increased and more intense settlement of the Jewish question, as leading German quarters attach special importance and great significance to this!

Alter taking note of the above-mentioned comments, respectively statements, of the Reichs Foreign Minister, I informed him in detail of the steps taken up to now by the Hungarian Government in their efforts to settle the Jewish problem and of the results thereof. I then expounded the reason why, according to the opinion of experts, the Government was unable to exclude almost one million Jews completely from the nation's economic life. Apart from this, such a huge number of unemployed Jews would constitute a dangerous recruiting ground for Communists and so on and so forth. His information about M. Barcza, the new Jewish committee-members and the Minister of National Defence, I qualified as unlikely, respectively as such, which would have to be verified. Finally I promised, in compliance with his wish, to inform Your Excellency in person. I have to mention that I have repeatedly informed the authoritative circles of the Reich's Foreign Ministry as well as the Foreign Minister himself regarding the settlement of the Jewish question in Hungary. Up to now, however, as on the present occasion, I have failed to meet with any understanding on their part. They have continually employed the arguments detailed in the earlier part of this report and insist that the Jews are our most dangerous and prominent common enemy. For apart from the important principle which they attach to this question, they take into account the fact that the Jews live in community with us and amongst us and are thus enabled to assist the enemy by spying, committing acts of sabotage and sapping the morale and the powers of resistance of the people. On the one hand they are in a position to foster and increase the perseverance and hopes of the enemy, while on the other hand they can prejudicially influence the morale, faith, resistance and fighting spirit of our own people.

Finally I have to report that Ribbentrop, at the close of our discussion, remarked that in his opinion perhaps a new, more rigorous Jewish law might be the appropriate solution of the Jewish question. At the end he mentioned that all Jews ought to be interned. To my observation that, ii for nothing else, 35 then lor the lack of adequate camps, the internment of about one million Jews could hardly be carried out, Ribbentrop did not reply, but instead emphasized once more that the Duce, too, would see to the internment of all Italian Jews.

After the aforesaid, may I draw Your Excellency's attention to the fact that it is my impression that the German determination on the issue of the Jewish question has now reached its highest point. Knowing the mentality of the leading German circles as well as their unflinching conceptions and actions, which are rooted in the present life and death struggle, and fully aware of my responsibilities, I submit that these questions should be solved in a manner which will exclude the possibility of an eventual third intervention.

                                                       Royal Hungarian Minister

                                                                     Sztojay m. p.

In other words, the climax was reached during the middle of April, 1943. It was then due solely to the intransigent stand taken by the then Minister of Interior, that the excesses of the extreme Right-wing parties could be checked and that the anti-Jewish measures the Hungarian Government found itself compelled to introduce owing to the great pressure exerted by the Germans were of such a nature that the Jews were still able to live in relative peace. Between 1940 and 1944 male Jews up to thirty years of age were called up for ancillary service and, as a result, a substantial proportion of the Jewish population was faced with acute living problems. The unheard of agitation in the extremist press, the blind adoration of the army officers for the Germans and the growing activity of the Fascist "Nyilas" movement placed the Hungarian Jews in a critical situation. The development of international politics and the lack of success of the Wehrmacht drove these elements to clamour that "Hungarian Jewry was praying for the victory of the enemies of Hungary". The press published countless articles protesting that "the Jews are sabotaging the regulations and are engaged in activities detrimental to the interests of the country", The Jews were accused of "defying, with an arrogance that is ill suited to the present times and that is typical of their race, the interests of the country". Another frequent charge was that "the Jews are flashing signals to those who are threatening the life of the nation".

It was under conditions such as these, that the second Jewish Law was passed, a regulation which affected the lives of 850,000 persons and which, for example, deprived 50,772 Jews of their livelihood as from December 31st, 1941. These Jews were the breadwinners of a further 82,869 souls, so that the measure on the day of its promulgation struck a severe blow at the lives of 133,641 persons. A year later a further 221,896 Jews-making a total of forty per cent of the Jewish population of the country-lost their positions. The measure contained even stricter stipulations, but the 36 Kallay Cabinet permitted the Jews affected to accept employment a manual labourers. The Jewish welfare organisations created for this  purpose came to the aid of the needy partly with funds collected inside Hungary itself and partly with those placed at their disposal by the American Joint Distribution Committee.

Everything possible was done, also on behalf of the "Union ORT" of Geneva, to teach those Jews who had become unemployed a new trade.

The burden grew from year to year and the problem of bringing relief to the destitute Jewish elements became wellnigh insoluble, particularly so when a Government decree was issued ordering every Jew called up for labour service to provide bis own clothing, bedding and other personal equipment. Naturally, tens of thousands of poor Jews were quite unable to meet this demand out of their own pockets.

It is obvious that the substantial majority of the Jewish population was thinking of emigration; however, on account of the situation created by the war, there was no hope of these plans being put into effect. The Hungarian Fascist press devoted considerable space to this question and was actively discussing the disposal of Jewish assets belonging to Jews who had emigrated or been deported. It should be borne in mind that the assets of the Jewish elements constituted between twenty and twenty-five per cent of the total wealth of the country and represented a sum believed to be in the neighbourhood of seven billion gold pengos.

Having given a picture of the tragic record of these various restrictions, the question arises why, in spite of everything, did the Jews from all over war-stricken Europe endeavour to seek  refuge in Hungary; why, at the risk of their lives and sacrificing their possessions, did they attempt to cross the frontier into Hungary, and why did those who had overcome all the attendant risks thank their Maker when at last they set foot on Hungarian soil? The answer is not difficult to find. Although the Jews were conscious of being regarded as second-or third-rate citizens in Hungary, their lives were at least safe and their property was not endangered. In fact, it may be said they were able to maintain themselves satisfactorily, even if they did have to draw largely on their reserves for this purpose.

There were many branches of life that were not affected by the carefully drafted laws. For example, with the exception of Jewish landed property that was seized by the State, other Jewish assets were not specially taxed and Jews were allowed to pursue their business activities with the exception of agriculture.

No special restrictions were introduced in respect of the quantities of food they were permitted to purchase; the Jews were entitled to the same rations as the remainder of the population and any attempt to penalise them in this respect a case occurred in Ujpest, where the Jewish inhabitants were 4 Black Book (37) made to surrender their fat ration) resulted in radical and immediate intervention by the Government. This applied to the personal safety of the Jews as well. No shameful discrimination existed between the Jewish and the non-Jewish elements; they were permitted to employ Christian domestics; they were not obliged to wear a distinctive emblem (Yellow Stars, patches etc.) ; they were not banned from places of public entertainment or swimming baths. When Jews were forbidden to enter swimming baths in the vicinity of the capital, the Government lost no time in intervening.

Of all the anti-Jewish measures and restrictions introduced in European countries, it is incontestable that those enforced in Hungary were the mildest and, a matter of the greatest importance,-that the Jews residing in Hungary were able to emerge more or less unscathed from the holocaust. It is interesting to compare that state of affairs with the situation in Central Europe and the Balkan countries. (38)

V.

THE ANNIHILATION OF JEWS IN THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES.

For us to be able to draw a clear picture of the difficulties facing the Kallay Government as a result of its open resistance to Nazi pressure in respect of the question of Hungarian Jewry, we must take into account the measures introduced against the Jews by the adjacent countries. The fate of the Austrian and German Jews had been consummated years earlier. Only those escaped with their lives, who had emigrated in time or who had fled to Hungary and who, with the consent of the Kallay Government, enjoyed the right of refuge in that country.

1.

The Jews in Jugoslavia

According to the 1931 census, Jugoslavia (a country covering an area of 247,542 km2) had 13.934,038 inhabitants, 68,405 of which embraced the Jewish faith, i. e. 0.5 per cent of the total population. This total amounted to approximately one half per cent of the world total of Jewish population. As far as the number of its Jewish nationals was concerned, Jugoslavia took thirteenth place among the nations.

The same source gives the distribution of the Jewish element in the various Banates and in the capital-which must be regarded a separate municipal unit-as follows:

Drave Banate 820 souls Szava Banate Drina Banate . 10,043 " Vardar Banate Danube Banate . . 18,518 11 Verbasz Banate . . 19,575 souls 7,579 11 1,160 11 610 11 8,936 11 Moravian Banate 586 ,., Zenta Banate . . Coastal districts 578 " Belgrade City.

The 1921 census returns showed the distribution of Jews in the various historical territorial units as follows: Serbia Montenegro . . . . . Bosnia & Herzegovina Dalmatia ... . . . Croatia & Slavonia Slovenia ..... Bacska-Banat, Baranya 11,814 20 12,031 314 20,562 936 19,096 souls " " (39)

Expressed percentually, the Jewish population in these provinces was distributed as follows: Croatia & Slavonia . . Bacska-Banat, Baranya Bosnia & Herzegovina . Serbia .... . . Slovenia ..... . Dalmatia & Montenegro . 11.7 per cent 29.3 18.7 18.3 1.5 0.5

Total: 100.0 per cent

The Jews settled mainly in the various townships. The percentage of Jews to the remainder of the population in the principal towns was as follows:

Bitolj Eszek Sarajevo Varasd Ujvidek Djakovo Zagreb Skoplje Belgrade 11.7 per cent 10.6 10.4 9.3 8.6 " " " " 8.0 " 6.6 " 4.2 " 3.5 "

It should be mentioned that 22.8 per cent of the total population of the Belgrade district of Dorcol consisted of Jews.

The number of Jews shown in respect of religion was also small, as 48.7 per cent of the inhabitants were Greek Orthodox, 37.5 per cent Roman Catholic, 11.2 per cent Mohammedan 1.7 per cent Protestant and only 0.5 per cent Israelites, but their preponderance in the most important branches of economic life was striking. It is, however, certain that many more Jews could have been registered in Jugoslavia had the census been based on racial grounds, as their intermarriage with non-Jewish families and their conversion to other religions was frequent.

Both Spanish (Sephardim) and eastern-European Jews were represented. All Jewish Church Councils were gathered into Unions whose statutes were approved by the Jugoslav Ministry of the Interior in 1921. The object of these unions was to present the State with a uniform picture of the wide range of Jewish problems. The Chief Rabbinate, established in 1923, became the principal spiritual leader of the Jugoslav Jews; in 1928, there were 99 Church Councils and 12 branches. 

Taking advantage of the possibilities afforded by the post-war n. boom, the Jews built up strong positions in the economic and social fields, thus arousing widespread jealousy which soon culminated in growing antipathy.

The Jugoslav Government strongly disapproved of the obviously increasing power wielded by the Jews and of their predominance in the field of commerce, vested interests, banking, the press in the schools and introduced strict measures in an attempt to prevent the further infiltration of Jews into Jugoslavia. It is certain that German National Socialism played a prominent part in influencing the rise of anti-Jewish sentiments in Jugoslavia, so that, when the Cvetovich Cabinet introduced a series of important anti-Jewish measures, this was done more or less with the approval . and according to the wishes of the broad masses.

a) T h e  S i t u a t i o n  o f  t h e  J e w s  i n  S er b i a

The First Anti-Jewish Laws

The solution of the Jewish question, or, to put it more bluntly, the persecution of the Jews in Jugoslavia began during the Cvetovich- Macek regime. By that time, the racial theories preached by the Nazis had begun to make their influence felt throughout the Balkans. Influenced by the prevailing fashion, the Jugoslav Government banned Jews from taking part in the economic and cultural life of the country. The first anti-Jewish decree (Lex 1322/N.S., dated October 5th, 1940) introduced restrictions on Jews working in the food industry. The Jugoslav Cabinet Council ordained that the trade licenses of all enterprises managed by Jews and engaged in the wholesale food trade and in agriculture were to be revised and appointed a Government Commissioner to take charge of these enterprises. All firms, where the majority of directors or managers were of Jewish origin, were declared to be Jewish. These firms had to suspend their operations and a final settlement of all accounts had to be presented within a period of two months. The persons affected by the regulation were not entitled to any form of compensation; those who attempted to contravene this regulation were drastically punished.

The compulsory winding up of the affairs of Jewish firms was effected on the basis of powers granted under Decree No. 28,828, promulgated on October 29th, 1942. This decree further defined who was and who was not a Jew. The Jugoslav Government looked Upon all those persons as Jewish a) whose father and mother were born Jews, even though the person concerned had later forsaken the Jewish faith, b) whose father was a born Jew whilst the mother was of non-Jugoslav nationality, c) who were born of a mixed marriage and themselves practised the Jewish faith or did not belong to any specific religious community.

Empowered by these measures, the county officials set about eliminating the Jews from commerce and all enterprises connected with the food industry in any form whatsoever.

The prevailing fashion also made itself felt in the cultural life of the country. Anti-Jewish demonstrations were organised at the universities and schools and pogroms took place in more that one locality. Government Decree 1,322/M.S. issued on October 5th, 1940, took the trend of public feeling fully into account, when it announced the introduction of a severe anti-Jewish regulation (41) affecting their participation in the spiritual life of the country. According to this decree, the percentage of Jews allowed to attend universities, high schools and special seats of learning was not to exceed the percentage of the Jews represented in the total population. This meant that roughly 1,500 young Jews were debarred , from studying.

b) The Situation of the Jews during the German occupation.

While the anti-Jewish measures introduced in Jugoslavia imposed only slight restrictions and barely affected the personal or spiritual freedom of the Jewish community, the Germans lost no time in introducing the most drastic anti-Jewish reforms from  the moment they marched into the country. Only a day or two, after the occupation had taken place, posters appeared ordering all Jews to report immediately. The punishment for failure to comply with this order was as brutal as the wording was brief: ,,Wer dem Meldebelehl nicht Folge leistet, wird erschossen!" (Persons failing to report will be shot!). The Germans made a record of the names of all Jews and conscripted the male Jewish population into labour battalions which were then given the tasks of repairing the havoc caused by the late air raids and of constructing roads. On April 28th, 1941, the military commandant of Belgrade ordered the collection and removal to an unknown destination of all male Jews aged sixteen years and over. Jews were ordered to wear a distinctive yellow armlet bearing the word "Jude" whenever they left their houses.

The introduction of the armlet was the signal for the complete oppression of the personal liberty of the Jews. In quick succession decrees appeared, which made normal life impossible. The notorious words "Forbidden for Jews" began to make their appearance in trams, railways, coffee houses, public places and municipal offices. Jews were debarred from making their purchases in the markets before 11 a. m.; they were not allowed to use the public wells, their telephones were disconnected and their wireless sets confiscated. They were forbidden to use any kind of public telephone. 

On May 30th, 1941, the authorities issued their "Jewish Codex" with the intention of settling the Jewish question once and for all and of bringing complete ruin on the Jewish community. The Codex and its infamous "Verordnung" defined the exact meaning of the word Jew and naturally gave it the same interpretation as did the Nuremberg Law. Everyone with three Jewish grandparents was considered a Jew. Any person one of whose parents or whose husband or wife was of Jewish origin was regarded as a half-Jew. No distinction whatever was made between "full Jews" and "half Jews." All Jews were ordered to report to the police and to have their names entered in a Jewish register, following which they (42) were immediately required to wear the yellow armlet. Jews were banned from all governmental and municipal positions; the diplomas of Jewish doctors, dentists, lawyers and chemists were withdrawn.

Jewish lawyers were no longer allowed to plead in the courts. Jews were debarred from visiting theatres, cinemas, all places of public entertainment, swimming baths and markets. Jews were not allowed to enter public houses or restaurants; they could not own establishments created for the purpose of teaching Jews, nor could they direct or be  employed in such institutes. A curfew was imposed, forbidding Jews to leave their homes between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and at no time were they allowed to leave the locality in which they resided. Capital punishment was imposed on persons found guilty of hiding or sheltering Jews.

The seizure of Jewish property proceeded simultaneously with the curtailment of their personal freedom. Under the terms of the "Verordnung.'' Jews were required to declare all their assets, movable or immovable, within a period of ten days. All property thus registered was confiscated and no Jew was allowed to dispose of his capital. Jewish firms still in existence were either closed down or "aryanised." Jews were banned indiscriminately from everything connected with agriculture. Mercilessly the Germans evicted Jews from their homes and property and whole families found themselves in the street without any shelter. By August 1942, no property, whether movable or immovable, remained in the hands of its former Jewish owner. Very considerable quantities of Jewish property had already been transported to the German Reich.

Nor was the Nedics Government slow in acquiring Jewish property. Parallel to the orders issued by the Germans, the Government decreed the confiscation of Jewish property and its surrender to Jugoslav nationals. Particularly noteworthy among the decrees promulgated by the Nedics Government was No. 3,313 dated August 26th, 1942, ordering the seizure without any compensation whatsoever of the property of Jews living in former Jugoslav territory and of those who had left these territories. This measure did not apply to stateless German Jews.

As in the case of every eastern European country, the final purpose of all these decrees was the deportation and the wholesale extermination of the Jews. After they had been tortured and deprived of every human right, the authorities set about the "complete liquidation of the Jewish elements." On August 15th, 1941, the Germans evacuated the Jewish population of the Banate and removed their victims to Belgrade. The Jews were rudely called in the early hours of the morning, permitted to take only the clothes they could actually wear and transported to Belgrade by carts. all their cash, their remaining jewelry and their homes were confiscated. No food whatsoever was provided during the journey. hen the caravans reached Veliky Becker, the Jews were driven (43) into barracks and from there taken to Belgrade in the holds of lighters. On arrival there, they were herded into insanitary wooden barracks where they spent the whole of the winter, It goes without saying that as the result of starvation and exposure, grievous casualties were suffered by the Jews. Whenever a representative of the German authorities was molested in any way, the Germans retaliated by executing one hundred Jews at a time, selecting the hostages by means of an alphabetical register. The belongings of the Jews from the Banate were distributed among the local German and Serbian inhabitants. Early in 1942, all Jews were confined to concentration camps built for that purpose, but shortly afterwards they had disappeared from these camps and no one was able to provide any information as to their fate. The German officers usually avoided giving straight answers or replied "I believe most of them have already been liquidated." It is believed that approximately 40,000 Jews were butchered in Belgrade, either being mown down by machine-gun fire or thrust into gas chambers. The rest were deported to unknown destinations. From that time onwards, any Jew caught in Jugoslavia was summarily executed.

Simultaneously with the disappearance of the Jews, the synagogues were demolished or converted to some other purpose. The famous Sefardi synagogue in the Car Uros St. in Belgrade served as a people's kitchen. To-day there is no Jewish community in Serbia. All Jews living there were deported or murdered and their property shared out among the German and Serb States or their nationals.

c) The Jews in Croatia

Statistics referring to the number of Jews living in Jugoslavia and based on the 1921 and 1931 census returns reveal that the Jews of that country, though comparatively few in number, exercised considerable influence on the economic and social life. They showed also that the Jews lived principally in Croatia, where the route of the Spanish and the Eastern Jews crossed and where Jewish influence had been deeply routed for many centuries.

Even when living as emigres, the leaders of the Ustasa organisation began to prepare for the day of the "great reckoning." In view of the fact that the Ustasa organisation was modelled on the National Socialist movement, it is easy to understand that the first step it took once it had seized power, was the introduction of radical anti-Jewish measures.

Before going into details of these, it will not be without interest to examine the situation of the Jewish population prior to the proclamation of the independent Croat State.

Some seventy-five per cent of the arable land in Croatia belonged to Jews.

When studying the concentration of Jewish capital in Croatia, first thoughts should be given to funds invested in joint stock (44) companies in view of the important part they played in the economic life of the country.

In Croatia, there were 718 joint stock companies with a share capital of 3,963,674,565 Kuna; of these 324 were owned by the large industrial concerns, 128 by commerce, 143 by banking houses, 14 by shipping and 109 by various other interests. 67.28 per cent of the share capital was invested in industry, 17.33 per cent in banking, 6.73 per cent in shipping, 5.12 per cent in commerce and 3.49 per cent in various other industries. The substantial majority of the stock (87.75 per cent) was issued in the form of bearer shares.

The distribution of the Jewish capital in the concerns listed above was as follows:

Industrial undertakings 

Commercial undertakings

Banking firms

Shipping firms

Various undertakings

Total: 189,638,680 46,612,075 20,104,084 18,086,050 166,670 274,607,559 Kuna

Jews held a majority in 85 companies and although they were in a minority in respect of 169 joint stock companies, the final word was theirs, because either nothing was known of the great majority of the owners of the shares, or the shares were in the possession of foreigners who did not attend shareholders' meetings; in other cases, the shares belonged to other companies where the Jews were in the minority, but where their influence was decisive . . . Therefore it is a fact that the credit for organising economic life in Croatia goes to the Jews.

It will be seen therefore that Jewish capital in Croatia was invested principally in large industrial combines, though taken percentually, Jewish capital was most represented in commerce, as 19 per cent of the total share capital of the commercial undertakings in Jugoslavia was in Jewish hands.

Jewish capital was invested in 62 banking firms, 48 commercial enterprises and 35 other undertakings. The total Jewish capital invested in Croatian joint stock companies represented 6.92 per cent of the total national wealth. 

In Croatia, the Jews invested the biggest part of their capital in commerce (22.96 per cent) and in other enterprises (13.7 per cent); thus they must be regarded as the pioneers of commercial life in Croatia. In the eight distilleries set up in Croatia, 45 of the 75 board members and 19 of the 21 directors were Jews. Practically the whole of the textile and the building industries was in Jewish bands. All of the 426 large firms constituting the timber industry belonged to Jews. A large number of various other industrial undertakings was directed by Jewish general managers. Jewish influence was also clearly dominant in the grain, wine and livestock industries.

Jugoslavia fell to pieces at the beginning of 1941; in the part inhabited by the Croats, the Ustasi-the mortal enemies of the Jews -seized power. Their primary purpose was to eliminate radically all Jewish influence from the political, economic and cultural life of the country. The methods employed to achieve this were without parallel in their brutality.

According to various reports and judging by the relations existing between the Ustasi and the Jews, it can be authoritatively stated that the Jews were subjected to great ordeals and to the loss of life and property from the very first days of the existence of the Croat State.

A flood of police regulations and decrees prescribing the rights and curtailing the privileges of the Jews followed almost at once.

A decree promulgated on April 19th, 1941, declared invalid all legal transactions in which sums exceeding 100,000 Kuna were involved and which had been entered into two months prior to the creation of the autonomous Croat State, and in which one or both of the contracting parties was a Jew or half-Jew.

Another decree, promulgated on April 30th, 1941, defined the meaning of the word “Jew" from the racial point of view. Under the terms of this decree, persons were considered Jews if:

a) at least three grandparents were of Jewish origin (grandparents, were considered Jews if they were Jewish by religion or had been born Jews),

b) only two grandparents were Jews, but the person concerned adhered to the Jewish faith on April 10th, 1941 or had been converted to the Jewish faith at a later date.

Further, if the husband or wife of the person in question were a Jew according to (a) above;

if, since the promulgation of this decree, the person in question had contracted a marriage with a person of two or more Jewish grandparents (in a case of this nature, the issue of the marriage was automatically regarded as Jews);

if the person concerned is the illegitimate child of an obviously Jewish father and if the child had been born after January 31st, 1942;

if the Minister of the Interior had declared the person concerned to be of Jewish origin;

c) the person concerned was of Jewish faith on April 10th, 1941, or had at least two Jewish grandparents, and was born beyond the frontiers of Croatia to foreign parents; also if the person concerned was considered a Jew by the laws of the country of his origin.

d) the person had married a Jew in evasion of the terms of the law introduced for the "protection of the purity of Aryan blood." In cases of this nature, the issue of such marriages automatically became Jews.

e) the person concerned were the illegitimate child of a woman considered a Jewess under the terms of (a) above. (46)

One of the paragraphs of this decree was obviously drafted of the purpose of "aryanising" deserving members of the Ustasa organization, Under the terms of the paragraph in question, the Head of the Croat State might, in recognition of national services, grant persons of Jewish origin and their wife, husband or child the rights due to Aryans.

On the same day, two further anti-Jewish decrees were promulgated. Under the terms of one of these measures, Aryans only were to be regarded as Croat nationals, while the other referred to the "Aryan blood of the Croat people and the steps that are necessary to defend its honour." This regulation banned marriages between Jews and Aryans, and also forbade marriages between persons one of whose grandparents was of Jewish origin. Persons found guilty of crimes endangering the "purity of the race" were liable to severe penalties and, in particularly grave instances, to capital punishment. Aryan women below the age of 45 were not allowed to accept positions as domestics in Jewish households. Jews were not allowed to display the Croat colours or emblems. Jews who had changed their names subsequent to 1918, were no longer permitted to use their new names but had to revert to their previous ones.

A further decree defined in detail the rights of Aryan domestics to hand in their notice and compelled the Jewish employer ' concerned to pay substantial compensation to such domestics; in the event of the Jewish employer being unable to pay this sum, the Jewish Church Council had to provide the compensation out of its funds. Should even this alternative prove impossible, the sum required had to be collected by seizing the assets of the Jewish community in the district concerned.

Another decree forbade the ritual killing of live stock and the sale of meat thus obtained.

Yet another decree was promulgated for the purpose of ridding Croat and Aryan culture from all forms of Jewish influence; Jews were strictly denied access to organisations concerned with youth movements, sports or culture; they were forbidden to take any part in literature, the press, fine arts, music, public works, theatrical life and the film industry of the country.

This decree, too, considered as void all changes of name by Jewish persons and strictly forbade them to assume a stage name or nom de plume under any pretext whatsoever. Firms with even one Jewish partner were considered Jewish enterprises. Should the firm in question be a company, it was regarded as Jewish if there was only one Jew among the managers, or if more than a quarter of the shares was held by Jews or, finally, if Jews controlled 50 per cent of the votes in the company concerned. Firms of, such nature were not entitled to display trade-signs which might mislead customers into believing the firm to be an Aryan. The decree not only banned Jews from displaying the Croat colours, but also forbade them to hoist the Croat flag 47 on Jewish houses or over Jewish shops. Jews of over fourteen years of age were compelled to wear a distinctive emblem (a yellow tin plate, 5 cm in diameter, bearing the letter II J" in the centre). The employees of private firms and officials were exempted from this regulation, as long as they were on the payroll of the firm or office concerned. This applied also to Roman Catholic priests, nuns and monks when wearing church robes. The Ministry of the Interior might exempt certain persons from having to wear the Jewish emblem, providing the Jewish husband or, respectively, the wife of the person concerned were of Aryan descent and of Croat nationality and, further, if both they and their children, if any, were Mohammedans or Christians on April 10th, 1941. All Jewish shops or business firms were forced to display the Jewish sign. In the case of firms, this consisted of a yellow poster inscribed II Jewish firm," to be placed in the centre of the shop window and at the entrance of the shop in question; in the case of premises owned or rented by Jewish members of the free professions, the respective sign consisted of a yellow tin plate displaying the letter II J" and placed in the immediate vicinity of the name-plate of the person concerned.

A declaration had to be submitted to the authorities in respect of all Jewish property either of a private nature or owned by firms. Those Jews who should attempt to realize part of their assets, would forfeit their entire property and sentence on them would be passed by special tribunals. Any Jew who failed to declare his property was liable to be sentenced to up to ten years imprisonment and confiscation of all his assets. This applied also to all cases, where the Jewish owner or a Jewish firm attempted to conceal his or its Jewish character. Should any person acting on behalf of a Jew, transact business in the name of the person represented and fail to reveal that he is acting on behalf of a Jew the property of the Jew concerned was liable to be confiscated.

The declaration of assets had to be submitted by every Croat Jew without exception and also by the Jewish partner of a mixed marriage. It did not leave the victims the slightest possibility of omitting even the smallest part of the property concerned.

All civil servants and the employees of private firms had to prove their Aryan descent. Under certain circumstances, the person concerned had to prove that even his great-grandparents were of Christian origin. In the event of one grandparent being Jewish, the person in question had to be regarded as a half-Jew, although, in so far as his nationality was concerned, he was entitled to all the privileges enjoyed by Aryans.

All Jewish houses were to be administered by the respective public authorities and all rents and other revenues accruing therefrom had to be handed over to the authorities.

All Jewish property and every Jewish enterprise were to be nationalised and no appeal against this procedure was allowed. (48)

The climax to the anti-Jewish laws was the measure which ordained that all movable and immovable property belonging to Jews or persons regarded as such passed into the possession of the Croat State.

It is clear from the above that the fundamental principle of every anti-Jewish decree was to consider the Jewish community the mortal enemies of the State. The Jews were not only robbed of all their possessions and deprived of every possibility of gaining a livelihood, but were also held morally responsible and punished for every conceivable thing. By degrees ist became almost natural for every Croat Jew to live in a concentration camp, from whence hostages could easily be taken by their hundreds and led to execution when necessary, if there was no other possibility of obtaining satisfaction for the attack or act of sabotage committed. It is hardly necessary to refer to the inhuman treatment or the uneatable food meted out to the Jews in these camps.  

The press, wholly controlled by the State, never lost an opportunity of enticing hatred against Jews or of arousing the 1 basest passions of the masses. A series of official anti-Jewish exhibitions was organised in different towns, and statistical data and other information were provided in an attempt to prove the alleged crimes of the Jewish population.

The life of the Jews in Croatia, if such an existence can be called a life, became quite intolerable as a consequence of the innumerable anti-Jewish decrees, the brutality of the police and the actions taken by the authorities. It is largely due to this treatment that a large number of Croat Jews joined partisan organisations in spite of the hardships these guerilla bands had to endure. It is obvious that the only hope the Jews had of escaping the "Ustasa hell" lay in taking to the mountains. Needless to say, the Ustasa regime kept a watchful eye on the activities of the Jews in the guerilla organisations, who avenged, as best they could, the maltreatment of the thousands of Jews herded into concentration camps.

Encircled on one side by Fascist Italy and on the other by Nazi Germany, and occupied by German troops, it is obvious, particularly in view of the bitterness of the internecine warfare within Jugoslavia, that every Croat Jew endeavoured, even at great personal risk and at the cost of loss of all his property, to save his bare life by seeking refuge in Hungary.

2.

The Disappearance of the Jews in Slovakia

Taking the proportion of the Jewish 'to the non-Jewish elements, Slovakia ranked eighth among the European countries with a Jewish population. For centuries past, the Jewish elements ad played a vitally important role in developing the economic 49 life of that country and, as a result, were able to influence the political life as well to a great extent. According to the 1921 census returns, there were 135,000 Jews in Slovakia at that time. During the life of Czechoslovakia as a republic, more than one Jew had held positions of vital importance in the affairs of the State. The towns and industrial centres haboured large Jewish colonies. In Bratislava for example, the ratio of the non-Jewish to the Jewish population was approximately one to ten. In the town of Nitra there were thirty Jews to every thousand non-Jews; in the eastern counties, in Saros and Zemplen, there were 65 Jews to every 1000 Christians.

Roughly 53 per cent of the Jewish element lived in the towns and took a very large part in the development of urban life and the promotion of commerce and industry. Large numbers of Jews lived in 1,435 out of 2,658 localities in Slovakia. The growth of the Jewish population was particularly noticeable in the towns. According to the 1930 census returns the Jewish population of the town of

Bratislava

Nitra

Presov

Veliky

Mihas

Zilina

Tapolcany

Trnava

Bardrov

Homonna

15,102 4,358 4,308 3,955 2,917 2,495 2,455 2,441 2,172 11

The Jewish population preferred the spiritual and free professions to agriculture. The 1921 census returns show that the distribution of the Jewish elements according to professions was as follows: 

3,000 Commerce, Finance. 12,950 Industry. 5,800 Agriculture . . 42.4 per cent 23.5 10.6 "

20 per cent of the Jews were doctors and lawyers and only 5 per cent manual workers. As a result, the Jews played a most important part in the economic life of Slovakia.

The representation of the Jewish elements in agriculture . . . . . . the machine industry and artisan trades ........

commerce and finance . . . . . .

public life and free professions . .

In 1930, 49.9 per cent of the Jews were independent contractors. The assets of the Jewish community amounted to 4,5 billion Slovak crowns, of which 1.25 billion were invested in housing property, so 600 million in other real estate and the rest in industrial undertakings.

The development of the Jewish community in the fields of industry, economy and social life had reached its height when, on March 14th, 1939, the independent Slovak State was proclaimed . . The leaders of the Slovak State looked upon the radical settlement of the Jewish question as their first duty. The Jewish community believed in democratic principles and was therefore op posed to the Hlinka Party, which figured as the State itself. The radical solution of the Jewish problem was not only sponsored by German propaganda, but also by the hostile feelings of the Slovak leaders themselves. It is due to this circumstance that no other country in Europe introduced anti-Jewish measures of such a drastic nature or in so short a space of time as did Slovakia, From the very first days of the existence of the independent Slovak State a great number of anti-Jewish measures was introduced, not alone by the Government authorities, but also by lesser and subordinate authorities. By venting its rage on the Jews, the Slovak Government endeavoured to show how great a measure of liberty of action it enjoyed. The results of the first steps taken against the Jews became apparent in the reduction of their numbers. Of the roughly 150,000 Jews who had lived in Slovakia in 1938, only 88,951 remained on December 15th, 1940, when a national census was taken. The remainder had fled or been deported.

The spate of anti-Jewish decrees issued in Slovakia between 1939 and 1941 reached such an extent, that the authorities themselves were unable to make out where they stood. In order to remedy this state of affairs and, incidentally, to add to the severity of the anti-Jewish regulations, the Slovak Government under Decree No. 198/Sz.Tex 1941 issued the "Jewish Codex." The purpose of this codex was to curtail drastically the personal freedom of the Jews and to exclude all Jewish influence from the economic, political and cultural life of the country.

The anti-Jewish measures introduced in Slovakia and the steps taken in this direction may be divided into two principal groups: a) into the Jewish Codex, b) into the deportation of the Jewish elements.

The Jewish Codex was based on the racial laws of Nuremberg and defined the conception of the word "Jew" on the basis of those principles. The term II Jew" was applicable either to individuals or to legal bodies. In so far as the first of these two cases was concerned, every person, one of whose grandparents was Jewish, must be regarded as a Jew; in the case of the second, every institute, economic organisation etc. amongst whose numbers there was one Jew must be considered Jewish.

To begin with, the Jewish Codex made it possible to deprive the Jewish population of the right of movement and of personal liberty. The first step in this respect was the decree which ordered the immediate cancellation of passports and driving- (51) licences owned by Jews and the confiscation of their wireless sets, which passed into the hands of the State without compensation being paid to their owners. Shortly after, Jews were deprived of their fishing and shooting licences and rights, their guns being confiscated. Then followed a series of decrees which paralysed the social life of the Jewish elements. The first of these had been introduced early in 1940 and by the time of the appearance of the Jewish Codex they had become so numerous, that the Jews were even banned from the streets, the public squares, the swimming pools, theatres, cinemas, exhibitions, sport or race meetings etc.; they were not allowed to visit coffee houses, restaurants, public houses, or hotels; they were forbidden to leave their homes between 6 p. m. and 8 a. m. They were allowed to meet in the synagogues, but even there could only discuss religious matters.

Under the terms of the Jewish Codex, the Jewish population:. was segregated into ghettos and, by reason of the "inferiority of the Jewish race" deprived of their social standing. Every Jew, whether baptised or not, had to wear a yellow star on his coat or other outer garment. The Jewish star had to be displayed on the front-doors of Jewish homes. Jews were not allowed to live in any houses other than those specially set aside for them, nor were they allowed to rent apartments in any street or square named after Hitler or Hlinka. In certain towns, for example in Poszony (Bratislava) Jews were summarily evicted from their homes. In 1941, 6,720 Jews-i.e. half the Jewish population were forced to leave their homes in Bratislava at a few days' notice. Jews who wrote a letter had to draw a large Jewish star on the envelope.

As mentioned above, the Jews were only allowed to live in certain pre-selected quarters. In the event of a non-Jewish individual wishing to occupy the apartment or house occupied by a Jew, the individual was entitled to do so and the Jewish occupant was made to bear the costs of the removal. Otherwise, Jews were not allowed to change their domicile or to exchange apartments.

Jews were severely restricted as far as their freedom of movement was concerned. It has already been mentioned that Jews were not allowed on the streets between the hours of 6 p. m. and 8 a. m. Similarly, they were not allowed to travel without having previously obtained the permission of the Ministry of the Interior; this permission was granted only in very exceptional cases. Even then, the Jewish traveler was allowed to board only those trains with special compartments showing the words "Reserved for Jews". Jews could travel third class only and were denied the use of the dining-car.

The Jewish Codex further provided that the worst compartment of the train had to be set aside for Jews and that six persons at least had to travel in this compartment. The Codex made social intercourse impossible by forbidding non-Jews to meet with or talk to Jews and by decreeing that Jews were allowed to visit or talk to other Jews only. Should a (52) conversation be necessary between Jews and non-Jews a representative of the local authorities had to be present.

The Jews were made to feel their "inferiority" by the introduction of special food regulations. They were not issued with ration-books, without which neither food nor clothing could be purchased. They were issued with smaller rations of flour, bread and sugar and were not given any fat. Jews were not allowed to visit the market nor to purchase any food whatsoever before 9 a. m, or, in the case of milk or milk products, 10 a. m.

Another restriction contained in the Jewish Codex was that prohibiting Jews to employ Christian domestics. Jews were not allowed to seek legal advice or to contract a marriage with non-Jewish persons. Jewish patients could not be sent to public hospitals or nursing homes, Jews were allowed to worship in synagogues only if the exterior of the synagogue was in keeping with the regulations and bye-laws issued by the authorities. Ritual slaughter was prohibited, and Jews were not permitted to complain to the authorities.

Apart from the very drastic regulations restricting the freedom of movement of Jews, strict measures were introduced curtailing  their influence on the social life of the country. Under the terms of Lex 208 ex 1940, Jews were banned from attending all schools except elementary schools of four classes maintained by the Jewish community. The object of this was to exclude Jews from participation in the cultural life of the country and to force them to take up manual labour. The costs of re-education or of learning a new trade had to be borne by the Jews themselves, Artists of Jewish birth or origin were banned from performing publicly and Jewish works of art could not be exhibited.

Radical measures expelled the Jewish elements from the intellectual professions; neither Jewish doctors nor Jewish lawyers were allowed to practise, and their diplomas were confiscated. This measure affected a considerable number of persons in view of the fact there were 543 Jewish lawyers, 867 Jewish doctors and 86 Jewish chemists in Slovakia in 1938.

When in 1939 the Slovak Army was re-organised with the help of German officers, a law was promulgated excluding all Jews from service in, these forces. At the same time, this measure stipulated that Jews had to render national service by working in labour battalions. A decree, promulgated on June 10th, 1940, ordered all Jews and gypsies between the ages of eighteen and eighty to work in labour camps. § 20 of the Jewish Codex introduced still further restrictions in respect of this measure and reduced the age-limit to sixteen. Roughly 11,000 male Jews were rounded up in the summer of 1941 and were sent either to the front or to work for the Germans. There is no knowing what happened to these unfortunates, beyond the fact that they never returned to their homes. In Slovakia, women were driven into the labour camps and there put to hard labour.  (53) 

The expulsion of the Jewish elements from the economic life of Slovakia began as early as August 1928. Most of the anti-Jewish measures promulgated subsequently were aimed at completing this procedure. Slovak politicians and officials concentrated practically all their efforts on acquiring Jewish estates or on "aryanising" them. The procedure was finally completed by the different anti-Jewish laws, which covered every aspect of economic life.

The aryanisation of Jewish assets in Slovakia was completed by April 1st, 1942.

Decree 147/Sz./T. ex 1939 ordered a census to be taken of all agricultural property in the hands of Jews. When this was done, it became apparent that there were 4,819 Jewish landowners in possession of 80,765 hectares. The number of Jewish tenants on September 1st, 1942 was 613, and the land leased by these tenants totaled 20,444 hectares. Under the terms of the Jewish Codex, this land was transferred to the State, no compensation being payable to its owners. The Slovak Land Reform Institute then proceeded to divide this property among the local politicians. Heading the list of grants was Vojtech Tuka, who received two estates, one in County Poszony and the other in the vicinity of Selmecbanya. Other recipients of land were Bohudar Turcek and Frantisek Tiso, the brother-in-law and brother respectively of the President of the Slovak State, further the President of the Slovak National Bank, the President of the Slovak Land Reform Institute, the President of the High Court of Appeal and three Slovak ministers, Josef Fritz, Jan Pruzinsky and Julius Stano. Smaller estates were distributed among the local leaders of the Hlinky Party. In view of the fact that some of the estates had not been aryanised, the Land Reform Institute was entrusted with the management of these properties on the basis of Lex 108 promulgated on June 16th, 1942.

Towards the end of 1938, German capital began to show interest in the commerce and industry of Slovakia. Encouraged by this, the Slovak authorities began to "aryanise" the economic life of the country and a series of decrees appeared excluding the Jews from commerce and industry. Here, too, the Jewish Codex introduced radical measures and decreed that Jews might not be owners of any industrial or commercial concession. To begin with, the Central Economic Bureau allowed the owners of Jewish firms and businesses three months in which to aryanise their undertakings; in 1941, eight days' grace only was conceded. At the end of 1941, ten thousand firms were aryanised almost from one day to the next and after the capital invested in these firms had been exhausted, the firms were liquidated. Controllers were put in charge of two thousand important economic undertakings and instructed to lose no time in aryanising them. Once again the aryanisation was carried out without any compensation whatsoever and affected not only the real estate but also the stocks of the 54 companies concerned; in other words the goods owned by commercial firms and the machinery, machine-tools and raw material of industrial concerns. By May 1st, 1942, 11,887 Jewish firms were affected. Of this total, 9,987 were liquidated and 1,910 were handed over to non-Jewish owners. This process brought about a disastrous decrease of production. According to Slovak figures, the state of affairs was as follows:

liquidated aryanised

Iron industry.. 516 199

Timber industry.. 523 201

Food industry . . 4,477 637

Textile industry . 1,893 459

Leather industry 530 89

Building industry . 376 58

Various 1,672 267

The Central Economic Bureau was granted unlimited powers for the purpose of eliminating Jewish influence from Slovak life. Thus empowered, the Bureau was entitled to seize or confiscate Jewish property and to liquidate or aryanise commercial undertakings or industrial plants and enterprises in Jewish hands.

The aryanisation of economic life in Slovakia was carried out only to a small degree by the Slovaks themselves. A large n umber of Germans, Czechs and Czechoslovak politicians of the former regime were among those responsible for enforcing the measure. In the legal sense alone, the Germans assumed control of no less than one hundred and fifty companies, among which those possessing large stocks and considerable assets figured prominently. The Dresdener Bank A. G. played a predominant part in this respect. The Czechs living in Slovakia had some advantage over the local population in view of the circumstance that they were in a position to dispose over considerable capital assets and great practical experience in the management of commercial and industrial concerns. Profiting by this, they were the first to transfer Jewish assets to Aryan hands. Later on, the Slovaks objected to this and launched a vigorous attack against the Czechs for having aryanised their property. In March 1943, Minister Sanyo Mach threatened the eviction of 30,000 Czechs, if they refused to accept Slovaks into the management of the newly aryanised firms. According to the Slovak press, preference in this process of aryanisation was given to leading Czech officials, who in turn favoured Czech citizens. Slovak members of the former Czechoslovak regime worked hand in glove with the aryanising Czechs. A great number of these individuals amassed considerable fortunes by doing so, a circumstance which did not prevent them from taking a prominent share in the drafting of the laws ordering the eviction of the Jewish population and resulting in its liquidation. It is clear that these miscreants wished to rid themselves of the unpleasant presence of the real owners of their loot. (55)

On November 2nd, 1940, the Slovak Government promulgated Lex 203 ordering a census of all Jewish property and obliging the Jews to submit a statement to the authorities in respect of any changes in their assets. This was followed by a closure of the banks, as a result of which deposits of Slovak Jews were seized. This regulation further decreed that Jews might not, at the time of its promulgation, own more than 3,000 Czech crowns. Later this figure was reduced to 500 Czech crowns, Lex 271 of October 27th, 1940, ordered Jews to surrender all securities and shares in their possession and required them to deposit any platinum, gold or precious stones they might own with the National Bank. From then on, all Jewish-owned safe-deposits were controlled by the Central Slovak Bureau and the owners were not permitted to withdraw any sums or valuables from these safe-deposits without the knowledge and consent of this Bureau, At the same time, the estimated value of all Jewish property was summarily raised by between four and five hundred per cent and their owners taxed accordingly. The amount of the tax corresponded with the purchase price of the assets concerned. The next step was the purchase by the Slovak National Bank of the valuables at this price. Naturally, this system led to widespread corruption and the only reason why this swindle was not openly exposed, was that even the highest Czechoslovak officials were involved.

This law also determined the measures to be taken in respect of the private possessions and the furniture of Jews: these passed into the hands of the Slovak State, which then sold them to its proteges at absurd prices, The residence of the Slovak President at Bratislava was furnished in this way, as were also the offices of the Slovak ministers. President Tiso's room was laid out with carpets taken from the home of Sigismund Forheim, As a result of these measures, the Jewish elements in Slovakia were pauperized and lost, in addition to their personal liberty and their human dignity, even their essential household equipment.

Responsible members of the Slovak Government as well as the German press frequently declared that the Jewish Codex did not provide sufficient opportunity for a radical solution of the Jewish question. In August, 1942, Tiso himself expressed his dissatisfaction with this state of affairs. In a statement made to a correspondent of the "Neue Ordnung", a newspaper published in Zagreb, Tiso said: " .... We have always regarded the Jews as enemies of the nation. The time has come for Slovakia to rid herself of these implacable foes ... "

The deficiencies of the Jewish Codex offered an opportunity Mach was not slow to seize when he recommended the radical solution of the problem. At a press conference held in March 1942 he stated that the gradual deportation would take place of all Jews who were then exempt from the economic restrictions as well as of baptised Jews and Jews engaged in the process of (56) aryanisation. (Vide Gardista dated March 28th, 1942.) The debates in the Slovak Parliament on the deportation of the Jews began in May, 1942. It became evident that the deputies were generally in favour of radical expulsion without differentiation between rich and poor Jews. The only deputy to dissent was Count Janos Esterhazy, the leader of the Magyars in Slovakia. Later on he was bitterly attacked by the Slovak and German press for his attitude.

The deportation law was enforced on May 23rd, 1942. In practice however, this law simply sanctioned the steps already taken by the Slovak authorities. Long before the introduction of the law, the Government had ordered the deportation of 30,000 Jews. The deportation of the Jews of Pozsony, in the course of which 10,000 male Jews were rounded up in that town at 48 hours notice, is one of the most ghastly chapters in the terrible history of that time. On the night of March 23rd, 1942, 500 good-looking young Jewesses, girls and married women alike, were rounded up and interned in the icy ware-houses of a former cartridge factory. A few days later, these women were sent to the front where they were made to satisfy the lust of German soldiers.

The law now provided the authorities with a legal pretext for deporting the Jews. From that time onwards, Jews were indiscriminately arrested and sent to Lublin or Lvangores regardless of age or sex. There they were handed over en masse to the local authorities. Roughly 80,000 Jews of both sexes were transported to the East in open cattle trucks. All their belongings were confiscated with the exception of some warm clothing, which was later ruthlessly seized by German or Slovak Nazi sadists. According to statements made by Slovak railway officials, thousands of Jews, among them many children, died of exposure on the way; those who were able to resist the extreme cold of their new "homes" perished of starvation, and any who might have survived all these horrors were disposed of in extermination camps,

Several thousand Jews sought refuge in Hungary when the Tl era of persecution began in Slovakia. These persons managed to  cross the frontier either "legally" or without the necessary papers. The Slovak Public Security Office issued hundreds of passports to Jews who were willing to pay considerable sums for an opportunity to escape to Hungary and, by doing so, discredited even - their own anti-Jewish measures. The Slovak Jews made no secret of the fact that "they preferred to spend the remainder of their lives in some Hungarian prison or internment camp, rather than be exposed to deportation; for this reason they were determined to cross the Hungarian frontier at all costs." Jews who managed to escape from Slovakia stayed with their relatives in Hungary or were sent to special camps which Angelo Rotta, the Papal Nuncio, visited in May 1943. He reported that he was completely satisfied with the state of affairs he found there. (57)

3.

T h e  F a t e  o f  t h e  R u m a n i a n  J e w s.

When studying the Jewish question in Rumania, the fundamental fact must be remembered that Rumania was one of the first countries to engage in anti-Jewish activities and that every class of the population of that country had, in the course of its history, entertained strong anti-Jewish feelings. The oppression of the Rumanian Jews began in 1886 with the pogroms known to history as the "disgrace of Moldavia", It was natural, therefore, that the Jewish elements in Rumania never enjoyed the same rights as did the remainder of the population; this state of affairs induced Napoleon III. to address a telegram to the Rumanian ruler, protesting against the -treatment to which the Jews were being submitted. By recommendation of Benjamin Cremieux and Disraeli the Berlin Congress demanded, as a condition for the recognition of the independence of the Danubian principalities, that the Jewish elements in those provinces be guaranteed full civilian rights. Rumania was always loath to comply with this, and, right up to the period following the first World War, refused to grant the Jews political rights. What the Jews did not receive in Berlin, they were granted forty years later by the Treaty of Versailles. This was undoubtedly a considerable achievement, when one considers the hatred and intolerance displayed by the non-Jewish elements in Rumania; this intolerance was legalised in the new constitution of 1938, which categorically ensured the advantageous position held by the Rumanian population over the Jewish elements. The obligation to respect the equality of the Jews as far as the law was concerned - accepted only under strong pressure in Versailles - never meant more to the Rumanians than a promise they did not keep. The large masses of Jews living in the territories annexed by Rumania drifted into the neighbouring countries in search of protection and safety. When, in 1940, the northern part of North Transylvania was re-annexed by Hungary, part of the Jewish elements in Rumania sought refuge on Hungarian territory.

Rumania endeavoured to solve the Jewish problem by the introduction of the most brutal measures. The unfortunate effect of this solution - described by responsible Rumanian leaders as an example to the rest of South Eastern Europe - will be evident in the following passages. According to the repeatedly expressed opinion of the Rumanian press, Judaism was a Trojan horse in the heart of Europe and its purpose was to stir up strife and discontent among the peoples of the European continent. The war - it was constantly urged - had shown all too clearly what implacable enemies the nations of Europe had in the Jews and that Judaism was but an agent for the aspirations and power politics of non-European powers. The only way in which the problem could be solved was, according to the Rumanian press, 58 by ensuring that not one solitary Jew should be allowed to live in Europe. This anti-Semitic attitude was even strengthened when, at the beginning of the century, an individual by name of Cursu made his evil influence felt and, several years later, Codreanu and 0. Goga were active. Indisputable proof of the anti-Jewish mentality of the Rumanian body of judges is provided by the acquittal in 1923 of Codreanu and Motza, when they were tried for the murder of the pro-Jewish Prefect of Police, Manciu, and a Jew from the town Jassi. The Cuza movement was something to be reckoned with many years before National Socialism made its nefarious effect felt.

According to the 1930 census returns, there were 728, 115 Jews in Rumania, i. e, 4 per cent of the population was Jewish. The Jewish population was at its densest in Bukovina, Bessarabia and Moldavia. Figures for these districts show that the ratio of the Jewish elements to the remainder of the population was:

in Bukovina . 92,492, i. e. 10.8 per cent of the total 11 Bessarabia . 204,858, ,, 7 .2 ,,  Moldavia . . 158,421, ,, 6.5 11 ,, ,

The Jewish elements living in Rumania were distributed, according to professions, as follows:

Agriculture

Mining

Metalurgical Industry

Timber Industry

Machine Industry

Textile Industry

Food Industry Chemical & Paper Industry

Other Industries

Credit & Banking Commerce Communications

Public Services

Other professions (free professions, lawyers, 45,525 1,742 21,570 22,210 8,080 98,449 36,971 13,310 3,350 25,593 265,955 20,301 36,883 doctors etc.) . . . . . . 105,477

Unknown professions . . . . . . 22,699

These figures provide a striking picture of the position occupied by the Jews in the economic life of Rumania. It is certainly tragic to recall that, according to the 1943 census returns, there were only 373,779 Jews left in Rumania at that time.

Until 1938, the Jews enjoyed apparent equality of rights. The first legal measure in an attempt to solve the Jewish problem was introduced on January 22nd, 1938. Between that date and May 1st, 1942, no fewer than 89 anti-Jewish laws or decrees were promulgated. The principal anti-Jewish measures to be introduced as from March 28th, 1940 were: (59)

October 5th, 1940: Additional confiscations of Jewish village properties.

October 10th, 1940: Expropriation of Jewish mortgages, hospitals, nursing homes and other welfare centres.

October 14th, 1940: Expulsion of Jewish students from all State-owned and other communal schools; special Jewish schools are set up for these students.

October 17th, 1940: Jewish lawyers not already barred fr om the Chamber of Lawyers, i. e, "exempted Jews", may not act on behalf of Christian clients,

November 10th, 1940: Licences for the sale of goods over which the State exercises a monopoly are with-drawn from Jews.

November 15th, 1940: Establishment of a Medical College barred to Jewish doctors, Jewish physicians allowed to treat Jewish patients only.

November 16th, 1940: Withdrawal of the privilege of transferring foreign currencies to Jewish students studying abroad.

November 17th, 1940: Still further restrictions affecting Jewish ownership of country estates.

December 1st, 1940: Seizure of river- and sea-going vessels owned by Jews,

December 24th, 1940: Ministerial decree prohibiting the enrolment of Jewish apprentices in industry.

May 7th, 1941: The use by Jews of wireless sets is forbidden; Jews are ordered to surrender their sets.

October 21st, 1941: Jews are ordered to surrender large quantities of personal clothing.

December 17th, 1941: Registration of all Jews and of persons with at least one Jewish grandparent.

September 22nd, 1942: Decree imposing capital punishment on a all Jews returning illegally from the province of Transnistria, to which they had been deported.

Another vitally important regulation was that promulgated on January 22nd, 1938, ordering the revision of the nationality of all Jews who were Rumanian subjects. A law, promulgated on Au gust 9th, 1940, during the reign of King Carol II., regulated the legal position of the Jews. The decree determined the interpretation of the word "Jew" on a racial basis. It forbade the Jews to enter certain professions, to join the Civil Service, to become lawyers or doctors, provincial merchants, newspaper publishers etc. and vetoed the acquisition by Jews of landed property in the provinces. Other important anti-Jewish measures were the following: (60)

1. the decree relating to the revision of the Jewish religion,

2. the decree relating to the education of the Jews,

3. the decree relating to free professions being taken up by Jews, 4, the decree relating to the position of Jewish personnel in theatres,

5. the decree relating to the position of Jewish personnel in the film industry,

6. the decree relating to the staff of commercial and industrial concerns and the Rumanianisation of these concerns,

7. the decree relating to the military duties of Jews,

8. the decree relating to the expropriation of Jewish assets and the establishment of a National Rumanianisation Centre,

9. the decree relating to the conversion of all bearer shares and the Rumanianisation of commercial and industrial concerns,

10. the decree relating to the creation of a Rumanian Credit Institute and to the penalties provided for persons found guilty of hiding Jews.

11. the decree relating to the rights and obligations of the Jewish elements.

It must be pointed out that the laws and decrees referred to in the foregoing lines were enforced far more drastically than was demanded by the letter of the law. Experience shows that the authorities were given unlimited powers to enforce these measures with the utmost severity. Private freedom became an illusion, No Jew was allowed to possess a passport; no Jew might travel within the confines of Rumania without an official permit. In the town of Czernovicz, Jews were allowed on the streets only if they were in possession of special permits. Every Jew, regardless of age or sex, had to wear the distinctive yellow star. Jews wishing to travel had to submit their applications to the Central Jewish Council which was authorised to enquire into the urgency of the journey.

When applying for permission to travel, Jews were charged 1,000 lei for each day it was intended to travel. This restriction, which had applied to the entire population since the beginning of the war, was rescinded-except for the Jewish population - in the spring of 1943. It frequently happened that Jews who were seriously ill and in need of an operation were unable to undergo it, if they had to travel for that purpose and, owing to poverty, were not in a position to deposit the sum required. Another measure seriously prejudicing the personal liberty of the Jews was the creation of ghettos in various towns. Wealthy Jews, who were prepared to pay very considerable sums, were allowed to travel to neighbouring towns, where the authorities had been warned in advance; naturally, as a result, the new-comers were fleeced again on arrival. When the war broke out, an internment camp was set up at Targu-Jiu. Jews there were not allowed to receive visitors, gifts of money or parcels. They were not allowed to receive medical treatment by anyone other than the officially appointed (61) doctor. Their food was insufficient. In 1941, the Jews in the various internment camps were given a daily allowance of 18 lei in order to pay for their upkeep; at the same time, the official price of 600 grammes of black bread was 13 lei. Several hundred of the so-called "Churchill" Jews, amongst them the former legal advisor of the British Legation in Bucharest, were interned in Targa-Jiu camp. With the arrival of winter, the plight of these unfortunates became even more desperate, since the wooden huts were unheated and many of the inmates contracted serious diseases. No medicines were allowed to be brought into the camp, and patients could only draw on the ill-supplied medical store of the camp. 

Drastic anti-Jewish measures were introduced in respect of the food purchasable by Jews. They were allowed to visit the shops and markets at certain hours only, when as a rule the supplies had been exhausted. Certain ration cards were not issued to them at all, their rations were smaller than those enjoyed by the rest of the community, and certain food items they were deprived of altogether.

Another annoyance the Jewish elements had to put up with, was the continually recurrent house to house searches and controls instituted in order to ensure that they did not eat meat on meatless days.

The authorities at Arad issued a decree which prohibited Jewish elements from receiving either milk or sugar. Almost daily, articles were published in the local press demanding that bread be sold to Jews no more than three times weekly and their ration of this commodity be cut. The explanation given was that the introduction of a measure to this affect would be the means of saving large quantities of grain. Jews were incidentally made to pay twice the official price for bread.

As far back as 1940, a number of decrees were published restricting the freedom of worship of the Jewish elements. Under the terms of these regulations, the Greek Orthodox religion was to be regarded as the official religion and the Israelite faith as a tolerated religion only. Jews were allowed to use their  synagogues and temples only by permission of the competent Ministry. Where the local Jewish Church Council was unable to comply with certain regulations, e.g. if the congregation was considered too small, the synagogue with all its assets became the property of the State. In this way many a synagogue, ritual bath, orphanage, workhouse etc. became Rumanian property and, as a result, the Jewish inmates of these institutions were automatically evicted. A special decree, issued on March 21st, 1941, forbade the conversion of Jews to other religions.

The Jewish population had to contend with especially severe measures in the field of education. Jewish students were allowed to attend schools in restricted numbers only and were barred from attending technical schools. Preference was to be given to (62) Jewish children whose parents were regarded as privileged Jews, such as former front line soldiers and relatives of soldiers who had lost their lives at the front. In practice this meant that the Jews were barred from the universities, a circumstance that led to a considerable number of young Jews escaping to Hungary and there matriculating. Jew-baiting and the beating of Jews at the university were an everyday occurrence. The university of Bucharest set up a special anti-Jewish faculty, similar to those existing in Germany. On January 12th, 1943, the Minister of Education ordered the closure of all Jewish technical schools. The Ministry of Fine Arts publicly reprimanded a well-known Jewish pianist for giving a public recital in spite of strict orders to the contrary. All books by Jewish authors were banned and all book dealers were ordered to display a list showing the names of Jewish authors.

The Rumanian Official Gazette, published on December 6th, 1940, announced the terms under which Jews were to perform  military service. The terms of this regulation prohibited the Jews from actually taking part in military service, but compelled them to pay military taxes and to do work of a general nature benefitting the public, In the event of the Jew concerned being unfit for such work, payment of a special redemption fee was demanded. The Jews conscripted into labour battalions were accomodated in special camps where they were treated infamously and made to work without food in the middle of winter. The few survivors who eventually returned to their homes told hair-raising stories of their experiences in these labour-camps. Police raids were continually harassing the urban population and any Jew unable to prove that he had already served with the labour battalions or had been exempted from service was tried by courts martial.

Under the terms of a decree published in No. 263 of the Rumanian Official Gazette, any- Jew presenting false identity papers to civil, military or clerical authorities rendered himself liable to punishment, the sentence for such an offence generally being fifteen years hard labour and confiscation of all his property. The cases of all Jews detained in concentration camps came up for revision and Jews against whom no definitive charge could be brought were released, providing their families were prepared to pay substantial sums as ransom money. With the object of saving the lives of at least some of these internees, the British Government indicated its willingness to grant entry permits into Palestine to 150,000 Rumanian Jews in Transnistria.

Jews were excluded from the film industry, the theatre and the press. Any theatre producing a play by a Jewish author was heavily fined. A decree promulgated on November 6th, 1941, ordered the withdrawal from circulation of all gramophone records made with Jewish assistance of any kind. The few Jewish lawyers who had been permitted to retain their membership of the Chamber of Lawyers were allowed to represent Jewish clients (63) only. Jews were not permitted to become members of the Medical or Technical Colleges. Jewish doctors were allowed to practise provisionally only and were liable to have their names struck off the roll at any time without the right of appeal. In contrast to the other members of the medical profession, Jews were barred from publishing advertisements of any kind in the daily press. Similarly, when a Jewish doctor re-opened his practise after returning from a holiday, changed apartments or was issued with a new telephone number, announcements to this effect could be published in the local press on three occasions only and the announcement had to contain the words "Jewish doctor". Such doctors were allowed to treat Jewish patients only, either in their own surgery or in hospitals. The words "Jewish doctor" also had lo be clearly marked on any prescription. Jews were not allowed to contribute to any publication or to publish articles in the press. A decree issued on October 3rd, 1940, banned Jews from renting any pharmaceutical chemists' shop and invalidated former contracts entered into with this object.

On November 16th, 1940, a decree was published ordering the Rumanianisation of industrial firms and the compulsory dismiss al of all Jewish employees. Even in cases where the employee had more than twenty years service to his credit, the indemnity paid by the firm in question could not exceed three months salary and only Rumanians were allowed to fill any vacancy that might occur. Technicians were allowed to retain their positions only until a Rumanian employee had become familiar with their work. The decree further prescribed the wages to be paid these new Rumanian employees. Under the terms of a decree issued in October 1940, Jews were no longer allowed to be tenants, usufructuaries, directors or shareholders of any agricultural property. Such estates passed into the hands of the State, together with all the buildings, equipment and live-stock. In lieu of compensation, the Jews were issued 3 per cent State stock that was blocked as soon as it was put on the market.

When the Rumanian re-armament loan (Inzestrate) was floated the Government ordered the Jewish community to subscribe to the tune of ten billion lei. In view of the colossal sum involved, the representatives of the Jewish community considered it necessary to enter into negotiations with the authorities and to point out that the Jewish quota was far in excess of that subscribed by the remainder of the population taken together. Furthermore, it was pointed out, the wealthy members of the Jewish community had already left Rumania, the Jewish properties in the towns and provinces had been confiscated by the authorities and the majority of the provincial Jews had, as a result of their internment, lost their businesses, so that consequently the paying capacity of the Jewish elements had been reduced to a minimum. The reply of the Rumanian Government to these arguments was to immediately call up for compulsory labour service all male Jews (64) between the ages of 18 and 50 living in Bucharest. This led to a resumption of the negotiations, this time with the participation of the American Legation. It was understood that the United States Government had threatened to indemnify the Jews out of frozen Rumanian funds in the United States. Finally the Jews were made to subscribe stock to the value of four million lei.

In practice, it will be seen that landed and forest estates in the hands of Jews were confiscated without compensation being due to them. By virtue of a decree promulgated on March 28th, 1941, land owned by Jews within the precincts of a town was seized by the State against payment of 3 per cent Government stock. Jews were allowed to remain in their houses only until such time as the "National Rumanianisation Centre" did not order their immediate expulsion. A decision made by the Under-Secretary of State in charge of this organisation resulted in all synagogues and the real estate owned by the Jewish religious communities, including Jewish cemeteries at Temesvar, passing into the hands of the State. The Rumanian High Court of Appeal rejected the appeal of those Jews who, on the grounds of the unconstitutional nature of the respective laws, sought to regain possession of their housing property. It was the opinion of the Rumanian High Court of Appeal that the Rumanian constitution had ceased to exist as from September, 1940, and that General Antonescu, as Head of State, enjoyed supreme powers. Another judgement of great importance was the decision reached by the High Court of Appeal to the effect that the anti-Jewish measures could not be regarded unconstitutional.

Commenting on the implications of this decision, the Rumanian press observed, as it had done on countless occasions in the past, that Rumania was the first country in South Eastern Europe where the Jewish problem was being settled radically and that it had been clearly recognised in Rumania that the Jewish question was indeed a racial problem.

A separate decree ordered the confiscation for the benefit of the State of all ships, steamers or boats of any kind in the hands of Jews and provided purely fictitious compensation by way of exchange. Similarly all Jewish hospitals, whether owned by the community or private individuals passed into State ownership.

In practice and regardless of however severe the anti-Jewish measures were, even the Rumanianised enterprises were compelled to continue to use Jewish capital and technical advice. The establishment of the Rumanianisation Centre, the foundation of the Rumanian Credit Institute, the registration of all shares and the radical measures passed in respect of anyone endeavouring to conceal Jewish capital eventually resulted in the assets of the Jewish community passing en bloc either into the hands of the Rumanian Government or into those of pureblooded Rumanians.

In addition to the more general measures, there were numerous restrictions of a more personal nature restricting the liberty of (65) the Jews. For example, every Jew was made to surrender his wireless set, bicycle, motor-bicycle, camera, skis, etc.

A decree was passed ordering every Jew to surrender personal clothing in proportion to his income. Any Jew not possessing the clothes required was fined.

The so-called "Rehabilitation Tax" was enforced in 1942. Under the provisions of a decree promulgated on March 10th, Jews were obliged to pay four times the amount paid by the remainder of the population. The decree further ordered that Jewish commercial companies, business associations and organisations had to pay four times the regular tax. In the spring of 1943, the Jews were ordered to pay a sum of four billion lei or else suffer deportation to Transnistria.

The statistical data issued by the National Rumanianisation Centre in respect of the changes in the economic life of the country reveal the following:

By the end of 1943, the organisation had liquidated or transferred to other Rumanians 12,437 Jewish firms; in Bucharest itself, there were 142,708 employees, of which only 3,018 were Jews. The numbers of Christian and Jewish employees in the provinces were 71,308 and 3,488 respectively. There, 3 ,825 firms had been Rumanianised; 16,195 Jewish employees and 5,524 Jewish workmen had been dismissed.

Whilst the use of brute force was frequently resorted to in the history of anti-Semitism, the blood-bath, looting and beatings which took place in January 1941 surpassed everything previously known. Even the official publication issued by the Rumanian Government in 1941 (Pe Mardinea prapastiei) admits that several thousand Jews were slaughtered by the Iron Guard. During the period of rioting, Jewish shops in the capital were looted; hundreds of Jews were rounded up and tortured to death or burned alive. When the insurrection had been beaten down, the bodies of the Jewish victims were so numerous that they could not be accomodated in the mortuary and piles of dead bodies lay in the courtyard.

No less ghastly was the fate of the Jewish elements in the reoccupied territories of Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. When the Rumanian troops marched into these territories, they were given official orders to slaughter all Jews. Hardly a Jew was left alive in the re-captured territories, those who remained being crowded into ghettos. Rumanian state officials and soldiers who visited these ghettos have horrible stories to tell. The ditches lining the road to the camps were full of bank-notes, jewelry and other valuables cast away by the deportees on being threatened to be shot out of hand if found in the possession of such articles. Rumanian officials then collected the discarded valuables and offered them fort sale, as can be seen from a study of the advertisement pages of leading Rumanian newspaper of that day.

The plight of the unfortunate Jews in these territories grew from bad to worse, so that they were prepared to pay any sum (66) for the permission to return to Rumania proper, where life was relatively easier. Many high-ranking Rumanian officers and officials underwent trial on charges of having accepted Jewish bribes. The more humane Rumanians living in Bessarabia sent a delegation headed by Dorin Popovici, Minister for Bukovina, to Bucharest, which complained about the inhuman treatment of the Jews and appealed for this state of affairs to be stopped at once. Antonescu received the members of this delegation very coldly and refused to comply with their requests, It was even rumoured that the commander of the German forces of occupation in Bessarabia sent for Antonescu and remonstrated with him regarding the excessive brutality of the anti-Jewish measures he had seen fit to introduce,

There was hardly any possibility of emigration for the Jews, and even if small groups were allowed to leave the country after payment of immense sums, the personal belongings of the emigrants were seized before they boarded the foreign ships taking them to their destinations, The only hope of escape for the Jews was to flee to Hungary, Deportation to Transnistria was the most serious punishment that could be inflicted on any Jew, Many witnesses, who saw the terrible conditions prevailing there, declare that the Jews were so close to starvation that they were eating grass. The description given by Dr. Zimmer, a Jewish lawyer from Cernovitz, was particularly shocking, Dr. Zimmer went to school with, Professor Alexianu, then Governor of Transnistria, and it was due to the latter's intervention that he was eventually set free. On being released, Dr. Zimmer paid Professor Alexianu a visit with the purpose of enlisting his assistance in obtaining an interview with Premier Michael Antonescu. In this he was successful. In the course of the interview, Dr, Zimmer appealed to the Premier to be allowed to hold a collection amongst the Rumanian Jews for the purpose of providing clothing and medicines for their deported co-religionists in Transnistria, To begin with, Antonescu tried to evade the issue, stating that the Rumanian Government regarded the deportees in Transnistria as foreigners and, as such, could allow no financial help to be given them, Finally, however, he gave way to Dr. Zimmer's appeal and instructed Professor Alexianu to inspect the concentration camps and to submit a report on his findings, Antonescu further permitted the collection of twenty-five billion lei monthly, with the proviso that the sum in question had to be paid in at the National Bank of Rumania and remitted to the Tiraspole branch at a fixed rate of exchange in view of the circumstance that the "Reichskreditkassenschein" constituted the official currency in those areas. As a result of this transaction, two thirds of the value of the funds were lost and the Jews in Transnistria received the sum only three weeks after it had been paid in at the National Bank. There was little Dr. Zimmer could do to remedy this state of affairs, as the terrible living conditions of the (67) deported Jews compelled him to accept any restrictions imposed in order to obtain the relief offered by the sums that got through. The misery of the life of these Jews defies description. Parentless children were roaming about the district in a state of semi-starvation. Roughly about 140,000 Jews had been deported to Transnistria. Of these between twenty or thirty thousand of the wealthier Jews were somehow able to provide for themselves, while the rest lived in the greatest misery and want, so much so that even potato peelings were a veritable delicacy. The inmates of the Pecsarka camp had sold all their clothing for food and were forced to run around in practically a state of nudity. Zimmer himself saw Jews endeavouring to ease their hunger by eating grass. No medicines of any kind were available. There were no means of repairing the semi-ruined houses inhabited by the Jews, as no tools of any description were available. According to Dr. Zimmer's testimony, not one of the Jews deported from Transylvania ever arrived at their destinations in Transnistria, as they were executed on the way by the Rumanians, allegedly because they had spoken Hungarian en route.

On the eve of the war against the Soviet Union, the German High Command instructed the Rumanian Government to remove all suspicious persons from the theatre of military operations with the object of preventing sabotage and espionage. The Rumanian Ministry of Interior interpreted this regulation as applying particularly to the Jewish elements and ordered their immediate removal. Jews were carried off without even being allowed to change their clothing or pack some essential kit. Jews caught in the streets could not return to their homes to say good-bye to their families. Naturally, the authorities made the most of the occasion to profit financially and were particularly zealous in rounding up, and releasing, wealthy Jews, providing the victim was willing to sacrifice everything he had in exchange for his liberty. Not only did the Rumanians round up the Jews, they also massacred them. In Jassy, for example, a variable blood-bath ensued.

On the night of June 25th, 1941, the rumour was spread in Jassi that Soviet Russian parachutists had landed on the outskirts of the town with the object of engaging in sabotage activities. The commandant of the military forces ordered a search of all Jewish homes. Many of the Jews, fearing new acts of terror, were afraid to open their doors. Some Rumanian deserters, who were hiding in Jassi and who believed that the purpose of the house to house search was to effect their arrest, fired on the troops. The report then spread that the Jews were firing upon the soldiers, upon which a second St. Bartholemew's night followed.

About 5,000 Jews who managed to survive the bloodbath were rounded up and, on June 28th, driven into closed cattle trucks - eighty to a truck. Before this took place, carbid was scattered on the floors of the trucks. The train took three nights and three days (68) to get from Jassi to Mircesti, a distance of 80 km. When the train drew in at Mircesti station, the stench emanating from the trucks was such, that the sanitary authorities ordered the padlocked doors to be opened. The escort, on the other hand, had received strict orders not to permit the doors to be opened under any circumstance whatsoever. When the want of air drove the unfortunate inmates of the trucks to desperation, the Jews, who were close to suffocation, endeavoured to smash the thinner boards on the sides of the trucks. This attempt was answered by a volley of small arms fire. The stillness of the night was shattered by terrible screams and yells from the trucks. "Air ... " "Water, we are perishing of thirst .. ," The escorting soldiers even fired on those kind-hearted persons, who, on hearing the commotion, tried to come to the assistance of the trapped Jews.

When finally the doors were slid back, a pile of dead bodies was discovered in each truck. According to the official report, the cause of death was suffocation, uremia and lack of water.

The bodies were disposed of in a common grave and the train continued on its journey to arrive, after a number of stops during which the scenes described above were repeated, at Chitila-Triaj station. Here a gain the Jews were kept imprisoned in their railway trucks without anyone being allowed in their vicinity. They were not provided with food during the whole of the journey. From Chitilia-Triaj, the train proceeded to Bucharest-South station, where the sanitary authorities of the army ordered the Jews to surrender their clothing for the purpose of disinfection. When these had been given up, the train pulled out and the passengers, in a state of nudity, where taken on to Calaras, where, with the permission of the Rumanian Ministry of the Interior, they were provided with food and clothing by the local Jewish community. Approximately 20,000 Jews are still missing from Jassi to this day.

The treatment meted out to the Jews on their way to internment camps can be judged by the following:

180 unidentified Jewish bodies lie buried in a grave at Sabacan (a railway station close to the towns of Vaslui and Roman). 536 Jews lie buried in a common grave outside the village of Targu Frumos. 231 bodies of unknown Jews lie buried in a common grave in the neighbourhood of the village of Mircesti (County Roman). 1,119 unidentified Jewish bodies were buried in the Jewish cemetery outside the village of Polul Iloanei.

When the town of Kisinev fell to the Rumanian army, the occupying troops were received by a delegation of Jews headed by Rabbi Tzirelsohn. On the orders of a Rumanian Colonel, every member of the delegation was shot and a communique issued subsequently to the effect that the Rabbi and other members of the delegation had lost their lives in an air-raid.

In order to obtain even an approximate picture of the measure of persecution suffered by the Jews of Rumania, it is not enough I Black Book (69) merely to examine the anti-Jewish measures introduced in that country. The introduction of new anti-Jewish measures left the Jewish population in a state of complete uncertainty owing to the fact that the Government connived at individual interpretation being attached to each measure by the local authorities, The Jews were barred from taking part in the economic life of the country with the object of strengthening the position of the non-Jewish population. At that time one of the most popular means of acquiring wealth in Rumania was. to accuse a Jew of being "pro-Churchill" or Anglophile, or having offended against the interests of the Rumanian State, This excuse was sufficient to bring about the confiscation of all property of the Jew implicated. The Rumanian press frequently boasted that almost alone of all the European countries, there had never been a Rumanian Cabinet Minister of Jewish origin. The press was loud in voicing the leading role played by Rumania in fighting Jewry, for, stated the press, Rumania was always anti-Jewish and, as a result, had to fight continually not only against the Jews, but, in the second half of the nineteenth century, against the great powers of the West as well.

According to the returns of the 1930 census

728,118 Jews

were then living in Rumania, A fresh census was held in 1941 and it was then found that only

373,779 Jews

remained in the country. If, therefore, we take the territory of Greater Rumania of 1940 into account, there were, according to the 1930 census, 588,508 Jews living in this territory. If we now discount the natural increase for these ten years, there is a loss even then of

314,729 Jews.

The situation underwent a considerable change in many respects since 1941; the number of interned persons increased, a circumstance that cost roughly 100 ,000 Jews their lives, Thus it is not probable that more than a quarter of a million Jews a r e actually still alive in Rumania to-day.

In January 1941, the members of the Iron Guard organised pogroms throughout Rumania, Antonescu endeavoured to pacify the Iron Guard with the following words: " ... Do not fight, because the loss of any legionary will make it all the easier for the Jews and the Free Masons to seize power .. ," (Extract from a broadcast made by Antonescu.)

When the revolt had been subdued, Antonescu said: " ... The revolutionaries staged a terrible blood-bath. They did not pay the least heed to the most elementary rules of humanity and their lust for blood knew no limits."

 " . .. I am in possession of conclusive proofs of the way in which the legionaries tortured and robbed wealthy Jews ... " 70

In Bucharest itself, as well as in Dudesti, Jewish shops were looted and several hundred Jews murdered. Antonescu put an end to the revolt, but at the same time introduced drastic measures against the Jews who attempted to defend themselves by emigration or the use of bribes. In Rumania proper this proved 1 satisfactory, but in the territories occupied by Rumania after the i: first World War and since, conditions were almost too terrible for words.

In July 1941, the Soviet Russian armies withdrew, while Rumanian troops, together with units of the Gestapo, marched into Bukovina. 14,000 Jews were massacred by the Rumanians in the town of Jassy and 600 in the village of Ciudei (County Storojinet). (Extract from the November 20th 1944 issue of "Mantuirea”, the organ of the Rumanian Jews.)

These forces then entered Cernauti, a town with a Jewish population of 60,000, on July 6th. On the following day, the synagogue was fired and 1,200 Jews, among them Rabbi Mark, were shot. General Cornelius Calotescu, the Governor of the province, was placed in supreme command of Bukovina and with the help of his "chef de cabinet", Major Sterne Marinescu, set about the liquidation of 150,000 Jews. (Statements submitted by witnesses and extracts from the indictment prepared by Dr. Rossi, a Jewish lawyer of Cernauti.)

50,000 Jews were crowded together in the ghettos at Cernauti and Dorohoiu, where there was accommodation at the outside for 10,000 to 15,000. Order No. 37/1941, issued on October 10th, 1941, decreed the deportation of the entire Jewish population of Bukovina. This task was entrusted to the Rumanian gendarmerie and police force. The Jews herded together in the ghetto of Cernauti were first robbed, and, by the end of 1942, 30,000 were deported, while the remaining 20,000-the wealthier individuals-were blackmailed. From the 60,000 Jews deported from the camp s of Cernauti and Dorohoiu, only 12,000 later returned. The same measures were inflicted on the Jewish population of the Rumanian provinces of Succava, Campulung, Radauti, Storojinet, Dorohiu and Hotin. Of the 250,000 Jews deported from these provinces only 25,000 remained alive.

In Odessa also, terrible crimes were committed. The Soviet Russian army withdrew from this city on October 16th, 1941. The entry of the Rumanian troops was followed by a blood-bath that lasted for six days. When, on October 22nd, the house in which the Rumanian Headquarters were billeted blew up, Antonescu sent a telegram ordering reprisals against the civilian population in view of the circumstance that-as he put it-the outrage was clearly the work of partisans. (An enquiry held subsequently clearly showed that the house had been mined by the Russians before they withdrew from Odessa.) According to the instructions issued by Antonescu, two hundred civilians were to be executed for every officer who had lost his life in the affair and one hundred 71 for every other rank. 16 officers, eight non-commissioned officers, one functionary and 35 private soldiers were killed in this explosion. That meant that 8,500 civilians had to be executed. Over 35,000 Jews were seized by the orders of General Gazun and General Nicolas Maciei. These unfortunates were liquidated either by hanging, by machine gun fire or by being cremated alive on the grounds of the Dalniki collective farm outside Odessa. (Statemen ts deposited by Lieut. Col. Davidescu Radu and other witnesses - "Frontul Plugarilor", April 12th, 1945.)

The most brutal of mass murders took place in Golta Department, where 70,000 Jews were massacred with the assistance of Colonel Isopescu Modest and Prefect Aristid Padure. (Extracted from the charges brought against Isopescu and his confederates at their trial before the Rumanian People's Court.) In this case too, the first steps consisted in the establishment of ghettos and concentration camps, amongst which those at Bogdanovka, Dumanovka and Akmecetka were the most notorious.

Isopescu and his henchmen first of all seized the belongings of the 48,000 Jews interned at Bogdanovka. When the inmate s of the concentration camp declared that they had nothing further to give, the next step was starvation. No food was allowed to be brought into the camp for days. Then orders were given for a baker's shop to be opened and fresh bread was sold for gold! For five gold rubels a loaf of bread could be obtained. When even this did not prove profitable enough, Isopescu ordered the extermination of the Jews. Between December 21st and 23rd they were driven into four stables, where the executions took place. Afterwards petrol was poured over their corpses and the stables set alight. The Jews left over were made to march in groups of between 80 and 100 persons to a precipice overhanging the river Bug some three kilometres from Bogdanovka. There they were stripped of all their belongings and their ring fingers chopped off, if the rings could not easily be removed. Even their gold teeth were forcibly extracted. After that, standing stark naked in a temperature of 40 degrees below zero, they were shot. The corpses fell over the precipice into the river. This grim scene lasted for three days. On Christmas Day, the butchers had a "rest". Isopescu, accompanied by a large group of his sadist friends, used to make excursions by sledge to witness the executions and photograph the scene. On December 28th, the butchery began again and finished two days later. Of the 48,000 Jews interned at Bogdanovka, only 200 selected Jews were left. The duty of these was to "bury" the dead. The next days were spent burning those corpses which had not fallen in the river on huge pyres. The procedure adopted was to have a layer of bodies over a layer of wood and straw, then another layer of wood and straw covered by bodies and so on. Fat bodies were laid side by side with thin ones. (This was done on the personal instructions of Isopescu, who said that the "fatter bodies feed the flames better") This task was completed by the 72 end of February 1942, when 150 of the remaining 200 Jews were shot. In the same way, Isopescu had 18,000 Jews executed at Dumanovka. 5,000 Jews were submitted to terrible tortures in a farm-yard at Akmecetka, Isopescu himself was in the habit of paying periodical visits to the scenes of executions and, in a drunken stupor, of watching the agony of the victims.

23,000 Jews were killed in the Vartujen camp. ("Frontal Pulsatile," June 14th, 1945.) Only 7,000 out of the 150,000 Bessarabian Jews remained alive after their deportation to the Ukraine. (70,000 Jews were murdered in Chisinau and 8,000 in Cetatea Alba.)1) The same state of affairs prevailed at the concentration camps at Vapniarka, Balta and elsewhere. In many places the only food supplied to the inmates of these camps consisted of peas intended as cattle food, a diet which resulted in the inmates being stricken with paralysis. On arrival at the concentration camps, the Jews were greeted with the words: "You have come here on two feet and if you do not end your lives here, you will be allowed to leave on four feet only," When the trials were held before the Rumanian People's Court, a number of witnesses, including Rebecca Marcus, a well-known Rumanian dancer of Jewish birth and a star of the Odessa ballet, were indeed able to walk on all fours only as a result of having been struck by paralysis. (After a trial lasting several months, the Rumanian People's Court sentenced the accused to death. The verdict was confirmed by the Court of Appeal. On the recommendation of Prime Minister Groza and the Minister of Justice, Patrascanu, King Michael on June 1st, 1945, granted Calotescu, Isopescu, Padure, Marinescu and their associates an amnesty. Up to the date of the publication of this book, no Rumanian war criminal has been executed.)

Such was the situation in respect of the treatment of the Jews in the three countries surrounding Hungary. There, however, the Kallay Government flatly refused to consider-up to March 19th, 1944-all demands made by the German Government, while the measures introduced by the Hungarian Minister of Interior put a stop to any activity on the part of the "Nyilas" extremists.

While the Germans had practically annihilated Central European Jewry, roughly one million Jews lived in Hungary. They all had to thank the "protection" afforded them by Regent Horthy and the Kallay Government for their physical existence in what the Nazis called the "Central European Jewish Island."

Conscious of the gravity of the situation, the Jews of Hungary followed the developments on the different battlefields of the world with particular anxiety, for they clearly realised that only 

1) Statement made by Captain Bata, ex-Mayor of Mogilev, published in "Romania biberen", April 9th, 1945, 73 by the overthrow of the Nazis could the oppressed peoples of Europe be finally liberated and could they hope to save their lives. The frightful prophecy made by Hitler  in one of his frenzies had long since been fulfilled:

"I can promise the Jews of the world one thing: they will Jose all desire to laugh!" (Hitler in a speech, October 4th, 1942 .) 74

Part II.

Hungarian Jewry under Direct Nazi Pressure.

(March 19th to October 15th, 1944.)

I.

VISIT TO HITLER - OCCUPATION OF HUNGARY.

The purpose of the second part of this book is to present a picture of the tragedy of the Hungarian Jews subsequent to the German occupation and until October 15th, 1944.

Three basic principles were observed for the settlement of the Jewish problem, principles the observance of which had been demanded of the Kallay Cabinet, and which were willingly put into effect by the Sztojay puppet Government on its obtaining power. These were:

a) Discrimination between the Jewish population and the other inhabitants by the wearing of emblems,

b) Complete exclusion from the cultural and economic life of the country of the Jewish population and the confiscation of their belongings.

c) Segregation in ghettos of the Jewish elements.

The following passages will show the reasons for the deportation and extermination of a substantial majority of the Jewish elements in Hungary and how this was brought about.

On March 16th, 1944, von Jagow, the German Minister- to Hungary informed Admiral Horthy that it was the wish of the German Chancellor that he should visit the latter immediately. Francis Szombathely (Knausz) persuaded the Regent to take this step and accompanied Nicolas Horthy on his mission. In the course of the conversation that followed, Hitler informed the Hungarian representatives in terms which were both extremely cold and rude, that the attempts of the Kallay Government to establish contact with the British Government had come to his knowledge and that he - was aware of the fact that the purpose of the negotiations was to pave the way for the conclusion of a separate peace with the United Nations. Hitler declared that he had decided, as a result, to occupy Hungary. Regent Horthy was prevented from leaving the scene of the negotiations for twenty-four hours and permission for him to return to Hungary was granted only after General Szombathelyi had been received by Hitler and an agreement had been reached in respect of the occupation of Hungary by German troops.

At dawn on March 19th, 1944, German airborne troops occupied the airfields outside Budapest and in the provinces. While this operation was in progress, German motorised divisions entered the country from practically all points of the compass. By the (77) time Horthy had returned to Budapest, the occupation was complete. No resistance was offered the Germans, as the Chief of Staff, Szombathelyi, had telephoned that the occupation of Hungary by German troops would take place in keeping with an agreement entered into between Horthy and the German High Command.

On returning from Germany, Nicolas Horthy summoned a meeting of the Crown Council. According to the minutes of the meeting, the Regent stated:

" ... Hitler also objected to the fact that Hungary has not yet introduced the steps necessary to settle the Jewish question. We are accused, therefore, of the crime of not having carried out Hitler's wishes and I am charged with not having permitted the Jews to be massacred. According to Hitler, there are no more than 6,000 Jews in Finland, and yet it is only the Jews there who publish anti-German articles in the press and who demand that Finland should cease to take part in the war ... "

Dominic Sztojay, then Hungarian Minister to Berlin, was also present at the meeting. In an expose dealing with the conversations he had had with Ribbentrop, he said: " ... While the Regent was engaged in conversation with the Fuhrer, I had an opportunity of exchanging views with the German Foreign Minister. He asked me whether I had submitted a report to the Kallay Cabinet. On replying in the affirmative, Ribbentrop stated that nothing whatsoever had been done, particularly not in respect of the Jewish question. I told Ribbentrop that had the proportion of Jews in Germany to the remainder of the population been as high as it was in Hungary, then even Germany would not have been able to settle the matter so easily ... "

This then was the attitude of Sztojay as regards the Jewish question at the time when he was about to become Premier of Hungary.

Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer, whose treatment of the Jewish question had been extremely conciliatory during his period of office as Minister of the Interior, announced at this meeting that "he would not remain at his post one minute longer" seeing that the Germans had taken charge of the police force and that the Gestapo was busy rounding up Hungarian politicians. "I will not allow one single Jew to be taken out of the town", he said.

The Regent ended the meeting with the following elegiac words:

" ... This unfortunate nation too must say something. I have lull confidence in the future of the nation and I believe that we will, by the grace of God, be able to survive the present critical times ... "

With these words the Regent left the room and the Cabinet signed the document of resignation.

Even while the Crown Council was in session, the Germans were busy arresting prominent Left-wing politicians and the liquidation of the Hungarian Jews began. (78)

II.

THE GESTAPO AT THE HEADQUARTERS OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY.

On the morning of Sunday, March 19th, 1944, the leading Jews of Budapest met in the Sip Street premises of the Israelite community of Pest. Tension and almost tangible anxiety lay in the air. Those present at the meeting had already learnt ( that German troops had crossed the Hungarian frontier at a number of points and had occupied the principal military objectives of the capital. It was for that very reason that the conference was over in an unusually short time. Tribute was paid to the memory of Lewis Kossuth, whose death had occurred fifty years ago, and subsequently the financial estimates for the year 1944 were adopted without modification. The meeting was then closed and its members hurried home ...

There were very few representatives of the Jewish religious  community at their headquarters on that Sunday afternoon, when three small yellow cars bearing the letters "Pol." on their number plates drew up before the house. The Germans who alighted stated that they would return at 10 a. m. on the following day, when they wished to meet the heads of the Jewish community.

These orders were passed on and an immediate meeting was called. The deliberations resulted in following resolution: "We are Hungarian subjects, consequently it is our duty to report to the Government authorities before entering into discussions of any kind with the Germans."

The Jewish Council acted accordingly. However, the Ministry of Cults, as the supreme authority in all matters relating to religious affairs, refused to assume any responsibility, nor did the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of the Interior or the police authorities express their readiness to do so. In every instance the reply was: "Carry out any orders you may receive from the Germans."

Thus were the Hungarians of Jewish faith or origin betrayed to the Germans. That was the beginning ...

As ordered, the heads of the Jewish community assembled at their headquarters on the following morning. Some of them believed that they would be placed under immediate arrest by the Gestapo and, for that reason, had brought with them small suitcases containing a few necessities. The more prudent ones came with their families.

The minutes dragged by and after hours of suspense the German delegation, consisting of three officers, a civilian and a (79) few armed men, appeared. One of the officers, a lean Obersturmbannführer with a dyspeptic look about him, announced that the delegation would assume the exclusive right of disposing over all Jewish affairs in keeping with the agreement entered into with the Hungarian Government, and that he, Obersturmbannführer Krumey, and his colleague, Baron von Wyslizeni, had been entrusted with this task. If the Jews obeyed orders, no harm would come to them. The German officers then asked for a stenographer who spoke their language and, until one could be found, began to talk with the representatives of the Jewish community. Krumey, who noticed the small suitcases, smiled and said: "Es wird niemand in Haft genommen ... " (Nobody is going to be arrested ...).

The gist of the conversation w as that the Jews should not be afraid, as there was no reason for that. Certain restrictions would be imposed, but the Germa ns were responsible for the security of person and property and there would b e no deportations.

Minutes were prepared and the first instructions issued. The Germans required the Jews to form a Jewish Council (Judenrat), whose duty it would be to execute, respectively supervise, t he execution of instructions given them. The Jews were required t o draw up a list of all Jewish institutions and of the heads of these institutions; they were also ordered to declare all real est ate owned by the Jewish Community in Budapest with particular regard to the accommodation available in the various buildings. The Jews were informed that they were barred from travelling and from changing their domicile. Anyone failing to carry out these orders or found to be engaged in sabotage would be executed.

Generally speaking, contact between the Jewish and German representatives was on a courteous level. The Germans, for instance, never omitted to use the title "Herr Hofrat" when addressing the President of the Jewish community. The atmosphere was so "cordial" that one of the members of the Jewish delegation, in a telephone conversation with his home, said: "There is nothing wrong, they want to collaborate with us ... "

On the following day, however, things began to happen. Orders were given for the evacuation within a quarter of an hour of all the buildings, schools and places of worship belonging to the Jewish Community. The Germans also submitted their first demand, in which they asked for 300 mattresses, 600 blankets and 30 compositors ...

Considerable difficulty was experienced in collecting the compositors, who were then taken to the printing press of the Social Democratic Party. There it was their first duty to repair the damage they had done the day before and they were th en made to set and print leaflets. (80) The question of mattresses and blankets was not easily solved either, as none were available. Finally the Germans lost their patience, drew their revolvers and said:

" .... If our demand is not met by five p.m. to-day, we will have the responsible leaders shot. You must realise that, if it is possible to execute 10,000 Jews within ten minutes, a demand of this nature can be met within an hour and a hall. Quite apart from that, we don't know the meaning of the word 'impossible'!"

By five p.m. 600 blankets used by Jews who had been conscripted into the labour services and 300 mattresses, removed from the beds of the staff and patients of the Jewish hospital, were in the hands of the Germans.

Shortly afterwards it became known that hostages in the persons of politically or industrially prominent Jews were being seized by the Germans and that they were being taken from their homes and herded together in some provisional German prison. Many were detained in one of the principal prisons of Budapest on the night of March 19th. Hungarian plain clothes men, assisted by the Gestapo, made everyone at the railway stations produce his or her identity cards and Jews found there or in the vicinity of the stations were placed under preventive arrest and later removed to an internment camp at Kistarcsa, not far from Budapest. Replying to the complaints made by the Jewish Council, Obersturmbannführer Krumey declared there was no reason for anxiety as the persons detained would be released within a short time.

" ... No one," he said, "will be ill-treated just because he happens to be a Jew. We shall detain only those as hostages, who played some particularly prominent political role or who are plain scoundrels!"

The Jews wished to inform the Hungarian authorities of the measures that had been introduced, but no Government Department willing to take notice of these complaints could be found. The senior Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice put forward following excuse for not taking action on March 21st:

" .... The armed power maintaining the sovereignty of the Hungarian State has collapsed; the Regent is a prisoner and two armed German Grenadiers are standing outside his door!"

At five o'clock in the afternoon of March 21st, the heads of the Jewish Community in Budapest, the representatives of various religious institutions and those of certain provincial Jewish organisations who happened to be in Budapest at the time met at the wish of the Germans in the assembly hall of the Jewish Community. The walls of this room were lined with oil-paintings of famous Hungarian politicians and scientists of Jewish origin. About 200 delegates were present when Krumey occupied the chair of the President, while on his right sat Wyslizeni and on his left Samuel Stern, the President of the Jewish Community of Pest. (81) An individual in mufti, who spoke German with an accent peculiar to the Swabs of Hungary, read out the names contained in the list handed to the Germans the day before. Those present, whose name was called out, answered with a loud: "Present!" Where the president or the head of some institution was absent, but was represented by another individual, the name of the representative was taken, A note was made in every instance of the reason for the absence of persons not answering their names.

After the roll-call had been completed, Wyslizeni made a short speech that was again full of promises. While there would be certain restrictions, he declared, the Jews would still be allowed to continue their religious and cultural life as before. "Alles geht weiter wie bisher!" (Everything continues as before) he said. The Germans, he continued, attached importance to this, as they did not want a panic to break out, a run to be made on the banks or deposits to be withdrawn. Nothing, he declared, must be allowed to interfere with the religious services. He asked the Rabbis to re-assure the members of their congregations.

The meeting then took note of the names of the eight representatives of the Jewish Council, formed for the purpose of passing on orders given by the Germans.

A committee consisting of Dr. Samu Stern as president, Dr. Erno Boda, Dr. Erno Peto and Dr. Karoly Wilhelm represented the Neologists of Pest; the Neogolist community of Buda was represented by Dr. Samuel Csobadi; the Orthodox Jews were represented by Samuel Kahan-Frankl and Fulop Freudiger and the Zionists by Dr. Nisen Kahan. After the constitution of the Jewish Council, the only Jewish organ permitted-the "Newspaper of the Hungarian Jews" published the first instructions to be issued by the Germans:

" ... On definitive instructions received from the competent authorities, we herewith announce the principles to be observed and the line of action to be followed and obligatory to everyone concerned. Everyone must remain at his post, must continue to do his duty and must devote his full energy to the work required of him by the authorities. We wish it to be known, on the basis of a definite statement to this effect issued by the competent authorities, that the commercial, cultural and social existence of the Jews is to continue undisturbed. The announcement will reassure everyone. The wish has been expressed for a Jewish Council to be formed in order to represent the Jews. This Council will have the right to appoint sub-committees for the purpose of attending to detail work. The Central Jewish Council is the only authorised and responsible body representing the whole of Hungarian Jewry and is the body authorised to maintain contact with the German authorities.

It has been stated that no one will be arrested because of his Jewish origin. Should arrests prove necessary, these will be due (82) to entirely different reasons. Jews may not leave the precincts al the capital, nor may they change their address. Provincial Jews may not travel to Budapest. Should any Jews have arrived in Budapest recently, the authorities are to be notified without delay. Applications for travel permits or to effect a change of address must be submitted to the Central Jewish Council. The attention of all concerned is emphatically drawn to the necessity for the strictest and most conscientious observance of all these regulations. Only if the regulations are observed carefully, can it be guaranteed that everyone will be able to live a normal life. The Central Council draws the attention of all concerned to the importance of everyone, who may be called upon to report by the Council as the result of instructions received, doing so without delay."

As will be seen the Germans followed a well-established routine. Their system and the way they worked had been planned to the last detail. Everywhere the Gestapo hypocritically pretended to be a benefactor. Its members took care to avoid making themselves conspicuous and disliked arousing fear. They worked silently, intently and observed the greatest secrecy. The German "opium" went so far that there were Gestapo officers who behaved in the most polite way possible, who advanced pseudo-scientific arguments in the most winning manner; those were the men whose duty it was to re-assure the public, to banish fear and to mislead the innocents. But there were among them a number whose behaviour was brutal and threatening; it was their duty to maintain the fear of authority and to squeeze as much work and, even more so, as many material advantages out of the Jews as possible. Whilst Krumey and his associates, for example, put forward their demands in terms of the greatest politeness, there were people like Herr Huntsche and Herr Naumann, who first of all seized the Orthodox Church in Kazincsy street and converted it into a stable and who snarled at Ernest Peto: "Stehen Sie auf, wenn wir in das Zimmer kommen, Sie sind doch nur ein gewohnlicher Jud'!" (Get up, when we come into the room! You are nothing but a common Jew!)

For the first few days, the Germans were alone in carrying out anti-Jewish measures, even if they did call on the members of the Hungarian police force to help them. Recourse to the help of the Hungarian police force was had principally when hostages were being arrested. On March 19th and 20th, Gestapo agents equipped with complete lists of names arrested the most exposed political and economic representatives of Hungarian Jewry. On the morning of March 20th, Gestapo agents visited the banks and collected a few more leading Jewish representatives of the business world. Persons arrested were then confined in temporary places of detention. The Wehrmacht had its seat in the Hotel Astoria, the SS in the Royal; other public buildings were occupied by the Ortskommando, the Streifkommando and similar organisations. (83) Temporary places of detention were established and the persons arrested kept there until some decision had been taken as to their final disposal. It was only natural that the Left-wing elements, politicians, journalists and Jews wishing to flee the country should have been particularly active, once they had recovered s from their first shock. There were thousands of people who never slept in the same bed two nights running and who sought refuge in the houses of their Christian friends. As a result, many of them were able to escape immediate arrest. The Germans were well aware of these desperate attempts, and that is why people like Herr Krumey behaved with such apparent outer friendliness and at the same time issued strict instructions forbidding changes of address.

On the first week-day after the entry of the Germans, into Hungary, agitated crowds rushed to withdraw their cash and securities from the banks. Hundreds of persons could be seen standing in long queues before the doors of the principal banks waiting for them to open. Depositors continued to storm the banks till late at night . . . This is why the Gestapo officers found it necessary to warn the Rabbis to appeal to the members of their congregations not to take part in the run on the banks, as thy would suffer no loss. When this re-assuring news became known, many depositors returned their securities to the banks.

The following example provides a typical illustration of the and carried him off to the Hotel Astoria. There Obersturmbannführer Krumey ran into him and having stated that he had already met the person in question at the meeting of the Jewish Council that morning, was able to obtain his release. The result of this was that the members and employees of the Council were reassured and that is now the idea came into being that it might be advantageous to obtain an identity card from the Gestapo. This however, did not take place until some weeks later.

It would appear that another method practised by the Germans at the outset was to remedy one or two of the complaints and thus allay the comprehensible fears of the Jewish population. This is why, as a result of the first intervention made by the Jewish Council, all males over sixty, females over fifty and juveniles of both sexes under sixteen were released from Kistarcsa on March 24th. The Germans promised to set other persons free as well and to release all persons who were innocent and who had been arrested. These promises were made, but were never kept. Acting on the orders of the Germans, the Jewish Council telegraphically summoned a meeting of the representatives of the provincial Jewish organisations.

The Germans wanted the Jewish Council to administer the affairs of their co-religionists throughout the country, but refused to grant travel-permits when requested. Naturally it was quite methods adopted by the Germans. On March 20th, a special detachment arrested a member of the Jewish Council at his home (84) impossible for the Council to set up a nation-wide organisation. (Later it was learned that the Germans had, when setting up the Jewish Council in Budapest, established local Councils in the various provincial towns and that these Councils functioned under the orders of the Gestapo and were independent of each other. The "national" conference held on March 28th was consequently the first and last experiment to be carried out in this field.)

The Budapest Council considered it one of its primary duties to report the German demands to the Hungarian authorities. However, every Government organisation or Department applied to by the Council declared itself not competent to deal with the Jewish problem and the Jewish Council was advised to execute the orders of the Germans to the full.

The Germans issued their orders directly to the Jewish Council. To begin with, the demands made by the Germans were of a material nature and assumed the most extraordinary forms both in the capital and in the provinces, (Eichmann asked for and received freight bills made out in his name, but there was never any question of settling them!)

In addition to the general equipment of a more military nature (paillasses, blankets, sheets, bedding, eating utensils, water bottles, pails, kitchen equipment, brooms, dish-cloths etc.) the Germans demanded all kinds of luxury goods and not infrequently in considerable quantities (suit-cases, dispatch-cases, type-writers, motor cars, glassware, field glasses, wireless sets, silver cutlery, toilet sets, mirrors etc.) Later on, the demands put forward were simply unreasonable. They asked for supplies of women's lingerie, eau de cologne, scent and other articles that even the most fertile imagination would hardly class as a military necessity. There was an occasion when they demanded a set of cut-glass champagne glasses. Another time President Samuel Stern was asked to supply them with original Watteau landscapes, as they wanted to decorate the apartments of a high ranking German officer ... By degrees the Germans "accustomed" the members of the Council and other officials not to express surprise at the most outlandish demands and to fulfill these willingly and immediately. A characteristic example deserves to be quoted: Hauptsturmführer Novak once declared soulfully that it was his dream to possess a piano. Hardly had he expressed this wish, when no less than eight pianos were offered him. This brought the laughing reply: "Meine Herren, ich will ja kein Klaviergeschaft eroffnen, ich will nur Klavier spielen .. ," ("But, gentlemen, I don't want to open a music shop, I merely want to play the piano!") Other demands pressed by the Germans aimed at the responsibility for the accommodation and food for the hundreds of Jews arrested by the Gestapo being taken over by the Jewish Council. Shortly afterwards the Jewish detainees were crowded together in the college for Rabbis at 26, Rokk Szilard Street. From then on these premises were used as a Gestapo prison. Early on the Tuesday and Wednesday following (85) the arrival of the Germans in Hungary, Swab soldiers from County Tolna, who had joined the SS with the assistance of representatives of the Hungarian police arrested a large number of Jewish lawyers in their homes and took them to the Rokk Szilard Street building, where they were subsequently detained. This was done with the aid of alphabetical lists, and the SS got to the letter "K" before the Ministry of Justice intervened and no further lawyers were arrested. (After some weeks in the Rokk building, the lawyers were removed to the internment camp at Kistarcsa, where the well-to-do ones were detained in a separate wing and regarded as hostages,)

For the first few days, the spate of German demands knew no end. Finally Krumey had a notice posted on the gate of the Sip Street premises forbidding any German to enter without special permission.

Adolf Eichmann drew up a veritable "Government programme" for future guidance. On March 31st, he invited the members of the Jewish Council to attend a conference to be held in the Hotel Majestic on the Swabian Hill. Dr. Erno Boda, the Vice-President of the Council, took shorthand-notes of the proceedings and later issued a resume containing the gist of the statement made on that occasion by Eichmann.

" ... It is essential for the Hungarian industries, particularly war-industries, to increase their output. For this purpose labour battalions consisting principally of Jewish workmen will be established. Providing the Jews behave, they will not be molested in any way and will share the privileges enjoyed by the other labourers. They may even be allowed to return home at night. The Germans will be satisfied ii men between the ages of forty and fifty report for work. For the time being, the Germans would prefer to work with volunteers; otherwise they would have to take recourse to compulsion. These men will be very well treated and paid on the same scale as other workmen. When selecting the men, we must rid ourselves of the liberal habit of asking and get into the habit of ordering!"

From the financial point of view, Eichmann wished to centralise Hungarian Jewry. All persons required to wear the Star of David were to come under the orders of the Central Council. This applied to converted Jews as well. Eichmann then stated "that the converted Jews were the more wealthy and should therefore be made to pay more. A decree, to be promulgated in the near future, would determine the procedure to be observed. The organisation of the Jewish Community must be uniform, and, ii necessary, tithes must be increased. It is incumbent upon every one to obey the instructions of the Jewish Council and the Jewish Council will see to it that such orders are observed. The Council must be organised in such a way as (86) to be able to provide tangible information on any subject affecting the Jewish Community. For example, there must be a department dealing with educational problems; one that at a moment's notice can tell how many schools there are, where they are situated and how many students attend them. There must be a technical and statistical department to meet any demand that might arise ... " (He also remarked that he, personally, was extremely interested in historical evidence of Jewish cultures and Jewish libraries. He had been dealing with the Jewish problem since 1934 and had a fair command of the Hebrew language. He would inspect the Jewish Museum and the Jewish library and would require a guide.)

The Germans, continued Eichmann, would prepare detailed lists of anything they might require or wish to requisition and restitution in kind or cash would be made on the basis of that inventory. On the other hand, it was the duty of the Council to supply the articles demanded of them.

In so far as the organisation was concerned, Eichmann asked that a map be prepared, showing the Jewish institutions in the different towns, said map to be provided with a reference indicating the name and character of the institutions in question. All Jewish congregations would be allowed to function, but every institution forming part of the different religious bodies would have to be placed under the orders of the Central Council. (For example, if someone had bequeathed a sum of money to a Talmudic organisation in order to have prayers said for his soul, no purpose was served by the maintenance of this fund; the money in question must be put to other use and the funds must be administered by the Central Council.)

All these regulations were to remain in force for the duration of the war only. Once victory had been achieved, the Jews would be set free and would be allowed to do what they wished. Every measure at present directed against the Jews was of a temporary nature only and would cease with the end of the war, when the Germans would become "gutmutig" once more and no more restrictions would be imposed.

Generally speaking, Eichmann declared that he was opposed to the use of compulsion and hoped he would not have to resort to it. The Germans, he said, needed every man they had, hence it was not possible to spare an unqualified number of men for the purpose of watching over others . . . Past experience had shown him that force had been necessary, and executions had taken place only where the Jews had put up a show of resistance, Were this to happen in Hungary, or were the Jews to join the Ruthenian partisans or, as in the case of Greece, Tito arid his brigands, he would be ruthless, as the world was at war, and under these circumstances he had no other alternative. Providing the Jews understood that all the Germans desired was that they should (87) remain at their posts, behave in a disciplined and orderly manner and that they should obey the orders of their superiors, irrespective of whether they were engaged in the manufacture of saddles, the felling of trees or were working at home on piece-work. Then, he promised, they would not only have no reason to fear molestation, but he would protect them from all harm and see to it that they were treated as well and paid on the same scale as the other workmen. Eichmann attached particular importance to these facts being brought to the knowledge of every sector of the Jewish population and declared that a decree to be published in the near future would make it compulsory for every Jewish family to become a subscriber of the " Magyar Zsidok Lapja" (Newspaper of the Hungarian Jews). He recommended that this paper be sold at a price that would show an adequate profit for the Jewish Council. (The Orthodox Jews asked to be allowed to publish a newspaper of their own. Eichmann refused this request; he insisted that no more than one Jewish paper be published, but said he might agree to one or two pages of this publication being reserved for the Orthodox Jews.)

Naturally it was possible, he said, in view of the number of Jews involved, that certain individuals might commit actions for which the Council could not assume responsibility ... He regarded this as a matter of course and would be prepared to bear this circumstance in mind. On the other hand he wished to safeguard the Jews from any individual atrocity and asked that any incidents of this nature should be reported to him at once, even if the person involved were a German soldier, He promised immediate and drastic action. Also he would not allow the Jews to be molested because they wore the Star of David and would punish persons involved in outrages... He would introduce exemplary punishment to prevent all individuals who sought to enrich themselves to the detriment of the Jewish population from doing so.

For the rest, he declared that he was a friend of straightforwardness and asked the Council to inform him frankly and openly of any complaint which might arise; he, for his part, would be equally outspoken in his reply. His experience in Jewish affairs had taught him a great deal, and it was therefore useless to try and mislead him; if attempts at misrepresentation were made, he would see to it that the individual concerned suffered accordingly …

Eichmann achieved his aim by this statement. He virtually hypnotised the Jewish Council and , through that body, the whole of Hungarian Jewry. As long as no desperate reports were received from the provinces, the Jews of Budapest placed unbounded confidence in the specious German promises. Thus valuable time was lost, as the terrible speed events then took proves ... (88)

Ill.

THE ANTI-JEWISH DECREES OF THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT.

The first steps taken by the Germans towards the settlement of the Jewish problem co-incided with the formation of a new Hungarian Government, which owed its existence to the negotiations of Brigadeführer Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer. The representatives of the extreme Right-wing parties had called at the German Legation in Budapest, where they were informed by Veesenmayer of the necessity of "the new Government achieving a radical solution of the Jewish problem." Imrédy, the Premier designated by the Germans, was only too willing to assume this role, haying been in close touch with the German representatives in Budapest for the last few months. Regent Horthy, however, refused to consent to Imrédy’s appointment as Premier and chose Sztójay instead. Sztojay’s attitude towards the Jewish question was clear. When Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner - Himmler's representative - raised the question in the course of his visit to Budapest, his views met with complete understanding and agreement. In the statement made at his trial before the People's Court, Sztojay declared Kaltenbrunner had told him that "Hungary must settle the Jewish problem by adopting the methods applied in the adjacent countries!"

On the occasion of the first Cabinet meeting after the formation of his Government, (March 22nd), Sztójay said: "The Germans are asking lor the introduction of a decree obliging Jews to wear distinctive badges. The Germans also require the Jewish elements to be segregated from the rest of the Hungarian population." He asked his colleagues to immediately prepare drafts of the decrees as far as these were within the competency of their portfolios, Sztójay informed the Council that Horthy no longer desired, as he had done in the past, "that such decrees be submitted to him for previous approval!" (Extract from the statements made in the trial of Hungarian war-criminals:" The Regent, who then considered himself a prisoner of the Germans, thus desired to demonstrate his disagreement with the radical solution of the Jewish problem.")

An announcement published in the Official Gazette of March 28th revealed that Laszlo Baky, formerly an officer of the Hungarian gendarmerie, had been appointed Political Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior. It was an open secret in Hungary that Baky was one of the most fanatic members of the ultra-Fascist Arrow Cross Party. Most people knew that Baky, as a member of the "Special Officers' Detachment" had played a part in the trans-Danubian "White Terror" of 1919, that he was prominently associated with the execution of Jews at Siofok and that his carefully manicured hands were stained with the blood of countless Jews. The news of his appointment aroused justified consternation in Jewish circles. (It became apparent later that for many years Baky had been one of Himmler's confidential agents in Hungary, that he had played a leading part in paving the way for the events of March 19th, and that it was he who had compiled vital data, which enabled the Gestapo and the S.S. to liquidate the Left-wing political front immediately after their entry into Hungary.)

On the same day, Sztojay's Minister of the Interior, Andor Jaross, invited Laszlo Endre, one of the most notorious exponents of anti-Semitism in Hungary, to accept the post of Administrative Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior and to assume his responsibilities without delay, as he was a "recognised expert in Jewish affairs". Jaross declared it to be essential for Endre to draft the anti-Jewish regulations about to be introduced by the Ministry of the Interior. Endre showed Jaross a file of documents and assured him "that he had everything ready," (Extracts from the statements made by Endre and Jaross at their trial before the People's Court).

Once these Under-Secretaries of State had been appointed, Jaross launched his campaign for the annihilation of the Jews.

The first of these anti-Jewish measures was promulgated on March 29th. It required all Jews in possession of telephones to notify the authorities. The newspapers of the opposition parties had been suspended some days before, so it was natural that the press, which the Germans had fully in their power, did not dare even mention the excesses committed by the Germans in various parts of the country. The papers restricted themselves to publishing the news that the various angles of the Jewish question were being "examined with particular care" by the Government Departments.

The Chamber of Deputies demanded the introduction of the "numerus nullus".

By that time reliable information was available from the provinces. It became generally known that various local restrictions had been introduced there, principally in Sub-Carpathia, which the Germans had declared a military zone on account of the proximity of the Soviet army. Among these regulations was the order issued on March 23rd by General Gezy Feher (Weiss), the Swabian commandant of the town of Munkacevo. The Jews living there were ordered to wear a yellow star of roughly ten centimetres diameter on the upper left side of their clothing. At the same time, large yellow stars were painted on the outside of shops owned by Jews. Other reports from the provinces indicated that hooligans in provincial towns and rural districts had attacked Jews and looted Jewish shops. When the leading Jewish personalities of the districts affected protested to the Gestapo or the local Hungarian authorities, they were placed under arrest. (90)

After consultations lasting almost a week, the Cabinet Council announced its decision on March 31st by publishing Decree 1240/M. E. ex 1944. The person responsible for this regulation was Laszlo Endre, who had modelled it on similar measures t introduced in Germany and principally in Slovakia. In compliance with the decree, every Jewish individual over six years of age regardless of sex had to wear a six-pointed star ten centimetres in diameter made of canary-yellow silk or velvet on the left breast of the outer garment when outside his or her home. The star had to be firmly sewn on to the garment in question. The stipulations of Lex 15 ex 1941, drafted on the basis of the Nuremberg racial laws, were to be the decisive factor when determining who was a Jew. According to the terms of this decree, certain exceptions were made in favour of persons who had been awarded the highest decorations during the first World War and who were regarded as suffering from at least a 75 per cent inability to work. Individuals failing to comply with the terms of the regulation rendered themselves liable to a sentence of six months imprisonment or, which was far more serious, to internment.

A few days after the promulgation of the decree ordering the Jews to wear distinctive emblems, the Official Gazette published a supplementary decree. Priests and nuns of Jewish origin but of Christian faith, the immediate relatives of persons already exempted from the necessity of wearing the star, war widows or orphans whose Jewish parents had lost their lives in the course of the second World War, the exempted persons living in the re-annexed territories of Upper Hungary, Transylvania and Southern Hungary and foreigners in possession of documents substantiating their claim to foreign nationality were exempted from wearing the Star of David.

Approximately a week was spent in discussing the question of exemptions. The Christian Churches were the first to protest against the measures contemplated in respect of converted Jews. Cardinal Angelo Rotta, the Papal Nuncio, asked the Premier to receive him without delay on March 23rd. On the 24th the Papal Nuncio recommended that the Government amend the measures it intended to introduce against the Jews. On March 30th, Cardinal Rotta called on the Foreign Minister and protested against the inhuman and un-Christian terms of the anti-Jewish regulations.

On March 28th, i.e. on the eve of the promulgation of the anti-Jewish decree, H. E. Justin Seredi, Prince Primate of Hungary, appealed to the Premier. The Prince Primate did not, in this instance, protest against the anti-Jewish regulations, but raised the following objections:

" The six-pointed star is not the emblem of the Jewish race, but of the Jewish religion. Consequently the display of it is, in the case of Christians, a contradiction and constitutes a renunciation of laith ... " (91)

After the promulgation of the decree, Cardinal Seredi addressed a letter to Premier Sztojay, in which he said:

" ... The Roman Catholic priests, monks and nuns were exempted from the terms of the previous anti-Jewish measures. There are certain individuals whose view it is that the stipulations of the more recent anti-Jewish measures and particularly those of Decree No. 1240 M. E. ex 1944 refer to these persons as well. I, for my part, cannot believe that individuals who have done their utmost for their country and who, by virtue of their vocation, are members of the clergy, can be regarded as coming within the scope of these regulations or that they should be subjected to such scorn. May I be permitted to request your Excellency to issue a statement clarifying the position and to state categorically that the persons indicated above are exempt from the terms of the recent anti-Jewish regulation. Should instructions to this effect not be forthcoming, I shall, to my greatest regret, find myself compelled to forbid the representatives of the Church to wear the six-pointed star. Were they to do so, this would have to be regarded as a renunciation of faith and cannot on this account be permitted. I am sure that Your Excellency will appreciate the justness of my request and will take the necessary and wise steps to remedy this untenable state of affairs ... " (From the Prince Primate's archives. No. 3795/1944.)

As evident from the foregoing, the Prince Primate raised his voice on behalf of the converted Jews only, and amongst them merely on behalf of those who were functionaries of the Church.

On April 5th, Premier Sztójay addressed following reply to the Prince Primate:

"I wish to acknowledge receipt of your communication and request you to allow me to draw your attention to Decree No. 1540 M. E. ex 1944, published in to-day's issue of the Official Gazette, modifying the terms of the decree promulgated in respect of Jews wearing a discriminating emblem. Article 1 of the decree includes all those provisions which Your Excellency felt to be necessary." (This letter, too, proves that the steps taken by the Prince Primate referred exclusively to Church functionaries of Jewish origin.)

From the day the Germans had marched into Hungary, the leaders of the Reformed Church were of the opinion that the attitude to be adopted towards the Sztójay Government should be one of passive resistance. Innumerable Jews appealed to the Directorate of the Reformed Church, which was then forced to revise its attitude. On April 3rd, Bishop Laszlo Ravasz, the senior Bishop of the Reformed Church, addressed a letter of protest to the Minister of the Interior. In this document Bishop Ravasz did not object to the stigmatisation of the Jews, but to the regulations that required members of the Reformed Church to wear the Star of David. At the same time he called on Gyula Ambrozy, the Regent's 'chef de cabinet', and asked to be granted an audience by the Regent. He was informed that "the Regent regards himself a prisoner and will not receive anyone." Subsequently Bishop Ravasz called on the Minister of the Interior, who asked him to return at 7 p. m, the same day. Jaross, who kept the Bishop waiting till 8 p. m., agreed, after a heated argument, to exempt certain Church dignitaries and persons of Jewish origin who had contracted mixed marriages.

On April 6th Bishop Ravasz submitted a further memorandum to the Premier, pleading on that occasion for the Jewish partners of the several thousand mixed marriages, who had not been exempted under the various modifications of the decree. (Sztójay replied on May 10th and refused to consent to any further exemptions being granted.)

The Germans intended the Jewish Council to obtain the material necessary to provide all Hungarian Jews with six-pointed stars, which they wanted to be sold at 3.- pengoes each. The reason for this lay in the German desire not to let the differentiation between Jew and Christian be as "untidy" as it had been in Greece and Serbia. The Council, for its part, approved of the suggestion, hoping thus to lay hands on some funds. At the same time, textile firms stocking large quantities of the material required sought to obtain official support for their own purposes. "Inspired'' articles in the local press suggested that the Hungarian authorities intended to issue a standard star to be sold by all tobacconists at a basic price of 10.-pengoes. This move did not meet with the approval of the Germans, who obviously hoped to profit from the suggestion made by the Jewish Council. Previous instructions were cancelled and the Jewish Council published a communique stating that "it is incumbent upon everyone concerned to supply himself with a star of the prescribed dimensions until a standard model has been issued."

Shortly afterwards a whole number of prohibitive decrees were published. According to them:

Christians were not allowed to serve as domestics in Jewish households;

Jews may no longer perform public services, they may not be commission agents and Jewish lawyers are barred from practising;

Jewish members of the Press, the Stage and the Film Chambers were called upon to resign (the names of forty professional journalists and of all authors of Jewish origin were erased from the rolls of the Press Chamber, while 310 names of Jewish members of the Stage and the Film Chamber suffered the same fate.);

the authorities were to be notified of all vehicles in the possession of persons of Jewish origin.

A supplementary regulation contained an interpretation of the terms of the decree ordering Jews to wear the Star of David when they were "outside their homes". No distinctive emblem had to be worn "within the building incorporating the home of the Jew, (93) provided the locality in question was not a theatre, restaurant or other premises easily accessible to the public".

Even this supplementary regulation was not sufficiently clearly worded and gave rise to misunderstandings. The only result it had was that more Jews were rounded up and interned. According to this interpretation the star had to be worn whenever the Jew came into contact with the general public, namely in the streets, on trams and railways etc. Pedestrians were stopped in the streets by detectives whose duty it was to ascertain whether the star was sewn on firmly enough. If they considered this not to be the case, the Jew in question was interned. Jews who were not wearing the distinctive emblem in their shops or other places of employment were interned. Jews who sought refuge in an air-raid shelter were similarly treated, if in their anxiety they had overlooked that they were not wearing the star. Objection was taken if the star was not of the prescribed dimensions or if, as frequently occurred, the star was of a different colour to that prescribed and supplied. Following repeated official interventions, the Jewish Council found it necessary to issue an explanatory statement: " ... We draw the attention of all concerned to the absolute necessity of their wearing the distinctive emblem when at work; the emblem must be worn on all occasions when the Jewish elements might come into contact with the general public. The yellow star must be worn on work-coats and overalls even in air-raid shelters. Since the authorities decline to recognise stars not sewn on firmly, care must be taken to comply with this regulation. The authorities attach great importance to the star being of canary yellow colour. In case of doubt: wear the star! Observation of these rules will safeguard you! ... "

Budapest experienced its first relatively heavy air-raid oil April 3rd, when the factory belt was subjected to a concentrated attack by American planes. As a result of accurate bombing a considerable number of oil refineries concentrated in the ninth district were destroyed and a suburban factory district in Pesterzsebet was seriously damaged.

Subsequently, one of the deputy heads of the Hungarian National Security Police (the Hungarian Gestapo) went to the head- quarters of the Jewish Council and took two of its members with him to the Gestapo Headquarters on the hills of Buda. On arrival there, they were briefly told by Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann to arrange, by the following morning, for the evacuation of 500 one- and two-room apartments required for "homeless air-raid victims". The keys of these apartments had to be surrendered within 24 hours. Although the representatives of the Council pleaded that they had neither the personnel nor the organisation necessary for an operation of such a complicated nature, Eichmann insisted on his orders being carried out to the letter. The representatives of the Council ordered every available Jewish official and all Jewish school-teachers, male or female, to present themselves at seven (94) a. m. the following day. The Council then proceeded to draw up the necessary plans and to prepare the printed forms required. Meanwhile the air-raid sirens were sounded and Budapest was subjected to a second air-raid, this time by British bombers. The members of the Council spent the night completing their plans in an air-raid shelter. The instructions received determined the districts in which apartments were to be requisitioned and stipulated in which areas bombed-out Christian families were not ' to be settled. The outlines of the future ghetto were being drawn. 

The instructions issued by the Mayor of Budapest are not uninteresting: 619,926/1944. XVII;

" ... Instructions to the members of the teaching profession in respect of the procedure to be observed when controlling the requisitioning of apartments for the purpose of accommodating families rendered homeless by air-raids.

Decrees No. 1,200 M. E. ex 1943 and 1,280 B. M. ex 1943 authorise the Ministry of the Interior to requisition 500 adequately furnished and fitted apartments for the purpose of housing homeless air-raid victims. The Central Jewish Council shall select the apartments to be requisitioned.

When an apartment has been selected for this purpose, the tenant thereof must be notified that the apartment, complete with furniture and fittings necessary, must be surrendered by 4 p. m. that afternoon. An inventory of the contents of the apartment must be prepared.

On the orders of the Mayor of Budapest, representatives of the teaching profession are to act as official representatives whilst the inventory is being prepared.

One member of the teaching profession, accompanied by a policeman and two persons delegated by the Central Jewish Council, will present himself in each apartment. The parties concerned shall then prepare an inventory under the supervision of the member of the teaching profession.

The duties of the member of the teaching profession shall consist of the following:

1) He will ascertain what equipment, furniture and other essentials must be left in the flat (beds and bedding, cupboards, tables and chairs, lamps, clothes and underwear, cutlery, crockery and kitchen equipment). All these articles must be provided in a quantity sufficient to ensure that the homeless families, who have lost all their possessions, should be able to live there for some time and be provided with everything absolutely essential in the way of furniture, fittings and clothing.

2) When the respective tenant vacates the apartment, the members of the teaching profession, in the presence of the caretaker, will check the inventory prepared and ensure that the articles shown thereon are left behind. They will further take the (95) readings of the electric and gas meters and note them on the inventory. They will ensure that all fires have been extinguished; that no taps are left running and that every article in the apartment is in good order; they will lock and seal all doors and enclose the keys in an envelope that is also to be sealed.

The vacating tenant will hand the sealed envelope to the Central Jewish Council.

3) The Municipal Authorities for the respective district will then allot the apartment to the new occupant and hand him the sealed envelope containing the keys. The members of the teaching staff will accompany the new occupant to the apartment in question. There, in the presence of the "caretaker", they will ascertain whether the seals on the doors are intact, whether the apartment is in good order and whether the readings on the electric and gas meters correspond to those taken previously and recorded on the inventory. They will request the new occupant to acknowledge that he has taken possession of the apartment and submit this statement in writing to the competent district authorities."

The requisitioning committees were constituted on the following morning. 55 representatives of the Jewish Council went to the Town Hall, where three representatives of the Municipality were attached to each committee. At 4.30 p.m. that afternoon, the head of  the Hungarian Gestapo stated that some of the keys of the 500 apartments had not yet been handed in. One of his deputies then went to the headquarters of the Jewish Council and, after blackguarding and threatening the members, took two of them with him to Gestapo Headquarters. At noon on the following day Dr. Kahan-Frankl and Dr. Karoly Wilhelm were released with the warning that "they had been let off lightly this time. If such a thing were to occur again, the consequences would be serious indeed". Apart from that, a further 500 apartments had to be vacated as a result of the air-raid of the previous night. Thus requisitioning was continued. (In the end, the representatives of the Council handed in the keys of over 2,500 apartments - 80 per cent of which were never used! Dr. Emerich Reiner, the legal adviser to the central Orthodox administration, was even able to satisfy the Gestapo simply by handing over the keys, The majority of the apartments had two keys anyway, or otherwise two entrances. One of the keys was surrendered; in very many cases there was no time left for the evacuation of the apartments.)

It is obvious that the requisitioning of apartments - to which legal experts raised justified objections - caused tremendous excitement ... It was at this time that the first charges were levelled against the members of the Jewish Council.

During the first days of April, the Council was still completely under the nefarious influence of the Germans. For example a heated debate raged on the subject of the decree by which the Jewish elements were to be governed. Regulations, plans and (96) memoranda were drafted and submitted for the "approval" of the German Sonderkommando.

Experts attached to the legal department of the Jewish Council were drafting schemes for the organisation and administration of the Jewish population, - schemes they intended to lay before the Germans -, on the very day the regulations introduced "for the purpose of ridding the country of the Jews" were being circulated in the Ministry of the Interior. At the same time, on April 6th, when Eichmann had fixed the details of the deportations of the coming weeks, he approved and returned the proposals placed before him by the Jewish Council. The Council lost no time in informing every Jewish community in Hungary of the German approval of their scheme, enclosing with their letter a questionaire which asked for information on eighteen different points. This circular letter clearly illustrated how ill-informed the Council was:

" ... The Central Council of Hungarian Jews has been instructed to set up a national organisation for the Jews of Hungary. For this purpose, the local President or Presidents of the provincial Jewish religious communities shall be responsible for the execution in lull of all instructions issued by the Central Council in Budapest. The President or Presidents will act on behalf of their respective religious communities in dealings with the local authorities. You are particularly advised to ensure that all instructions coming from higher authorities and passed on to you by the Jewish Council are obeyed in full and without delay. You are also warned that the members of the Council are personally responsible for the immediate and full execution of all orders; further that the responsibility devolves also on any person failing to obey immediately and fully all orders received from the Central Jewish Council, a circumstance that might have fatal results for the interests of Hungarian Jewry. You will receive more detailed instructions on the subject of organisation in the near future . Will you please confirm that due regard has been given to the contents of this letter ... "

With the object of checking the almost open rising, the Central Jewish Council also published the following manifesto:

"Brothers! The Hungarian authorities negotiate exclusively with the Central Council, which is the only body informed of instructions affecting the lives of the entire Jewish population. The individual members of the Council and all persons failing 'to carry out to the full all instructions received from the Council are answerable with their lives. Brothers! The organisation of Hungarian Jews is under an obligation to execute official instructions; this means that the Central Council is not an authority, but simply an executive body carrying out the orders of the authorities.

The Central Council cannot permit orders to be disregarded on account of lack of discipline. The Jewish Council cannot tolerate the non-observance of instructions by individuals, as this (97) would lead to a disaster of unprecedented magnitude for the whole of the Jewi.sh population. On receiving orders from the Central Council it is the duty of every person to report at the place and time indicated. The Central Jewish Council has been granted the right of absolute disposal over all Jewish spiritual and material wealth and over all Jewish man-power. You, women and girls, men and boys, are all the executors of the instructions issued by the Central Council. You must realise that every decision, however momentous it may be, is the outcome of official intervention and that the life of every individual and the existence of the community as a whole depend on such instructions being fully observed. May God guide you and give you strength to attend faithfully to your duty!"

It will be seen that this unusual appeal had fatal results. On the very day of its appearance, the Council found it necessary to issue a further warning in view of the disturbance caused by hundreds of Jews demonstrating outside the Council's headquarters. These warnings and appeals were all made public on the same day as the regulation ordering the Jews to wear the distinctive yellow star appeared. Most of Christians living in the capital were indifferent to the stigmatisation of the Jewish fellowmen, Only a few dared to demonstrate their solidarity with the Jews and even they took no action. Disgraceful incidents also occurred when the wearers of the star were publicly derided and openly insulted by pro-Fascist or "Nyilas" hooligans.

A small proportion of the Jews attempted to sabotage the wearing of the Star of David, which, however was a most difficult thing to do, owing to the constant raids of the Hungarian authorities, the severe punishments (internment) inflicted and, mainly, the ever-recurring denunciations of caretakers and occasional Christian fellow-occupants. Thus Hungarian Jewry lost the battle from the start.

The Government Commission appointed to look after the interests of the population in the case of air-raids posted instructions with regard to the voluntary evacuation of the capital and at the same time forbade the Jewish elements to leave their domiciles. Another regulation forbade everyone to listen to any radio station except those of "Allied powers". While the terms of this regulation were applicable to the whole of the population, it offered ample opportunities for mass denunciations and for Jews to be accused of having listened to "enemy broadcasts (This explains why many persons reported voluntarily to the postal authorities requesting them to seal their wireless sets with the object of being able to prove - in the event of a denunciation - that the set could not even be used). It is not without interest to note that the authorities were swamped with denunciations. To begin with, these letters were addressed to the Germans or to the Gestapo; later, when it became common knowledge that a Hungarian Gestapo had been formed, similar letters were addressed to (98) these quarters. Generally speaking, a wave of foul and unfounded accusations was invariably let loose when the Nazis marched into any country. There is good reason to believe that no less than 35,000 Jews with Left-wing sympathies were denounced during this period.

At that time the Gestapo had installed itself in one of the finest residential quarters of Budapest, a district known as the "Svabhegy" (now called "Mount Liberty"), To begin with, the Germans selected the Hotel Astoria in the centre of the town as their headquarters. It was from there that they requested the Jews to send a leading member of the Jewish community to negotiate with them. No one was at first eager to tackle this unpleasant job, but later Dr. Janos Gabor - a German-speaking legal adviser I of the Jewish community - was selected.

When Dr. Gabor reported at the Astoria, he was informed that the Germans intended to requisition the headquarters of the Jewish Community. The Germans inspected the premises, but informed Dr. Gabor that it would be impossible to hold "sing-songs" there. They then requisitioned the headquarters of the Iron Foundry Workers' Union and used that building as their headquarters for roughly ten days.

The Hungarian State Security Police (Hungarian Gestapo) also installed themselves in the premises occupied by the Germans 1 until the latter ordered the evacuation of the finest blocks of flats and villas on the "Svabhegy". (Immediately after the Germans marched into Budapest, Jewish homes and apartments in the Pasaret district were seized, the villas looted and their former occupants replaced by high-ranking Gestapo officers).

On German instructions, a Hungarian Gestapo was set up under the leadership of Peter Hain, a leading member of the Hungarian detective force. Hain - a Swabian by origin - had acted as the Regent's personal body-guard for many years and had always accompanied Horthy on his journeys abroad. On one occasion, when Horthy was in Germany, Hain struck up an acquaintance with a number of S.S. and Gestapo officers, whose pay he entered later on. Rain's intimate knowledge of the nature of the negotiations conducted by the Regent and of the persons with whom these conversations took place enabled him to submit precise reports to his German masters. His appointment as head of the Hungarian Gestapo was the reward for this treachery. On March 26th, Hain selected 200 "reliable" detectives to assist him in his work and appointed Leslie Koltay (Kundics) and Edmund Martinedes his personal representatives.

As already stated, the German and Hungarian security police requisitioned and occupied the finest villas and blocks of flats on the "Svabhegy" after the premises had been suitably altered and furnished at the expense of the Jewish Council. It was there that they installed their offices, their messes and their quarters. The cellars and the air-raid shelters were converted into cells. (99) There is no questioning the fact that the seclusion and privacy offered by the "Svabhegy" were more suited to the holding of "sing-songs" than the headquarters of the Jewish Council!

The decree forbidding Jews to travel was promulgated on April 6th. Under the terms of this decree Jews were not allowed to use private cars, motor-bicycles, taxis, trains, steamers or motorbuses (doctors were exempted providing they were about to, or had just, visited a patient. Doctors in possession of a permanent identity-card issued by the Medical Chamber were allowed to use motor vehicles.) Yet another decree was issued forbidding those members of the armed forces, who would have to display the yellow star, from wearing uniforms. On the following morning a decree ordered the Jews to notify the authorities if they owned radio-sets. Everybody realised that this would be followed by the confiscation of the sets involved. The same procedure was observed in the case of telephones. A few days after the respective forms had been returned, the telephone was disconnected without warning. Jewish doctors were allowed to retain their telephones, but they were warned that they might not use them for private conversations.

Also on April 6th, the Central Police Court published the first sentences passed for offences against the anti-Jewish regulations. Fines of between two and seven thousand pengoes were imposed on persons who had contravened the yellow star regulation. In addition the culprits were interned, which was tantamount to deportation and so to a death sentence. The Ministry of Justice issued confidential instructions according to which "prisons, penitentiaries or reformatories must transfer their Jewish inmates to the nearest internment camp" (Endre's report dated 20. 6. 44; Ferency's report dated 8. 6. 44.)

The first decree granting exemptions was published on April 11th. Under the terms of this decree, Jews who had taken part in the 1918 / 1919 counter-revolution were entitled to apply to the "Orszagos Vitezi Szek" (The National Court of Heroes) for certification of their right to exemption. Another decree was published prohibiting as from October 1st, 1944, the employment of Jews by business firms in any capacity other than that of manual workers.

The Hungarian Telegraph Agency issued the following statement on April 11th:

" ... On the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior His Exellency the Regent of Hungary has appointed Dr. Laszlo Endre, deputy-sheriff of County Pest, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior."

The semi-official interpretation given to this announcement stated: " ... Laszlo Endre is one of the most militant champions of racial purity in Hungary and he has been entrusted with the technical settlement of the Jewish problem. His activities during the past (100) twenty years have provided ample proof of his determination and energy. As senior administrative official in the district of Giidiillii he more than proved that his knowledge of administrative affairs is exhaustive. Following his election by a considerable majority to the post of deputy-sheriff of County Pest, he steadfastly continued to fight for the realisation of the ideals of racial purity and enforced these principles with a stern hand.

It was quite clear what measures the new Under-Secretary of State might be expected to introduce in order to achieve a technical solution of the Jewish problem.

A decree revoked the licences previously issued to chemists of Jewish origin.

On April 15th, Laszlo Baky published the following manifesto:

" ... The police authorities have learnt of many instances in which Jews have failed to comply with the regulation issued in an attempt to settle the Jewish problem. It is in the interest of the nation that these regulations are observed with the utmost care, therefore it is the patriotic duty of every Hungarian, who knows or learns of any member of the Jewish population attempting to disregard, disobey or contravene these regulations, to report the fact immediately to the nearest police station or, in the case of the provinces, to the nearest gendarmerie post."

Naturally this led to a further flood of denunciations. The authorities took their choice and as a rule began to "investigate" only cases in which wealthy Jews were involved.

Daily thousands of complaints continued to pour in at Sip Street headquarters. Some strong speeches were made calling upon the Jews to resist. The number of suicides by elderly Jews increased from day to day. The following article was published in the news-paper of the Hungarian Jews in an attempt to calm the Jewish elements:

" ... Work and do not be downhearted. In the situation the Jews of Hungary find themselves in to-day, words are of little consequence. II we wish to help ourselves and the community as a whole, deeds alone can provide the only answer. Let every Jewish co-religionist, whether rich or poor, consider it his duty to devote his entire energy to any task he may be called upon to do. We emphasise the absolute necessity for every instruction, regulation, order or command emanating from the competent authorities to be observed immediately and in full without any complaint or objection whatsoever. The Hungarian Central Jewish Council has been made primarily responsible for the execution of all instructions _or decrees. We cannot overemphasise the common and collective responsibility that devolves upon every Hungarian Jew. It is the duty of every Jew to behave modestly and quietly, to avoid causing any kind of sensation or to give any cause for offence. Unless you have an important and urgent errand, avoid public thoroughfares; do your duty and when you have finished your work return to your homes ... " (101)

Shortly afterwards an Information Bureau was opened, but even this was barely able to reduce the large crowds that brought their complaints to the Sip Street headquarters. Large crowds gathered in another wing of the building with the intention of renouncing their Jewish faith and of being converted to Christianity (between January and the middle of March 1944, 176 persons applied to be converted to the Christian faith; in the course of the following month, the number rose to 788! A squad of policemen was necessary to maintain order in the streets surrounding the building.)

One of the most important anti-Jewish measures was that published on April 16th. Under the terms of this decree Jews were obliged to declare all their belongings with the exception of their furniture, clothes and household equipment, providing the value of these articles did not exceed 10,000 pengoes. Gold coins, jewelry and jewels had to be deposited against receipt in banks. Safes belonging to Jews could not be opened and their contents has to be declared. Deposit or current accounts and Post Office Savings deposits were frozen and a sum not exceeding 1,000 pengoes was all the depositor was permitted to draw; generally speaking, Jews were not allowed to possess a sum exceeding 3,000 pengoes in ready cash. These provisions applied to all Jewish commercial and industrial undertakings.

(This measure came as tremendous shock to the economic life of the country. From that day onward, there could be no question of any serious commercial activity in Hungary, as the decree affected 18,000 merchants in Budapest alone.)

A declaration had to be made in respect of all Christian domestics, who, under the terms of the corresponding decree, would have to leave the Jewish households by April 13th, but who desired to remain in Budapest. The title "war widow" or "war orphan" used by Hungarian widows or orphans of the second World War could be used only by those who had lost their husband or father in actual combat on the field of battle. Otherwise they were to be called "honvedelmi ozvegy" or "honvedelmy arva" (national defence widow or orphan). The aim of this measure was to discriminate between the relatives of persons who were members of the armed forces and those of members of the labour battalions (the decree further stated that "national defence widows and orphans" had to wear the yellow star).

On April 21st, the Minister of Commerce ordered the immediate closing of all Jewish businesses. The explanation given by Anthony Kunder, Minister of Justice, was: "The looting of Jewish shops in the capital and particularly in the provinces has reached such a pitch that the decree in question is a protective measure aimed at preserving and later using the Jewish wealth in a manner beneficial to the economic life of the country as a whole ." Under the terms of another decree, radio-sets owned by Jews had to be surrendered at certain depots. While receipts were made out for (102) the sets, the amounts of compensation representing the value of the sets were manifestly absurd.

The terms of Decree No. 1,520 M.E. ex 1944 were published in the April 27th issue of the Official Gazette. This decree ordered the formation of the "Federation of Hungarian Jews", an autonomous organisation created to represent the collectivity of Jewish interests. All Jews under compulsion to wear the yellow star had to belong to the Federation.

The most important passage of the decree stated that the Federation of Hungarian Jews was responsible for the behaviour of the Jewish elements; that its duty was to introduce regulations the observance of which would be compulsory for the Jewish population; that it had to represent the Jewish interests and to attend to problems affecting the social or economic welfare of the Jewish population; in other words, to comply with any demands made by official circles.

The first manifest published by the Federation states:

" ... We re-assure all those who observe the provisions of the respective regulation that they will not be molested or harmed in any way. On the other hand, the full weight of the law will be brought to bear on all persons attempting to defy or disobey any of the stipulations of the regulations obligatory to all. Therefore, our advice is: ii everyone does his duty, the Federation will be able to carry out the mission with which it has been charged and to work not only in the interests of individuals, but of the entire Jewish Community ... "

(The decree was drafted by Berend and Bosnyak. The original name given to the Federation was "Organisation of the Community of Hungarian Jews". It should have consisted of a committee of ten members, five of which would have been representatives of the Jewish religious bodies and five laymen. Dr. Berend was to have been the Secretary General.)

Around this date, the Hungarian Government too began to entrust the Jewish Council with various duties. An example in point is the following statement.

" ... On instructions received from the Ministry of Commerce, we wish to inform those concerned that the seizure of businesses owned by Jewish shopkeepers in no way relieves the owners of such enterprises of their liability to pay the salaries due to their Christian employees. When drawing the attention of the owners of such businesses to this circumstance, we must point out, according to instructions received, that any Jewish employer or his representative, who fails to comply with this ruling, and does not fulfill his obligations in full by the end of the current month, renders himself liable to drastic punishment. . ."

A veritable avalanche of decrees descended on the Jews. The object of the following passages is to give a summary of the regulations in question. (103)

Individuals called up for military service, who were under the obligation of wearing a distinctive yellow star, had to wear plain clothes whilst serving in the labour battalions. The per capita sugar ration for the Jewish population was reduced to roughly eight ounces monthly; instead of receiving a ration of cooking fat, Jews were issued with a ration of three quarters of a pound of sesame oil. No pork was issued to Jews; their weekly meat ration was restricted to three ounces of beef or horse-flesh; rations of butter, paprika, rice and poppyseed were suspended. Jews were issued with a special yellow basic ration card. They were not allowed to possess arms and ammunition. The names of Jewish members of the Front Soldiers' Association had to be erased from the rolls of that organisation. All publishers licences in Jewish hands were withdrawn; Jews were not allowed to be usufructuaries or lessees of land. Jewish artisans had to submit, within eight days, a declaration stating the nature of their business. Jewish organisations were dissolved, their libraries and archives confiscated by the "Hungarian Jewish Research Institute", The publication, circulation or reproduction of works of Jewish authors was forbidden. Decree No. 10800 M. E. ex 1944 regarding the "safeguarding of cultural life in Hungary from the works of Jewish authors" was promulgated. (The first list of names of Jewish authors was published.) Notice could not be given to non-Jewish families living in Jewish apartments and receiving lodging in lieu of wages for work done. The Ministry of the Interior revised the exemptions granted to Jews who had distinguished themselves during the counter-revolution or who had lived in the re-annexed territories and had been exempted from the provisions of the regulations concerning the Jews .. , Jews were obliged to hand in their sugar, cooking-fat, meat and milk ration cards. They were not allowed to visit public baths. A decree was published determining who among the offspring of mixed marriages was to be considered a Jew, Tenders were invited for the confiscated businesses owned by Jewish pharmaceutical chemists. In Budapest, these numbered 45 and in the provinces 145. The following "justification" for the introduction of this regulation was published:

"The pharmaceutical chemist, who is devoted to his vocation and who, in necessary, is willing to relegate to the background material interests, is serving the public. Jews, whose business propensities and materialistic ideology are common knowledge, are not suited for a position of this sort." A census was taken of all Jewish pastry shops and tinned food factories. A moratorium was declared in respect of all bills of exchange due to Jews. Jews were required to deposit all sums exceeding 3,000 pengoes in blocked accounts.

To complete the picture, it is necessary to refer to the appearance of the yellow star on the turf, i. e. to the "de-Jewification" of race meetings and race horses: (104)

Shortly after the Jewish elements were required to wear the distinctive yellow star, large posters were displayed on all race tracks. These posters called upon all persons obliged to wear the yellow star to refrain from attending race meetings. When enquiries were instituted, it transpired that these posters had been displayed not on the instructions of the Hungarian Jockey Club, the owner of the race tracks, but on those of the Ministry of Agriculture. When the affair came to the notice of Count Erdody, the President of the Jockey Club, he immediately countermanded Bela Jurcsek's order and had the offending poster removed. Even then, the considerable number of Jewish habitues was unable to attend the races. Anyone wearing a yellow star and attempting to mingle with the crowd at race meetings was firmly but politely requested to leave. In other words, the outward form only had been changed; the result was the same.

Bela Jurcsek further ordered all Jewish racing stables to be sold by auction. The Jockey Club again refused to be a party to this scheme and to allow the auction to take place on any of its race-courses. Consequently the auction had to take place at Alag and the fifty horses put up for sale changed hands at absurdly low prices. The Jockey Club issued special yellow passes for these horses with the object of preventing them from participating in races abroad under the colours of the new owners.

IV.

THE HUNGARIAN "DE-JEWIFICATION" BRIGADE.

A decree, promulgated on April 27th, 1944, stated that contracts entered into with Jewish tenants were no longer valid, and authorised the heads of the various municipalities to order the removal of Jews living in communities with a total population of less than ten thousand souls to other towns or villages. The decree also ordained that Jews in towns with a population exceeding this figure might only live in certain specified houses or streets of the town concerned.

It was this decree that was finally responsible for the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry and that resulted in the exclusion of the Jews from the cultural and economic life of the country, seeing that the numerous earlier anti-Jewish measures had made the discrimination between the Jewish and the Christian elements of the population possible.

Even prior to the appearance of the decree promulgated on April 27th, reports had come in from certain provincial towns, principally in Sub-Carpathia and the south-western districts of Trans-Danubia, stating that the local authorities were engaged in a series of independent anti-Jewish actions.

(At the demand of the Germans, Sub-Carpathia and the southwestern districts of Trans-Danubia were declared military zones on March 29th and, as a result, the civil authorities were obliged to hand over their powers to the military representatives in those areas.)

Reports from the villages indicated that the gendarmerie in the villages and the police authorities in the towns had been instructed by the Ministry of the Interior to draw up a detailed register of all Jews. Jews in the Enying district of County Veszprem and subsequently in all districts of that County were rounded up and interned in the town of Veszprem.

By the end of March, well founded reports were available regarding the selection of "compulsory domiciles" and the "centralisation" of the Jews in Sub-Carpathia. A new era of mediaeval terror dawned and the first ghettos were set up. Accounts by eyewitnesses relate how the Jewish populations of the larger provincial towns herded into brick kilns or into miserable hovels formerly occupied by vagrant gipsies. In mere than one instance, bare fields were chosen as "compulsory abodes" for the Jews and there were countless pitiful stories of how Jews, with their aged parents and young children, were driven into these boarded enclosures and made to live there. If the Jews were housed in some miserable hovels, all windows facing the street were bricked or boarded up 106 so that the Jews were completely cut off from the outside world. A daily meal consisting of a watery gruel was the only food provided. It was obvious that the intention, with which ghettos were set up and Jews starved and maltreated, was to kill as many of them as possible. It also provided the local Fascists with an opportunity of looting deserted Jewish homes, The real object soon became apparent. Once the Jews, whose spirits had been broken and whose material wealth had been seized, could not be exploited any further, they were crowded into cattle trucks and deported.

General Kaltenbrunner, under whose orders the German Army of Occupation had marched into Hungary, left Budapest on March 26th. He was succeeded by General Otto Winckelmann of the S.S., who assumed complete control of the Hungarian military, civilian and police organisations. On arriving in Budapest, Winckelmann r immediately visited Laszlo Baky, whom Sturmbannführer Hottl introduced as "a tried friend". (Hottl had been in charge of the Gestapo espionage system in Hungary and it was through him Baky's reports reached Himmler.)

Following an agreement between Kaltenbrunner and Premier Sztojay, Baky instructed the head of the appropriate department of the Ministry of the Interior to appoint Lieut.-Col. Leslie Ferenczy liaison officer between the German Security Police and the Hungarian Gendarmerie, of which he himself was a member.*) (The headquarters of the German "Sicherheitsdienst" (S.D.) were in the Lomnic Pension on the "Svabhegy".)

(Laszlo Ferenczy was born in 1898 in the village of Felsoviso, where his father was head of the civil administration. During the first World War, Ferenczy served as a regular officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. His conduct in the field and the decorations he received ensured rapid promotion. In the period that followed the war, Ferenczy was seconded to the Hungarian gendarmerie and in the summer months invariably served with the special body-guard stationed at the Regent's summer residence at Godollo. When, as a result of enquiries conducted by Ferenczy, it became known that Lieut.-Col. Dela Baro was partly of Jewish origin, Ferenczy was on May 1st, 1940, appointed head of the special "investigation" department and was transferred to Kassa where he remained until July 10th, 1942. Whilst still in Kassa, Ferenczy was responsible for exposing a wide-spread racket, the object of which was to provide men serving in the army with leave passes. This affair was hushed up, as Lieut.-General Ferenc Szombathelyi, Commander of the Kassa army corps and later Chief of Staff, was himself involved in the scandal. During the period that Ferenczy saw service in Kassa,

*) In a statement made later by Lieut. General Faragho, head of the department concerned, the latter stated that it was the Germans, on the recommendation of Baky, who had appointed Ferenczy "liaison officer" and that his, Faragho's nominee, Capt. Varbiro, had been turned down. Ferenczy on the other hand declared that Faragho had been responsible for his appointment. (107)

he directed the arrest of Jews who had managed to escape from Slovakia into Hungary. He and his gendarmerie organised regular drives against the Jews, whom they handed over to the Germans by their hundreds; the Germans immediately had these unfortunates executed. In recognition of his services Ferenczy was transferred to Budapest. In 1943, as head of the "investigations" department, he directed a brutal enquiry into the affairs of suspected Communist groups at Soroksar-Ujtelep. Outwardly Ferenczy was lean, tall, well-dressed; inwardly, he was consumed by a fire of unlimited ambition. Before the days of the Jewish persecution Ferenczy was continually in financial difficulties. An example of this is shown by his inability to pay instalments of only 7 pengoes a month to a watchmaker and jeweler at Szekesfehervar. Once the reign of terror began, Ferenczy was able to pay the alimony due to his wife and to attend to the education of his two children. Ferenczy was of Swabian origin on his mother's side, but even in spite of this he did not have full command of the German language and constantly had to engage the services of an interpreter, Capt. Laszlo Leo Lulay,)

Following the occupation of the country by the Germans, an organisation known as the "Judendezernat" assumed control of the affairs of Hungarian Jewry. This organisation was placed under the orders of Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, - at least that was the name this individual adopted in Hungary. There is reason to believe that "Eichmann" used a new name in every country he went to in order to prevent creating a panic, so terrible was the record of the atrocities for which he was responsible. Eichmann was fond of pretending that he was born in Palestine and spoke Hebrew fluently; in point of fact, no one ever heard him say anything in that ancient tongue beyond a Biblical quotation regarding the creation of the universe, and that can hardly be taken as conclusive proof of his knowledge of the language. Although his military rank corresponded to that of a Lieutenant Colonel, his jurisdiction extended over the whole of Europe as an authority in matters affecting Jewish questions. His immediate superior was Anton Brunner (Brunner II), who, from his headquarters in the Rothschild Palace in Vienna, directed the "Jewish Emigration Office". It was there that the Germans conceived their plans for the complete "de-Jewification" of all countries under their rule and the deportation of Jews to the "extermination camps". Eichmann's rank in Hungary was that of "Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des S. D. in Ungarn, Sondereinsatzkommando". When Eichmann made his first appearance at the headquarters of the Jewish Congregation in Budapest, he opened the conservation with the following pleasantry: "Sie wissen nicht, wer ich bin? lch bin ein Bluthund!" (So you don't know who I am? I am a bloodhound!) *) Replying to

*) His deputy, Wyslizeni, the "expert on Jewish murders" was examined in the course of the Nuremberg trial. Wyslizeni confessed that Eichmann and he had organised the . "liquidation" of roughly (108) complaints made about Jews being rounded up in the streets and then being deported without being allowed to take any of their belongings with them, Eichmann said: "Das gehort halt mit zur Sache ... " (That's all part of the day's work ... ) Another of his duties was to examine the reports submitted by the head in Hungary of the Gestapo organisation for "de-Jewification", whose official title was "Sondereinsatzkommando zur Judenvernichtung", Eichmann was continually visiting the various organisations set up for the purpose of "de-Jewifying" the countries under German domination. Later on he made no secret of the fact that it was his duty to ensure that "no hitch ever occurred in the supply of new material for the extermination camps".

Some weeks after his arrival in Hungary Eichmann met and formed a close friendship with Laszlo Endre. They had three things in common: their passion for horses, their love of alcohol and their insane hatred of everything Jewish. When in Hungary, Eichmann was a permanent guest at Endre's estate outside Budapest and the wild orgies held there were common knowledge. If the two inseparables were in the capital, the could be seen riding in Buda in the company of Endre's fiancée, Countess Catherine Crouy Chanel. Eichmann set up his headquarters and offices in a sumptuously furnished villa belonging to Leopold Aschner. This villa was eventually stripped of all its furniture and fittings by the Gestapo. It fell to the lot of two brave men, Dr. Phillip Freudiger and Dr. Emmerich Reiner, to visit Eichmann periodically with complaints regarding the terrible treatment of their Orthodox Jewish brothers. On occasions such as these, Eichmann would keep the two visitors waiting for hours and, when they were finally admitted to the presence, he would rave and storm at them. However, he was visibly impressed by the perserverance and courage with which these men appealed on behalf of their suffering co-religionists confined to the ghettos. In more than one instance they succeeded in persuading the "bloodhound" to listen to their pleas.

The real head of the German "de-Jewification" squads was a man called Krumey. Obersturmbannführer Krumey was, a lean, dyspeptic Berlin merchant, whose charming manner hid his true character. As time went by, it was learnt that Krumey had commanded the special Nazi detachments created in Warsaw, Lemberg, Amsterdam and Paris for the purpose of liquidating the Jews. Krumey was apt to boast that he was "the greatest authority on the various German extermination camps".

5 million Jews, and that they had been particularly active in Slovakia, Greece, Poland and Hungary. Before coming to Hungary, they had completed the mass deportation from Greece of Greek Jews, and before that, had "rid" Slovakia of the Jewish elements. Wyslizeni stated in Nuremberg that he had read, when in Berlin, Himmler's written orders to the effect that all European Jews were to be exterminated. (109)

Krumey set up his offices in the Hotel Majestic. Apart from the demands he continually made, he showed a certain measure of understanding, and even if it cannot be said that he was not fond of feathering his own nest, one cannot accuse him of being a sadist. It was he who issued and signed the so called "Gestapo Identity Card", which entitled their owners to freedom of unrestricted movement. At a later date, the Jewish Council was violently attacked for its actions in connection with these Gestapo identity cards.*)

Eve Kosytorz, Krumey's secretary, was undoubtely his evil genius. Hungarian by birth and German by origin, this woman lived an uneventful life at No. 19, Bathory Street; subsequently she moved to a' sumptuous apartment in Buda owned by Kalman Fellner. The Jewish Council were ordered to bear the costs incurred by this change of domicile. In time this woman, who spoke both Hungarian and German equally badly, became such a power that she was able to - and frequently did.:__ countermand Krumey's instructions, It is characteristic of the role this woman played, that the Jewish Council was instructed to use the title "Gnadige Frau" when addressing her, A word from her sufficed to have any person interned or deported or - if her victim was wealthy enough to pay a substantial fee - to order the release of the individual. To the men who served under Peter Hain, her mere whim was regarded as an inspired command.

Eichmann's deputy was Hauptsturmführer Baron Dieter von Wyslizeni, a man in the thirties who, judging by his name, was of Polish stock and by his appearance of Bavarian origin. His choleric complexion and protruding, angular jaw betrayed innate cruelty. On several occasions Wyslizeni boasted that his brother in- law was none other than Himmler, the all-powerful SS chief. Philip Freudiger, one of the members ' of the Jewish Council, knew through his connections in Bratislava that Wyslizeni was always ready to accept bribes. When, on March 20th, Wyslizeni appeared before the Jewish Council for the first time and attempted to reassure his listeners as far as the German intentions were concerned, a number of the persons present were not aware of the names of the German officers haranguing them. Freudiger, who had previously been instructed to try and establish relations with the Germans, entered into a conversation with the Gestapo officers and, having introduced himself to Wyslizeni, asked: "Mit wem habe ich die Ehre?" ("Whom am I addressing?") This brought forth a curt reply, in the course of which both Krumey and Wyslizeni gave their names. Freudiger immediately seized the opportunity to ask Wyslizeni: "Herr Baron, wann konnte ich Gelegenheit haben, Ihnen meinen Besuch abzustatten?" ("Herr Baron, when might I be permitted to pay you a visit?''), On hearing

*) In July, Krumey was replaced by Obersturmbannführer Tranker, whose adjutant was a man called Krieger. (110)

the title "Herr Baron" Wyslizeni showed considerable interest for he realised that his interlocutor had somehow heard of his person and he therefore told Freudiger to call on him in a couple of days' time. In the course of this interview Freudiger produced a gold cigarette case from his pocket and on the interview being terminated, Freudiger "forgot" the case, which was never returned. The request made by Freudiger in the course of the conversation however was granted.

This was the beginning of Freudiger's relations with Wyslizeni and in the course of time these grew even closer. Assisted by Dr. Emmerich Reiner, Freudiger presented scores of appeals for the release of detained Jews. From time to time small "gifts" added weight to these requests. An interesting example of what took place is provided by the following:

In the course of one of his conversations with Wyslizeni, Freudiger produced a small box of chocolates from his pocket and passed it to the Hauptsturmführer with the remark that the chocolates were not only very good, but that those wrapped in tin-foil were also particularly valuable. Wyslizeni immediately took the hint, thanked Freudiger for his present and locked the box in the safe, Both Hungarians knew that Wyslizeni had received gifts of this nature when he was in Bratislava. The secret of the "chocolate" in tin-foil was that each contained a small but very valuable piece of jewelry.

Eichmann and Wyslizeni were assisted in their work by the Hauptsturmführer Huntsche and Naumann, both of whom richly deserve the name of bloodhound. The men over which these individuals had command did not exceed 300, but the training they had received whilst liquidating the Jewish elements in Holland, Belgium and France made each one of them experts in their foul profession. As has already been stated, the Headquarters of the S.S. were situated on the "Svabhegy", Later on the greater part of these men were sent to other occupied countries, others were charged with training young Swabians in County Tolna and on the outskirts of the capital. This German "Sondereinsatzkommando" and its leader Eichmann then used a liaison officer to establish contact with the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, under whose competence all matters regarding the Jewish population had been placed. It was through the intermediary of Ferenczy that Eichmann first became acquainted with Baky and subsequently with Endre. These men, who had so much in common, and whose hands were already stained by so much innocent blood, soon became firm friends.

A meeting, over which Baky presided, was. called on April 4th. Present on the occasion were the high-ranking representatives of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the German Wehrmacht, leading officers of the Eichmann detachment, representatives of the gendarmerie, the administrative leader of the Sub-Carpathian gendarmerie, Laszlo Endre and a number of senior state functionaries. (111) Ferenczy, whom the Minister of the Interior had instructed to report to Department XX on anything the civil authorities might stand in need of, was also present at the meeting.

Before the meeting began, confidential instructions drafted by Endre were handed to those present. The terms of these instructions are as follows:

Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

No. 6163/1944. res.

S u b j e c t: D e s i g n a t i o n  o f  J e w i s h  A c c o m o d a t i o n.

The Royal Hungarian Government intends to rid the country of the Jews. On my instructions this operation will take place district by district. The Jews will be taken to pre-arranged assembly centres regardless of age and sex. In towns and larger localities a part of them will later be transferred to Jewish houses, respectively ghettos, which will have been prepared by the police. Jews employed in war essential factories, mines, agriculture and larger concerns, as well as highly-trained technicians, whose dismissal would adversely affect the production of the factory concerned, will be exempted. In the case of firms not essential lor the prosecution of the war, dismissal will be immediate and replacements will be found from among the most suitable members of the stall of the firm concerned.

The Jews will be assembled by the police and/or gendarmerie responsible lor the district affected. II necessary, the gendarmerie will assist the Royal Hungarian Police with their arms in townships. The German “Sicherheitsdienst" (Security Police) will be represented in an advisory capacity. Particular importance is attached to closest co-operation. The Provincial authorities will prepare a sufficient number of assembly centres, bearing in mind the proportional strength of the Jews. The location of these assembly centres must be reported to the Secretary of State lor Public Security. In all towns and in the larger localities, where the number of Jews justifies the institution of special Jewish houses, the police will immediately take steps to ensure that suitable houses are earmarked lor this purpose without delay, as only Jews considered dangerous to the safety of the State will be retained in the assembly centres, whereas the others will be sent to the Jewish houses. Houses, in which the larger part of the occupants are of Jewish descent will be described as Jewish Houses". Non-Jews resident in these houses will have to be evacuated at least 30 days before the date fixed lor the conclusion of the operation. The police authorities will provide them with flats evacuated by Jews, taking care to ensure that size, rent and locality correspond to those of the flats evacuated by the non-Jews. The municipal authorities will appoint special commissions at the time the Jews are collected and assembled. The job of these commissions will be to lock and seal the flats and shops of Jews about to be evacuated and they will be assisted by the police and/or gendarmerie. The keys will be marked with the name and address of the owners and handed to the Administrative Officers i/c Camps in sealed envelopes. Perishable food-stalls and nonproductive animals are to be handed over to the municipal authorities. Cash and valuables (gold, silver, shares etc.) will be handed over to the police authorities, who lor their part will acknowledge receipt to the municipal authorities. These valuables will then be transferred to the nearest branch-office of the National Bank. (112)

Jews earmarked for deportation may take with them no more than the clothes they are actually wearing, two changes of under-clothing, food sufficient lor 14 days and 50 kilos of luggage containing bedding, blankets, palliasses etc. They will not be in possession of cash, jewelry and other valuables. The Jews will be assembled in the following order: VIII., IX., X., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., I. Gendarmerie District.

All active formations and their training companies will be subordinated to the competent gendarmerie headquarters and the police authorities. Gendarmerie and Police will maintain close liaison in order to ensure the success of the operation.

I would draw the attention of the authorities to the fact that all Jewish refugees from other countries are, without exception, to be treated in the same way as Communists, i. e. that they are to be detained in the assembly centres.

These instructions are to be treated as strictly confidential. Heads of departments and Officers Commanding will be held responsible in case news of this operation leaks out prior to its commencement.

                                                          Budapest, April 7th, 1944.

                                                                Laszlo BAKY

                                                                      e. h.

                                                             Secretary of State.

Baky issued the infamous decree on April 7th and Endre forwarded it to the authorities. At that time, as already stated, no governmental decree for the confinement of Jews in ghettos existed, - this was not issued till April 27th. Questioned before the People's Court, Jaross, Baky and Endre unanimously declared that the Germans wanted the Jews removed from the vicinity of the front and that this was the reason for the decree being issued.

Jaross confessed that he did not know about the decree or the conference. Baky, in his statement, declared that he had not seen the decree beforehand and that he signed it, because Endre asked him to do so with the explanation that "the Regent had given his consent to the transfer of the Jews to German labour camps". This seemed reasonable, as the Regent had previously, in the course of an audience, addressed Baky as follows:

"You, Baky, are one of my old officers. I know you are faithful to me and I have lull confidence in you; that is why I appointed you to the position of a Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior. I abhor the Communists and Galician Jews - out of the country with them, out! But at the same time you must admit, Baky, there are some Jews, who are just as good Hungarians as you or I! For instance take Chorin and Vida! I cannot allow them to be deported, but I don't mind about the others!"

 Baky had taken the same line in the course of his examination before the People's Attorney in order to prove that the deportation of the "little Jews" of the provinces took place with the Regent's consent. (113)

In actual fact the decree dated April 4th and signed on April 7th already foresees the deportation of the Jews from the whole of the country. Thus the defence of the three accused did not correspond with the truth, which was simply that Eichmann and Endre, the Nazi and Hungarian Jew baiters, wanted to make a start with their programme. Sztojay and Jaross are equally guilty, as the programme could not have been carried out without their consent.

That the Regent did not object to this measure is evident by the statement made to Bishop Ravasz. Similar statements made by Endre and Baky in trying to justify their actions must therefore be accepted.

The records of the People's Court prove that the responsibility for the deportations must primarily be borne by Horthy and the Sztojay Government. It is evident that the Jewish question played but a secondary part in the events which led up to March 19th. The main reason was the fear that the Kallay Government, taking advantage of the war situation, might try to emulate the Italian coup d'etat of Badoglio.

The solution of the Jewish question was merely a "desire" presented to every Cabinet since Gombos. Each successive government tried, more or less vigourously, to satisfy the Nazi demands. But it was Sztojay who, after taking office, gave the Nazis a free hand and consented to Baky and Endre rendering armed assistance in order to execute the German instructions. Any resistance then encountered was crushed by Ferenczy.

Baky, following the examples set by Himmler, Winckelmann and Dr. Hoetl, directed the persecution of the Left-wing politicians, leaving it to Endre to assist the "Sonderbeauftragte" Eichmann in his task of exterminating the Jews. Veesenmayer repeatedly confessed:

"Had the Hungarians consistently refused to meet the German demands concerning the solution of the Jewish question, this  solution would not have taken place. Pressure would certainly have been applied, but as 1944 was already a year of "crisis", no force would have been available to collect and deport one million persons. This is obviously a task of such dimensions that it could only be carried out in three months, and then only with the wholehearted and enthusiastic support of the entire administrative organisation and the armed forces of Hungary. It would not have been possible to enlist foreign help, as only those who knew the country and its people and had command of its language could hope to tackle the task . successfully. A very small staff only was at Eichmann's disposal. Only the aid of the Hungarian Government made it possible to carry out the deportations so quickly and smoothly."

(Winckelmann, in his disposition made at the People's Court, admits this to be the reason for his request to Veesenmayer, asking if the latter to intervene on behalf of Baky and Endre, so that they might continue to hold the position of Secretaries of State in the Lakatos Cabinet.)

After April 4th, Endre, invested with full powers by the Minister Council, found it possible to execute his plan without hindrance.

After the conference Ferenczy "instituted" the "Hungarian Squad for the Extermination of Jews" - a Hungarian "Sonderkommando" - the headquarters of which were at 6, Semmelweisss utca. To camouflage the place, the entrance bore a significant sign: "The International Storing and Transportation Company".

Reports saying that the administrative heads of the countries, as well as the chiefs of police and gendarmerie, had been ordered to be in Budapest on April 4th soon reached the Jewish Council from Munkacevo. Apparently Baky and Endre had called them together for a conference. After the functionaries had returned to their stations from this conference, it was soon rumoured that the Jews would be isolated. On Easter Sunday, Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy, who had in the meantime acquired a confiscated Jewish vineyard, arrived at Munkacevo. He was accompanied by Attorney of State Lajos Megyesy - a man of German origin - and Major of Gendarmerie Martin Zoldi, the infamous mass murderer of Ujvidek, who after his flight to Germany had returned as an N.C.O. in the Gestapo. The last to arrive was Peter Hain.

On the Jewish Easter Day the round-up of the Carpatho-Ukrainian Jews started. The gendarmes, going from house to house, granted their victims only a few minutes in which to pack their bundle of clothes and food, and then drove the Jews into the synagogues. Here their money, jewels and valuables were taken from them. The evacuated houses were not even locked - stealing and looting began immediately, even the live-stock being driven away without delay. On foot the Jews from the rural districts were driven to Munkacevo, Uzhorod and Beregsas. Algya Papp, a liaison officer attached to the Governor's office in Ungvar, was relieved from his duties within 48 hours for charging the gendarmes with abusing their powers. General Feher (Weiss}, also of German origin, was recalled from the front after having seen but a few weeks of active service, and charged with the task of carrying out the anti-Jewish measures. Feher ordered the Jews to be confined in two brick-works. Although these offered accommodation for no more than 2 to 300 persons, Feher managed to squeeze 14,000 Jews into them. The furnaces were used as prison for the Zionists and other felons. Rain poured down for days on end, but large crowds were exposed to it without the least shelter. Soon after the conversion of the brick-works to their new use they were walled in with stout wooden planks. The food supplied to the "camps" by the Jewish Council consisted of potato soup, carried there in bath tubs. As the ration for each meal amounted to about a spoonful each, the inmates were soon starving. As a (115) result of the lack of medical care, the insufficient hygienic arrangements and the scandalous sanitary conditions, diseases were soon raging. Within the wooden partition Jewish patrols, outside them gendarmes and police as well as Gestapo, guarded the camp.  

On April 18th orders went forth to the 13,000 Jews of Munkacevo itself to join their co-religionists by 6 p. m. on the following day. The panic resulting can well be imagined. In the course of the evening the majority of the Jewish dwellings had been forcibly entered, looting began and lasted until everything of value had been removed. (About a month later an official inventory of Jewish homes was taken, but by then there was nothing left but the bare walls.)

The extermination of the Jews started a few days later. The Jews, starved for a fortnight, were driven to work from the brick-works. Small wonder that some of them lagged behind, too weary and exhausted to move their feet. On the main square of Munkacevo the escorting troops drew their rubber truncheons and belaboured the stragglers. Bewildered, they started running, whereupon they were fired upon with tommy-guns. There is no record of the number of dead and wounded; the remainder were again brutally beaten. After that work was resumed: the Jews were ordered to demolish their own furniture and the fittings of the synagogue! All this, it may be remarked, took place on a Sabbath! Soon after, a reduction in the size of the city ghetto was ordered. Two streets had to be evacuated within an hour. What that meant can only be estimated, if one remembers that some 20 to 25 people occupied a single room of the small houses constituting these streets.

In the meantime the Nazis had retreated to the Carpathians. On April 26th a secret conference was called at the town hall of Munkacevo. Teachers, professors, civil servants were instructed in the art of conducting house-to-house and body searches. On the following day the ghetto was searched and everything of value confiscated; the booty being stored on carts and carried off. The empty Jewish flats were used to accomodate the retreating Nazis, who, on their departure, did not omit to take with them everything left behind, including the furniture. At the station the Jewish property was loaded into waggons and despatched to Germany as "Liebesgabe der ungarischen Nation fur die deutschen Ausgebombten" (Gift of the Hungarian nation to German air-raid victims).

Similar news came from Nagykanizsa, as the South of the country, the County Zala, had been declared an operational zone as a result of the advance of Marshal Tito's partisans. At Nagykanizsa the round-up of the Jews into the ghettos was supervised by the Szombathely police and commenced on April 19th. (It was not long until deportations were reported from here as well.) (116)  

V.

INTERVENTION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

Under the influence of the news reaching the capital, Bishop Ravasz asked the Regent - a Protestant - for an audience, which was granted on April 12th. He entreated the Regent to abstain from every action in connection with the Jewish question, for which at some future date he might have to bear the responsibility, I pointing out that the blame for cruelties, should these occur, would be laid at his door and that he would render himself liable , to trial for these. "The desperadoes", said the Bishop, "will not fail to make an attempt at having their own accounts paid out of the moral capital of others."

Horthy reassured the Bishop. A few days later, however, Baron Zsigmond Perenyi, President of the Upper House, called upon Ravasz and informed him of his sad experiences in Northern Hungary. On April 28th Ravasz was again received in audience by the Regent, to whom he passed on the information gathered by Perenyi. Horthy's answer was as follows:

" ... Only a few hundred thousands Jews are scheduled to leave the country with the labour battalions. No harm will befall  them, not a hair on their heads will be touched. They will enjoy the same treatment as the nearly hundred thousand Hungarian labourers employed abroad ... " (Sztojay, too, confessed: "The Germans asked me for labour forces and promised that the deported Jews would be well treated.")

The Regent admitted to Ravasz that complaints had been received from Nyiregyhaza, whereupon he had sent for the Minister of the Interior, Jaross, and had asked for an investigation to be instituted. Jaross had charged his two Under-Secretaries with the investigation demanded and had since reported that "a stop had been put to the scandalous treatment". Laszlo Ravasz, reassured once more, then left the Regent. Whilst leaving, he saw a young Major of Gendarmerie - Laszlo Baky - enter the Regent's apartments. (Bishop Ravasz' Memoirs.)

A further discussion took place on April 13th between Justinian Seredi and the Prime Minister, in the course of which the former pointed out those measures to Sztojay, of which the Catholic Church disapproved.

Sztojay did not refuse to give due consideration to the demands made by the Bishop, but for his part expressed the wish that the Catholic clergy would in future show greater zeal and enthusiasm in cultivating the people's faith in the future of the country and that it should especially call the attention of the faithful to the struggle against Communism.  (117)

Seredi replied to the effect that the Catholic clergy needed no special stimulant when it came to standing up for the historical rights and 1000-year old constitution of its country, and that if the Prime Minister was perhaps hinting that the most elementary rights of mankind, such as personal freedom , religious freedom, human dignity, freedom of speech etc. stood in need of defence, no special appeal to the priests of the Church was necessary, as these have always done and will always continue to do their duty. (Primate 's Archive, Esztergom, No. 3795.) On April 23rd Seredi paid Sztojay another visit, this time presenting the point of view of the Catholic Church in writing: in

"As Head of the Catholic Church in Hungary and as a Hungarian patriot who views the late of his country with anxiety, the fact that the Government's so-called 'Jewish Decrees' have not only not been modified in accordance with common justice, but have even been augmented by new ones and will moreover - if certain signs do not deceive me - apparently be aggravated, fills me with deep sorrow and grave anguish. I do not wish to foretell their grave consequences lor Hungary, consequences which will one day affect all Hungarians, including those who had nothing whatever to do with the institution of these measures. Unjust laws can neither be promulgated by the Hungarian Parliament, nor with or without its consent by the Government. Without just cause and judgment we have neither the right to restrict or to deny the right of our Fellows citizens to file, personal freedom, religious freedom, freedom to work, to earn a living, to own private property, the right to human dignity, a virtuous life and honour, nor are we authorized to issue unjust decrees against the Church.

"I have in mind those decrees already published - or about to be published in the near future - which without legal basis cause injury to Hungarian citizens, my Catholic brethren, humiliating them without cause: decrees, which are harsher than those of any other State, including Germany, and this in a country where at least a million souls are affected by them, whereas in other countries the number of people affected was considerably smaller.

"The representatives of the State have to bear in mind their grave responsibility before God and their fellow-citizens and to remember that it is their first duty to ensure that unjust measures do not cause general restlessness or disturb the normal file al the citizen. The more people are affected by unjust measures, the more liable they are to cause disturbances, to resist, or even to arouse hatred, not only against those who are directly concerned, but against the general public ...

"If the decrees of a Government show the people that their most elementary rights are not only not safeguarded, but, on the contrary, threatened, or the rights of their Church encroached then, with the greatest harm to the public and private life of the country, the obligatory loyalty and obedience is shaken, work is paralysed and production comes to a standstill, for under such circumstances no citizen thinks it worth his while to obey, work and produce.

"My colleagues and I request your Excellency that the decrees about to be issued by the Royal Hungarian Government should not only not deprive anybody of his human rights without just trial and judgment or humiliate him without reason, but, on the contrary, that the grievous stipulations of the decrees already promulgated be amended. Whatever his origin or religion, no one should suffer arrest, confiscation of his property or other penalties, until a proper trial has taken place and sentence is passed in accordance with our laws. Those innocent of crimes, which cannot be proved judicially, should not be deprived of their civil rights.

"I herewith insistently request the Royal Hungarian Government of Christian Hungary, a government consisting entirely of Christians, to consider the baptized Christians, even though they be of Jewish origin, and distinguish them from the Jews, as they, by the act of their baptism, have already distinguished themselves.

"I present five demands:

(1) The regulations concerning those of Jewish faith should not be applied to Christians.

(2) Those of Christian faith should not be represented in the same Council as those of Jewish faith. The whole organisation of the Jewish Council is rooted in the Jewish religion and it is not right that Jews should have a particular power over Catholic priests or monks, or over Christians in general. Nor should they enjoy a judicial authority over these, with which they might, should they happen to be biassed, harm those who, For the greatest part, followed the call of their conscience and renounced their Jewish faith.

(3) Christians should no longer be obliged to wear the Star of David, lor this is not the emblem of the Jews, but of the Jewish laith. The exhibition of this sign by Christians is tantamount to apostasy, against which the dignitaries of the Church protest most solemnly.  

(4) I further request that those Catholic priests, the aged and the infirm, and in general those baptised who fall under the stipulations of the regulations concerning Jews, should be allowed to employ non-Jewish domestics, since it would be inhuman to leave them to lend by themselves or to Force them - ii unable to get servants of Jewish origin-to employ such of Jewish faith. (The Government enforces just what it wants to avoid, namely that Jews should have no intercourse with non-Jews.)

(5) I further have to draw attention to the fact that in many cases, when the property of a parent who is considered a Jew is confiscated or the head of the family is forbidden to work, children, to whom the stipulations of the Jewish laws do not even apply, are deprived of their fortune. For this reason let us avoid such right-depriving and -impairing measures, the injustice of which may shatter the very foundations of the Hungarian State and may turn against us not only those directly concerned, but also. the public opinion of the entire Christian world, the Holy Sea and, most of all, God Himself.

"Hoping that neither Your Excellency nor the other Christian members of the Royal Hungarian Government will disown their Christian co-religionists, and, bearing in mind their historical responsibility, will not oppose, to the greatest harm of the country, God's unwritten (natural) and written (revealed) laws - especially the Ten Commandments - and the moral laws embodied in the Church of Christ, or drive the Catholic faculty and 67 per cent of the Hungarian population into opposition to the existing regime, or to force the episcopal body to resort to a step, which it could but take with an aching heart, but which it would nevertheless have to take for the sake of the faithful Catholics and truth, ii its peaceful discussions and patient waiting were not to bear fruit."

Already in the course of his visit the Primate was promised e alleviations by Prime Minister Sztojay - so far as it was in his power to grant these. On May 3rd, Sztojay addressed a letter to ' the Bishop, in which he stated:

"... It is impossible to jeopardise the life and future of 13¼ million Hungarians lor the sake of one million Jews, especially so, ii this leniency were to benefit the Jews only temporarily. There is not the slightest doubt that, should the Hungarian Government fail to take measures against the Jews, their late would not improve, but in all probability become even more deplorable."

To the principle expressed, that no one should be deprived, without trial and judgment, of his natural and legally acquired right, the Primate received no direct answer.

To the concrete suggestions made on April 23rd, Sztojay  replied that the Jewish decrees issued by the Government were, in fact, more lenient than the stipulations of Lex XV ex 1941 (the so-called Racial Defence Law) and that membership of the Union of Hungarian Jews was obligatory only for those Jews, who had to wear the Star of David, not however for Catholic priests, monks or nuns of Jewish origin, as these were exempted from wearing the Star of David in accordance with the stipulations of Decree 1950/ 1944 M.E. He then continued:

"Nevertheless the Government, through the Minister of the Interior, will take steps to ensure that the statutes of the Union, to be presented on the basis of § 3 of Decree 1520/1944 M.E., will entitle Jews converted to Christianity to form a sub -committee within the Union. The same statutes will stipulate the right of the Christian Jews to protest against unjust or exaggerated measures (120) the Union might wish to adopt against them. Till then Jews of Christian religion will be adequately represented on the executive board."

Concerning the wearing of the Star of David Sztojay declares:

"In the opinion of the Royal Hungarian Government the Star 8 of David does not represent a religious symbol, but merely a necessary means of marking, from the administrative point of view, members of the Jewish race. Nevertheless the Government will raise no objections ii Jews of Christian religion, without awaiting special orders to that effect, wear a cross on their clothes in addition to the Star of David."

With reference to the prohibition regarding the employment of domestics, the Sztojay Government was prepared to exempt priests and other persons employed by the Church and would even consider the exemption of households, where only one member was Jewish and the children, if any, were Christians. Sztojay attempted to dispel the anxiety expressed with regard to the property of non- Jewish consorts and children in declaring that "the Royal Hungarian Government would take care that such property would receive due consideration in accordance with the existing legislation when the time came for the future of such property to be decided".

"I hope and believe that after this information has been placed at your disposal by the Royal Hungarian Government," - thus ends Sztojay's letter to the Primate - "Your Eminence and the Episcopal Faculty will not place obstacles in the way of disentangling the difficult position of the country, for whose sake the solution of certain questions is imperative, but that on the c:ontrary they will view the efforts of the Government with understanding and trust."

As Sztojay's answer was not considered satisfactory, Primate Seredi addressed a further letter to him, and, repeating his demands concerning justice and freedom, he detailed and stressed them even more emphatically:

"I find it unnecessary to deal with the narrowing of the conception 'Jew·, but I must again repeat my demand for discrimination be t ween converted Jews and Jews adhering to the Israelite faith. This applies especially to cases in which Christians of Jewish origin are to be housed with Israelites in the same flats, houses, ghettos, labour camps etc. As Christians are separated from Jews in the labour battalions, so they should be separated in the above cases. This at least we owe our Christian co-religionists. Furthermore they have to be assured of freedom of religion. It must be made possible for them to leave their domiciles in order to fulfill their religious obligations and, should the need arise, priests must be permitted to visit them. Care should be taken that their moral life is not endangered. Most of all it must be prevented that they, as a consequence of indiscriminate  (121) deportation, suffer loss of life without a specific crime having been proved against them before a Court of Law. Therefore I respectfully request the Royal Hungarian Government that, bearing in mind its historical responsibility, it should cause steps to be taken by Hungarian and non-Hungarian authorities alike to prevent such deportations, respectively to have them stopped.

After summarising his negotiations and the meagre results arising out of them, the Primate declared at the end of his pastoral letter:

"Finally I must regretfully inform you that, should the meagre promises made again be frustrated by new decrees and regulations, it will no longer be possible for me to appease with any measure of success either the Episcopal Faculty or my Catholic brethren, especially as the natural restlessness due to the war and air attacks is increased by the regulations already issued or about to be issued in the near future. Discontent is already wide-spread al the prospect of non-Jewish citizens having to leave their homes, to which they are often attached by dear family traditions and bonds, so that Jews or Hungarian citizens coming under that category can be settled together in certain houses or groups of houses. The effect of the regulations concerning the Jews is not only a heavy drop in the taxes - especially purchase tax - but also involves considerable actual expenditure. Under such circumstances the persecution of the war becomes a task of increased difficulty."

In a pastoral letter dated May 17th Primate Seredi declared that the new regulations specifying the exemptions from the stipulations of Decree 1730/1944 M. E. (obliging Jews to wear the Star of David) had brought some alleviations, but that the result obtained was still ''meagre'', (The pastoral letter then reviews the negotiations which are narrated above.)

"As the Christians regarded as Jews", the letter continued, "are authorised to wear on their clothes the Emblem of the Cross in addition to the Star of David, and as no special regulation lo this effect will be published (vide the Prime Minister's letter dated May 3rd and addressed lo me}, they may now commence to wear the Cross and the Star together."

After summarising his negotiations and the meagre results arising out of them, the Primate declared at the end of his pastoral letter:

"If we kept our many and strenuous negotiations secret before the general public and if we did not publicly oppose the grievous regulations, this was done for the sake of our cause and in the desire not lo aggravate the position of the Royal Hungarian Government. We did not wish lo furnish anybody with a pretext for launching, parallel lo our official negotiations, attacks upon our Catholic brethren - not yet affected by the regulations -, and upon the rights and institutions of our Church, which might have resulted in the curtailing of its rights or the withdrawal of the concessions granted. We have neither abandoned nor betrayed the true cause or our Catholic brethren, but under the prevailing circumstances we could achieve no more." (122)

VI.

THE CONCENTRATION OF PROVINCIAL JEWS INTO GHETTOS.

Owing to the various interventions of the Regent, Jaross was soon obliged to ask his Secretaries of State for a report and ordered Endre to inspect conditions on the spot.

On April 20th a message was sent by Janos Gabor from the "Svabhegy", summoning the entire Council to a meeting in the Jewish Theological Institute, Rokk Szilard utca, at 3 p.m. the same day. Wyslizeni, Novak and Huntsche received them in the director's room. The Germans were sitting around the table and left the members of the Jewish Council standing. Wyslizeni's orders were issued in a sharp, rasping voice. He asked whether the map showing the distribution of the provincial Jews and the large-scale sociographical map requested by the Germans had already been prepared. How many Jews lived where, what institutions did they possess? He declared that from then on Jews were no longer permitted to live in villages, but only in towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants. Each County would elect a Jewish Fuhrer, with whom the Lord-Lieutenant could maintain constant contact. A new organisation of the Budapest Jews would also be created. The pace at which the work of the Jewish Council was at present proceeding was too slow. A leader would have to be appointed with whom contact could be maintained day and night. (At this stage he referred to Vienna, where President Lowenberg was "ein braver Kerl" (a good chap), whereas in Berlin the Jewish "Fuhrer", lacking in obedience, had been sent to Dachau for a few months and was now more pliable.) After this the Secretary General of the Jewish Religious Community no longer undertook to manage affairs and Rabbi Zoltan Kohan, until then Inspector of Schools, was appointed to this post.

After the official discussion the Jewish Council inquired after the date by which the maps were required. Wyslizeni told them that he was going to the provinces with Eichmann, but that he would return within a fortnight and that the maps should be ready by then, He then asked for an expert on provincial matters to accompany them, whereupon Jozsef Pasztor, head of the Protecting Office, was recommended. Finally, however, he did not accompany the Nazis after all.  

On April 24th, Endre and his suite, accompanied by Eichmann and Wyslizeni, started on their tour of inspection. They were accompanied by Lieut. Col. of Gendarmerie Laszlo Ferenczy and his deputy, Captain Laszlo Leo Lulay, as well as Medgyessy and Zoldi. (123)

Their first visit took them to Kassa, whose Mayor, Sandor Pohl, was an underling of Endre's during the latter's term of office as Sheriff of Godollo. The mass murderer of Ujvidek, General Ference Feketehalmy Czeydner, who had been recalled to military duty and commanded the Kassa Division, was in the town as well. The Hungarian and German "Jew Extermination Squads", assisted by the General, had been busy in the district, crowding 15,000 people into the area of two brick works and had created a German receiving station. The above-mentioned discussions prompted the Kassa police to issue the following communication:

"After 6 m. p. on April 28th Jews will not be allowed to remain in the town of Kassa with the exception of the camp premises at the brick works. Those who have been permitted by the gendarmerie or the police to remain in their lodgings for the time being and who have been put on a special list are excepted. Every other Jew will present him- or herself at the receiving centre in the tile factory between 5 and 7 p. m. Jews discovered within the limits of the town after that time will be immediately arrested and interned. The Chief of Police warns the population of the town that any one found concealing or hiding Jewish persons or property in their lodgings or elsewhere after the time-limit mentioned above has expired, makes him- or herself liable to arrest and internment."

This communication served, at a later date, as a model for the concentration of the Jews.  

Eichmann, Wyslizeni, Endre and their entourage. continued their trip with a visit to Satorlajaujhely. Here the gipsy camps on the banks of the Ronyva were transformed into a ghetto, into which 13,000 Jews from the town and the countryside were already crammed. Barbed wire entanglements and later a -wooden stockade surrounded the camp. For a short while the gipsies endured their new neighbours, after that they sent deputies to the authorities and asked to be removed, as they could no longer stand the constant crying and wailing of the Jews, many of whom were being beaten and ill-treated. They asked to be granted the use of empty Jewish flats, demanding "modern, comfortable flats with bathrooms", which they promptly received. Posters warned the Christian population under threat of dire punishment not to approach the territory of the ghetto. On Endre's orders the gendarmerie were charged with the custody of the Jews.

The grim tour of the Hungarian and German officials next took them to Ungvar. Before starting out for that town, however, they were acquainted with the following proclamation issued by the police authorities of Miskolc:

"We draw the attention of the Christian Hungarian public to the fact that certain individuals have dropped lumps of poisoned sugar at the front doors of houses with the intention of endangering life and health of Hungarian Christian children!" (124)

Emil Borbely-Maczky, the notorious racial politician and prefect of Borsod was responsible for the rounding-up into ghettos of the Jews of Miskolc and the County of the same name. His victims numbered almost 20,000. At Satoraljaujhely he told the delegation: "In Miskolc every Jew would like to grab hold of a shovel, as this enthusiasm for manual labour is their sole hope of escaping the ghetto."

Endre ordered the Miskolc ghetto to be removed from its present place to the tile factory and ensured that those Jews, who were performing agricultural labour under the surveillance. of the military authorities were immediately returned to the ghetto.  

The Jews of the country-side of Ungvar were driven into the town on April 16th, where they were confined in the courtyard of the Moskovity tile factory in Minai utca. They were allowed to carry with them 30 pengos, provisions for a fortnight, one change of underwear and a blanket for a single sleeping berth. On Thursday, April 20th, posters ordered the Jews of Ungvar not to leave their homes and to await further instructions there. The other conditions were similar to those mentioned before. On April 21st, 22nd and 23rd the Ungvar Jews, too, were taken to the same tile factory, into which 25,000 people were crowded by the time the transports came to an end. This huge crowd was left to the rigours of the weather without any shelter whatsoever. On the first day of the camp's existence a people's kitchen was installed in the camp, cooking for about 1,000 persons, but as soon there were no Jews left in the town, the functioning of the kitchen became very uncertain indeed. Christians were not allowed to enter the camp and to bring their relatives parcels of food. The custody of the interned Jews was handed over to the camp gendarmerie and little flags showed the limits within which free movement was permitted. People found out of bounds were liable to suffer severe punishment. One child involuntarily overstepped the limits whilst playing. Its mother, desperate lest any harm befall her little one, ran after it, ignoring the border line. Both were shot by the camp gendarmerie.

From Uzhorod, Endre proceeded to Munkacevo, Beregszasz, Nagyszollos, Tecso, Aknaszlatina, Maramarossziget, Dragomirfalva, Felsoviso, Ptrovo Havasko, Des and Szamosucar, inspecting camps and ghettos on the way.

On Endre's return from his first large-scale tour of inspection on May 2nd he submitted a report to the Minister of the Interior, who in turn forwarded it to the Regent. The Regent said: "Endre has found everything in perfect order. The provincial ghettos have the character of sanatoria. At last the Jews have taken up an open air life and exchanged their former mode of living with a healthier one." The Regent apparently gave full credit to the report of his Minister of the Interior ...

(Nevertheless the report of the Chief Medical Officer who accompanied Endre on his tour has been preserved. According to this, jail-fever was already suspected at Kassa, a concrete case of jail-fever had occurred at Beregszasz, whilst an epidemic of jail-fever had broken out at Petrovo, Havasko and Felsoviso. Endre's report remained silent on the subject of over-crowding and failed to mention the lack of doctors and the horrors of 'accommodation' and 'food',)

Meanwhile the Hungarian Government, conforming with the orders issued by the Nazis, hastily made its arrangements. During the last days of April, Veesenmayer, whose official title was "Gesandter und Bevollmachtigter des GroBdeutschen Reiches in ' Ungarn" presented himself and asked Sztojay on behalf of the Wehrmacht to transfer the Jews from the Northern and Southern areas, which were considered operational areas, to the interior of the country.

Sztojay called in Jaross, who entrusted Endre - then just returned from his first tour of inspection - with the task. Endre reported that the operation planned could not take place owing to the great number of Jews in Upper Hungary. "Besides," he said, "the Germans have proposed to accept those Jews, male or female, who are capable of working, into German labour camps,  whilst those unable to work will be taken care of in concentration camps."

Endre then proposed: "We should accept the German offer, as in my opinion Hungary is not in a position to support the number of Jews living here at present."

This point of view was taken up by the Minister of the Interior in his report to the Prime Minister (Document No. 385411945 of the Budapest People's Attorney). The entire discussion was nothing but a prearranged farce. The Germans presented a carefully worked-out plan for the deportation. Endre's collaboration may have improved the look of things, but the essence invariably remained unchanged. According to Ferenczy's statement before the People's Court, Endre came to an agreement with Eichmann about the deportation scheme during their tour to Maramarossziget and told Ferenzy so. (Deposition of Ferenczy).  

Immediately after this, Endre started his second tour of inspection, this time to Transsylvania, the location of the IX. and X. Gendarmerie District: Szilagysomlyo, Szarmarnemeti, Nagybanya, Nagyvarad, Beszterce, Marosvasarhely, Szaszregen and Sepsizentgyorgy were the most important places visited.

At the conferences held at Nyiregyhaza and Szatmarnemeti Endre made following announcement:  

"I expect full and honest collaboration from all civil servants and other persons participating in this action, which, possibly, may not be fully appreciated until history has proved us right. During their removal the Jews will not be ill-treated, as any such actions are unworthy of Hungarians." (126)

These were Endre's words addressed to the public. At the same time he ordered Jewish women to be searched by midwives.

The next conferences to be held by Endre took place at Cluj and Targul Mures. Here the Nazis already presented a detailed d railway time-table for the deportation. According to this the Jews were to be sent from Kassa station in 110 train-loads; trains were to be marked “D. A. Umsiedler" (German labour resettlers). 70 persons complete with their luggage were to occupy each wagon marked “45 G.". Among the last trains there were to be hospital trains complete with doctors and nurses, on which members of the Jewish Councils and Jews of dubious nationality were to travel, as well as the air raid and labour service doctors and chemists. As these German waggons could not be locked, they were to be secured with chains and padlocks (which the Germans undertook to supply).

At Kolozsvar the premises of the tile factory in Kajantoi utca J were reserved as an assembly centre for the Jews. Here 12,000, wearers of the Star of David, brought in from town and country, were jammed together. Each person was allowed to carry 50 kilos of luggage and a fortnight's provisions. A stockade was immediately erected, the work on which was carried out and supervised with great zeal by the Chief of Police, Lajos Kollosy-Kuthy, and the Mayor, Laszlo Vasarhelyi. At the same time 358 Jewish shops were compulsorily closed at Kolozsvar.

The party then spent a few days at Nagyvarad. Under the personal supervision of Mayor Laszlo Gyapa more than 35,000 Jews - 18-20 persons in one room - were accomodated in the neighbourhood of the Orthodox synagogue, the fire brigade barracks, the Nagypiac (Market Hall) and the so-called "komandans part". The ghetto was surrounded by a stockade two meters in height and Endre gave orders for the panes of the windows overlooking the town to be white-washed. The number of Jews on the verge of destitution was enormous - the daily bread ration being 70 grams!

A gendarmerie battalion under the command of Lieut.-Col. Jeno Peterffy arrived on the scene shortly after the institution of the ghetto. More than 10,000 Jews were questioned; the gendarmes were anxious to find out where they had hidden their property and valuables. Confessions were extorted by foul means and fair, resulting in actions being brought against no less than 2,004 Christian Hungarians - among them the late prefect of the town, Mano Markovics - on the charge of "concealing Jewish property." Peter Hain boasted later on that by these means he was able to recover Jewish property to the tune of 41 million gold pengos at Nagyvarad ...

(The anti-Semitic weekly "Egyedul vagyunk" reported in a derisive manner that "Endre, accompanied by a single gendarme, strolled unscathed through the Nagyvarad ghetto, without suffering the slightest injury from the hands of 30,000 Jews.") (127)

The next station was Nagybanya, where another large-scale concentration of 5,000 Jews from the counties of Szatmar and Szilagyi had taken place. On their route Endre found out that in some villages Jewish doctors and chemists were still practising. These were originally sent here by the Ministry of the Interior in order to avoid that these villages were left without medical care owing to the call-up of Christian doctors. On Endre's orders these doctors - indispensable from the point of view of public health - were soon rounded up by the gendarmerie, The majority of them were beaten mercilessly, robbed and interned in the ghettos. Document No. 469 / 1944 of the Ministry of the Interior has been preserved. It was a suggestion by the competent official, put forward on behalf of the OTI, the ambulance service and other organs of public health, that doctors be exempted from internment. On it Endre had scribbled in blue pencil: "On the contrary, into the ghettos- with them!" This piece of paper sealed the fate of a large and valuable part of the Hungarian doctors. Almost 2,500 doctors and chemists were deported, of whom but a small fraction has returned. (128)

VII.

VAIN EFFORTS OF THE JEWISH COUNCIL.

Except for the northern, eastern and southern frontier belt, the round-up of Jews into ghettos and their subsequent transfer to concentration camps started after the publication of the decree already quoted, i. e. on April 27th.

As soon as the first news of the ghettos reached the Jewish Council it attempted where it could to obtain permission to 1 alleviate the lot of the provincial Jews. Unfortunately, the delegates of the Council where unable to gain admittance to others than subordinate officials and were therefore not successful in obtaining the permission required. The only course remaining to the Council was to send money to the various ghettos through the good- offices of well meaning Christians, who offered their services voluntarily. This was not an easy task, for a person caught in the act by the gendarmes was beaten half-dead, in many cases put into the ghetto and, later on, even deported. Young Zionist boys and girls distinguished themselves heroically in many actions of this sort, unfortunately most of them became victims of their valour.

Three possibilities of escape offered themselves to the provincial Jews: Flight to Slovakia or Rumania, hiding somewhere in the country or escaping into the capital. In several cases German soldiers working hand in hand with Hungarian honveds helped Jews - in return for a suitable reward - to cross the frontier. It was difficult to go into hiding in the provinces, as people there knew each other and there was generally some neighbour or acquaintance with a grudge ready to betray the persecuted Jew. One case after another became known in which the gendarmerie had discovered Jewish families hiding in lofts or cellars. At Munkacevo a family of six spent several weeks in a cellar, the door of which had been completely walled in, until the gendarmes found them.  

Nor was it an easy matter to reach the capital. Trains and stations were constantly subject to lightning raids and identity documents were carefully checked. A decree of the Ministry of the Interior allowed Jews to leave their domicile only when in possession of a travel permit, yet this was granted only in the rarest of cases. The Jewish Council, taking advantage of the chaotic state of the administration as well as the ignorance of the authorities, issued their own travel permits for provincials, but only in exceptional cases were these countersigned by the Gestapo. Yet many hundreds of provincial Jews managed to reach Budapest with the aid of these travel permits, which had no legal backing behind them, and could thus, for the time being, escape (129) deportation. The provincial Jews arriving in Budapest with such permits soon attracted the attention of the Gestapo. Many were arrested and interned. Investigations were started and the Council professed to have acted in "good faith", No harm came of the affair, but the issuing of further travel permits had to cease. Some of the provincial Jews had already tried to get hold of documents proving their Christian origin and to conceal their identities behind them. This had a prospect of success only if they were able to reach the capital or some bigger provincial town, for in their birthplaces everybody knew them. Strangers coming to smaller places were strictly controlled by the gendarmerie.

The Jewish Council, which at first was inclined to resign itself to the fact that the Hungarian Government did not care what the fate of the Jews was, now, at the end of April, when the decree creating the Union of Hungarian Jews was published, realised with a start that perhaps, after all, the Hungarian Government had not entirely given up its Jews. Reiner contacted the Presidency, from where a telephone call was made to the Ministry of the Interior. By orders of Jaross, an audience was granted by Endre for 10 a.m. the following morning. After a prolonged wait on the part of the delegates, Endre appeared, gloves in hand, but wearing no hat and coldly declared that he had to go out and thus had no time to receive the delegation; would they arrange with his secretary the time of their next visit. The secretary County Sheriff Albert Takacs, whom Endre had brought from the offices of the Under Sheriff of Pest, was unable to fix an exact date, but promised to inform them. A few days later he telephoned them, saying "Secretary of State Endre has no time to receive Jews", but that they should call on Councillor Lajos Argalas. Erno Peto and Nison Kahan of the Council did so, taking the opportunity of putting forward their grievances Argales declared himself not to be the competent authority; that he had already completed the job of preparing the decree, and that they should visit the Town Clerk of the County, Lajos Blaskovits. The deputation lost no time in calling on this gentleman, with whom they found Zoltan Bosnyak. Here at last, the representatives of the Jewish Council were received by a "functionary" of the Government.' (Note the fact that in those grave times a lesser official of the Pest County Council, ordered for service into the Ministry of the Interior, was the only one to consider himself competent to at least listening to the great wrongs, the problems of life and death of the Jews of Hungarian nationality, who numbered nearly one million souls!) Blaskovits listened and then declared he had no authority whatsoever. He could only discuss the question who in future should belong to the managing Committee.

(On another occasion a request of the Council for another audience was refused by Sheriff Takacs with the words: "I dare not even announce you, as I have no wish to infuriate the Secretary of State!") (130)

In view of the fact that the Jewish Council could not obtain a hearing in person, it addressed a wire to And or Jaross on j April 26th, followed up, two days later, by a registered letter, in which it drew his attention to the outrages committed against the north-eastern parts of the country. The letter was worded as follows:

Ref. No.: 2378/944 April 27th, 1944

Subject: The situation of the Jews in the north-eastern parts of the country.

To His Excellency Vitéz Andor Jaross, Royal Hungarian Privy Councillor, Minister of the Interior, Budapest.

In the name of the Central Council of Hungarian Jews we beg to expose, with deep respect to Your Excellency, the extremely critical and grave situation, which has arisen out of the measures adopted by the authorities and which threatens the existence of the Jews in the north-eastern parts of the country.

According to reports received, the Jews of the north-eastern Counties, notably of Ung, Ugocsa, Bereg, Maramaros, Abaujtorna, Zemplen and Szabolcs have been transferred to the county towns and other larger localities in the areas concerned, where they are left partly without shelter, partly crammed into compounds on the outskirts of the towns and shut off from' the outer world.

Among others we received the following reports:

1) Country Ung: The Jews of County Ung were on 16th inst. transported to Ungvar, where they were accomodated in the courtyards of a tile factory and a lumberyard. The Jews of Ungvar itself were taken to these provisional camps 011 21st, 22nd and 23rd inst. No one was allowed to be in possession of more than 30 pengos on arrival at the camps, apart from that they were allowed to bring provisions for a fortnight, one change of underwear, the clothes on their backs and bedding. All other movable property had to be left behind in their lodgings. The number of those at present crammed into the courtyards of the tile factory and the lumberyard is approximately 20,000. They have to camp in the open and are exposed to the rigours of the weather. Their daily food ration amounts to roughly half a pint of soup. No additional provisions may be brought in to them. Lack of water prevails in these settlements. Naturally it is not possible under these circumstances to provide appropriate medical care for such huge crowds.  

(2) County Szabolcs: The situation is similar in County Szabolcs, where the Jews have been assembled at Nyiregyhaza. According to our information they were only authorised to carry with them food for two days, 30 pengos in cash and 50 kilos of luggage. In Nyiregyhaza the transportees were accomodated in private houses, but owing to their great number, 131 the houses are seriously over-crowded. Here too the supply of food and medical care lor the sick is almost impossible.

(3) County Abao-Torna: The Jews of County Abauj-Torna, as well as the greater part of the Jews of Kassa, have been crammed into the premises of the tile factory, which is without water, and where they cannot satisfy even the most elementary wants of life.

(4) County Bereg: The Jews of County Bereg have been treated in a similar manner. Any cash in their possession exceeding the sum of one pengő was confiscated.

(5) County Maramaros: The Jews living in this County were herded together at Maramarossziget and one or two of the larger localities there. At Maramarossziget the greater part of the Jewish intellectuals, approximately 140 persons in all, were confined in a small prayer house and have been without food or drink lor several days.

Our information summarised above show that great masses of Jews of the north-eastern parts of the country, several hundred thousand people in all, find themselves in a serious plight through no fault of their own. For the sole reason that the time at the disposal of the authorities was very short, no appropriate care could be taken for their suitable accomodation, hygienic installations, food supplies, medical care for the sick and the provision of medical stores. Under these circumstances it is to be feared that owing to lack of food, suitable accomodation and care of the sick, famine and epidemics will break out, which are certain to work havoc among the pregnant women, babies, children, sick and aged, who will perish by the score.

Therefore we venture to request, with deep respect, that orders be issued to the effect that the persons thus settled be provided with suitable shelter, provisions and medical care and that arrangements for their sanitary welfare be made. We further request that our delegates be permitted to visit the camps and there render what assistance they can in harmony with the local authorities and the local Jewish leaders in the institution of the measures necessary. We beg Your Excellency to lose no 'time in issuing these orders. In the name of humanity, taking into account the possible dangers of an epidemic, we ask you to remedy with least possible delay the dire threats to the very existence of several hundred thousand people!"

Minister of the Interior Jaross passed the Jewish Council's request on to the "competent" authority - to Secretary of State Endre!

The Jewish Council furthermore addressed themselves to Eichmann. Again they based their complaints on the reports received from the provinces. They revealed the horrors of the provincial ghettos and asked, for the sake of humanity, for an improvement of the situation. (132)

On May 3rd the Council presented a request, addressed to the "Einsatzkommando der Sicherheitspolizei des S. D." in which it says:

"Referring to the personal discussion with Obersturmbannführer Krumey on the 2nd inst, we herewith present, at his invitation, an urgent request that the Central Jewish Council may be authorised to send representatives to the camps assigned to the Jews in the north-eastern and southern parts of the country. We base our request on the fact that serious complaints concerning the accomodation, food and sanitation of these camps have reached us from the greatest part of the concentration centres. It would be the task of our representatives to establish, with the consent of the local authorities and in conjunction with the local Jews, the worst defects and to submit suitable propositions to the Central Council in Budapest. We beg that, in order to ensure efficiency, permits granting travelling facilities, unhindered  movement and unhampered intercourse with the local authorities and Jews be issued to our representatives."

 The memorandum then gives a concrete description of the situation:

1) Nyiregyhaza: 4,120 local inhabitants and 6,600 residents from the countryside - altogether 10,720 persons, were brought into the ghetto. These are lodged in 123 houses, whose area - including kitchens and halls - covers 9,165 square meters, Under these circumstances each person has less than one square meter of space to himself. Neither water supply nor drainage are available, which is clearly dangerous from the sanitary point of view. According to general regulations, the persons thus assembled were permitted to bring with them provisions sufficient for a fortnight, but the removal of the Jews from the villages took place so swiftly that they were unable to procure this amount of food. The Jews at Nyireghaza have exhausted their provisions and the local Jewish Council has so far been unable to provide the ghetto with a supply of food.

2) Kisvarda: Here the question of accomodation and food supplies for the Jews of the neighbourhood is particularly difficult. They have been packed into the court-yard of the Jewish temple, their provisions are exhausted and their sanitary situation is absolutely desperate.

3) Ungvar: The greatest part of the Jews concentrated here is without shelter.

4) Kassa: Here the Jews were driven into the airing rooms of the tile factory, which have no side walls. The situation of the 11,500 people there is disastrous. They are not in possession of sufficient provisions and the people's kitchen installed there cannot work. The area has no water supply.

5) Munkacevo: The number of Jews concentrated here is 18,000. They were crammed into a tile factory, which was not, (133) however, sufficiently large enough to accomodate them all, so that some of them are camping in . the open, devoid of all shelter.

6) Maramarossziget: The following extract of a report deals with the situation there: "Soldiers go from house to house and carry away anything they can lay hands on. The ghetto is being prepared and all Jews have to move into it between the 20th and the 30th inst. The Jews assembled in the villages find themselves subjected to all sorts of outrages; women are being brutalised and young girls searched by midwives in case they are trying to smuggle jewels with them."

Eichmann declared coldly: "Not a single word of the report is true, for as I have just inspected the provincial ghettos, I really ought to know. The accomodation of the Jews is no worse than that of German soldiers during manoeuvres and the fresh air will only do their health the world of good!"

In reply to the question why, in spite of their promises, such grave outrages were allowed to happen, Eichmann said that this was no fault of the Nazi's: "Endre will die Juden mit Paprika fressen!" (Endre wants to devour the Jews with sweetpepperl). (Council Minutes of May 16th, 1944, communication of Samu Stern.)

As it could achieve nothing with Eichmann, the Jewish Council once more and even more emphatically requested an audience with Endre. Takacs' answer to this was: "It is nothing but their deserved fate that has at last overtaken the Jews; nevertheless the tales of horror spread about the ghettos are untrue, and if the Council should stubbornly persist in the truth of its statements, it will be treated exactly like any other ordinary scare-monger!"

Meanwhile the Jewish Council addressed a number of new requests to Jaross:  

Central Council of Hungarian Jews.

           No. 3052                                                     Budapest, May 3rd, 1944.

Your Excellency!

The under-signed Central Council of Hungarian Jews, whose task it is to represent the Jews of Hungary, numbering nearly one million, respectfully begs to place following request before Your Excellency:

To deign to grant the Council urgently an occasion for it to pay Your Excellency its respects, so that it may discuss the grave questions which have arisen out of the execution of the Government's decrees concerning the Jews and that it may, likewise, submit its suggestions.

We emphatically declare that we do not seek this audience in order to lodge complaints about the merit of the measures adopted, but merely ask that they be carried out in a humane spirit.

We consider ourselves to be failing in our duties if we do not address ourselves to the competent authority, to Your Excellency, (134) the Minister of the Interior, and ii we fail to submit our proposals and requests, which are incumbent with the nature of our task.

It is for this reason that we humbly beg Your Excellency to graciously grant us an urgent audience.

Your valued decision may be communicated to the address given below or by telephone (Nos. 223-638 or 423-930)."

                      Rel. No. 3973.                Budapest, May 12th, 1944.

Subject: The separation of the Jews in Nagyvarad.

To His Excellency Vitéz Andor Jaross, Privy Councillor,

                                                                       Minister of the Interior,

                                                                                    Budapest.

We respectfully beg to report to Your Excellency that according to reports in our possession the area allocated to the Jews in Nagyvarad, who number about 30,000 souls, is so limited, that on an average 16 people have to find accomodation in one room. From the sanitary point of view this may constitute a grave danger. We beg leave to mention that the main synagogue of the Congressional Church Council and its offices are not included in the area allocated to the Jews and that consequently the functioning of the Church Council as well as the maintenance of religious services have become impossible.

We beg Your Excellency with deep respect to deign lo order the area allocated to the Jews in Nagyvarad to be enlarged and to make it possible for the Church Council to reassume its functions."  

On May 12th the Jewish Council addressed another request to Minister of the Interior Jaross, this time on behalf of the Jews in Heves:

"On the 9th inst. the Jews living in Heves were transported a distance of 80 kilometres to the abandoned mining settlement of Bagolyuk near Egercsehi. In this matter the delegate of the Central Council got in touch with Sheriff Takacs, who informed him that Your Excellency had wired instructions to the Under-Sheriffs of the counties, according to which the transportation of Jews into camps has been dispensed with. On receipt of this information we telephoned the Sheriff in Heves, to whom we communicated this decision of Your Excellency and requested him in consequence to dispense with the transportation. The Sheriff told us that the transport had already started on the way to its destination, but that he would ask the Under-Sheriff of the county to make the necessary dispositions. This transport arrived at Eger on 10th inst., where it waited for 13 hours before continuing the journey to its destination. We would take the liberty of mentioning that the town of Heves has, according to the 1941 census, a population of 10,597, - the original certificate issued in connection with this census we have handed to Ministerial Secretary Zsigmond Molnar-, and the (135) Jews of Heves were therefore, in conformity with the orders of Your Excellency concerning the concentration of Jews, not liable to transportation.

"According to reports from Bagolyuk the accomodation available there is not suitable, as many of the doors and windows of the old houses are missing and there is so little room that only the aged and infirm have a roof over their heads; the others, together with their luggage, are forced to camp out in the open. Allegedly there are 2,000 persons crammed into the settlement in question.

"In view of the fact that the population of Heves exceeds 10,000 souls and referring to the order of Your Excellency, according to which the transportation of Jews into camps was to be dispensed with, and lastly with regard to their present grave situation, we beg Your Excellency to deign to order the retransportation to their homes of the Jews of Heves. May we mention in this connection that the Jews of Heves have declared themselves prepared to build barracks at their own expense on any site belonging to the town and separated from the rest of the population."

In a further attempt to save the Jews of Heves, the Jewish Council also addressed requests to Secretary Zsigmond Szekely Molnar and the Gestapo.

On May 12th the president of the Church Council at Csepel submitted following written report:

"I respectfully report that I have been notified by the local e authorities on 10th inst. that the Jews of Csepel, by verbal orders of the Lord-Lieutenant of County Pest, are to be concentrated in barrack-like accomodation.  

"According to the local authorities, the bicycle sheds next to the Manfred Weiss factory are being considered for this purpose. I respectfully wish to point out that this accomodation would be the worst possible, as 1,200 persons would have to be crowded into these so-called barracks, allowing 8 persons no more than 2 square feet of space. No facilities for washing exist, nor is it possible to install such facilities. There is no W.C., and for this reason the accomplishment of the most elementary human needs could be met only by a system of latrines, which in view of the approaching hot weather and the fact that the sheds adjoin one of the most densely populated parts of the town, would involve the spreading of contagious diseases. Important interests of national defence require that the Jewish inhabitants of Csepel, of whom 80 per cent are working in the war plants, should accomplish work of great exactitude, which under such circumstances would not be possible. Another important factor as Far as national defence is concerned, is that the bicycle sheds should continue to be used for their original purpose, as the workers at the Factory, which is on war work, come in to work on bicycles from a radius of (136) some 60 kilometres and have to leave their bicycles near the factory, yet outside its area.

“I have further to report that on April 15th I was given explicit orders by Laszlo Koltay, Chief of Undersection IV/4 of the Royal Hungarian State Security Department as well as by Obersturmbannführer Krumey that the Jews of Csepel should be removed to a location defined by the above mentioned. With the assistance of the local authorities of Csepel I fully complied with this order and I therefore fail to understand, why the first order - which to the best of my knowledge emanated from the Secretary of State for the Interior, - was countermanded. I respectfully request you to intervene in order that this grievous and inhuman order may be cancelled and that the domicile of the Jews of Csepel might remain in the a rea fixed by the above mentioned two gentlemen."

Another request, based on this report, was addressed to Minister of the Interior Jaross by the Jewish Council. In this he was asked to "consider the above mentioned humane, sanitary and national defence interests and to deign to order that the Jews of Csepel be allowed to remain in the area assigned them by the  State Security Department."

Finally the Jewish Council made a last attempt: Erno Peto paid Minister Remenyi Schneller, a personal acquaintance of his, a visit. In conformity with the other ministers, he, too, denied everything . . . Deportation is out of the question, the Minister Council has not even discussed this topic ...

As if such had been the tactics agreed upon with the Nazis ... (137)  

VIII.

DEPORTATION STARTS IN NORTHERN HUNGARY.

In an interview granted to the newspaper "Uj Magyarsag" on May 15th, after his return from the Transsylvanian tour, Laszlo Endre stated:

"The measures adopted have been carried out by us in a humane manner and with regard to all moral factors. No real harm has befallen the Jews. Within the limits of the ghetto they can lead their own lives in accordance with their racial and national laws. Among other things we have made it possible lor them to use sesame oil for their cooking purposes, so that they are not forced to transgress against their religious laws. In removing them into ghettos, all brutality has been avoided and I have given orders that their lives should be carefully safeguarded.''

In fact Endre had done a thorough job, particularly in Nagyvarad. When the Minister of the Interior, Jaross, visited the town a little later on the occasion of the installation of the new Lord-Lieutenant, Karolyi Rajnay, - all former Lord-Lieutenants were being replaced throughout the country, as they were not considered reliable enough for the radical solution of the Jewish question - he expressed his pleasure as follows:

"To-day, in the glorious sunshine of a May day, I have seen a new Nagyvarad come to like, a Nagyvarad devoid of Jews, a truly nationalist town. I have convinced myself that the Jews have been effectively separated. Nagyvarad has solved this problem and I know that this solution answers the requirements of our epoch. But with this the Jewish problem is not yet solved. All contagious matter and all possibility of infection must be removed from the blood circulation of the nation. In this respect the Hungarian Government advances step by step. I do not wish to make a detailed declaration now, but please watch events carefully.

"I wish to emphasise that all fortunes, treasures and estates hoarded with Jewish greed during the liberal era, have ceased to be their property. The ownership is now vested in the Hungarian nation. This property, however, cannot be bestowed upon individuals or as a reward lor special merits. It must serve to increase the general national wealth, it must be led into the blood circulation of national economy, so that every honest Hungarian may share in it ... " (Speech of May 17th).  

While Endre was granting interviews and Jaross was making speeches, the German and Hungarian "Jew Extermination Squads" started on their final operation. In all the frontier zones and gendarmerie districts affected the assembly of Jews in ghettos and (138) concentration camps had already been completed. As a final measure the Jews of the IX. and X. Gendarmerie Districts were transferred from their ghettos into concentration camps on May 3rd.

On May 14th, deportation commenced in the VIII., IX. and X. Gendarmerie Districts. Owing to their insignificant numbers, the Nazis were practically unable even to supervise the deportations, let alone to carry them out. The marking of the Jews with the Star of David, their "round-up" into ghettos and concentration camps, were made possible only by the fact that the gendarmerie - although well-acquainted with the situation and numbering some 20,000 men -, could everywhere be sure of the aid of the local police. Even then the procedure could not have been carried through, if the Christian population had shown resistance. Thus it must be assumed that, - quite apart from the part played by the Regent and the Sztojay Government-, the chief causes for the complete sell-out of the Jews were the anti-Semitic propaganda, with which the Hungarian population had been inundated for scores of years, the stirring up of their hatred and, last but not least, the "rousing of the rabble's rapacious instincts". The execution of the action with a speed that is without its equal was doubtlessly enhanced by the lack of physical resistance on the part of the Jews. As their excuse the Jews point to the fact that 30 age-groups, comprising the most vigorous classes of their male adults, were called up for national defence. Thus defenceless women and children, the aged and infirm were made the victims of this hideous outrage!

Let us now see, how an action of this kind was started. The following is a "memorandum" dictated by Endre:

"In the execution of the action against the Jews in the Gendarmerie District of Kassa, the Germans will proceed to Munkacevo in 10 cars with 8 officers and 40 soldiers on 10th inst.

"The staff, the German members of which will be the Hauptsturmführer Wyslizeni and Novak, and 5 cadets in charge of sub-detachments of 8 rank-and-file each, will make Munkacevo their headquarters. Hungarian interests will be represented by Lieut. Col. Vitéz Ferenczy, Attorney Medgyesy and Detective-Inspector Koltay.

"Committees will work at Kassa, Ungvar, Satoraljaujhely, Munkacevo, Beregszasz, Nyiregyhaza, Maramarossziget, Nagyszollos, Huszt and Mateszalka.

"The competent Deputy-Inspector of Police and the Divisional General of Gendarmerie in the above-mentioned localities are charged with the representation of Hungarian interests and the rendering of assistance to the German committees in the execution of the action. Should there be no officer of the afore-mentioned ranks available in any one of the localities concerned, his place (139) will be taken by the highest-ranking officer ol the gendarmerie or police available on the spot.

"Immediately alter their arrival the German committees will contact our committee.

"Members. of our committees are requested to display courtesy and tact, to give information and explanations required, -to render all assistance with regard to accomodation and food, and, where necessary, to place an interpreter at the disposal of their German counterparts.

"At Munkacevo the German and Hungarian committees will find accomodation in the buildings of the Commissariat; reports and communications are to be forwarded to that address." (The original copy of this memorandum is kept among the documents of the People's Court.)

The first step was taken by the Nazis on May 11th, when they t dispatched 8 officers and 40 rank-and file to Munkacevo. With this "force" they carried out the complete extermination of the Hungarian Jews from one end of the country to the other.

The exposures now following are based on the official reports of Lieut.- Col. Ferenczy. A full and authentic picture of the deportation of the provincial Jews from the concentration camps is given by his reports marked "Strictly Confidential; No. 16/Biz- 944" and addressed to the XX Department of the Ministry of the Interior. In these Ferenczy conscientiously, and going into the minutest details, gives an account of the actions carried out from May 3rd till July 9th and embracing the whole of the country. The exact number of Jews affected by deportation is also given. This series of confidential reports furthermore proves decisively that at least the Ministry of the Interior was aware of the purpose of the transportation to Auschwitz - i.e. extermination by selection -, and that therefore it could not remain a secret to the other members of the Government either.

(Ferenczy regularly sent copies of his reports to Chief Inspector of Gendarmerie Faragho, to Secretaries of State Ende and Baky, to the head of Department VII of the Ministry of the Interior, to Commissioner Bela Ricsoy-Uhlarik, attached to the German army beyond the Tisza and to Col. of Gendarmerie Jozsef Czigany, Commander of the Investigation Bureau of the Gendarmerie. Thus Ferenczy was in touch with these authorities throughout the duration of the action.)

To all appearance, the Government did not concern itself at all with the concentration of the Jews. Yet, at the same time, its members discussed the action everywhere as if they approved of it, vide Jaross' and Baky's frequent speeches on the occasions offered by the installation of new Lord-Lieutenants. On May 15th Baky declared:

"Now we will have no more trouble! Once rid of the Jews we will be strong and united and will achieve final victory. As a final moue we will throw every Jew out of Hungary, not a single one (140) shall remain! Up to date we have already shifted, in the area east of the Tisza, 320,000 Jews into concentration camps. From the point of view of the Hungarian people I declare this to be an event of such significance , that no parallel for it can be found in the history of the past centuries!"

Note that already at this date Baky confessed to total deportation, which, even two months later, Sztojay tried to deny. Deputy Gyorgy Olah, Chief Editor of the notorious periodical "Egyedul vagyunk", views the situation thus:

"With the elimination of the Jews, the great whisperer, who has constantly troubled and misled the Hungarian people, has ceased to exist."

Minister of Industry Lajos Szasz, in a speech delivered on the occasion of the installation of Lord-Lieutenant Pal Thuransky at Nyiregyhaza, appeased the anxious as follows :

"The final and radical solution of the Jewish question will not cause trouble for the economic life of Hungary. It cannot do so, because the Government considers the point of view of production and the continuity thereof even more important than the solution of the Jewish question. In regard to this solution, let us state publicly and clearly: Nobody intends the extermination, annihilation or torture of the Jews. Up to now the Government has not enacted a single regulation, the aims of which could be construed as being unworthy of Hungarians. In the solution of the Jewish question, anti-Semitism - full of spite and hatred - is not the decisive factor. That part is exclusively taken by racial considerations in defence of the nation. Nobody intends to rid the world entirely of the Jews; we merely wish to save our race from their noxious influence. I think that all of us, who are adherents of and fighters for the idea of radical defence, will - or shall - be very happy, when at last the unfortunate people of Alzasverus  find, far from our borders, a home somewhere on the globe, where it can establish a state of its own. For the solution of the Jewish question, however, great seriousness, composure, calmness of mind and sell-possession are needed, ii only for the reason that nobody can wish to arouse the pity and compassion of our people towards the Jews."

On May 22nd Minister Szasz declared that up to that date the Government had not enacted a single regulation, which might allow the conclusion to be drawn that it pursued aims unworthy of Hungarians. If so, the question arises: What would the Minister consider "unworthy of Hungarians"? The more so, as he personally inspected the ghetto at Nyiregyhaza and there with his own eyes saw how 11 ,000 people were crammed into 125 buildings, so that not even every person was assured of a resting place.  

On May 15th the Jews of Maramarossziget, 80 to 90 persons crowded into each waggon, left their home-town bound for Kassa. Nagyszollos too had seen its first transport go - 3,400 people in (141) 45 waggons. On May 14th several hundred strong padlocks and chains were collected at Munkacevo, (An epidemic of typhoid fever had broken out in No. 1 Camp in Munkacevo and a fortnight's quarantine was imposed by the Chief Medical Officer; this is the reason why the deportations did not start until May 15th.) 14,000 provincial Jews were ill-treated, kicked and beaten all the way from the tile factories to the waggons. By the time they got to Csap, many of them had already died. During a halt at Satoraljaujhely the thirsting Jews beseeched their guards for a drop of water. The lock of one of the doors was wrenched open and the occupants, half-mad with heat and thirst, flocked out. The gendarmerie fired a single volley: 30 Jews writhed in their blood!

On May 22nd, the very day of the Minister's speech, the ghetto of Munkacevo Town was also evacuated. The greatest part of the Jewish population of Munkacevo, numbering 12,000 souls, were driven, at the double and having to submit to ill-treatment by whips, rubber-truncheons and rifle-butts, along the road leading to the tile factory. Here they were told to deposit their small bundles and ordered - men and women, aged and children alike - to undress completely. Thus stripped to the skin, they were ordered to step back several paces while members of the Gestapo, the police and the gendarmerie, as well as women-searchers went through their effects and clothes, tearing the same and looking for any hidden contraband. Those, who were slow in undressing or not smart enough in stepping back, were mercilessly beaten. The clothes were then handed back, and the documents of the Jews torn up, who had thus ceased to be individuals. More blows were dealt in an attempt to make them dress quicker. Amidst a desperate scramble 90 persons were crammed into a single waggon: clearly there were too few waggons and too many Jews! Loading having been completed, the waggons were locked. In each a bucket filled with water and another empty one for their personal needs was placed. And after all this the train was left standing in the scorching May sun - the journey did not begin until the following day. By that time, many of the occupants of the waggons had gone stark raving mad. The number of dead was even larger, for not even the Jewish patients of the hospitals were spared. The corpses of those that succumbed had to remain in the waggons, as these were not opened up again until Csap was reached three days later, where the insane too were killed.

On that same May 22nd, the very day of the Minister's visit, the Jews of the Puszta districts Harangod and Nyirjes were driven to Nyiregyhaza station by the gendarmes. With obvious dismay the public watched the fate of the descendants of the centuries-old families of Nyirjes. In tattered rags, soiled and dirty, they tottered along with their meagre bundle on their backs, whilst the gendarmes hit them with rifle butts. That very same day Lajos Szasz declared: Nobody intends to exterminate, annihilate or torment the Jews ... (142)

At the County Assembly Lajos Erdohegy, former Lord-Lieutenant of Szabolocs, together with numerous other members of the gentry of that County, freely expressed his indignation. After the Minister's speech he paid Lord-Lieutenant Thuranszky a visit and called him to account:

"Why do you allow your Minister to tell such a pack of lies when all of us know that he is stating untruths? Enlighten him, take him to the station, so that he can see for himself how the Jews are being treated. He ought to have a look at the real truth!"

Thuransky declined to accept this proposal. (Statement by Imre Reiner.)  

On May 25th, Sztojay presented himself to Parliament. In his speech mention of the Jews was made only in one small passage:

"We want to realise all the theoretical and practical aims of the Right-wing and racial policies, the radical solution of the Jewish question."

 This speech was already much clearer ... And on May 30th at Balatonfured, Sztojay, meanwhile made "Vitéz", addressed his electorate as follows:

"In future the shores of Lake Balaton will be visited by a different class of people. Generations racially pure! There will no longer be a place for Jews here!" (Great applause and shouts of "Hail!")

Even more explicit was the statement of Bela Jurcsek, a member of the Prime Minister's suite:

"For victory's sake we must purge Hungarian life of the Jews, who prevent the Hungarian people from gaining their lull strength. The solution of this problem is not accomplished by segregation alone, further decrees of the Government will follow."

 Note that Jurcsek, too, irrefutably proves that the Sztojay Cabinet had, beyond the segregation, knowledge of the measures involving deportation and annihilation and that it approved of them ... The same day Secretary of State Laszlo Endre granted the "Volkischer Beobachter" an interview, in which he stated:

"The new Hungarian Government has enacted such severe legal measures against the Jews, because it has been proved that they indulge in smuggling, commit acts of sabotage and play into the hands of the Bolsheviks. In the life and death struggle with Bolshevism, in which Hungary is at present engaged, the Jews living in Hungary have, in an unequivocal way, joined the ranks of our enemies. It was for the sake of sell-defence that the severe measures, by which a segregation of the Jews was achieved, were enacted. These were especially necessary in the eastern parts of the country now under military occupation. The sympathy of the Jews towards the Bolshevist enemy has not remained merely a sentimental one, but has been given active expression by acts of sabotage, the aiding of partisans and other acts of high treason. (143) Another crime of the Jews was that provisions were systematically wasted in Jewish households, as the Jews were in the habit of purchasing foodstuffs at higher than the controlled prices and allowing those quantities they could not consume to perish. Similarly they hoarded textiles and other goods and by doing so diverted them from the economic file of Hungary. The anti-Jewish measures will cause the country's economic and cultural life no anxiety whatsoever, as all important functions, exercised hitherto by Jews, can be accomplished by Hungarians."  

In this interview of Endre's, packed with lies as it was, the alibi " that "the declaration of the eastern territories as a military zone had made these measures necessary" cropped up for the first time. The delegates of the Executive Committee received the same answer, when, in the middle of May, they exposed the first authentic accounts of the deportations at Maramaros and Munkacevo. They were told the lie that owing to the advance of the Soviet armies, unreliable elements, i.e. the Jews, had to be removed from the frontier districts occupied by the military, but that they would remain within the country. All rumours of deportation were described as spiteful, warped and scare-mongering.

The authentic particulars of the evacuation of the ghettos of Kassa, Satoraljaujhely and Nagybanya are as follows. A week  before these evacuations were to take place, plain-clothes men of the gendarmerie - in greater towns Peter Hain and his gang - appeared, and cross-examined those known to be better-off on the r subject of their allegedly hidden valuables. Not a single cruelty, not a single known method of torture was left unapplied in order to extort a confession. The quote the official report of the Council :

"The wife was beaten before the eyes of her husband and, if this showed no results, children were tortured in front of their parents. The favourite methods of the Hungarian gendarmerie, whose object it was to obtain a confession of some sort from their unfortunate victims, were: fettering, rubber-truncheons, use of electrical appliances, bastinadoing, blows and kicks and driving a sharp object beneath the fingernails. Those fared worst, who previously had been honest and had declared and deposited everything. Their torture was in vain, as they were no longer able to give up anything. The deportations took place one after the other according to "cleansing areas" (2 or 3 Gendarmerie Districts). After the detectives of the gendarmerie had completed, on an appointed day, their orgy of torturing in the concentration camps, which at the same time were removal camps, the Nazi and Hungarian "Jew Extermination Squads", led by Wyslizeni and Ferenczi, put in their appearance. They surrounded the ghetto, whose turn it happened to be , and kept watch with Argus-eyes and tommy-guns, till the trains were called forward. Then the gendarmerie would drive the victims to the station, making free use of whips and rifle butts in the process. At the start, to avoid attention, this was done at dawn, later, when greater speed became necessary, even this (144) consideration was  dropped and the victims were driven to the station through the whole town in broad daylight. Should a kindhearted Christian, who had to witness this display, show any kind of emotion or even tears, he was liable to be abused or even attacked by the accompanying gendarmes. In one instance, which has been brought to our notice, a well-meaning peasant woman, whom a gendarme caught in the act of attempting to pass some provisions to the Jews crammed into the waggons, was herself pushed into the waggon and deported. 80 to 90 persons were regularly huddled in one waggon, just according to the number of Jews scheduled for deportation and the length of the train. They were ordered to raise their arms and thus make room for even more persons. No discrimination was made between men and women, old and young, sick and healthy. In the sweltering heat of summer, in sealed cattle trucks equipped with nothing but the two buckets already mentioned, they had to start on their journey of several days towards the frontier ... "

The many reports addressed to the Jewish Council mention some precise cases. They report, for instance, "that the foot of a woman of 84 years of age, the mother of a respectable Jewish citizen of Kassa, had to be amputated. From the operation table she was directly thrown into a waggon about to set off with a load of deportees. This outrage so affected her son, that he drew his revolver with the intention of committing suicide. The revolver was knocked out of his hand, but nevertheless went off and blew away hall his lace. Without being given medical attention he was thrown into the waggon after his mother."

At Satoraljaujhely "scores of men, driven to despair by the hideous outrages, refused to allow themselves to be loaded into the waggons. They threw themselves on the rails and clung to them. Those offering resistance were mercilessly shot down by the gendarmes."

The horrors of Kassa caused great indignation among its Christian population. The Bishop of Kassa, in full ornate and followed by his priests, led a procession to the camp. He reached it, but before he could enter, the gendarmes, arms at the "on guard" position, obliged him to turn back. His vigorous protests were in vain. (145)

IX.

GENERAL DEPORTATION.

By the end of May all denials of the Nazi and Hungarian authorities became futile. The mutual tactics and collaboration were obvious and could no longer be kept secret. First the Jews are rooted to the spot by the merciless application of the rules prohibiting their travelling, after that they are branded with the Star of David and then they are assembled in the ghettos of the towns. These, towards the end, were, whenever possible, erected in the vicinity of railway lines and it is for this reason that we find so many provincial tile factories, sugar refineries and destilleries - most of them boasting a direct connection with a main line - being converted into ghettos. From these assembly centres they were sent to the terminus in Hungary, to Kassa. There the Nazis took them over and the convoys were then dispatched across the frontier to a destination unknown at that time ...

Through a statement made by Eichmann to Janos Gabor and officially reported to the Council by the latter, it became known that General of the S.S. Winckelmann had informed the Hungarian Government that he could not supply a sufficient number of waggons nor did he have enough men at his disposal to carry out the deportation of the Jews. For this purpose Eichmann was ready to grant no more than two trains per day. Laszlo Endre, the delegate of the Hungarian Government, wanted six trains per day. The Nazi Commander-in-Chief declared himself unable to spare so many waggons and locomotives for this purpose, but finally they arrived at a compromise of four trains per day, In order to counterbalance this, Endre, taking into account the number of Jews concerned and wishing to speed up their deportation, ordered each train-load of 45 waggons to consist of 4000 persons, instead of the normal 1600-1800 that were customary in military transports. None were to be left behind, room had to be found for them somehow. (Statement contained in the confession of Marton Zoldi.) The Gestapo, at that time already short of men, could place no more than 150 soldiers at the disposal of Wyslizeni. This number would never have sufficed to carry out the deportation at such sped. At this stage of affairs, Baky readily came to the rescue of the Nazis. According to need, Hungarian gendarmes under the command of Lieut.-Col. Ferenczi were placed at the disposal of the "exterior group" of the Nazi safety police. At this time the right to dispose of the combined gendarmerie and police was usurped completely by Laszlo Baky. (According to Sztojay’s confession Jaross and Baky had no authority to grant armed assistance for the purposes of this action. Jaross denied this interdiction. Faragho "in his deposition" (146) states that he warned Ferenczy and Medgyesy to "jealously guard the independence of the gendarmerie, as even the slightest encroachment could cause incalculable harm not only to cooperation (between Hungary and Germany), but to the entire Hungarian nation.")

Up to the present it has not been possible to prove by means of documentary evidence what sums were paid by the Hungarian Government to the Nazis on account of the deportation of the Jews. It is rumoured that Bulgaria paid 20 million levas for the transportation of 20,000 Jews, whereas Hungary is said to have refunded 1,200 pengos per capita to the Nazis for "transport and board of the Jews", Another rumour has it that according to a statement by Eichmann the Hungarian Government paid 5,000 Reichsmark for the deportation of each Jew, respectively that this sum was deducted from the amount of Reichsmark owed to Hungary by the Reich. Hungary, it is said, agreed through Minister of Finance Lajos Remenyi-Schneller to pay the Nazis 2.5 billion Reichsmark for "having freed the country from the Jews." (Endre's statement.)

As we have stated before, this same Remenyi-Schneller flatly denied the fact of deportation, when his old acquaintance Erno Peto, member of the Executive Committee, visited him. Peto cautioned him and pointed out the immense harm done to Hungary's reputation by the inhuman cruelties. Remenyi-Schneller persisted in his stubborn denial.

By midnight on May 21st 94, 667 Jews in 29 trains, by midnight on May 28th 184,049 Jews in 58 trains had been deported. By June 7th the transport of the Jews of VIII, IX. and X. Gendarmerie Districts (275,415 Jews in 92 trains) was completed. After that it was the turn of the II. and VII. Gendarmerie Districts (Counties Borsod, Heves, Komarom, Nograd, Gyor, Fejer and Bars). On June 3rd the heads of the administration and executive of these two districts were summoned to a conference in the educational room of the Central Investigation Department of the Gendarmerie at Budapest by Ferenczy. (This fact also proves that Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy was a leading expert on deportation. Before the People's Court he tried to make out that his part was only a very insignificant one and consisted exclusively of the forwarding of reports addressed to him. In actual fact he was Eichmann's confidant, and, as authorised representative of the Ministry of the Interior, was always on the spot, where he played the part of the chief director.) (147)

X.

RESCUE EFFORTS OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS.

During the course of the deportation of the Jews of the VII. Gendarmerie District, Archbishop Gyula Czapik of Eger submitted a remarkable number of interventions to the municipal, county and ministerial authorities. Naturally he was unable to prevent deportation, but he did achieve that not a single priest of his diocese joined the extremist elements, on the contrary, together with their flocks they condemned all un-Christian procedure. (Primate's archive at Esztergom No. 3265/1945).

The bishopric of Szekesfehervar was part of the II. Gendarmerie District. Bishop Lajos Shvoy of Szekesfehervar had a very difficult time with the retired Colonel of Gendarmerie Arpad Toldy, who was a fellow-officer and confidant of Secretary of State Baky and who was appointed Lord-Lieutenant through the influence of that official. Shvoy constantly protested against the outrages, especially when the Jews were transferred to the Gestapo H.Q. in Kegel Gyorgy utca. The gendarmes were in a habit of beating them with rubber-truncheons and their wailing filled the whole of the neighbourhood. The inhuman tortures inflicted roused the indignation of the inhabitants of the town to no uncertain degree and the Christian population strongly protested against the brutalities. In vain Bishop Shvoy remonstrated with the Lord-Lieutenant. He also addressed himself to Laszlo Endre, but before that intervention could show a result the Jews were shifted from the ghetto inside the town to the tile factories on the outskirts of Szekesfehervar; later the cavalry barracks were also used for this purpose. At the tile factories they were under the control of the gendarmes, at the barracks under that of the police; that is to say that those in the tile factories were subject to a considerably worse treatment than those in the barracks. Bishop Shvoy also protested vigorously against the brutality of the gendarmes and was at times even successful with these interventions. But he, too, was unable to prevent deportation.

In these two Gendarmerie Districts the assembly of persons of "Jewish origin" began on June 5th in 11 camps and was already completed by June 10th. Deportation took place from June 11th to June 15th, four trains per day being used. The result was the transportation or 50,815 Jews. Here, just as everywhere else, the gendarmes gloried in their unparalleled cruelty and brutality. Everything that took place conformed with the deportations of Jews from other towns as we have already described them. Yet one case, recorded by trustworthy witnesses, deserves to be passed on to posterity: (148)

At Tata a Jewish mother, one hour before deportation, gave birth to twins. Gendarmes seized her by the arms and pushed her into the waggon, the newly born twins were flung in after her.

On June 7th and 8th the "island ghetto" at Gyor was evacuated. In a most brutal way the gendarmes drove 5,000 people into a hutted camp, where the rural Jews were already huddled together under hellish conditions for several days. After this had taken place, Baron Vilmos Apor, Bishop of Gyor, sent a letter of protest to Minister of the Interior Jaross, which ran as follows:

"Sir,

The "Gyor Nemzeti Hirlap" has published your decision, which cancels the humane and re-assuring measures adopted towards individuals classified as Jews by the local authorities. Your intention, as shown by your decision, is to lock up in ghettos all those persons, regardless of sex or age, who have been classified as Jews by various ministerials decrees. In practice this means that in the 430 rooms available, now accomodating 1,200 people, space must be found for another 3,500 people. Against this decision, which is contrary to all humane and Christian spirit, and which punishes without just and impartial judgment innocent people, nay, even children unable to commit offences, I, as Bishop of the ancient town of Gyor, raise my protesting voice and hereby hold you responsible before God, Hungary and history lor all diseases and deaths, for all disdain and contempt, which will follow upon your decision!"

Jaross did not reply to the Bishop's protest in writing, but on the other hand sent him a message saying that "if he does not keep quiet and dares to criticise and find fault with a decision made by him, he will have him interned."

The Prelate's protest had no result, but this did not dishearten the Bishop of Gyor. Continually he called upon Sztojay, who did not even answer, to intervene. The Bishop requested an audience, but in spite of his insistence, the Prime Minister did not receive him. Baron Apor then paid Jeno Raes, the Deputy Prime Minister, a visit and expounded his complaints, among which one of the chief ones was that baptized Jews were treated in exactly the same manner as all others. He achieved no result with Racz and sent Sztojay, on June 13th, a wire of protest.

In the spring of 1944 Endre Hermas, Bishop of Csanad, succeeded Gyula Glattfelder and took up the fight against the brutalities in the same spirit as his predecessor. He convened a meeting of the authorities of his diocese and asked them to "take into consideration the laws of God and the rules of humane conduct towards the Jews". He explained how far they were allowed to collaborate in the execution of the anti-Jewish decrees and where the limit was, which could not be exceeded without harm to their Catholic and Christian conscience. With special emphasis he dwelt (149) on the subject of sanctity of personal freedom and property of the Jews, and the respect due to human dignity, for the safeguarding of which they would have to do everything. Having been informed of the scandalous conditions of the ghetto at Szeged (where 2,000 people were crowded into the Jewish school and temple and into the pigsties of the salami-sausage factory), he protested to the mayor in the sharpest manner possible and by his intervention succeeded in having the Jews interned in the pigsties transferred to abodes more fitted for human beings. On behalf on the baptised Jews he addressed, on May 12th, a note to the deputy of the Chief of Police. On June 16th he wired a protest against the deportations under way to Sztojay and Jaross. At the same time he wrote a letter to Magyar-Kossa, Lord-Lieutenant of Szeged, expressing his horror that

"setting aside all divine and human right, the inhabitants of the ghetto of Szeged are being deported. In the sea of human woe, which has, like an inadvertible act of God, been let loose on the world by the war, it is a Christian duty to try to avert this new deluge of suffering caused by racial hatred. Conscious of my responsibility before God and listening to the voice of my conscience I protest against this injustice, which, purely because of their racial origin, deprives inhabitants of Szeged-all innocent people who have not been sentenced by a Court of Law-of their freedom and property and exposes them to deportation and an uncertain end. These measures indeed burden our Hungarian people before God and the tribunal of the world." He specially stressed the injustice of the procedure adopted towards the baptised Jews and requested the Lord-Lieutenant to intervene.

His efforts were in vain; the Jews of Szeged shared the fate of the Hungarian Jews of the provinces. Nevertheless he succeeded in saving some of the baptised Jews. On June 25th, 1944, he addressed himself, through the intermediary of the Chief of Cabinet, Ambrozy, to Regent Horthy, bringing up the subject of the outrages committed in the ghetto:

" ... In Szeged and, as I am informed, elsewhere too, the Jewish women are undressed in the presence of the controlling gendarme and, in the course of a general search of the Jews, have to submit to a body search by midwives, who are looking for gold and hidden jewels. This is an unnecessary humiliation of human and personal dignity. I venture to ask: Would it really be so terrible ii these unfortunate Jews really were to hide a few jewels on which they could live for a while alter their deportation? II everything is being taken away from them -which according to Christian morals is a public destitution of right, ii not to say plundering, out of which no blessing whatsoever will come-, then they should be contented with those articles that are openly visible and abstain from outraging even the modesty and chastity of women."  

Under the spell of the Szeged horrors Bishop Hamvas also addressed himself to the Primate and asked him to remonstrate with the Regent in the same manner as the French archbishops (150) had done with Petain (June 23rd, 1944). Seredi answered that he had intervened but that "for the time being, it was fruitless." Archbishop Grosz of Kalocsa expressed the same opinion. Through the intercession of Hamvas 200 baptised Jews were allowed to remain at Szeged and thus escaped deportation. (Primate's archive at Esztergom, No. 2360-1945).

Josef Grosz, Archbishop of Kalocsa, held no high hopes for his interventions, as he had occasion to convince himself that his intercessions addressed to the authorities were not successful. He had personally presented several petitions without achieving any results, and on June 18th the Jewish problem was "solved" at Kalocsa too: all Jews were deported.

Next came the turn of Gendarmerie Districts III and IV (Szombathely and Siofok). Endre, accompanied by his fiancée, decided to spend a few days of "rest" at Siofok, where he ordered the competent authorities of the two districts to lend their full administrative and armed assistance. Exempted Jews were to be conveyed in the last transport. The heads of the administration and gendarmerie were instructed by him to adopt the harshest procedure possible and incited to commit outrages. (Confession of Colonel of Gendarmerie Laszlo Hajnacskoy before the People's Court.) Baky, who arrived later, intervened, and expressly protested against the deportation of those exempted, laying the responsibility for such an act upon the heads of the local authorities. After his return he reported to Jaross "who tried to eliminate the differences of opinion, which had arisen between his Secretaries of State." (Confessions of Jaross, Baky and Ferenczy before the People's Court.)

The situation was very similar in the other Transdanubian towns inspected by Endre. At Pecs 5,000 people, Jews of Bonyhad and Mohacs, were assembled. In the stadium of that town Endre, in his bragging manner, held a review of the Jews. Accompanied by gendarmes he inspected the lines, which were standing rigidly to attention, at the same time sneeringly smiling into the faces of the frightened Jews and smacking his boots with his cane. Several times he was heard to ask: "And why doesn't Jehova, your famous God, work a miracle now?"

At Kaposvar 6,500 people were crowded into the stables of the cavalry barracks. By all means of cunning torture the German S.A., the Hungarian gendarmes and finally Peter Rain's local brigade had deprived them of everything. At Papa the Jews were housed in the gipsy settlement. There were a number of larger concentration camps at Paks, Nagykanizsa, Szombathely, Sopron, Zalaegerszeg and several other places. Everywhere the procedure was the same, respectively it was worse in one place than in an other ...

Ferencz Virag, Bishop of Pecs, had gained fame throughout the years for his fight against the "numerus clausus", as he intervened on behalf of the Jews in very just case and facilitated their (151) admission to the university. After the assembly in ghettos of the Jews of Baranya he personally visited Lord Lieutenant Mihaly Nikolics and obtained numerous alleviations. (During the Nyilas Regime he was placed under military surveillance.) Primate's archive at Esztergom, No. 4579-1945.)

Count Janos Mikes, after resigning from the episcopal sea of Szombathely, spent part of the year in his villa at Repceszentgyorgy and till the end of his days fought relentlessly to rescue the persecuted Jews. His successor, Bishop Grosz, assisted by Father Laszlo Szendy, started vigorous actions on behalf of the baptised Jews. In May 1944 the Szombathely ghetto was instituted. At that time Sandor Kovacs was already, the new Bishop. He followed in the footsteps of his predecessors and was relentless in his rescue actions. He often protested to the local gendarmerie and in his sermons, too, outspokenly condemned the outrages. His intervention was also successful, for no such atrocities as in Szeged or Szekesfehervar occurred at Szombathely. Bishop Kovacs paid the members of the Sztojay Cabinet individual visits, calling on them one by one and attempting to convince them of the error of their ways. He was given a number of promises, which however could not be kept, as the Jews were deported in the meantime. Yet he was able to save a few people through his good connections with the local authorities. (Primate's archive at Esztergom, No. 4579-1945.) (152)

XI.

ENDRE AND CO. BREAK DOWN ALL RESISTANCE.

Whilst all this was taking place, Baky and Jaross - as we have already seen - amused themselves and made speeches at banquets given in honour of the newly installed Lord-Lieutenants. Endre, on the other hand, was quick to put in an appearance everywhere, where his spies reported cases of "abuse", that is cases in which the individual lot of the Jews was slightly alleviated. In this Ferenczy played an important part and his reports were full of accusations. Some officials of the civil service and the police force wanted, no doubt, to help their Jewish friends. But in most cases Endre's cruel severity and the constant presence of Ferenczy and his gang of investigators rendered this impossible.

 As a result of his investigations Endre induced the Minister of the Interior to issue a general decree to all mayors and chief constables, ordering them to make a list of all Christians who intervened in the interest of the Jews and to make these lists public. In some places (Szinervaralja, Nagykoros etc.) this was done. On May 15th and 20th Endre personally issued two decrees concerning the mobile property of the interned Jews and the evacuated Jewish homes and shops.

From one of his trips Endre, requested to do so by Eichmann, sent a wire ordering Hungarian gendarmes to escort the trains to Kassa, thus releasing German man-power. On Endre's instruction the XX. Section of the Ministry of the Interior organised a special detachment of thirty gendarmes and ten officers, who took it in turns to escort the trains.

The Jewish Executive Committee again approached Endre, but only managed to see Takacs, who informed them as follows: "The Jews are not being taken out of the country. By request of the Germans only 325,000 Jews are being moved from the operational zone to concentration camps in the centre of the country. The rest of the Jews, ii they behave, will not go to concentration camps, but only to ghettos."

A week later came the news that the concentration of the trans-Danubian Jews had begun. The Committee again went to Takacs, who laughingly told them:

"I said that there would be no more concentrations, ii the Jews behaved themselves. They have, however, made an attempt to assassinate Secretary of State Endre and his friend, the stage director Janos Vaszary. Therefore they can only blame themselves."

This report of an attempted assassination was of course without any foundation whatsoever. But Takacs, after making this (153) statement, turned his back on Stern and his friends and left them standing in the reception room. (From the Executive Committee's report.)

With the aid of such falsehoods the "clean up" campaign made steady progress. The southern district was the next on the list. Endre and his escort arrived at Szabadka, where he inspected the internment camp set up by Mayor Jeno Szekely in the Felsobacska mill and the quarters to which 4,300 Jews were confined. (In accordance with Endre's previous order, 5,200 southern Jews had already been transported from Ujvidek to Szabadka, from the Tisza line to Szeged and from the Danube line to Baja,) In the South two clean-up campaigns took place. The first one co-incided with the one in Sub-Carpathia, on these districts being classified-as operational zones. This clean-up was carried out declared operational zones. This clean-up was carried out by Lieut.-Col. of Gendarmerie Ferenc Zalasdi (Zalostyal), He, too, began with the deportation on May 14th. With ruthless cruelty he transported his victims from Nagykanizsa, Baja, Horgos and Beres to Auschwitz. When the waggons taking two transports of Jews from Baja on May 25th and 27th were first opened in Ganserndorf, 55 of the occupants were dead and 200 had been driven insane. 200 men were selected for farm work, the rest were annihilated! The second clean-up was carried out in June by Endre.

In Szabadka 2,000 Jews from the neighbourhood and from Ujvidek were confined in the Felsobacsa mill. Next it was the turn of Szeged. Sheriff Sandor Tukats and Assistant Commissioner of Police Bela Toth reported that the Jews in Szeged had been quartered in the place assigned them: the sties of the pig farm in Dorozsnia. All the Jews-there were 8,600 of them-were under strict military discipline. Roll-call was at 6 a.m., tattoo at 9 p.m. They could leave their quarters only in case of emergencies, under police escort and in groups. Deportation from this district was fully discussed in Szeged. Baky was the chairman of the conference, which was attended by nearly 100 persons (the Germans were there with three interpreters) and, referring to Government instructions, he demanded that exempted Jews should be left behind. (Ferencz's confession before the Political Prosecutor.)  

In the V. and VI. Gendarmerie Districts (the concentration camps in Szeged, Kecskemet, Szabadka, Bacsalmas, Debrecen, Szolnok, Bekescaba and Balassagyarmat) the Jews were assembled between June 16th and 20th. Between June 25th and 28th 61,994 Jews were deported from here. According to Ferenczy's official report, 380,660 Jews in 129 transports were deported from the country by June 28th.

During the whole of the clean-up campaigns Ferenczy, in his reports, mentioned the "disturbing symptoms" observed by him. It transpired that the deportations in the country took place only apparently without disturbances, although it was a long time before news concerning the resistance of 'the Hungarian people or certain (154) Government officials reached Budapest. It is a fact that the Secretaries of State Endre and Baky - who were in charge of the deportations - as well as the military and gendarmerie organs, who executed them, did their best to nip in the bud every attempt to resist. Ferenczy's reports show clearly that there were numerous attempts at resistance. (Ferenczy of course reported only the cases that were unsuccessful, because they were the only ones to come to the knowledge of his investigators and were suppressed. Naturally he could not know of successful cases of resistance.)

If we study his confidential reports, we find a whole selection of verified cases:

"Contrary to instructions the Jews of Kolozvar were, by order of Assistant Commissioner of Police Hollo-Kuthy, taken to the concentration camp without their homes, persons and parcels being searched." (Ferenczy's first situation report dated May 3rd, 1944).

"In the early hours of May 4th, Hungarian soldiers attempted to smuggle 40 Jews across the border into Rumania."  

"In Marosvasarhely the conscripts, who helped with the assembly of the Jews, accepted messages and letters from them. (Ferenczy's second situation report dated May 5th, 1944.)

"In Nagyvarad a number of police officials, among them the chiefs of the Political Investigation Department, committed a series of irregularities furthering the interests of the Jews,"

"Dr. Janos Schilling, the Under-Sheriff of County Szolnok-Doboka, feigned illness in order to avoid taking part in the clean-up."

"In Naszod Lieut.-Col. Vazul Nemes, the commander of the 22nd frontier battalion, warned the Jews several days before the action was due to start to hide their valuables." (Ferenczy's third situation report dated May 6th, 1944.)

"In Nagyvarad the gendarmerie had to be called in, as the police had omitted to organise a thorough search of the Jews and their homes."

"In Marosvasarhely and Szaszregen the heads of the local military and public administration have arbitrarily taken over the management of the clean-up campaign and have adopted such measures, as to greatly hinder its execution."

"Chief Inspector Pal Krazsnai of the Nagyvarad police is suspected of concealing Jewish property in his home. He has asked to be pensioned."

"In Gyergyoszentmiklos Police Sergeant Janos B. Kiss had concealed Jewish property in his home." (Ferenczy's fourth situation report dated May 7th, 1944.)

"In Sepsisszentgyorgy. the head of the local "K" Department, a certain Lieut. of the Reserve Rendik restrained the Commissioner of Police from sending a certain Jew, Iszo Silberstein, and his family to the concentration camp." (155)

"In Szatmarnemeti the mayor of the town granted a Jew, Samuel Engel, and his family exemption from being sent to the ghetto under the pretext that the Jew was fattening pigs for supply to the public on his rented farm. Thus the three Jewish families working on the farm, nine persons all told, were left behind as indispensable." (Ferenczy's filth situation report dated May 9th, 1944.)

 During the whole of the clean-up campaign, Ferenczy constantly levelled charges against the Recruiting Officers of the army, because they drafted Jewish men for compulsory military labour, and because these so-called S.A.S. military summons were delivered to them in the ghettos and even in the concentration camps. Ferenczy reported this not only to Endre but also to the Germans, who protested to the Ministry for Home Defence. On General Winckelmann’s intervention an order cancelling the recruiting of Jews was issued on May 15th. It is, however, evident from Ferenczy' s reports that some recruiting officers sabotaged this order and tried to save Jews from deportation by drafting them for compulsory military labour. Eichmann personally intervened at the Ministry for Home Defence, where Major General Hennyey, Chief of the Mobilisation Branch, declared at a conference held on May 25th, that he had already issued the necessary orders. Ferenczy for example, in his seventh situation report dated May 10th, wrote the following:

"The recruiting officers, on orders received from higher authorities, have called up a large number of Jews and have addressed the summons in a manner that ensured their delivery even in a concentration camp."

And in his second situation report on the second clean-up campaign, dated May 29th, he again complained:

"The field detachments of the Gestapo have been given orders that all Jews, who have been recruited as skilled workmen lor compulsory military labour by June 5th, or who have already been summoned to Magyarovar, can be released from the concentration camps. This does not, however, refer to their families.

"In spite of the statement made on May 25th by the Chief of the Mobilisation Branch of the Ministry lor Home Defence, the drafting of Jews from the concentration camps still existing in the VIII., IX. and X. Gendarmerie Districts is still continuing. It is characteristic that contrary to the previous summons, which, according to the statement mentioned above, were cancelled on May 15th, these summons are dated May 24th and 25th and bear explicit instructions that they should be delivered even in concentration camps. On 27th inst. the post office in Ungvar delivered 21 summons of this nature to the local concentration camp. It is a fact that the Jews called up lor compulsory military labour enjoy freedom of movement without any restriction, not even their exit-permit having been withdrawn from them." (156)

In his report of June 12th (second situation report on the third clean-up campaign). Ferenczy wrote the following:

"The army has again attempted to draft Jews for compulsory military labour. The offending party this time is the VI. Military Recruiting Office."

"The Chief Medical Officer of the 1st Compulsory Military Labour Group in Jaszberenyi has granted 400 Jews leave for ten days and has issued them with Free travel-warrants."

Laszlo Endre, in his report quoted in full below, estimated; the number of Jews conscripted for compulsory military labour by the army, and thus saved from deportation, to be 80,000.

Since then it has been established that, for instance, the 10th s Auxiliary Labour Battalion in Nagybanya, regardless of age and efficiency, enrolled everybody who reported there and regularly provided food for them.

Ferenczy's later reports also revealed numerous disguised attempts to save the Jews: "In Szatmarnemeti a Jewish undergraduate, Andras Wohl Jr., disappeared from the home of his parents. An investigation disclosed that he is staying in the local Roman Catholic Seminary and is wearing the cassock of a Catholic student of theology." (Ferenczy's sixth situation report dated May 10th, 1944.)

"Detective Josef Kocsis of the Munkacevo Police Force was caught in the act of attempting to assist a Jewish girl to escape from the concentration camp. When searched, valuables and documents, which he was trying to smuggle out of the camp, were found on his person."  

"I have brought charges against the Lieutenant of Reserve Laszlo Erney, stationed in Tecso, for attempting to intervene in the interest of a local Jewish woman about to be deported and for handing me a petition addressed to the Minister of the Interior."   

"Geza Biro, a Christian inhabitant of Des, has forwarded a written plea in favour of the Jewish babies, the sick and the aged to the Government Commissioner, who in turn handed it to me with instructions to take the necessary measures. I have given instructions for this persons to be brought to Munkacevo for questioning on May 23rd." (Ferenczy's first situation report on the second clean-up campaign, dated May 21st, 1944.)  

"Assistant Town Clerk Dr. Szendrodi, who was in charge of food and medical supplies of the concentration camp at Ungvar, enabled prominent Jews to come and go freely from the camps. In this he was assisted by some officials of the local police force. Furthermore the Superintendent of Police in Ungvar, Dr. Torok, issued travelling permits to Jews." (Ferenczy's second situation , report on the second clean-up campaign, dated May 29th, 1944.) (157)

"A mechanic by the name of Palos, who was employed by the police force in Ungvar, was arrested for filming the deportation of the Jews."

"An attorney's clerk at Ungvar, Dr. Lajos Toth, has been interned together with his family for expressing his disapproval of the deportation of the Jews."

"Under-Sheriff Dr. Joszef Vegh is in close communication with his former chief, Dr. Arpad Simenfalvy, and is totally under the latter's influence. The result of this is obvious in the spirit and management of the public administration." (Ferenczy's third situation report on the second clean-up campaign, dated June 8th, 1944.)

"Captain of Gendarmerie Dr. Endre Nagy concealed his fiancée, Baroness Alexandra Hatvany, who is considered a Jewess, in his apartment, denied any knowledge of her where-abouts and on May 29th, entered into a church marriage with her in the church of the Capucine monks in Budapest, without obtaining a dispensation from the publication of the banns and without permission to marry. Baroness Alexandra Hatvany has been arrested and legal proceedings were instituted against the captain." (Ferenczy's first situation report on the third clean-up campaign, dated June 7th, 1944.)

"In Sajoszentpeter the Chief Constable wanted to transport the Jewish women by carriage from the ghetto to the concentration camp."

"Ferenc Roth, a Jewish refugee from Slovakia, was arrested in Salgotarjan, but was called up for compulsory military labour by the 61st Military Recruiting Centre." (Ferenczy's second situation report on the third clean-up campaign, dated June 12th, 1944.)

"Evidence has been procured showing that in Bekescsaba the Mayor, Dr. Gyula Janossy, and the detectives Szokolai and Ladanyi, as well as Lieutenant of Police Sitkay, have done everything in their power to assist the Jews. In Bacsalmas the deportation of the Jews has brought satisfaction and content to the majority of the inhabitants. A fraction of the inhabitants showed reserved conduct." (Ferenczy's second situation report on the fourth clean-up campaign, dated June 29th, 1944.) 158

Part III.

The Concentration of Jews in Budapest,

Preparation for their Deportation and

the Frustration thereof.

As soon as the decree of April 27th ordering the concentration of the Jews had been issued, thousands of Christians applied for possession of the flats about to be vacated by the Jews. According to the official notice which was issued, these applications were premature and could not be considered, as: " ... it has not yet been decided where the Jews of Budapest will be quartered, in which group of houses or in which districts. In due course the Christians living in the districts concerned will be notified by the authorities."

I.

THE INTERNMENT OF THE JEWS IN BUDAPEST .

Rumours concerning the creation of a ghetto in Budapest were circulating as early as the beginning of April. The B.B.C. declared from London that if this were to happen, the Allies would include the residential parts of the town among the targets scheduled for bombing. Up till then industrial plants and other objectives of military importance only had been bombed. In reply to this warning Endre decided to isolate the Jews without erecting a ghetto and for the time being to house them in industrial ' plants or in the vicinity thereof. This decision was duly made known to the press. At first it was planned to use the Zita Colony and other barrack-like buildings for this purpose. Later however, Endre abandoned this plan and set up concentration camps in Csepel and Horthyliget in the buildings of the Weiss Manfred steel-works and the Danubian Aeroplane Factory (the largest Hungarian branch of the Herman Messerschmidt works), which had been heavily damaged in the April air-raid. On his orders Baky's gendarmes and policemen, posted to Budapest especially for this purpose, had to arrest a certain number of Jews every day. The gendarmerie chiefly worked in the outer districts of the city. They, for example, detained the Jews travelling on the No. 28 trams, which went to and from the cemetery at Rakoskeresztur. They frequently raided the Jewish Cemetery and detained the gravediggers, undertakers and occasionally even the priest himself. Policemen at the railway stations arrested the Jews fleeing to the capital from the country. Under the most preposterous pretexts detectives took Jewish men and women into custody on the streets. Without being questioned or sentenced by a Court of Law they were taken to Rokk Szilard Street and from there in police vans to Csepel.

Day by day the crowd filling the barracks in Csepel grew larger. On April 24th the Gestapo handed the representative of the Jewish Council (who reported there daily) a list of 133 journalists, 161 all Jews or of Jewish origin. In accordance with an earlier Government decree they were barred from membership of the Press Chamber. Now that their expulsion had become final the president of the Chamber, Mihaly Kolozsvary-Borcsa and the first secretary, Jeno Gespar; took steps to have them interned by the Gestapo. The Jewish Council accepted this list and through its messenger boys (generally high-school students) issued summons on the customary green forms,

These summons were couched in following terms;

UNION OF HUNGARIAN JEWS Summons

Mr

Mrs. 

in

District

Street

No.

You are summoned to appear without fail at 26, Rock Szilard utca, Vlllth District at 8.00 a. m. on April 25th. Failure to attend will have the most serious consequences.

Purpose: Labour Service.

You are to bring with you: Equipment and food for 3 days.

Budapest, April 24th 1944.             Union of Hungarian Jews.

Receipt

UNION OF HUNGARIAN JEWS

Communication to be delivered: Rel. No.:   District Name, occupation and address of recipient:

Summons

Street No. Date of receipt and signature of recipient: was delivered by:

Reason lor compulsory delivery

or non-deliverance: 

Budapest,

Sig. of Messenger:

Everyone thus summoned had "to report at 8 a. m. the following day at .28, Rokk Szilard Street lor compulsory military labour, bringing with them the necessary equipment. Failure. to appear may have very serious consequences." They were influenced (162) by the appeals which the Jewish Council - as we have already mentioned - had previously published. By these means not only the Jewish journalists, but also the Jewish lawyers of Budapest were "conscripted" - not for military labour, but to be interned. After a more or less extended sojourn in the "Rokk" they were interned in the barracks of the Weiss Manfred steelworks and the Tsuk fur factory, of which by now hardly more than ruins were left. (Many prominent hostages committed suicide in the "Rokk", among them the chairman of a hospital, Dr. Miklos Tallyai Roth and the president of the Society of Banking Institutes, Dr. Lajos Katona.)

Many persons failed to take the necessary equipment with them. For this reason the Jewish Council in its official paper published the following advice:

"Frequently persons called up are not aware of the importance of ensuring that they are properly equipped. Experience show; that the following articles should be taken: one heavy and two light shirts, two pairs of shorts, a pair of woollen underwear, bathing trunks, six handkerchiefs, four pairs of cotton and two pairs of woollen socks, material lor boot-pads ( to save socks it is advisable to use pads), a pair of gloves, two towels, a bread-cloth, pencil and note-book, postcards, nails, twine, leather straps, cap, an extra pair of glasses lor those who wear them, a pen-knife, a flask, a spoon, a scrubbing brush, a pair of light shoes, slippers, safety-pins, first-aid outfit, tea, sugar, soap , a shaving set, toilet paper, needles, thread, buttons, spare shoe- and bootlaces, matches and candles. This list, of course, is only a guide to show what articles will principally be needed."

Some persons received ordinary summons. But these too contained the threat: "Appear without fail. Failure to comply with this may have very serious consequences."

As from April 15th the foreign Jews who had fled to Hungary and had permits to reside there, but who from time to time had to report to the KEOKH (Central Office for the Control of Foreign Citizens), whose headquarters at that time were in the Customs Palace, were also sent to the camps in the Weiss Manfred works and to the Mauthner Colony in Csepel. On April 15th a large crowd of Jews was summoned to the Customs Palace, where they were kept waiting for hours. Suddenly the detectives of the Gestapo cut off all exits of the building and all Jews present were interned.

A series of attacks were launched against the Jewish Council because of the summons issued in accordance with lists received. The lists submitted by the Volksbund and other Fascist organisations, by the respective Chambers and Unions, meant a good deal of work for the Gestapo. For this reason Koltay ordered the Jewish Council to collect the Jews, whose names appeared in the lists submitted by him, The Jewish Council was in a difficult position. They had to reckon with the possibility of the Jews justly (163) accusing the Council of delivering them into the hands of the Fascists and of assisting in their internment. Could the Council have refused to obey these orders? In that case the members of the Council would have been punished. Were they to resign, the same fate would have befallen the new members and the situation therefore would have been the same. The Council took the point of view that, if it delivered the summons through its own organisation, "the persons concerned still had an opportunity of, making their own preparations, or to produce an official medical certificate, or to apply lor admittance to some hospital. Finally he still has a few hours alter receiving the summons in which to find a place of hiding". (Few tried to take advantage of this possibility. This can again be explained by referring to the Council's plea: "The unsatisfactory conduct of a few endangers all of us!" Besides, most of the men called up were afraid that, should they go into hiding, their wives and families would be molested and interned.)

The Council protested to the Chamber of Attorneys and to the Minister of Justice against the first internments of Jewish lawyers. Two more lists of names were the answer to this.

The discontent caused by the procedure adopted by the Council was at times so intense, that the police had to be called in for the purpose of removing the discontented persons from the Council's offices in Sip Street. The warnings and notices already mentioned were thereupon issued in order to appease the temper of the public. (164)

II.

THE FLOOD OF DECREES IN MAY.

Before describing the future flow of events, we must mention the flood of official decrees, which engulfed the Jews in the course of the month of May. (The decrees issued were being drafted day and night by the legal departments of the Ministries concerned and after having been approved by the Minister of Justice, they were issued as decrees of the Minister Council.)

On May 1st all persons classified as Jews had again to report for special ration-cards. Official records show 196,241 such persons. (According to unofficial estimates 245,000 Jews were living in Budapest at that time.)

One after the other the following decrees appeared: Jewish students may not wear school uniforms. All lucrative licenses and concessions were withdrawn from Jews. In restaurants Jews could only obtain food, for which they had ration-cards. Official managers were appointed to control Jewish printing works. Albert Turvolgyi was appointed Government Commissioner for the control of Jewish property. Another decree defined his jurisdiction. Jews were allowed to make purchases only between 11 a. m. and 1 p. m. Production controllers were installed in Jewish leather factories. Women were obliged to perform compulsory military labour, but in the case of Jewesses this had to be manual labour. All articles not belonging to the owners of the closed Jewish shops had to be returned to their lawful owners. Jews could not take part in public art exhibitions. All school licenses granted to Jews were withdrawn. In the leather trade special reports had to be rendered. The decrees concerning the exempted Jews were unified. Managers were appointed to take charge of industrial concerns. All motor vehicles still in the possession of Jews had to be surrendered. Jews were restricted in frequenting places of public entertainment (theatres, cinemas, concerts, night-clubs etc.). The Mayor of Budapest declared three public baths open to Jews, on certain hours of certain days of the week. All licenses in the printing, news-paper and advertising trade were withdrawn. All shops of Jewish merchants and tradesmen were confiscated. Denes Csanky, the director of the Arts Museum, was appointed Government Commissioner "for the registration and custody of confiscated Jewish objects of art," The Mayor of Budapest defined the restaurants, which could be frequented by Jews. (As from this day certain cafes and restaurants were almost empty, had to close their doors one after the other and hang out signs, saying that "summer rep airs" were under way). All Jews of military age were ordered to wear (165) a yellow star and a yellow armlet 6 cm. wide - if they were Christians, a white armlet - when marching.

The following notice was published by the Mayor:

"This office has been flooded with thousands of applications for possession of closed Jewish shops and their stocks. These are all to no avail, as nothing can as yet be done. The petitioners are asked to be patient."

The Baross-Union stated: "The is no objection to applications for Jewish shops" (Later on the Baross-Union was forced to with-draw this information, as no official orders to that effect had been issued at that time.).

Day by day the situation became more unbearable. The following official statement is probably the best characterisation of the excesses of those times:

"The number of cases is gradually increasing, in which unauthorised persons - frequently taking advantage of foreign military uniforms and referring to orders from higher authorities - confiscate movable property."

The last of this flood of decrees was the one ordering an inventory to be prepared in the presence of their owners or a lawyer of all bank-safes rented by Jews.

In other aspects the month of May brought no great changes into the life of the Jews of Budapest. The new Mayor of Budapest, Tibor (Keil) Keledy, in a report gave an account of the measures adopted against the Jews. Referring to this report, Kalman Bocsary-Spur, a Town Councillor, protested as follows:

"Although the Jews are not allowed to employ female domestic servants, the problem of help for the household has not improved, due chiefly to the fact that many servants have left the capital for the country as a result of the constant air-raids. Many Jewish employers have paid the wages of their servants 3, 6 or even 12 months in advance. Other maids have received valuable presents from their employers. I must rigorously protest against such procedure on the part of Jewish employers; this must be brought to the attention of the Government, because this is sabotage on the part of the Jews ...

It was not an easy problem for the Jews to replace their domestic servants. Certain daily papers and the official Jewish paper were full of advertisements asking for Jewish servants. This problem was partly solved by hiring temporary Christian help. With regard to this, following warning was issued by the Council:

"In connection with the decree forbidding Jews to give regular employment to Christian domestic servants, the question has arisen, whether it is permissible to hire a Christian charwoman or laundress from time to time. In answer to our enquiry the competent authorities have given us the following information: The decree in question forbids only the 'regular' employment of Christians in 166 Jewish households. Therefore the casual employment of such servants is permitted from time to time, when the need for it arises. There is no restrictive interpretation according to which the Christian servant may only perform the task undertaken in the wash-cellar of the house, the task may be performed in the flat itself. On the other hand it is advisable to employ different casual labour each time the need for it arises and thus avoid even the slightest suspicion of the employment being of a regular nature."

The careful tone and detailed explanation of this notice clearly demonstrate how careful the Jews had to be in order not to commit some "irregularity" and thus give the butcher, baker or candlestick maker an opportunity of reporting them. All those reported for any slight irregularity were sure to be interned, - and that meant deportation.

The gradually increasing severity of the official measures, the constant accusations of the extremist press and its willful misinterpretation of facts compelled the Council to issue a string of fresh warnings and notices in an attempt to combat the ever-present danger of internment.

These warnings were necessary, as, owing to the frequent air raids and the inciting articles of the extremist press (of which Ferenc Rajniss' "Esti Ujsag" and "Magyar Futar" were the worst) the Fascists threatened to start pogroms should the air-raids not cease. To increase anti-Jewish feeling they claimed that the Jews signaled to the enemy with torches and pieces of white cloth. The fact was that, on the contrary, the heavy air-raids of May frequently demolished houses predominantly inhabited by Jews. (For example more than two hundred Jews were killed in the Jewish air-raid shelter of No. 95, Kiraly Street, whereas nobody was hurt in the shelter reserved for Christians in the same house. Similarly, allied bombs, to the malicious joy of the anti-Jewish press, killed a large number of American Jews interned in a house in Palma Street, where no air-raid shelter was provided for them. This unfortunate accident occurred in August, the one in Kiraly Street in September.)  

Authorised to do so by the Minister of the Interior, Endre by his decree No. 176.744/ 1944. VIL b. B. M., dated May 6th, appointed the members of the Provisional Executive Committee of the Union of Jews in Hungary. From among the members of the previous Jewish Council the following were appointed to the new Executive Committee: Samu Stern, Dr. Erno Peto, Dr. Karoly Wilhelm, Samu Kahan-Frankl and Fulop Freudiger. The appointment of the following four members came as a great surprise; Dr. Bela Berend, Chief Rabbi of Szigetvar, Sandor Torok, a newspaper editor, Dr. Jozsef Nagy, Chief Medical Officer of the Jewish hospital and Dr. Janos Gabor, the legal representative of the Jewish Community in Budapest. Wild guesses as to why these individuals had been appointed were immediately circulating. It later became known officially that the appointment of Dr. Jozsef Nagy was due to the (167) influence of one of his patients, Dr. Istvan Vassanyi, a secretary in the department which appointed the members of the new Council. Editor Sandor Torok's name was on the black list of the Press chamber and he was at that time interned in Csepel. His frantic wife finally succeeded in establishing the right connections. His protector, among others, went to Zoltan Bosnyak, who was widely known as a close friend of Laszlo Endre's, At this time Bosnyak was constantly at the Ministry of the Interior and played a great and important part in the planning and execution of the anti-Jewish decrees. Torok's protector by good luck chose just the right moment in which to approach Bosnyak, who had him appointed to the Council as representative of the baptised Jews. For Torok this also meant that he was discharged from Csepel. It was also Bosnyak, who appointed Dr. Bela Berend to the Council. At that time Berend's district was represented in Parliament by Count Domonkos Festetich, who was a notorious anti-Jewish politician, but who nevertheless maintained close business connections with the wealthy Jews of his district and even leased his lands to them. Festetich introduced the "level-headed Nationalist Jewish priest" to Bosnyak. This ambitious rabbi from Szigetvar - who incidentally had been decorated as an Army Chaplain - tried to convince Bosnyak of his errors and particularly attempted to contradict Baron Alfons Luyseszky's false interpretations of the Talmud. When the crisis in the Jewish problem came, it was Berend's point of view - and in this Bosnyak agreed with him - that baptism cannot change the status of a Jew, that baptised Jews should not enjoy privileges over Jews who had remained true to their faith and that the Jewish problem could be solved only by emigration sponsored by the Government. He wrote articles on these questions and gave them to Bosnyak, who had them published. This is the background of their acquaintance and why Bosnyak recommended Berend's appointment to Endre. Dr. Janos Gabor finally was appointed by request of the Germans. The legal representative of the Jewish Community in Budapest spoke German fluently and from the beginning maintained close relations with the Gestapo, who found him a useful medium through which to keep in touch with the new Council.

On its first session - on May 15th - Samu Stern was elected chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee. Members of the previous council who, from the very beginning, were also present at the sessions of the Executive Committee were: Dr. Laszlo Bakonyi, Chief Secretary of the Jewish National Office; Dr. Hugo Csergo, Notary in Chief of the Jewish Community in Budapest; Dr. Janos Gabor (who now became a regular member); Dr. Zoltan Kohn, School Inspector of the Jewish Community in Budapest; Dr. Erno Munkacsi, Chief Secretary of the Jewish Community in Budapest; and Dr. Imre Reiner, Legal Adviser to the Orthodox Central Office. (Four of them: Bakonyi, Csergo, Gabor and Kohn were to become victims of their self-sacrificing labours; Erno (168) Munkacsi voluntarily resigned in June. Dr. Reiner, the representative of the Orthodox Jews, stayed at his dangerous post to the very last and ceaselessly fought in the interest of his co-religionists.)

An important role was played by Miksa Domonkos, to whom the Council entrusted the management of its Technical Section. We shall point out his merits later. The central management of housing and recruiting was for months conducted by a private banker, Rezso Muller, whose activities constantly evoked sharp, and frequently justified, criticism.

The punishments imposed by the police for failing to wear the Star of David or its improper use were constantly growing more frequent and severe. Fines became higher and cases of internment more numerous. Because of this the new Executive Committee found it necessary to issue a solemn warning:

"There are still some people who, either through carelessness or through ignorance, do not obey the strict regulations concerning the wearing of the discriminating emblem: the yellow star in its proper colour and dimensions and, most important, in the proper place. This emblem should always be worn on the left breast of the outer article of clothing and in such a way that it is never, whether permanently or temporarily, covered up. Therefore do not carry a brief-case, book, handbag, parcels etc. under your left arm; do not hold your cigarette in your left hand. Wear the yellow star whenever you leave your home, even if you are only going to the air-raid shelter. This point, unfortunately, is still very often overlooked by people. Some of them may be preoccupied or engrossed with their own troubles and commit these offences unintentionally, but they receive the same treatment as ii they had offended intentionally and are made to suffer serious consequences. We therefore ask everybody to take special care of himself and to warn all relatives and friends."

On May 15th the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Problem formally began its activities at 4, Vorosmarty Square in the confiscated premises of the Union Club. Its material was gathered partly from the art treasures and archives of the Jewish Museum and other prominent collections, partly from libraries. Its establishment was made possible by various donations. By request of Endre the Mayor of Budapest, Akos Farkas, in the name of the city, donated 5,000 pengos to this cause. Secretary of State Endre delivered the opening speech and in it for the first time made following threatening statement: "The Government is determined to bring the Jewish problem to its final solution as soon as possible!"

The Institute having been opened, its official journal, "Hare" (Combat), was not long in making its appearance. Dr. Zoltan Bosnyak, a high-school teacher in Budapest, then made his public appearance as director of the Institute. Only a few well-informed (169) people were aware of the fact that it had been Bosnyak, together with Endre, who for many years had conducted the subversive anti-Jewish propaganda from his offices in the basement of the County Hall. Endre's evil spirit, Laszlo Levatich, also took part in the work of the Institute. For many years he had been Hitler's ideologic agent in Hungary and a constant informer of Alfred Rosenberg and his Institute for Racial Research and Defence. Pallensiefer, the representative of the German Institute for the Study of the Jewish Problem, was also present at the opening ceremony. In his speech he talked about the "Jewish war plans". It was to him that the Germans entrusted the constant supervision of the institute’s activities. (The institute’s predecessor was the "Hungarian Cultural League" founded by Professor Lajos Mehely of the University of Budapest and Laszlo Endre in 1930. Mehely's journal "A Cel" (The Aim) also furthered the propaganda of the Institute, which was at first called "The Hungarian Institute for Racial Research". Lajos Mehely was the "king" of the Cultural League, Major General Karolyi Raics was its "leader,"*)

Director Bosnyak's and the institute’s interests were far and wide-spread. For example: at the.ir suggestion the name of the only licensed Jewish newspaper "The Hungarian Jewish Journal" was' changed. This fact was announced by the Journal in a most peculiar way:

"With the permission of the Press Department of the Royal Hungarian Prime Minister, the Hungarian Jewish Journal - as already done in the previous numbers - has changed its name to 'The Journal of Jews Residing in Hungary'."

In a series of radio lectures on world events, Secretary of State Mihaly Kolozsvary-Borcsa made following statement:

"The Government has now also made a clean sweep in the cultural life. Books of Jewish authors cannot be published in Hungary, the Jewish publishing houses and book dealers have been forced to go out of business."

A few days later the annual book fair was held, this time under the motto: "New Ideology - New Public", (It must be mentioned here that the book fair was a total flop!) The "most successful" anti-Jewish film of the Germans, "Jud Suss", was revived in the Corvina cinema. At an earlier date Minister of the Interior Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer had been compelled to ban its performance because of the scandalous disturbances evoked by its inciting theme. The German Embassy led by Veesenmayer and, among others, the Hungarians Sztojay, Remenyi-Schneller, Jurcsek, Tasnady-Nagy and Endre were present at the re-opening. After each performance the mob attacked Jews wearing the yellow star. In short, the propaganda bore the fruits desired. ") At his trial Endre constantly referred to Mehely as his "mentor". (170)

Peter Hain's Security Police had, by the middle of May, conducted over 7,000 investigations and arrested 1,950 Jews, of which 940 were turned over to the Germans. In 930 cases Jewish property was confiscated. The narrow margin between the last two numbers clearly proves the fact that the Germans were interested only in the cases of wealthier Jews and left the rest of them to the Hungarian Police. The prisoners were confined in the basement of the Majestic Hotel and in the Little Majestic. They were frequently subjected to tortures, of which the electric chair was the most feared. Two or three times a week mass-executions were held in the garden of the Little Majestic ...

(At Hain's trial, Jews, who had succeeded in escaping from this inferno, gave tragic evidence. According to them hardly a day went by without some unfortunate Jews committing suicide in the torture cells of the Hungarian Gestapo. The prisoners were starving, at the best they received a watery soup once a day. They were deprived of their clothes. 140 to 150 half-naked Jews were crammed into one small room, where, leaning against the walls and each other, they awaited their fate.

One witness stated that, when cellar and basements had been filled, Nyilas guards arrived one night and took over the unfortunate Jews from Hain and his accomplices. They were handcuffed and marched to the banks of the Danube in columns. There the Nyilas guards deprived them even of their underwear, fired a volley of shots and threw the bodies of their victims into the river. Numerous witnesses gave an account of the inhumane way in which Hain's deputy, Chief Inspector Laszlo Koltai-Kunditz treated them. If the tortured Jews fell sick, he would not permit a doctor to attend them. On being informed of the terrible conditions, under which the Jews were living, he merely replied: "Let them die!")

The Royal Hungarian Ministry of the Interior.

N. 9999 / 1944

VII. res.

Subject: New regulations concerning

the residence of foreign or

stateless Jews in Hungary.

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL!

To the Budapest and Provincial High Commissioners of the Royal Hungarian Police, to all police authorities, to all Commissioners of Police, to all branch offices of the Frontier Police and to the agencies of the KEOKH (Central Bureau for the Control of Foreign Citizens),

AT THEIR RESPECTIVE SEATS.

I hereby declare null and void my Decree No. 7.233/ 1944. VII. res. B. M., dated May 3rd of this year, concerning the conditions of residence for foreign and stateless Jews in Hungary and order the following: 171

(1) Nationals of enemy countries (The British Empire and its Dominions, Colonies and Mandated Territories, The U.S.A., Soviet Russia, Haiti and Nicaragua), who are not of Jewish origin, are, as a rule, not to be interned.

Those enemy nationals should be interned, who are of Jewish origin, as well as those not of Jewish origin, who are open to objection from the point of view of public order and State security.

The uninterned nationals of enemy countries are to be placed under police supervision according to the existing regulations at their permanent or designated places of residence.

Persons, whose supervision by the police is not fully justified from the point of view of public order and State security or for whom such measures - taking into account their sympathy for Hungary, age, state of health or other special circumstances - would be too severe, are to be ordered to report to the police in person once a week.

Interned nationals of enemy countries should be confined to one place and-without difference of race - should be treated equally.

They are to be permitted to use their own articles of personal use (bedding, clothes and the most essential furniture) and to provide their own meals.

(2) The Jewish citizens of neutral countries (Eire, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the South American Republics of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, and of states which fall under the same category: Finland, Rumania, France) should be interned only ii they are open to objection from the point of view of public order and State security.

Uninterned Jewish citizens of neutral countries are prohibited from accepting employment. Until - as a result of the current discussions - they can be repatriated by their respective countries, but at the latest till July 1st, they are obliged to report in person once a week in accordance with the existing regulations at their permanent or assigned place of residence.

After the date mentioned above they are to be interned.

(3) Jewish citizens of countries belonging to the sphere of interest of the Axis Powers (Germany, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) are to be treated in the same way as Jewish citizens of the countries mentioned under § 2.

(4) Jews, whose nationality is doubtful or who are stateless, are in general to be treated as Jews of Hungarian nationality.

Stateless Jews or Jews of doubtful nationality, who have a criminal record, who are loafers, who are without a permanent residence and who endanger public order and State security are excepted from this. Such persons are to be immediately interned. (172)

I instruct all police authorities to send all stateless Jews and Jews of doubtful nationality, who are interned in accordance with this decree, to the Prison Section of the Office of the High Commissioner of Police for Budapest, together with a detailed report.

In case of doubt whether the country of a detained foreign citizen is neutral or hostile, inquiry should be made at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  

The religion or race of the head of the family is generally decisive for the internment of the rest of its members.

If a Jew of foreign or doubtful nationality or a stateless Jew submits an official medical certificate stating that in view of his state of health internment would gravely endanger his life, he can be exempted from internment.

This exemption however, becomes null and void, ii the health of the person concerned improves.

Interned persons of foreign or doubtful nationality and stateless persons who are interned must be permitted to liquidate - within a duly set time-limit and under adequate supervision - their financial affairs.

In my Decree No. 231.300/1944 of May 5th, 1944, I have ordered trustees to be appointed lor absent Jews. The provisions of this decree remain in force.

Finally I instruct you to release from the ghettos under your jurisdiction all persons to whom the provisions of this decree do not apply and to institute against them the measures indicated above.

TO THE HIGH COMMISSIONER OF THE ROYAL

HUNGARIAN POLICE IN BUDAPEST ONLY.

I hereby instruct you to submit to the Central Office for the Control of Foreigners (Budapest, IX. Fovamsquare 8, 1st floor} a plan dealing with the internment of persons of foreign or doubtful nationality and of stateless persons sent to you by all lower police authorities. I Further instruct you to make all preparations necessary h:ir the separate confinement of persons of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups, giving due consideration to sanitary requirements, so that the execution of my present decree can withstand all foreign criticism.

                   Budapest, 31st May, 1944.                     Jaross m.p.   (173)

Ill.

DEPORTATION THREATENS THE BUDAPEST JEWS.

On May 25th the Executive Committee of the Jewish Union issued the following astounding article on the front page of its official paper:

For the provincial Jews. Since the time of its foundation, one of the chief aims of the Central Council of Hungarian Jews was to establish a separate Provincial Department. The duty of this department is to keep in touch with the Jewish parishes and councils in the country, to give them advice in their troubles and to assist them as much as possible. The Provincial Department of the Central Council plays an important part in the activities of the Provincial Executive Committee, especially now, when, one after the other, orders are given for the isolation and deportation of the Jews in the country. These measures of course greatly restrict the primary living conditions of our co-religionists, and the Provincial Executive Committee receives a great number of desperate pleas. The Committee has prepared detailed memoranda on these questions, has presented them to the competent authorities and tries to do everything in its power to ease the late of its coreligionists. But naturally we must take into account the possibilities which arise as a consequence of the orders issued. Nevertheless the Executive Committee has been able to render immediate assistance in a few cases of extreme necessity and want. The Committee, ii possible, will try to maintain its connections with the provincial Jews and will endeavour to help them in their plight."

Through this article the Jews in Budapest, who until now had been totally pre-occupied with their day-to-day troubles, after a flood of rumours finally became fully aware of the seriousness of their situation. They now knew with certainty that the news that had reached them in spite of the travel and mail restrictions was true. Towards the end of May, Fulop Freudiger, one of the members of the Executive Committee, received a letter written in Hebrew from Bratislava, in which he was informed of a railway conference held there and in Vienna on May 4th and 5th. The subject of this conference was the concentration of a large (German, Hungarian and Slovak) train park for purposes unknown. (The reports of the Hungarian railway officials show that Ferenczy's deputy, Capt. Laszlo Lulay, was among those present at this conference. The Germans issued detailed instructions for the transportation of Jews by rail. On arriving home, the Hungarian railway officials submitted their reports to their superiors. This proves that the (174) Hungarian Government was at this time fully aware of the German intentions with regard to the Jews.)

Some time later the news arrived from Serbia that freight trains were being dispatched from there to Hungary for the purpose of some mysterious transportation. Freudiger also received a 16-page report in Hebrew from Bratislava on the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. (This report urged the Jews to seek the protection of neutral states!) Only then did the leaders of the Jews in Budapest realise the imminent danger of deportation. Till then, whenever the question of deportation cropped up, they had always felt reassured by the commonly known lack of transportation facilities, with which the German and Hungarian High Command had to cope. When the news of the railroad conference arrived, they again made inquiries, but official Government circles labelled these inquiries as "Jewish rumours and scares". Janos Gabor was instructed to question Eichmann. His answer was:

"If the Hungarian Jews behave themselves and do not join the Ruthenian partisans, there will be no deportations."

Eichmann made this statement at the end of May. And the "wise" Jews of Budapest believed him!

When the deportation of the Jews in Sub-Carpathia and in the northern and trans-Danubian districts was almost completed, orders were given for the concentration of the Jews residing in County Pest. The Deputy Sheriff allowed eight days, from May 22nd to May 30th, for this to be accomplished. According to the provisions of the decree issued by the Deputy Sheriff, the Jews were allowed to retain possession of their valuables. The mobile property left behind was to be collected in one room of the house, an inventory was to be prepared and the room carefully locked and sealed. This decree furthermore ordained:

The authorities should execute all orders with great rigour, but are to avoid the use of brutality. The principle to be observed is that the Jews cannot be allowed to be in a more favourable position than the victims of the enemy air-raids. The Jews are to pay for their own transportation and are under no restrictions concerning the articles they wish to take with them. The evacuated houses can be transferred to rightful claimants. Jewish doctors and pharmacists, who are conscripted for compulsory labour, are exempted from the provisions of this decree lor the period of their labour service."

This decree was drafted fairly humanely, but that did not prevent the customary brutalities from taking place. The treatment of the Jews was especially brutal in the town of Kispest, Pesterzsebet and Ujpest, where their concentration took place earlier than in the rest of the county.

The "Sturmer" came out with the news that the deportation of the Jews residing in Budapest was to take place between June 5th and August 15th. At the same time Endre made a statement to (175) Hungarian journalists, stating that it had not yet been decided how to isolate the Jews in the capital; this would depend on whether the Allies bombed Budapest, and how seriously the city was bombed.

Endre had been elected permanent member of Pest County Council. In his speech, held at the Council's meeting, Endre said:

"The constructive power of national unity, deeply rooted in the blood-pact, is necessary for the solution of the 'Jewish problem (!?)"

At the same time the correspondent of the "Berliner Lokalanzeiger" interviewed him. To him he said:

"Nowhere in Europa is it equally necessary to solve the Jewish problem urgently and finally as in Hungary. In Hungary the Jews have openly become the stronghold of Bolshevism. In the interest of our country's defense it was necessary to adopt protective measures against them. The Jews assisted the enemy not only by demoralising the country, but also actively by means of sabotage and espionage. In the eastern district, which has become a war zone, we were compelled to adopt the most rigorous measures against the Jews and to set up concentration camps. Steps were however taken to ensure that the treatment of the Jews would be above criticism. The solution of the Jewish problem is not an end in itself, but a real and unconditional necessity. And only this can establish the basis for the solution of other Hungarian problems." This and many similar statements were made to deceive and reassure the Jews and to prevent a panic. (Everyone who knew Endre well, knew what to understand by the "faultless treatment" of the Jews.) And while hundreds of freight cars were taking their unfortunate victims from the country, the concentration of the Jews in Budapest began. (176)

IV.

PLANS AND ATTEMPTS TO RESIST.

From time to time the Jews of Budapest thought of resisting. In this they were greatly influenced by the sermons, which Chief Rabbi Ferenc Hevesi delivered regularly in the Dohany Street synagogue. At the first conference held after the Germans had occupied the country, Hevesi immediately drew Wyslizeni's attention to the danger which threatened the Jews as a result of the activities of "Nyilas" agents provocateurs. Wyslizeni declared that they had "ample experience" in such matters and were able immediately to distinguish between cases of real sabotage and frame-ups. He assured Hevesi that there would be no trouble. Contrary to the optimists, Dr. Hevesi from the beginning maintained his point of view: that the existence of the Jews was ensured only as long as they had sufficient means at their disposal and as long as the Germans could expect to get something out of them.

Therefore, on March 25th, in his first sermon delivered during the German occupation, he said:

"God is our sole support. We can trust only in his mercy and help. We must not base our hopes on human power and influence, nor believe them. Their voice is weak, their strength insufficient to ensure the fulfilment of such false promises. Have faith not in man, but only in God. Do everything to please Him and to ensure the safety of your families and yourselves."  

In a later sermon on the Star of David he said:

"The yellow star does not humiliate us, but those who have ' pinned this star on our breasts. It brings humiliation and shame on the Hungarian people, who stand by indifferently and watch Jews being branded who have rendered many a sterling service to the Hungarian nation in the course of its history. It would be the duty of every Church to advise their flock to pin a yellow star on their breasts too as a demonstration against the unbrotherly treatment of the Jews and thus frustrate the branding and endangering of the Jews. The yellow star will be removed from us, but a mark of humiliation will always show on the breasts of those who forced us to wear this star and those who by their indifference allowed this to happen."

Another warning sermon was delivered by Chief Rabbi Dr, Hevesi some time around the middle of June. To begin with, he indignantly reproached the Hungarian Government for permitting the deportation of thousands of Jews, to whom this meant a death sentence. He then continued: (177)

“This reign of brutality and wickedness can not last Forever. It will collapse under the weight of its own sins ... "

Some weeks previously, on May 3rd, a decree was issued ordering the requisitioning of flats. It was evident that the ghetto was being prepared. A decree to that effect was expected to appear any day. And although - due to technical reasons (the classification of the material collected required much attention) - it was late in appearing, there was no doubt that the decree would be issued within a few days. The Executive Committee tried to appeal for protection to the Christian population! They were by now aware of the fact that the politeness and courtesy of the Germans was only camouflage and that their aim, as everywhere else in Europe, was the total annihilation of the Jews. From this fate only the Hungarian nation, the Hungarian army could save them!

The Council, which had been inactive due partly to German promises, partly to the Kasztner - Brand discussion (particulars of which we shall give later), now realised, how fatal it was to have allowed the last 3 to 4 months to elapse. The Neolog Jews were almost completely without guidance. For many years their ill-chosen leaders had been prominent capitalists (Chorin, Baron Weiss etc.), who had been interned immediately after the arrival of the Germans, or who, by coming to an agreement with Kurt Bacher, the Finance Officer of the SS, made their fortunes over to the Germans and in return escaped to Lisbon. Politically it was equally difficult to attempt anything, as the liberal politicians (Rassay, etc.), with whom Samu Stern and his friends were connected, had also been interned. As a last resort they tried to procure the help of the Christian population.

The Executive Committee prepared a leaflet. During the first days of June thousands of copies of this leaflet were printed and distributed. (The police started a series of investigations and arrested a number of persons, among them Professor Fulop Grunwald, the director of the Jewish Museum and the Rabbis Fabian Herschkovits and Miklos Pehner, who was later deported and killed in Auschwitz. In spite of this they did not succeed in tracing the authors.) The text of this leaflet, which was headed: "An Appeal to the Christians of Hungary!" read as follows:

"In the twelfth hour of our tragic late, we, the Hungarian Jews, turn to the Hungarian Christians and plead for their help. We turn to those with whom we have shared good and bad in the land which holds the graves of our ancestors. "We remained silent when our property was confiscated, when we were deprived of our human dignity and of public esteem. We were silent even while we were being driven out of our homes. But now our bare lives are at stake! More than that-and it is painful even to write this-it is a matter of the lives of only a part of the Hungarian Jews. (178)

"It is our duty to reveal to the Hungarian Christians that for a good many weeks now hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews are being deported from the country under tragic circumstances unequalled in the history of the world.

"The Hungarian Jews have borne their tragic late silently and patiently. They can be charged with neither sabotage nor acts of terror. In the first days of the occupation the Hungarian and German authorities have, through the Jewish Council, promised the Hungarian Jews security of life and property, provided they showed discipline and did not obstruct the new order.

"Not even their worst enemies can accuse the Jews of not obeying with alacrity the decrees issued. Nevertheless death trains are leaving from practically every part of the country. Almost 500,000 persons have been deported up to now. Although the decree concerned only orders the isolation of the Jews in a separate part of the town (ghetto), these separated districts have in reality become terrible concentration camps. From here the provincial Jews were crowded into even worse brick factories and tumble-down shacks.

"From these concentration camps the Jews were driven into freight-cars, 70 to 80 persons to a waggon, with the aid of rifle butts and bayonets. Fresh air reaches them only through the small ventilation holes of the cars. Without cash or luggage, without blankets or even straw, these unfortunate creatures are forced to spend days in the sealed waggons. A few loaves of bread are their only provisions. Two buckets constitute the fittings of the cars, - one for drinking water, the other to perform their needs in. Thus they start off to a foreign country ...

"It would have been a slight consolation for us, ii only those of our brethren would have been taken away, who are physically fit for labour. Rut with great brutality and without the slightest discrimination old and young, healthy and infirm, pregnant women and babies, old men on crutches and women on stretchers, are crowded into the trucks. They are not taken away to do work.  

The 'Uj Nemzedek ' reports in its number dated May 23rd that three elderly women, who died on the ' Jewish train' leaving Nagykanizsa, were 104, 102 and 92 years of age. The woman aged 102 died of pneumonia.

"Evidently they were not being deported in order to perform labour services. The aged, the sick and the babies need nourishment and would use up food in a foreign country without giving anything in return. Therefore we cannot but doubt what fate awaits them: annihilation!

"The Hungarian Christians would not stand with their arms folded and tolerate such happenings, if they knew about them. But practice shows that a large part of the Hungarian Christians have no idea of what is going on, as the press makes no mention of these atrocities. (179)

"The real opinion of the Hungarian public was expressed by Lajos Szasz, a member of the present Cabinet, in a speech delivered recently in Nyiregyhaza:

' ... The solution of the Jewish problem cannot be brought about by anti-Semitism mixed with hatred, but only by measures of radical defence based on brotherly love. We do not want to exterminate the nation of Ahasverus. After the shiftless life they have been Forced to lead, we would like to see them finally find a home somewhere on this globe ...

' "Will history justify the fact that 60 per cent of the Hungarian population, almost one million persons, were sent to their death without trial or sentence?

"At present we do not have the time, nor are we granted the opportunity, to defend ourselves against one-sided accusations. But we shall lace all accusations bravely. If we have sinned, this was not by reason of our characteristic deficiencies. Our sins emerged from that economic system which has for the past century governed the whole of the world, including Hungary, and in which every productive /actor, Christian and Jewish alike, participated. Anyone acquainted with history knows that the life of a nation is everlasting, but that the course of politics varies. 'To-day this, to-morrow that' is considered to be the political creed. But above every trend of politics there stands an everlasting human truth. And who sins against this will be condemned before the tribunal of the Master of History, our Mutual and Almighty God.

"In this hour of extreme anxiety and peril we only wish to underline the fact that according to the returns of the 1941 census the greater part of the Jews in Hungary not only stated their mother-tongue to be Hungarian, but also professed themselves to be of Hungarian nationality.

"It may be that the Hungarian nation deems it advisable to remove the Jews from its midst. But to a nation, which prides itself in its record of chivalry, this does not mean the merciless extermination of defenceless and helpless aged or babies, cripples or blind war-veterans.

"By negotiating with neutral countries, ways and means should be found to enable the few hundred thousand Hungarian Jews to emigrate. This would be in accordance with the official statement of Minister Szasz as cited above and with the articles which appeared in the Hungarian press immediately after the occupation.

"In the name of our children, our aged and our helpless women, in the name of all those for whom annihilation is in store, we appeal to the Christian population of Hungary. "We place our trust in the sense of justice of the Hungarian people, who also expect and demand justice from the rest of the world. The Hungarian nation cannot allow this massacre of innocent people. (180)

"Should, however, this desperate appeal for our bare lives prove to be in vain, we have only one thing to ask: Spare us the horrors of deportation and end our sufferings here, so that at least we can be buried in our native land ."

Such belated propaganda could not and did not bear any fruit. 404

V.

BUDAPEST HOUSES ARE MARKED WITH YELLOW STARS.

Preparations were being made for the concentration of the Jews in Budapest. For a start very "showy" statistics were published: the Jews are sprawling over 47,978 rooms in 21,250 flats, whereas the Christians in Budapest are crowded into 70,197 rooms in 32,224 flats. On June 15th the Mayor of Budapest, Akos Farkas, referring to Government Decree No. 1610/1944 M.E., issued his instruction No. 523,926/1944.XXI in accordance with which Jews were to move into houses marked for this purpose with a yellow star by 8 p. m. on June 21st. A list of these houses was appended. From , among the 36,000 houses in Budapest 2,681 were assigned to the Jews. (Laszlo Endre urged the mayor to invite the co-operation of the Executive Committee. With the Committee's assistance the first lists were prepared, which stuck to the principle: the smallest possible number of persons should be compelled to move.) Immediately there were a large number of complaints and protests. The first one to protest was Ferenc Rainiss. The house in which he lived (No. 18, Kossuth Square) also became a Jewish house and he was compelled to move to the Gellert Hotel. He continued his attacks and pointed out that some of the villas on the Rozsadomb, Svabhegy and Gellerthegy were also scheduled as Jewish houses. Endre declared that he would personally investigate the protests filed by Christians.

Zsigmond Szekely-Molnar (a secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, who administered Jewish cases "in Endre's spirit'') finally came to a decision. 700 houses, most of them family villas with less than two flats, were struck off the list. Simultaneously a few tenement houses in the VII. and VIII. districts were added to it. At first only two days were given in which to effect the move. This was later extended until midnight, June 24th.

The Jews moved under very trying circumstances. Hardly any transportation facilities were available. Especially at the last moment carts and lorries could be obtained only for enormous sums. The following report of the Executive Committee characterises the situation:

"Only 2,600 house were assigned to the Jews by the decree. As Jews are occupying about 10,000 houses, this means that the occupants of more than 7,000 houses had to move into 2,600 houses already occupied, or at least partly occupied. As a result approximately 28,000 flats had to be evacuated and more than 200,000 persons moved. The Housing Office solved this enormous problem in the first instance by allowing friends and relatives (182) to move in together. But still there were tens of thousands of persons left without a home. Moving is rendered more difficult in view of the acute shortage of transportation facilities and the fact that a large number of carters have been drafted for military service or compulsory labour. The Housing Office has divided the whole city into 216 districts, each district with a separate District Office and forming part of 23 main districts."

(12,000 Christians were living in the houses assigned to the Jews. At first it was rumoured that the Christians would have 1 to move out of the Jewish houses, but this never materialised. Many of them assisted their Jewish neighbours in the purchase of provisions and the concealment of their valuables. Others, it is sad to relate, denounced Jews living in the same houses.)  

Even while the enormous housing problem occupied all minds, a variety of demands made by the Germans had to be fulfilled. In the requisitioned house of the Orthodox Parish in Doh Street an enormous Gestapo workshop was established. It contained, under the leadership of the technical department set up by the previous council, shops for making and repairing clothes, shoes, linen and other articles. (The Jewish furniture, for example, which the Germans were sending home to their families, was also repaired here!) The weekly wages paid to the workmen sometimes amounted to 90,000 pengos. But the Germans also had other demands, for instance:

"Urgent call for workmen! Men who can work in the lumber and charcoal trade should immediately report to the Technical Department of the Union of Jews in Hungary. The work is for the authorities, who will supervise it and will provide comfortable barracks for the workmen, pay wages amounting to 5-8 pengos per day and protect the workmen and their families. 500 men and about 30 women are needed. The latter are required to do the cleaning, laundering, cooking and possibly for administrative work. Also wanted in connection with the aforementioned work are a few intelligent foremen, technicians and administrative help in the draughtmen's and bookkeeping departments of a central office to be set up in Budapest. The Technical Department (12, Sip Street) requests immediate applications."

The services rendered the Germans - more than 800 "requests" were complied with - and the work of the Housing Office again evoked the anger of a great number of Jews. They claimed that it was no wonder nothing happened in their interest. The Christians were apt to misunderstand the situation. The Jews were seemingly collaborating with the Germans, even with the Gestapo, in great harmony ... At that time the Executive Committee could not defend itself. After the liberation, however, they emphasised that:

" ... the Housing Office had to be established solely in the interests of the Jews. At that time, under the pretext of accommodating (183) the victims of the air-raids, the authorities were constantly demanding the evacuation of more and more of the smaller houses. It seemed more advisable to take the management of this problem into our own hands and to assure the persons concerned of being i given ample time in which to move out, than to permit the brutal treatment and methods of the German or Hungarian Gestapo."

The Housing Office - according to the Council's defence - also served other purposes: in the case of refugees from the country reporting, the lawyers working there instructed them to state that they were victims of air-raids. They gave them the address of bombed houses and thus assisted them in obtaining shelter.

When the question of creating a ghetto arose, the Commander of the Budapest Air-raid Defences, influenced by the threats broadcast by the British wireless, protested against such concentration of Jews. It was therefore decided not to concentrate the Jews in one single place, but separately in houses marked with a yellow star. Endre - as was his custom in the country - allowed 24 hours in which to accomplish this. The execution of the decree he entrusted to the Municipality. Councillor Jozsef Szentmiklossy, chief of the city's Housing Department, ordered the Council's Housing Office to execute these orders. When he was informed that it was impossible to accomplish this task in 24 hours, he reported back to Endre. The State Secretary at first threatened to carry out the decree with the help of the SS and the gendarmerie, but later the time-limit was extended to 3, 5 and finally 8 days. The Executive Committee declared that it collaborated solely in the interests of the Jews and that not to do so would have resulted in complete chaos and unpredictable consequences. 

Concerning the readiness to oblige the Germans and the "accusation of  collaboration arising out of this, the point of view of the members of the Council was that by doing so they repeatedly succeeded in postponing the date of deportation. This was - according to them - a race against time.

Their "readiness to oblige" the Germans utterly exhausted the funds of the Jewish parish. (Here we must mention that on August 21st, when the danger of deportation no longer seemed to be threatening, Chief Secretary Erno Munkacsi wrote following note to the Chairman of the Council, Stern:

"I admit that extreme necessity and compulsion justify many things, which otherwise would not be possible, but in serving the Germans many expenses were incurred, for which neither the excuse of extreme necessity nor the excuse of compulsion can be advanced.")

It is not widely known that the manager of the Council's: Technical Department, Capt. Miksa Domonkos, did everything in his power to sabotage the instructions of the Germans. (184)

From March 19th till May 17th none of the Hungarian authorities were willing to assist the Jews. On the contrary, in a number of cases Hungarian officials, on friendly terms with the Germans, produced similar demands or vigorously supported the German demands.

It was only natural therefore that in the course of these two months an enormous amount of goods had to be delivered to the Germans. At first this was done by simply confiscating everything found in the possession of Jewish organisations. Later the Council was forced to buy large quantities of typewriters, office furniture, hospital- and barrack-stores and other goods and materials.

Finally there came a time, when it became impossible to purchase the articles and materials required. And - also as a consequence of the Jewish shops and stores having been closed in the meantime - the Jewish Council could no longer fulfill these demands.

This started the second phase of German sequestrations. Well 1 informed by their perfectly organised spy-system, the Germans I approached the Jewish Council with lists, demanding that in their name certain Jewish merchants and tradesmen be notified and ordered to appear at a certain place at a certain time. The merchant in question was obliged to appear "in his own interest", to fetch his keys and to await them outside his closed shop at the time appointed'.

This regularised looting finally led to the intervention of some of the members of Sztojay's Cabinet, not because the Jews were being robbed, but because they realised that the German High Command was systematically transporting to Germany the entire assets of Hungarian commerce. Therefore they were also carrying off goods and materials which had previously belonged to the Jews and which since then had been proclaimed to be "national property". Guided by such conceptions the Ministry of Commerce on May 27th was the first to take an interest. Since that time an official of the Ministry always kept an eye on the German demands.

On May 20th, Dr. Janos Gabor, a member of the Committee, and Miksa Domonkos, the manager of the Technical Department, decided, contrary to strict German orders, to report to the Ministry of Commerce all lists containing German demands. The very next day the commander of the SS security police knew about their decision, ordered them to appear before him, and, under pain of being shot, forbade them to submit such reports. In spite of this, Miksa Domonkos, without the knowledge of the Executive Committee, continued to submit weekly and monthly reports on the German demands to the Minister of Commerce. In his precise reports Domonkos listed the demands which were met and, separately, the demands which were sabotaged, for (185) Domonkos had found ways and means - frequently thereby endangering his life - of saving goods of enormous value. But even so the reports submitted by Domonkos show that the Germans succeeded in robbing Hungary of untold Jewish wealth.

Not only was the Jewish Council forced to supply goods, but it was also compelled to pay regularly the workmen employed in the SS shops. Under this pretext they had to pay more than 200,000 dollars since March 1944. Certain SS commands demanded more money under various other pretexts. The majority of the members of the Council took the view that "everything the Germans demand, should be given them. If they demand cash, that also should be supplied."

Domonkos, whenever possible, attempted to sabotage these attempts as well. "In order to save the prestige of the German Army'' he succeeded on May 24th in inducing the High Command of the SS to issue the following order:

"The Officer Commanding Security Police and Security Service (SD) in Hungary, Sondereinsatzkommando Eich/Wey, I. 1122/44.

To the Union of Hungarian Jews, Budapest.

You are hereby strictly forbidden to hand over any sums of money whatsoever to any German official organisation or person without previously obtaining particular permission, both verbal and in writing, of the above office.

                                                                               Eichmann m.p.

                                                                          SS-Obersturmführer."

Simultaneously with the removal of Jews into houses marked by a star, further restrictions were enforced.

1) Jews, who by virtue of decree No. 1240/1944. M.E. are obliged to wear the discriminating emblem (yellow star) (and in the following simply termed Jews) may leave the houses assigned to them by the Mayor of Budapest only between the hours of 2 p. m. and 5 p. m., and solely for the purposes of making purchases, securing medical attention and bathing.

2) Jews may not receive visitors in their quarters. They are not permitted to hold conversations through their street windows.

3) The proprietor or caretaker of each house, together with the air-raid warden or his deputy, are to prepare in triplicate a list of the Jews living in the house, showing them in the order of the floors they occupy, at the same time certifying these lists to be true. The list should contain the name, address, age and sex of each Jew. One copy of the list is to be posted on the entrance door to the house or some other equally accessible place and is to be safeguarded against damage. The other copies of the list should be held by the owner or caretaker of the house, who on demand is obliged to show or submit them to the authorities. The caretaker, with the assistance of the senior occupant of each 186 §

4), has to carry out a daily check on the Jews >rt any cases of absence to the nearest police re obliged to keep their flats clean in accordance requirements. In flats inhabited by more than one e to elect among themselves a senior occupant, personally responsible for the cleanliness and flat. The caretaker will post a list of the senior on the entrance door of the house, and if this destroyed, he will replace it. inhabited by Jews, the air-raid warden of the uty) will reserve a separate air-raid shelter for christian occupants of the house. Space should be deepest part of the house for those Jews, for room in the air-raid shelters. the Jews are permitted to travel only on the denied access to public parks. under the jurisdiction of the Chief Commissioner strictly forbidden, under pain of internment, to harbour them for any length of time in Christian e parts of Jewish houses, which are inhabited by of this order constitutes a petty offence and ,etrator liable to a fine of 100 pengos and/or 1 (internment). he capital now began to experience, what until only from rumours, which had reached them in LY in connection with the fate of their provincial ne realised that the ghetto would be followed by horrible; the brutal attack of the gendarmes ,thes investigators of the gendarmerie, followed with all their horrors, and finally Journey's :h some news had already reached Budapest. ls bearing the mysterious post-mark "Waldsee" the same text: "I have arrived, Am well.'' received. These post-cards always bore messages first person singular; never was the family the husband or wife and never the children. The :ome terrible tragedy stunned everyone. The Jews ere now aware of the fact that their turn was e thought struck them: "We are in a death-trap, (187)

VI.

THE SITUATION IN BUDAPEST APPROACHES ITS CRISIS.

In June, while the Jews were busy moving into their new abodes, events followed each other in swift succession.  

In Szombathely Andor Jaross took the occasion of the installation of a new Lord-Lieutenant to state:

"The total ridding of Hungary from the Jews is no longer a programme, it is a concluded fact. The final solution is only a question of time."

The members of the County Council greeted this statement with great applause. This speech is another proof that the Hungarian Government was informed in advance and approved of the deportation.

The mayor reported that in Budapest only 112,620 Jews had complied with the order to surrender their ration cards. 10,467 persons submitted petitions asking to be exempted from the exchange of ration cards and of these 7,479 stated reasons for their petition.

On June 10th Lajos Remenyi-Schneller, at the installation of yet another new Lord-Lieutenant, had the following to say in regard to the confiscation of Jewish property:

"The property of the Jews cannot be split up between individuals; it has become national property. Jewish property is one al our chief resources lor our war-effort. All those who have Jewish property in their custody are asked to surrender it."

As a result of this appeal of the Minister of Finance a considerable number of provincials surrendered Jewish property, which, until then, they had "kept in custody". (More than 500 citizens of the town of Pees surrendered Jewish property within the time-limit set.)

At long last an extremist paper openly acknowledged the deportation of the Jews, justifying it as follows:  

"To remove the Jews was necessary, not only because they were the blood-suckers of the Hungarian nation, but also because they reduced the Hungarian officials and peasants to the level of coolies. Their removal was further necessary, because they were an obstacle to our final victory, on which the late of every Hungarian depends."  

On June 14th a statement appeared in all newspapers, again proving-as an answer to some leaflets and posters, which had suggested the contrary-the Christian origin of Bela Imrédy. Although he had previously admitted before Parliament that his ancestors were Jews, Imrédy now considered that the time had come for him to play a new, important part in politics, hoping that the Germans would put him in Dominik Sztojay's place, who (188) from the very beginning had proved to be quite helpless. (The forged certificates of baptism were supplied to Imrédy by Frick, the German Minister of the Interior.)

The statement read as follows:

"Slanderous leaflets concerning the Christian origin of Bela Imrédy have recently been distributed in Budapest and other parts of the country. The authors and publishers of these leaflets are unknown. Political accusations of this nature seriously harm national interests and therefore we, the undersigned, by request of Bela Imrédy, being fully aware of the serious nature of the task entrusted to us and alter a thorough examination of all documents submitted to us, make following pronouncement before the tribunal of Hungarian public opinion:

(1) When Bela Imrédy, in 1939, resigned from the office of Prime Minister, he announced - without examining the birth-certificates of his ancestors and purely relying on documents supplied by his political opponents - that in 1814, 125 years ago, one of his eight great-grandparents, a great-grandfather, at the age of 7 became a Christian. Only alter having made this statement did Bela Imrédy start proceedings with a view to procuring the birth-certificates of his great-grandparents. Alter a thorough examination of the official documents procured and submitted to us by Bela Imrédy, we hereby declare that the statement made by the Prime Minister regarding his origin was based on misleading evidence. The "Reichssippeamt'' established by the German Register Offices is the sole authority competent to conduct inquiries into the Christian origin of this great-grandfather, who was born in County Sudet in 1807. In its certificate No. II/X/l/3/42 the "Reichssippeamt" declares that it is not possible to establish as a fact that this great-grandfather, or any ancestors of this great-grandfather, had been Jews or were of Jewish origin.

(2) The original birth-and marriage-certificates of Imrédy’s lour grandparents and the birth-certificates of the other seven great-grandparents establish beyond doubt the Christian origin of the great-grandparents.

(3) We wish to stress that we have also examined the documents of the Vajkay (Zenger) family, Imrédy’s line of ancestors on his mother's side, to whom the slanderers refer. These documents prove that lor the last two and a hall centuries this Family was of pure Christian peasant stock originating from the vicinity of Regensburg.

By reason of these investigations we hereby declare that any allegations, according to which there were Jews among the ancestors of Bela Imrédy do not correspond with the truth and are mere slander.

Alter concluding the task assigned to us, we note with great disgust that there are still groups of political adventurers and misled persons in the political life of Hungary, who in the most (189) critical phase of the World War do not shrink from using the filthy weapon of slander against honest politicians, who are at present occupying a responsible and difficult position. Such unqualified procedure will be condemned by all right-thinking Hungarians.

Budapest, June 12th, 1944.

signed: Dr. Zoltan Bosnyak m. p.

Director of the Institute For the Study of the Jewish Problem.

Dr. Ferenc Rajniss m. p.

Member of Parliament

Dr. M. Kolozsvary-Borcsa m. p.

Secretary of State.

Gyorgy Olah m. p.

Member of Parliament

v. Emil Zach m. p.

Major-General (retired).

On June 14th, on the occasion of the installation of Akos Farkas as the new Mayor of Budapest, Jaross, accompanied by the applause of the City Council, openly threatened the Jews of Budapest:

"We shall ensure that all those infectious elements, who have been the natural carriers of Cosmopolitism in Budapest, will be eliminated from the city's life."

Mihaly Kolozsvary-Borcsa and Jeno Gaspar were responsible for arranging the ceremony of annihilating the listed books of Jewish authors. A book of poems by Jozsef Kiss was the first to be thrown into the pulping mill by the Secretary of State himself. It was followed by 22 car-loads of altogether 447,627 volumes by 120 Hungarian and 130 foreign Jewish authors. Kolozsvary- Borcsa delivered a great speech and took special care to ensure that his heroic deed was also filmed.

On June 22nd a decree was issued, in accordance with which Jewish doctors could only attend Jewish patients.

On the following day orders were issued to surrender all Jewish registers. One more sign to make evident that the deportation of the Jews was to be carried out in Budapest as well as in the provinces.

At noon on Sunday, June 24th, the Hungarian radio, in its series of talks on world events, transmitted a talk by Laszlo Endre on his successful work: the solution of the Jewish problem. According to reports published by the press, Laszlo Endre was to make an appeal to the Christian population of Hungary "before the close of his campaign", In reality his report was an extract from a much quoted pamphlet of his, in which following passage is contained:

"The Jews have always preserved the strong characteristics of their race. Through their intense hatred they have cut themselves loose from the Hungarian nation. In accordance with the doctrines of their religion they consider themselves to be the chosen people of God. The consequences of this they are not content in attaining in accordance with the will of God: that is in the next world (190) and by observing the moral doctrines. They wish to do so here in this world, in every-day life, by gaining world power and wealth according to the materialistic teachings of the Talmud and its Rabbis, and by boundless enjoyment of the pleasures of life. The Jews felt themselves to be at the height of their power, when they recognised a dangerous enemy in German National Socialism. They knew that ii this doctrine grew in strength, and ii Germany succeeded in restoring her military power, a reckoning would be inevitable.  

In his recently published book an American Jew, Kaufmann by name, who has emigrated from here and now belongs to the inner circle of the President of the U.S.A., recommends to the Allies, in the event of their victory, a system of annihilation: the slow extermination of the German people by sterilization.

We wonder whether the Jews, with their 'refined mentality' would wish the same late lor themselves in the event of our victory?"

At the end of June thousands of gendarmes arrived in Budapest. They were billeted in Óbuda and their number increased from day to day. The Gendarmerie Barracks on Boszormenyi Road were also fully occupied. A number of new measures restricted the freedom of movement of the Jews to an even greater extent ... Everybody was talking about deportation. The post-cards marked " Waldsee" were received in constantly increasing numbers . . . It was soon discovered that these post-cards with the false "Waldsee" stamp were sent from Osviecim (Auschwitz). (It was part of the diabolic scheme of the Germans to permit a post-card to be sent now and then. By doing so they intended to keep calm the Jews still in their homes, to mislead foreign opinion and to prove their frequently expressed principle of rigorous but humane treatment of the Jews.)

According to a decree issued on June 26th, the Jews of Budapest were permitted even between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to leave their homes only in case of necessity. Agitation reached its height. The men in the Jewish houses organised guards, so that the arrival of the gendarmes by night would not find the Jews unprepared. Most of the Jews no longer dared to undress when going to sleep.

The Executive Committee also considered that the critical moment had come. Since they were being constantly ignored by the Government officials, they, as a last hope, presented an appeal to Regent Horthy, stressing in it the patriotic loyalty of the Jews. During the last few years many prominent Jewish capitalists had been in close touch with Horthy. Ferenc Charin, Jeno Vida and especially Leo Goldberger possessed considerable influence with the Regent. But they were not in Hungary at that time. The Germans had deported them, and so their personal intervention was out of the question. The Executive Committee therefore drafted an appeal to the Regent's Cabinet, A copy of this appeal (191) was also handed to the Minister of Education, Istvan Antal. This appeal-left unanswered by the Regent's cabinet-read as follows:

Appeal of the Jewish Union's Executive Committee to Regent Horthy.

Your Serene ' Highness!

Our Most Gracious Sire!

In the name of the Executive Committee of the Hungarian Jewish Union, which by virtue of Government Decree No. 1,520! 1944. M.E. is at present the recognised representative of the Jews, we beg to disclose with loyal homage before Your Serene Highness the Facts regarding the terrible deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews, both of Christian and Israelite religion, which has been in constant progress since the month of May and which threatens the existence of all Jews in Hungary and fills us with utter despair. In the twelfth hour of our tragic late we appeal to you in the name of humanity to influence the Royal Hungarian Government to cease immediately the deportation of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

The Hungarian Jews have borne with patient resignation the heavy blows dealt them in quick succession by Fate. We have submitted to the various Government measures which deprived us of our property, our homes and public esteem and which not only debarred us from common civil rights, but made us outcasts of the community of Hungarians. We raised our voice in protest only when the Jews of the frontier districts, previously robbed and crowded into ghettos, were moved to desolate Factories and uninhabited Farms, and when their deportation began. At first only the Jews from the North-eastern zone of military operations and the southern frontier regions were deported. Later the deportation extended to the heart of the country. This has proved the explanation, that the deportation of the Jews was dictated by military needs, to be False. The other explanation, that the Jews are deported from the country For the purpose of rendering labour service, cannot be maintained either, as everyone, without regard for age or state of health, was deported. According to our records 427,400 Jews, more than hall of Hungary's Jewish population, had shared this tragic late of deportation by June 20th.

This total is made up by the following contingents:

Sub-Carpathia

Munkacevo

Ungvar

Beregszasz

Nagyszollos  

Maramarossziget 192 26,000 14 ,000 10,000 8,000 12,000

Huszt Felsoviso

Szenklence lza

Bardfalva

Tecso   10,000 8,000 5,000 3,000 3,000 10,000 Tisza Region Nyiregyhaza Kisvarda

Mateszalka  

Szatmarnemeti

Northern District

Kassa Satoraljaujhely

Miskolc Eger

Hatvan Balassagyarmat

Salgotarjan Leva.

Komarom trsekujvdr

Dunaszerdahely 20,000 12,000 17,000 24,000 12,000 15,000 21,000 9,000 12,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 7 ,000 8,000

Trans Danubian Region

Gyor 5,200

Szekeslehervar 4,000

Southern District

Baja Nagykaniz sa Bares

Szabadka

Szeged

Transylvania

Kolozsvar

Besterce

Des

Nagyvdrad

Marosvdsarhely

Szaszregen

Szilagysomlyo 8,200 9,000 2,500 3,500 4,000 22 ,000 8,000 10,000 36,000 6,000 8,000 7,000

Concentration Camps

Bacs-Topolya 5,000

Sarvar 1,000

Kistarcsa 2,000

Total  427,000

Although the respective Government Decrees merely ordered the isolation of Jews in separate town or city districts, in reality these districts (ghettos) became concentration camps, from where the provincial Jews were crowded into desolate brick works, mills etc., where living conditions were even worse. Our informants state that the Jews were then loaded into trains ready for deportation, after in many cases having previously been tortured and ill-treated. 70 to 80 persons were crowded into each freight car. The waggons were then sealed and their passengers received air only through small ventilation holes. Robbed of their money and valuables, they spent many days travelling in extreme discomfort. A few loaves of bread and a bucket of water were all the provisions allowed them. Another bucket for their bodily needs constituted the total equipment of the cars. This was the manner in which they set out towards their unknown destiny: men, women, babies, infirm and aged alike.

It grieves us to hear that these horrors are continuing. In Kecskemet, Bekescsaba, Szolnok , Sarvar, Debrecen, Szombathely, Szeged and perhaps also in other parts of the country many tens of thousands of these unfortunate people are crowded into concentration camps on the outskirts of the towns. Evidently their late is deportation. It can therefore not be surprising that we are filled with great anxiety by the rumours now circulating according to which the deportation of the Budapest Jews is also about to begin and that Hungary is thus going to be completely rid of the Jews. 193

Your Serene Highness!

 Our Most Gracious Sire!

II.

In the name of humanity and the divine commandment of neighbourly love we protest against the merciless and ruthless application of collective responsibility-condemned by the Bible and Church alike-to one million Hungarian citizens. Before God and man we appeal to the ever existent sense of justice of the Hungarian people, who cannot renounce their beliefs at this turning point of their history. They cannot permit that one million Hungarian citizens-without trial or judgment-are to be sentenced to deportation, a punishment unknown to the Hungarian Criminal Code. II among us-as in every human community-there are a Few guilty persons, a court sentence pronounced by a Hungarian judge according to Hungarian law should punish them. But every honest man, no matter what laith he professes, is bound to protest when innocent children and babes on  their mothers' arms are sent to their deaths; when helpless sick, aged and pregnant women are sent on the fatal journey, From which they - will never return, in crowded and unventilated Freight-cars and without food or adequate clothing. The children of Jewish veterans of the first World War are deported in the same way as the wives, children and parents of the thousands of Jews who are performing military labour on the battlefields or in the factories. In some places Jews, who by reason of their military or patriotic merits were exempted From the stipulations of the anti-Jewish laws, were also deported.

Your Serene Highness!

Our Most Gracious Sire!

III.

When we beg for mercy lor the many thousands of doomed souls, we not only refer to the holy principles of humanity, but also have in mind the interests of our country. Hungary is fighting a decisive war and while the Hungarian army defends the Frontiers of this country, every available workman is needed to keep up production and to ensure that the army is well supplied with everything it needs. Let the nation's sense of justice and the wisdom of ifs legislation decide our late after the war, as it will then deem it just and advantageous to the nation. Till then we should be allowed to use all our strength lor the sake of defending our country and in the interests of production. With due respect we refer to our memorandum, submitted by us to the Royal Hungarian Prime Minister and to the competent Ministers of the Royal Hungarian Government. In this memorandum we have fully outlined our proposals lor the employment of the labour power of the Hungarian Jews lor the benefit of the country. We also (194) referred to the results achieved by the work of the Jews in the Slovak labour-camps and its increasing effect on production. May we be permitted once more to ask that our proposal be considered and that the strength and willingness of the Hungarian Jews be used in the interests of the country.

Your Serene Highness!

Our Most Gracious Sire!

IV.

 According to the above-mentioned statistics more than 50 per cent of the Hungarian Jews have been deported. II we now, at this last minute, beg lor the lives of our innocent children, we also refer to the thousand-year old history of the Hungarian people and to the common fate, good or bad, which we have always shared with the Hungarian nation since the Jews first settled in this country. May we quote the following words from a speech recently made in Nyiregyhaza by his Excellency the Minister of Trade, Lajos Szasz, which in all probability expresses the point of view of the Royal Hungarian Government as a whole: "The solution of the Jewish problem cannot be decided by anti-Semitism mixed with hatred; only by measures of racial defence based on brotherly love. We do not want to exterminate this unfortunate nation of Ahasverus, whom we would like to see finally established in a home of their own somewhere on this globe."

Your Serene Highness!

Our Most Gracious Sire!

V.

We firmly believe in the sense of justice and chivalry of the Hungarian nation, which cannot wish to permit the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent and defenceless persons. We trust in the wisdom and mercy of Your Serene Highness. We believe in humanity and in the victory of Christian morals. We entrust our lives, the lives of our parents, children, brothers and sisters into the hands of Your Serene Highness and into the hands of the eternal Hungarian nation.

Moved by our present tragic circumstances, we turn with hope to Your Serene Highness and beg you put a stop to the horrors of deportation and to employ the working power of the Hungarian Jews lor the purpose of production and in the interests of the reconstruction of our country.

With regard to the Hungarian Jews already deported, we humbly beg you to intervene on their behalf, to ensure lor them humane treatment and to permit them, like other foreign workers, to support themselves and their families. (195)

We commend our petition, presented on be hall of the many hundreds of thousands of lives entrusted to our care, to Your Serene Highness's good will and again beg Your Serene Highness most urgently to grant our requests. Assuring Your Serene Highness of our most loyal homage we remain with the utmost respect:

Provisional Executive Committee of the Hungarian Jews:

                                       Samu Stern m.p., Chairman

Budapest, June 23rd, 1944.

At the same time the Executive Committee - through the baptized Jews under its jurisdiction-began to induce the Christian Churches to intervene more rigorously. The moment seemed ripe for intervention, as the political situation was more favourable.

At the time of the occupation of Hungary the Germans made three main demands:

(1) A larger number of forces to be sent to the front;

(2) at least 50,000 skilled labourers to work in Germany;

(3) an increase in the shipment of food supplies. The Hungarian Government fulfilled these demands very slowly and reluctantly. Instead of the skilled workmen the Government offered to send the Jews to Germany. The Germans accepted this proposition, but-as we shall point out later-they demanded the rations saved by the deportation of the Jews for themselves and deducted two milliard pengos from their debt as cost of transportation. We shall later describe the discussions, which took place during those days between a Zionist leader speaking in the name of all Jews and the Germans, and for which the slogan was coined: "Wertlose Juden fiir wertvolle Ware" (worthless Jews against valuable goods). While these discussions were progressing, certain interventions and campaigns were lodged at home with a view to bringing the deportations to an end.

Public opinion was also ripe for this. At that time the leaflet already mentioned and copies of the Auschwitz protocol were being passed from hand to hand in prominent circles of university professors, the clergy, judges, politicians, writers, etc. Many Christian families were also affected by the deportation of their Jewish relatives or friends. It was widely known how the Germans had looted in Sub-Carpathia and Transylvania and that on the Russian front the Germans ruthlessly drove the Hungarian divisions to their death in order to save their own troops.

It was therefore not difficult to procure the intervention of the Christian Churches.

First of all the Papal Nuncio was induced to take rigorous action. (196)

VII.

DIPLOMATIC INTERVENTION OF THE PAPAL NUNTIO.

Angelo Rotta, the Papal Nuntio, personally discussed matters with Prime Minister Sztojay on April 18th. These discussions, in the course of which the Nuntio tried to influence Sztojay to adopt a more lenient attitude, were continued on several later occasions. On April 27th the Nuntio called on Arnothy-Jungerth, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, whom he informed "of the fact that His Holiness exceedingly regrets the current trend of events, which had started Hungary-up till then proud of being a Christian nation-on the path which would lead her to conflicts with the doctrines of the Gospel." After a number of discussions and oral protests, made personally or through Verolino, the Secretary of the Nuntiature, the Nuntio, on May 15th, presented the following strongly worded. note (No. 1058/44):

"On many previous occasions the Apostolic Nuntiature has brought to the notice of the Hungarian Government those provisions of the new anti-Jewish decrees, which it considers unjust, especially the failure to discriminate between baptized and Israelite Jews, and also the inhumane way in which these decrees are carried out. Up to now these steps have shown no result. On the contrary - according to information received by the Nuntiature - the Hungarian Government is prepared to deport 100,000 persons, even though this deportation be veiled ... The whole world knows what deportation means in practice.

The Apostolic Nuntiature considers it to be its duty to protest against such measures. Not from a false sense of compassion, but on behalf of thousands of Christians, it once again appeals to the Hungarian Government not to continue this war against the Jews beyond the limits prescribed by the laws of nature and the commandments of God and to avoid any proceedings against which the Holy Sea and the conscience of the whole Christian world Would be compelled to protest.

The Apostolic Nuntiature expresses its hope that the Royal Hungarian Government in its wisdom will accept and sustain this appeal and will not act contrary to the truly Christian and chivalrous spirit of the Hungarian nation."

This note was presented to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs together with a covering letter addressed to the latter. In this letter the Nuntio wrote :

"… Taking into account the decrees already issued, and knowing others of a similar nature to be in preparation, I regard it as my duty to present this note of protest and again to demand (197) that the rights of the Church and its flock be respected. The fact that persons are persecuted because of their racial origin is in itself a breach of the laws of nature ... II God Almighty has given them life, nobody has the right to take this life, or the means of its sustainment, unless some crime has been committed. But to pass anti-Jewish laws without taking into consideration that many Jews have, through baptism, become Christians, is a serious offence against the Church and contrary to the Christian character of the Hungarian State, to which Hungary even to-day proudly alludes …

It is my duty to keep the Holy Sea regularly informed of everything that happens in Hungary, and I shall also have to report the measures adopted concerning the deportation of the Jews, the execution of which - I regret to see - has already begun. The Holy Father constantly recollects the great devotion and attachment for the Holy Sea which he experienced during his stay here in 1938; he watches the future of the Hungarian nation with great interest and fatherly love. He is greatly distressed by the current events. He hopes that he, as the chief pastor of his flock, the guardian of the rights of all his children, the defender of Truth and Justice, will not be compelled to raise his voice in protest.

A noble nation, which has deservedly won the esteem of the whole world and which has held bestowed upon it the title of Bulwark of Civilization, cannot belie its own glorious past and cannot soil its good name by deeds, which will stain it for centuries to come.

Therefore I again beg Your Excellency, and through you the whole Hungarian Government, to ensure that the measures considered necessary for the defence of the country will not be contrary to the laws of nature and the forthright commands of God ...

I beg Your Excellency's pardon for being outspoken. My high esteem for your person and for the soundness of your good faith and principles have induced me to adopt this course, as well as my love and devotion for Hungary, which, during my 15 years' stay in Budapest, I have learned to love as my own country. I pray daily for this country, asking that it may constantly become greater, happier and more esteemed. But at the present moment I am greatly concerned about its future. I am afraid that the injustice which is about to be committed -- may God prevent it - and the reckless bloodshed of innocent people will not bring God's blessing over this country, of which it stands in such dire need in these dangerous and impredictable times, when even the mighty do not feel capable of averting the dangers threatening us."

In reply to the Nuntio's note the Hungarian Government forwarded its note No. 234/Res. Pol.-1944 dated May 27th. In it the Government upheld its racial policy, stating that the measures adopted were based on the provisions of the anti-Jewish laws (Nos. XV of 1938, IV of 1939 and XV of 1941). Regarding the (198) deportation it was stated that only workmen were being sent to Germany and that many Christians had also been sent for similar reasons.

The Nuntiature answered the Government's note on June 5th with its note No. 1207 /44, in which it refuted the arguments put forward by the Government and repeated its previous appeal:

" ... The Royal Hungarian Government's note states that the new measures are based on the conception of the word "Jew" as established by laws XV of 1938, IV of 1939 and XV of 1941. The Apostolic Nuntiature draws the attention of the Government to the fact that the Church at that time expressed its disapproval of the purely racial principle and only protested against it, although at that time these laws in practice did not result in serious consequences.

Since then the Apostolic Nuntiature, to its utmost grief, has been informed - by sound sources - of the decisions arrived at in the course of a more recent conference, at the deportation of the Jews without regard to religion was finally decided. Only 150,000 Jews - 200,000 at the very best - are to be exempted, as they are indispensable lor trade and commerce and for the sanitary service ... According to other sources of information - which are also absolutely reliable - the deportation of the Jews is already in progress and is carried out in such a way that many persons die before reaching their destination. (Also in the concentration camps, where the Jews are frequently deprived of the most elementary necessities of life and hygiene, inhuman treatment prevails. In some places the authorities have gone as far as to hinder the priests in giving these unfortunate children of the Church the consolations of religion.)  

It is said that there is no question of deportation, only of compulsory military labour. One can argue about words, but the facts remain the same. When persons 70 and 80 years of age, when the sick and children are carried off, the question arises: what labour can these poor creatures perform? The answer is: the Jews are permitted to take their families along . In that case the transportation of such persons should be voluntary. And how can those cases be explained, in which the aged and infirm are deported alone? And when there are no parents to be accompanied? And when we take into consideration the fact that the Hungarian workmen sent to Germany were not permitted to take their families along, this special privilege granted to the Jews is really surprising.

Therefore the Apostolic Nuntiature as the official represent alive of His Holiness the Pope - to whom the guardianship of, all Christians and the defence of the laws of God has been entrusted - considers it to be its duty again to protest to the Hungarian. Government and to ask for the fulfilment of the demands detailed in its previous note: (191) deportation it was stated that only workmen were being sent to Germany and that many Christians had also been sent for similar reasons.

The Nuntiature answered the Government's note on June 5th with its note No. 1207 /44, in which it refuted the arguments put forward by the Government and repeated its previous appeal:

" ... The Royal Hungarian Government's note states that the new measures are based on the conception of the word "Jew" as established by laws XV of 1938, IV of 1939 and XV of 1941. The Apostolic Nuntiature draws the attention of the Government to the fact that the Church at that time expressed its disapproval of the purely racial principle and only protested against it, although at that time these laws in practice did not result in serious consequences.

Since then the Apostolic Nuntiature, to its utmost grief, has been informed - by sound sources - of the decisions arrived at in the course of a more recent conference, at the deportation of the Jews without regard to religion was finally decided. Only 150,000 Jews - 200,000 at the very best - are to be exempted, as they are indispensable lor trade and commerce and for the sanitary service ... According to other sources of information - which are also absolutely reliable - the deportation of the Jews is already in progress and is carried out in such a way that many persons die before reaching their destination. (Also in the concentration camps, where the Jews are frequently deprived of the most elementary necessities of life and hygiene, inhuman treatment prevails. In some places the authorities have gone as lar as to hinder the priests in giving these unfortunate children of the Church the consolations of religion.)

It is said that there is no question of deportation, only of compulsory military labour. One can argue about words, but the facts remain the same. When persons 70 and 80 years of age, when the sick and children are carried off, the question arises: what labour can these poor creatures perform? The answer is: the Jews are permitted to take their families along. In that case the transportation of such persons should be voluntary. And how can those cases be explained, in which the aged and infirm are deported alone? And when there are no parents to be accompanied? And when we take into consideration the fact that the Hungarian workmen sent to Germany were not permitted to take their families along, this special privilege granted to the Jews is really surprising.

Therefore the Apostolic Nuntiature as the official representative of His Holiness the Pope - to whom the guardianship over all Christians and the defence of the laws of God has been entrusted - considers it to be its duty again to protest to the Hungarian Government and to ask lor the fulfilment of the demands detailed in its previous note: (199)

1) All Jews are to receive humane treatment. Even as far as the requirements of state security are concerned, justice and respect of human rights should prevail.

2) Baptized Jews are to be exempted from anti-Jewish legislation, at least those Jews who, with regard to the date of their conversion, are above all sane suspicion.

 3) The Royal Hungarian Government is asked to take urgent steps in order to put a stop to the deportation of Jews and to permit the spiritual care ol the unfortunate Christians, even before the anti-Jewish decrees can be changed in accordance with the aforesaid.

The Royal Hungarian Government in its note expressed the wish to continue cordial relations with the Holy Sea. This, and the Prime Minister's statement before Parliament that: 'the new Hungarian Government wishes to build Hungary on the solid rock of Christian morals', fill the Apostolic Nuntiature with confidence that its suggestions will be accepted in good faith ... And the Hungarian nation, which has deservedly earned the title of 'the Bulwark of Faith and Civilization' cannot besmirch its name by means of which the conscience of the Christian world could never approve.

The Apostolic Nuntiature is Further inspired to take these steps by its true and deep affection for Hungary, which it would like to see constantly growing in size and happiness. It hopes that all this will be accepted favourably. And together with His Eminence the Secretary of State it expresses its heartfelt desire that Hungary may, at this critical moment ol its history, find the right path in the deeply Christian traditions of its forefathers.

The Foreign Ministry replied as follows:

                     No. 331/Res. Pol. 1944.

                    The Apostolic Nuntiature in Hungary,

                                                                                         Budapest.  

Although it is not possible to alter the Fundamental principles of Hungarian legislation by modifying the Jewish laws, the Royal Hungarian Government would like to emphasize that it does not reject out of hand the arguments advanced by the Apostolic Nuntiature, especially in so far as these refer to the baptized Jews. Taking this line, the Royal Hungarian Government has examined the recent note submitted by the Apostolic Nuntiature and would herewith like to give a resume of its point of view:

1. a) As has already been stated, a special branch of the Jewish Council will in Future represent the interests of the converted Jews in Hungary. Until the articles of this Council have been approved, Mr. Sandor Torok will represent the converted Jews in the Provisional Executive Committee. All steps have been taken to ensure that the activities of this representative are suitably supported. (200)

b) We would like to take this opportunity to state that the Hungarian Jews are not subject to deportation. A large number of Jewish labourers has been placed at the disposal of the German Government. The fact that these labourers took their families with them to Germany was due to the consideration that it would be better not to part these families, as these Jews can be expected to get through a greater amount of work if the presence of their families has a sedative influence on them. In this connection instructions have been issued to ensure that converted Jews and their families are accorded precedence among the workers, whose retention in the country is made imperative by economic and industrial considerations.

c) Up the present the Royal Hungarian Government has not yet approved the emigration plans prepared by the Swedish Red Cross and the Swiss Government. These plans provide for the emigration to Sweden and the Near East of a number of persons. The Royal Hungarian Government is according these plans its favourable consideration, and as soon as these approach the stage of realisation it will attempt to make emigration possible, in the first instance, for converted Jews.

2. Most stringent measures have been instituted by the Royal Hungarian Government to ensure that they are accorded a lair and humane treatment whilst the recent laws are being enforced. The executive organs have been instructed to avoid any action contrary to humane practise." Budapest, June 30th, 1944. It was known that the centre of the anti-Jewish campaign was the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore the Secretary of the Nuntiature called on Minister Jaross early in June and in a lengthy conference acquainted him in detail with the attitude of the Holy Sea. The following day he sent Jaross a copy of the Nuntiature's official notes together with a personal letter from the Nuntio. A few days later the Nuntio and his secretary called on the German Minister, Veesenmayer. They begged him to use his influence in order to stop the deportations and to make the position of the Hungarian Jews more tolerable. (201)

VIII.

ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE PRIMATE AND THE CONSISTORY

OF BISHOPS OF HUNGARY.

Complaints were also lodged with the Apostolic Nuntiature against the seeming indifference of the Primate. (As it happened, similar charges were also brought against the Nuntio.) On June 8th already, Angelo Rotta called on the Primate and asked why the Consistory of Bishops had failed to oppose the Government more energetically. The Primate asserted that he, for one, and the bishops also, had done everything necessary in defence of the Jews.

"This will be more widely known", he continued, "when my circular letter addressed to the Consistory of Bishops is proclaimed throughout the country. We may, however, only publish such press hand-outs, as are passed by the censor. Even by a statement read from the pulpit we should gain nothing, on the contrary, we would cause even greater harm to the Church and our congregation. As to the part played by the Nuntiature", he went on, "many people are not content with it. It is often asked why there is an Apostolic Nuntiature in Budapest, ii it does not act. On the other hand, ii it has acted, nobody knows in what manner. It is also considered perplexing that the Vatican maintains diplomatic relations with the German Government, which is to blame lor the atrocities."

At this point the Nuntio interrupted the conversation and replied that he had protested to the Hungarian Government and that his protest had been broadcast by the B.B.C. *) 

There were also among the bishops some who misunderstood the intention of the Primate and found his pace too slow. This feeling was expressed in a letter addressed to the Primate by William Apor, Bishop of Gyor, on May 27th, in which he wrote:

"I have been deeply afflicted by the news that Your Eminence has definitely given up the intention of attracting greater publicity by stepping before the Catholic congregations with a general pastoral letter in defence of the common rights of humanity and the sacredness of baptism. I am sure that the present Government will consider this decision a proof of our weakness and an encouragement to continue on its dangerous course. II we continue in this way, the great masses of our flock will not, and cannot, gain information as to our opinion on a point of principles, nor of our practical arrangements. Thus we are responsible ii many of them, more or less bona fide, take part in committing these atrocities and approve of doctrines which ought to be condemned.

*1) Archive of the Primate, Esztergom: No 5882/1944. Letter of Angelo Rotta dated May 26th, 1944 and marginal notes of Cardinal Seredi. (202)

I am fully aware of the fact that by stepping before the public we run the risk of being persecuted. The means of revenge might amount to press disputes, campaigns of slander against the clergy, financial penalties, confiscations, restrictions with regard to schools and even to imprisonment and torture.

But I am convinced that we ought to take these risks. Surely the faith of our congregation and the position of our Church would emerge strengthened out of this struggle.

If Your Eminence does not choose, by any means whatsoever, to step before the public, deign to allow your memorandum No. 2902/ 1944 of April 23rd to be proclaimed in an appropriate way, or give free hand to every bishop to inform and guide the congregation in his diocese.

I once more beseech Your Eminence to order the publication of a pastoral letter, which will intelligibly and clearly inform our people of the moral and religious principles in connection with the present situation."*)

In his manuscript "The Primate's Defiance of the Regime Responsible for the Deprivation of Rights", Anthony Meszlenyi remarked that Bishop Apor was mistaken when he thought that the Primate had given up his intention of publishing a general pastoral letter, The truth was, he did not consider the time ripe to play out his ace of trumps. Neither did he consider the proclamation of the memorandum of April 23rd expedient, as its contents were to be found in the circular letter of May 17th, and the latter would be heard more and more frequently from the pulpits. In this circular letter cruelties and inhumanities were condemned. The preachers did not mention Jews or governments, but referred to wicked tendencies in opposition to the moral laws and the commandments of God.

The Primate's aforementioned letter of May 10th addressed to Prime Minister Sztojay remained unanswered, but on May 14th the deportation of the Jews from the provinces commenced.

On June 2nd the Minister of Education, Stephen Antal, called on the Primate, and on June 7th Secretary of State Lewis Huszovszky visited him. To both of them Cardinal Seredi showed the complaints he had received. He declared that the statements made by Ministers Sztojay and Szasz were simply flabbergasting and in direct contradiction to the horrible facts. Moreover, he pointed out, all these actions ought to have been avoided, unless it was desired to incur the contempt of the world and, above all, the punishment of God. Instead of deportation, the persons in question should have been conscripted, or made to perform labour service here, or possibly transported to some neutral country. (M. S. of Anthony Meszleny entitled "Pamphlets as a Protest against the Actions of the Government.") These would have been humane measures, but what had been

*) Archive of the Primate, Esztergom: No. 81/1944, 203

done by the Government and its servants must be considered pure inhumanity.

We have no record of the answer given by Minister Antal, but the defence of Huszovszky is to be found in the Archives of the Primate under No. 5882. According to the Secretary of State the Government had issued an order dealing with the separation of the Jews of Christian religion from those of Israelite religion, and also dealing with the admittance of the clergy to their residences. The Primate requested an official note on these points. This was promised by Huszovszky, but was never forwarded.

On June 8th Bela Imrédy called on the Primate, who once more broached the subject. With severity he pointed out the disgraceful contrast between the promises and the actions of the Government. Imrédy promised to intervene and to urge the latter to answer the Primate's letter,

Due in all probability to Imrédy’s intervention, the reply of Sztojay, dated June 19th, finally arrived. It was, however, only in the form of a private letter, although Cardinal Seredy had expected an official note in reply to his official memorandum. The Prime Minister was not able to give a satisfactory reply to the most important questions relating to the cessation of cruelties and deportations. He hoped, through Secretary of State Stephen Barczy, to solve the problem by inviting the Primate and the Consistory of Bishops to an official Government dinner on June 17th. The Primate saw through the business and did not accept the invitation. He explained his refusal by saying that the Government had not complied with the most important of his 1 justifiable requests and had not even replied to them. He therefore did not consider it right and fitting for the bishops and himself to sit down at the table of the Government. Furthermore, from their presence at such a demonstrative Government dinner, the public might easily conclude that the Consistory of Bishops did not disapprove, nay even approved, the infringement of legal rights and the atrocities against which the Primate had fought for three months*).

Secretary of State Barcza reported the refusal. As a result of these negotiations Prime Minister Sztojay replied in a private letter, which had probably been lying on his desk for some days. The Prime Minister's letter reads as follows:

Strictly Confidential!

Your Eminence Prince Primate.

In the second note addressed to me by Your Eminence you deigned to acquaint me with your observations in respect of the regulation of the Jewish question, which have their source in the depths of Christian feeling.

*) Archive of the Primate, Esztergom, No. 5882 /1944. (204)

Allow me to omit the question of principles and to pass on to concrete facts.

As to the freedom of religion, I have consented to the wish of Your Eminence that Christian priests may be granted admission to the residences of the isolated Jews in order to look after the spiritual needs of the baptized Jews. The Minister of the Interior has issued the necessary orders.  

The separation of Jews of Christian faith from those of Israelite laith has proved to be almost impracticable, but I hope that it will be possible to secure suitable treatment lor Jews adhering to Christian confessions. This I hope to achieve through the statutes of the Union of Hungarian Jews. By order of the Minister of the Interior the preparation of these statutes is proceeding.

The order No. 1730/1944.M.E., dated May 3rd, contains Further measures in respect of those exempted from wearing the Star of David. As a result of the aforementioned order the following persons are exempt from the earlier order No. 1230/ 1944.M.E. and are thus not obliged to wear the discriminating badge of the Jews:

 Active or retired members of the clergy of the various Christian religions.

Those members of religious orders who are entitled to administer spiritual care.

Those persons, who either as members of religious orders or as deacons or deaconesses ordained by their competent canonical authorities, perform, as an exclusive calling in file, the tending of the poor, the sick, the Forlorn and the wails and strays.

Furthermore the cohabiting wives or husbands of non-Jewish persons, or the widows or widowers of non-Jewish persons, ii they have been converted to the Christian faith by March 22nd, 1944. In case of children born of the marriage, the exemption is valid only ii the children also belong to a Christian religion.

This order refers only to those members of the aforementioned clergy and to those priests, pastors, deacons and deaconesses or members of religious orders, who took their vows before this order became valid.

In my last letter on this subject, I informed Your Eminence of the decision of the Royal Hungarian Government not to object to Jews of Christian laith wearing a cross in addition to the prescribed discriminating badge. The right of wearing a badge acknowledged by the Hungarian laws extends, of course, to the cross, the emblem of Christianity. Thus Christians do not need any special permit to wear a cross.

In accordance with order No. 1 1200/1944.M.E. no Christians are allowed to be employed in Jewish households.

 Exemption in respect of this is granted by order No. 1730/ 1944 .M .E. to active retired members of the clergy of the various Christian denominations, to those members of religious orders who are entitled to administer spiritual care and to those (205) persons, who either as members of religious orders, or as deacons or deaconesses ordained by their competent canonical authorities, perform, as an exclusive calling in life, the tending of the poor, the sick, the forlorn -and the wails and strays. Furthermore the exemption extends to the cohabiting wives or husbands or the widows or widowers of non-Jewish persons, ii they have been converted to the Christian faith by March 22nd, 1944. In case of children born of the marriage, the exemption is valid only ii the children also belong to a Christian religion and live in the same household.

Under the aforementioned orders the property of persons classified as Jews is now being listed. When arriving at a final decision the Government will, to some extent, take into consideration the claims to property of non-Jewish members of the family.

Finally I beg to point out that the Royal Hungarian Government, while admitting the claims submitted to be of vital importance, has to consider the unalterable points of view of national interests. The Government, however, intends to make all possible concessions.

May I assure Your Eminence of my greatest respect and highest esteem!

Budapest, 19th June, 1944. (signed) D. SZTOJAY.

The Primate received this insignificant letter on June 21st and he thereupon considered that the time was now ripe for the publication of a general pastoral letter.

On June 15th the Primate received a letter from Bishop Laszlo Ravasz calling upon him to issue a joint solemn declaration. He stated, with regret, that a Protestant action of this kind had met with no success and, moreover, that he, the Protestant Bishop, had received no answer to his letter*.

This was an error, as Cardinal Seredi had already forwarded the protesting circular letter intended for publication and which had been completed a short while previously. (M. S. of Anthony Meszlenyi). On June 17th Bishop Apor again wrote to the Primate:

Your Eminence!

We have received the command-Docete omnes genies. We must give our congregation uniform and explicit teaching and information regarding the problems lacing us. They must understand that the State is wrong when it teaches that race is preferable to moral and personal responsibility, when it propagates hate and revenge instead of charity, and when, through its authorities, it torments innocent children. They must learn that vice is not to be encouraged or tolerated, even ii it is committed by the State. They must learn which human rights are inviolable even by the State.  

*) Albert Bereczky: Hungarian Protestantism against the Persecution of the Jews, Page 23--24. 206

My conscience compels me to submit the above proposals to Your Eminence. We have to show the public that, whether we want to or not, we must now stress the eternal moral laws and thus give a secure lead to the consciences that have been led astray or which are filled with doubt.*)

Cardinal Seredi, on June 20th, replied to this letter as follows:

"I am in the same state of mind as Your Excellency. I also have a conscience and am aware of my responsibility. That is why, for the duration of the discussion, I did not want to do what Your Excellency urges or carry out the actions I have prepared myself. I am now going to act, but expect no result from this step either."

On June 27th the Papal Nuntio, Monsignor Rotta, in addition to his protest handed to the Foreign Minister, sent his secretary to the Primate with a note.

In this he officially informed Cardinal Seredi of the wishes of the Holy Father. The Pope desired the Consistory of Bishops publicly to take action in defence of the Christian principles and of their compatriots who had been unjustly afflicted by race discriminations, especially, however, in defence of the Christians. It was obligatory for the Bishops to do this, lest they and Hungarian Catholicism incurred unfavourable criticism through their leniency.**)  

Through the secretary the Primate explained to the Nuntio that neither he, nor the Bishops, had been lenient. They had merely endeavoured, in order to avoid greater trouble, to solve the problems by discussions. However, as they had achieved only minimum results, they would step before their congregations with a general pastoral letter.

By this time the text of the pastoral letter had been completed. The Primate handed the first draft to his deputy vicar, John Drahos, at Esztergom, who tempered the stronger expressions. Copies were given to the Archbishops of Kalocsa and Eger and to the Bishops of Szekasfehervar, Csanad and Gyor, all of whom performed some minor alterations on it. The pastoral letter, having acquired its final form after a discussion with Julius Czapik, Archbishop of Eger and William Apor, Bishop of Gyor, read as follows:

"Our Beloved Faithful in Christ! The Successors of the Apostles, each one a visible Head of the Church, and the other bishops are, by the will of God, propagators (Cant. 1327), guardians of God's moral laws both unwritten, that is to say "natural", and written, that is to say "revealed", and especially of the Ten Commandments (Cant. 3362). During the Archives of the Primate, Entergom, Enclosure 81/ 1946. I.

*) Archives of the Primate; Esztergom No. 5882/ 1944. Letter of Nuntio Rotta No, 1380 /1944 , Nunc. (207)

history of the Church, which is approaching its second millennium, they have often used their episcopal authority, if these laws have been infringed. Regardless of origin, nationality, religious or social standing, they took under their protection those who had been wronged although they had committed no individual crime against the laws of God, or those who had been punished without having had any legally valid sentence passed upon them; lor no one, who has not committed a crime, should be punished lor crimes perpetrated by his fellow creatures belonging to the same race, nationality or religion. The successors of the Apostles, therefore, took under their protection the very slaves and poor pariahs and endeavoured to make them equal to the free. They have always supported the poor and tried to help the suppressed class of working people. In the course of the thousand year old history of this country members of the Hungarian Consistory of Bishops have also taken under their protection the poor and the innocent, who were suffering or being persecuted. They have aided them not only by practising resourceful Christian charity, but they have also striven for the cause of the poor and endeavoured to have the social question solved constitutionally through legislation and with justice prevailing in every line.

At all events they have taken up the cause of the poor more than any other, for they knew that the chief commandment of Christ is Charity, for according to his words "the poor are always among you." For this reason they have maintained or supported our old Catholic charitable institutions at the cost of great sacrifices and have also established new ones.

Our predecessors furthermore endeavoured to have the social and economic problems solved rationally and in a constitutional manner by legislature, without indulging in politics.

During the middle of the 19th century we endeavoured to promote the liberation of the serfs by sacrificing a large number of our own incumbencies. We also made considerable sacrifices lor the sake of the subsequent land reforms. During the debates in Parliament on these reforms, the then Prince Primate of Hungary urged that the land should be given first to poor families and those with many children, and he proposed to secure lor them the necessary capital in the form of a loan free from interest. In accordance with the guidance received from the Social Popes, Leo XIII. and Pius XI., our predecessors in Hungarian bishoprics urged that the mental and material status of the working classes should be raised and their innate human rights respected, at the same time advocating a just scale of wages for fixed working hours. The Hungarian bishops supported the Old Age and Disablement Insurance Bills, at the same time proposing a similar insurance lor the farm labourers.

And if the innate rights of Man, such as the right of life, of human dignity, of personal freedom, of freedom of religion, of freedom of work, of freedom of private ownership etc. are unjustly suppressed or even curtailed by individuals, by certain (208) temporal institutions or even by the authorities of the State, then the Hungarian bishops, as is their duty, put in their protesting pastoral words and point out that the aforementioned rights were not granted by individuals, by temporal institutions or even by the State, but by God Himself. Thus unless a legally valid sentence has been passed these rights can be suppressed or curtailed by no one and no earthly power, save only by God or by him, whom God has given legislative, judicial or executive powers. Because there is no power but that from God (Rom. XIII. 1). This power, however, should be executed only with justice, that is to say in harmony with the Divine moral laws, as God has given no power to anyone to infringe His own laws, such a procedure being contrary to His commands.

Now, in these crucial times, our beloved faithful, we members of the Hungarian Consistory of Bishops have fulfilled our duty when, in defence of the innocent, we protest in the name of God against the methods of warfare and bombardment, which have been condemned by Christian morals. The destruction of peaceful citizens, of homes which lie far away from any strategical target, the machine-gunning of peaceful women and children, the disablement of innocent children by means of explosive toys scattered by aeroplanes, are all actions which should not be permitted in a war, which, it is claimed, is being fought with honour.

But we must point out that now, during this horrible World War, when we most need the help of God, and when we ought to avoid carefully every word and every action, by which we and our country might incur the wrath of God, we see, with unspeakable sorrow, that a series of measures are adopted in Christian Hungary that are contrary to the laws of God. We need not enumerate these measures in detail before you, our dear faithful. You know them and the method of their execution very well indeed. These measures have curtailed, or even suppressed, the innate rights of certain members of our community, among them also of such, as confess to the same holy faith, and this merely because of their origin. All this has been effected without declaring any individual guilt on the basis of which a legal sentence could be passed. Only if you had to suffer from the same state of outlawry could you understand this situation.

We in the present time - as your God-given bishops were in the past and will also be in the future - are free from being influenced by any individual or group interests. We do not deny that a number of Jews have exerted a wickedly destructive influence on the Hungarian economic, social and moral life. It is also a fact that the others have not protested against the actions of their co-religionists in this respect. We do not doubt that the Jewish question ought to be settled in a lawful and just way. Consequently we raise no objections to steps being taken, so far as the financial system of the State is concerned. Neither do we protest against the objectionable influence being eliminated, on the (209) contrary, we would like to see it vanish. However, we would be neglecting our moral and episcopal duties were we not to guard against justice suffering damage and against our Hungarian fellow citizens and our Catholic faithful being wronged merely on account of their origin. For this purpose we have tried by oral and written negotiations to defend justice in general, and to take under our protection those among our fellow-citizens and co-religionists who have been affected by the latest prejudicial orders. We have requested that these orders be annulled or amended.

Although we have succeeded, here and there, in securing some mitigation, for which we are grateful, yet we are filled by deep sorrow and grave anxiety as, in the course of our negotiations, we were unable to achieve what we most desired, namely that the unlawful limitations of civil rights and especially the deportations are stopped. However, as we relied upon the Christianity and humanity of the members of the Government, we had not given up all hope in spite of the meagre results obtained up to now. For this reason we issued no proclamation to you, but restrained ourselves, in the meantime taking all steps to achieve our purpose.

We see now, however, with great consternation, that despite our efforts all our negotiations on the most important points have up to now proved almost ineffective. Therefore we solemnly refuse all responsibility for the consequences. By coming before you in the defence of Divine laws we urgently request the competent authorities, who should be conscious of their responsibility before God and history, to repudiate the reprehensible orders. At this time, when our nation struggles for its very existence, these orders not only lead to a lack of- faith in the laws, but also destroy the unity of the nation, turn the public opinion of the whole Christian world against us and, above all, will cause God to abandon us!

As always, we can put our trust first of all in God, and we therefore beg of you, our dear faithful, to pray and work with us for the victory of justice and of Christian charity. Take care lest you incur an awful responsibility before God and man by supporting and acclaiming these objectionable actions. Do not forget that injustice will not serve the true welfare of your fatherland. Pray and work for all our Hungarian fellow-citizens and especially for our Catholic brethren, our Catholic Church and our beloved Hungary.

For these intentions we give our episcopal benediction in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. (210)

On behalf of the Hungarian Consistory of Bishops

JUSTINIANUS SEREDI

Cardinal Prince Primate

Archbishop of Esztergom.

Budapest, June 29th, 1944.  

0 r d e r: The Parish priests and all priests shall read this general pastoral letter to their congregations on the first Sunday alter its arrival.

After a long delay the pastoral letter was printed by the printing press of Buzarovits in Esztergom. It was ready at the beginning of July. The copies intended for the clergy of the diocese of Esztergom were put into envelopes and those destined for the other dioceses were packed in parcels, and all were posted by the office of the Primate. No State censorship was needed in respect of the printing, but a copy had to be presented to the Public Prosecutor at Esztergom. This official immediately reported the case to Minister of Justice Stephen Antal, who sent a wire prohibiting the forwarding of the copies already posted to the post office at Esztergom. In part, however, his prohibition arrived too late. The parcels addressed to the offices of the Archbishops of Kalocsa and of Eger and to each episcopal office had been forwarded and had reached their destinations. (From there they were sent to the parish priests with instructions to read them out on the following Sunday. In the diocese of Eger this actually came to pass.)*

Consequently only the 700 copies which had been put into envelopes and addressed to the clergy of the diocese of Esztergom were held back by the post office.

Prime Minister Sztojay was informed, through Minister Stephen Antal, of the Prince Primate's pastoral letter. A cabinet meeting was summoned to clarify the situation, and Minister Antal was authorized to negotiate with the Primate. A discussion took place on July 6th in the summer residence of the Primate in the Gerecse mountains. Cardinal Seredi first of all protested against his pastoral letter being held back. He then said that after the inexplicable delay and the inadmissible private letter of the Prime Minister, the bishops had been obliged to inform their congregations of the situation by means of a pastoral letter and thus to protest against the mass deportations; the more so as such an event had never occurred in the course of the thousand year old history of the country**).

The only excuse Minister Antal could produce was that the Government had to act under external pressure. He also explained the serious consequences, both in home and in foreign affairs, that would undoubtedly follow the steps contemplated by the Primate and the Consistory of Bishops. (Antal's innuendos meant to convey the same idea as his previous remarks made to Bishop Ravasz, namely that the "Nyilas" might seize power and form a cabinet.) The Primate condemned the actions of the Sztojay Government with grave words. However, he knew that by having the

*) Archives of the Primate, Esztergom, No. 3265/ 1944. Report of Archbishop Czapik, Eger, Nov. 12th, 1944.

**) Archives of the Primate, Esztergom, No. 5882 /1944. 211

pastoral letter read out from the pulpits, he would provoke an open fight between the State and the Church without achieving any advantages for the persecuted Jews. He hoped, moreover, that through further negotiations with the Sztojay Government he could obtain some concessions and at least save the Budapest Jews from being deported. On the other hand, in the case of further failure, he would still have the opportunity of reading out the pastoral letter. He therefore declared that he was willing to renounce the publication of the pastoral letter on following conditions:

(1) The Prime Minister should reassure him in an official letter that the limitations of civil rights indicated by the Primate would cease.

(2) Christians should be exempt from the regulations applying to Jews and, in particular, they should not be deported in the future. The Prime Minister should do everything in his power to have those brought back, who had already been deported.

(3) The Church authorities should be entitled to inform their congregations that negotiations with the Government on the Jewish question were in progress and that some results had been achieved.

With regard to the third request Minister Antal thought a personal talk with Prime Minister Sztojay indicated, but he accepted the first and second conditions. On July 7th Cardinal Seredi wired instructions to the archbishops. bishops and clergy, telling them to postpone the publication of the pastoral letter until further notice.

On July 8th the Prime Minister appeared at Gerecse together with his Ministers Antal, Imrédy and Kunder. In the meantime Cardinal Seredi had invited the Rev. Drahos, Deputy Vicar of Esztergom, Archbishop Czapi of Eger, Archbishop Grosz of Kalocsa and Bishop Apor of Gyor to be present. The course of the negotiations was made easier, as Prime Minister Sztojay had brought along with him the desired letter and handed it over. It was dated July 7th and read as follows:

"In my reply dated June 19th, 1944, to Your Eminence's letter of May 10th, I was unable to acquaint Your Eminence with all the arrangements then being considered with regard to the Jews of Christian faith. In the meantime some of these arrangements have been effected. Moreover I am now in a position to give detailed information extending also to certain facts.

In compliance with the wishes expressed repeatedly by Your Eminence as to modifications of the Jewish regulations, the Government has taken following steps in addition to those already reported:

(1) On July 6th, 1944, the Government formed an association for the protection of the interests of Jews of Christian faith. This association looks after the affairs of such Jews and manages them independently of the Union of Hungarian Jews. (212)

(2) The Government has ordered a strict investigation to be made into allegations of cruelties said to have taken place during the removal and transportation of the Jews. The investigators have ascertained that the stories spread about cruelties and inconsiderate measures are generally untrue, or at least greatly exaggerated. However, in a few isolated cases some persons of authority certainly behaved contrary to the rules and intentions of the Minister of Home Affairs. The offenders have been severely punished by the Minister, who will in future prevent the recurrence of similar cases by the institution of punishments and preventive measures.

(3) The deportation of the Budapest Jews has been cancelled for the time being.

(4) If at a future date the deportation of the Budapest Jews should come to pass, Jews of Christian faith will be allowed to stay in the country. These Jews will be confined to separate camps, but will be given facilities for performing their devotional exercises, for attending services and for obtaining spiritual aid.

(5) Relatives of the clergy (their parents, brothers and sisters, and the wives and children of Protestant clergyman) will be exempt from wearing the discriminating badge and all consequences attached to. this order. While respectfully informing Your Eminence of the above alterations, which, under the present circumstances, might be considered important, I beg to express my hope that these arrangements will certainly prove satisfactory in defence of the sublime principles expressed by Your Eminence.''*)  

This reply only partly satisfied the Primate, as it did not contain any promise with regard to the Jews outside Budapest, the exemption of Christians of Jewish origin or the re-calling of Christians already deported. Prime Minister Sztojay's letter made no mention of the Primate's request to be allowed to inform his flock of the negotiations in case the pastoral .letter was withdrawn.

The Primate reminded Minister Antal of this latter condition, but the Minister of Justice chose not to remember it. This exceedingly worried the Primate and the bishops present at the meeting. In contradiction to Minister Antal, the Cardinal was obliged to assert repeatedly that he had stipulated this condition and that Minister Antal had promised its fulfillment. All this the Minister strictly denied. The Primate insisted on his request, whereupon the Prime Minister withdrew to consult his Ministers. Finally the request of the Primate was complied with.

Verbally the Prime Minister further guaranteed that the five points of his letter would be faithfully adhered to by the Government. He agreed to a message being broadcast early on July 9th. The wording of this message would be settled later. At the same  

*) Archive, of the Primate, Esztergom, No. 5(33/ 1944. (213)

time they agreed the text to be read to the Catholic congregations from the pulpits.

The following text of a radio announcement was agreed upon: "Cardinal Justinian Seredi, Prince Primate of Hungary, wishes to inform all parish priests that the general pastoral letter entitled 'Successors of the Apostles' and dated June 29th is intended For the information of the clergy only. This being the case, the letter is not to be read out to the congregations."

The following announcement was to be read out from the pulpits: "Cardinal Justinian Seredi, Prince Primate of Hungary, in his own name as well as the name of their Excellencies, the Hungarian Consistory of Bishops, informs the Catholic congregations that he has repeatedly intervened with the Royal Hungarian Government on behalf of the Jews, especially those who have been baptized, and is continuing his negotiations in this direction."

Neither of the parties was satisfied with the result. Prime Minister Sztojay and his Cabinet thought that he had granted too much, whereas Cardinal Seredi and the Consistory of Bishops regarded the results as insufficient. Bishop Apor, after returning to Gyor on July 15th, wrote a letter to the Primate which, among other remarks, contained the following:

"Reverting to our talk of 13th inst. at Gerecse, I beg to suggest that the Following steps be taken in the present regrettable situation:

 (1) I consider it necessary, above all, that Your Eminence should inform Minister Antal, in very plain words, that his proceedings had a misleading and deceiving character. This is the impression his behaviour made on the persons present

(2) We must be able to exercise control to a larger extent, ii the promises given in writing are to be kept, especially as regards the atrocities and deportations. In connection with this I beg to point out that, contrary to the wishes of Your Eminence, the Sztojay letter promised a respite only with regard to the deportation of Budapest Jews, and only to-day the departure of a transport from Kistarcsa could not be prevented. We must now take care lest inhabitants of Budapest be taken to the country in order to be deported from there as provincial Jews.

(3) The Government rejected the exemption from deportation of the baptized Jews by referring to the opposition of the Germans and to race principles. I, therefore, consider it necessary:

(a) To investigate ii the German Government has really so categorically refused to permit the exemption of the baptized. If that be the case, all influence should be exerted to alter their point of view, as happened in Slovakia. Your Eminence ought not to shrink even from applying to the present Head of State through the Papal Nuntio in Berlin.

(b) A special memorandum should be addressed to the Hungarian Government, in which Your Eminence and the Hungarian Consistory of Bishops would explain to what extent the (214) race principle is to be rejected. In applying this principle, the Hungarian Government deviates from the path of justice and Christian morality. For this very reason the Government should exempt the Christians who, of their free will and relying on the grace of God, turned their backs on the sins that had been committed by several members of their race.

(c) It would furthermore be necessary to address a pastoral letter of an instructive nature to our congregations, enlightening them as to the intolerable and un-Christian character of race principles."*)

In the meantime Ministerial Councillor Nicholas Beresztoczy called on the Primate on July 12th in order to submit following decisions and requests, which had been arrived at in the course of the Cabinet Meeting.

(1) The announcement from the pulpits should not be read out on occasions when the Holy Mass is broadcast. (The Primate raised no objection to this.)

(2) The Primate should collect the pastoral letters left a the post office in order to prevent misuse. (To this the Primate replied: "I will not take them back. Let the Minister of Justice take the necessary steps!")   

(3) The same agreement as concluded with the Primate was also reached with the Protestant bishops under the leadership of Bishop Ravasz, namely:

(a) The Protestant clergy will not read out their communication.

(b) The Prime Minister will write Bishop Ravasz a similar letter as the one addressed to Cardinal Seredi.

(c) The Protestant clergy will publish an announcement similar to that of the Catholics.  

(4) The Cabinet asked the Primate to ensure that the radio sermons on Sundays were free from political discussions and criticism. (Here the Primate remarked: "This request is unnecessary, as this has already been done. In our case, however, it should be made quite clear just what politics are and what criticism is. I cannot Forbid the radio proclaiming 'Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal etc.,' although, referred to individuals, this might also be considered political."

The question of a public protest came to an end here, and the Primate replied accordingly to Bishop Apor's afore mentioned letter. As far as Bishop Apor's request regarding Minister Antal's conduct was concerned, the Cardinal did not think it expedient to interfere. He considered, however, that a position of control as suggested by Apor would serve a useful purpose. As to the view of the Government mentioned by Bishop Apor, it was, in the Primate's opinion, not uniform, but of three different kinds.

*) Archives of the Primate, Esztergom, 81 /1946, enclosure a.

One part of the Government would like to undo what had been allowed by the other part, and the third watched the atrocities committed against the Jews with indifference. To apply to Hitler would prove useless. This had been done by others, including the Pope, but always in vain. To address a memorandum to the Government would also be fruitless. The Government would not, could not, or dared not understand the memorandum and act accordingly. He promised, however, to apply again to the Government with further requests and arguments*).

The radio proclamation was broadcast on the evening of July 8th, and again on the morning of July 9th. The announcement was read out from the pulpits, according to instructions, on July 16th. The priests who read it out did not, however, refrain from adding the necessary explanations. They pointed out, chiefly, that according to the teachings of the Gospel, we are all children of our heavenly Father and bound to each other with the ties of neighbourly charity. On this basis the Church, although condemning vice and sin, does not reject the sinner - Man - and disapproves of violent and unjust reprisals. Hence it could not approve, nay, it condemned the cruelties and inhumanities committed against the Jews, both by irresponsible individuals and responsible authorities. The Church, as the trustee and guardian of eternal and unchangeable truth, was obliged to challenge such symptoms, not only because the suffering of the persecuted was heinous, but also because the religion of justice and charity could not allow violence, suppression and unjust persecution. (M. S. of Anthony Meszelnyi).

In conclusion: In the archives of the Primate at Esztergom, among documents entitled "Jewish Documents 1944" there will be found a letter sent by Samuel Stern, Head of the Jewish Council. In this letter Samuel Stern, in the name of the Union of Hungarian Jews, expresses his gratitude for the efforts made by the Primate in defence of the Jews and asks that also in the future he will not forsake these suffering people.  

*) Archives of the Primate, Esztergom, unnumbered, July 24th, 1944. 216

IX.

PROTEST OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.

The doyen of the bishops of Protestant Churches, Laszlo Ravasz, accompanied by his co-religionist Nicholas Mester, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, called on Prime Minister Sztojay on May 9th and protested against the atrocities committed against Jews. Bishop Ravasz presented the petition of the Reformed Assembly referring to the horrors which occurred during the concentration of the Jews at Marosvasahely, Kolozsvar, Kassa and Nagybanya. Prime Minister Sztojay seemed to have been informed of the situation and declared that he condemned the brutalities, stating that' he had given instructions for the separation to be carried out drastically, but humanely.

"The Jews are a race", he said, "and thus the regulation of the Jewish problem is not a question of religion, but of race."

However, he did not seem to be in full agreement with the system introduced by Endre and Baky.

Later, on June 7th, the Prime Minister informed the leaders of the Universal Reformed Assembly, by letter, that the Jews of Christian faith would be allowed to wear a badge indicating their adherence to Christianity, in addition to the yellow star. He further suggested that in particularly exceptional cases the Cabinet Members would grant, on the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior, an exemption to the limitations of civil rights instituted against the Jews, but that this would happen only in very rare cases.

In the meantime the directors of the Reformed Church busied themselves with the settlement of innumerable individual requests, However, owing to the existing situation, there was no inner connection between the Church and the Government. The Church was not in a position to promise or to threaten. Thus, in spite of their very best intentions, they could obtain only very few positive results. Naturally this little meant life to the persons concerned. Prime Minister Sztojay did not reply in writing to the written protest of the Universal Reformed Assembly submitted on May 9th. In the meantime the Reformed Church put a stop to the inhumanities by uniting with the other Hungarian Christian Churches, thereby following the example of the Dutch and the Danes. This co-operation, in fact, was brought about between the Roman Catholic Holy Cross Society and the Reformed Good Shepherd Society. Dr. Joseph Cavallier undertook to inform the (217) Prince Primate of the desire for collaboration on the part of the Protestant Churches. On June 15th he delivered a letter from Bishop Ravasz to Cardinal Seredi, in addition to a copy of the memorandum composed by the Protestant Consistory of Bishops, which was to be handed over to the Government. This memorandum contained unflinching protests and threats in respect of the final result. Bishop Ravasz requested the acceptance of this text or the composition of another, which would willingly be accepted by the Protestant Consistory of Bishops.

On May 19th, Dr. Charles Wilhelm, on behalf of the Administrative Commission of the Jewish Union, called on Bishop Ravasz, who was at that time seriously ill. Dr. Wilhelm informed the bishop that the deportation of the Jews had begun, and that, to the best of the knowledge of the Jewish Union, there was no return from such a journey. Bishop Ravasz declared that the Protestant Church was willing to apply again, with a new memorandum, to the Government, requesting that this awful responsibility be averted from the Hungarian nation. On May 19th the Assembly again presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister. They repeated their protest against the isolation of the Jews, which at that time had already begun, and pointed out the immense responsibility, which the Government would incur, should the Jews be deported to Germany. Signs of the preparatory measures for this purpose were already to be noticed.

In the meantime a young clergyman was sent to Kassa, He ascertained that the information of the Jewish Council was correct. The deportations were certainly in progress. Bishop Ravasz thereupon asked the Lutheran Bishop Bela Kapi to his sick-bed, where together they prepared a draft of the "Last Protest". Regrettably this opportunity for co-operation with the Catholics was missed again, as there had been no reply to the letter delivered by Dr. Cavallier. Therefore the memorandum handed to the Prime Minister by a deputation on June 23rd was signed only by the nine bishops of the two Protestant Churches. The members of this deputation were: Mr. Eugene Balogh, Baron Albert Radvansky, Bishop Bela Kapi, the Rev. Julius Murakozy and the Rev. Albert Bereczky.

The nine leading figures of the Protestant churches were Laszlo Ravasz, Bishop of the Reformed (Calvinist) Church District Along the Danube; Janos Vasarhelyi, Bishop of the Reformed Church District in Transylvania; lmre Revesz, Bishop of the Reformed Church District in Tiszantul; Andor Enyedy, Bishop of the Reformed Church District in the Tiszaninneni ("Cis Tisza") Area; Elemer Gyory, Bishop of the Reformed Church District in Transdanubia; Bela Kapi, Bishop of the Evangelical Church District in Transdanubia; Sandor Raffay, Bishop of the Evangelical Church in the Banyai (Mining) District; Zoltan Turoczy, Bishop of the Evangelical Church in the Tisza District; and Dezso Kuthy, Bishop of the Evangelical Church District in the Cisdanubian Area. For further details on the antecedents of the joint approach and for the text of the appeal, see Bishop Ravasz’ s Pro Memoria, op. cit., pp. 1-15.

The presentation of the memorandum was delayed for more than a month owing to the fact that the nine bishops resided at different places and their signatures had to be obtained one by one.

The note of the Protestant Churches read as follows:

"In our memorandum of May 19th we mentioned, with foreboding, that there was a possibility of the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to an unknown destiny beginning. Since then information has reached us, according to which Jews have been (218) crossing the frontier in sealed waggons day after day and have disappeared from our sight bound for an unknown destination. Each of these waggons contained about 70 to 80 persons of different sex, age and social standing and of both Israelite and Christian  laith. The persons deported as well as their relatives are convinced that this journey is leading to final destruction.  

The solution of the Jewish question is a political task. We are not dealing with politics now. The execution of this solution is a great work of administration. We are not experts as to that. But as soon as the solution of the Jewish question challenges the eternal laws of God, we are in duty bound to raise our voice, condemning, but at the same time imploring, the head of the responsible Government. We cannot act otherwise.  

We have been commanded by God to preach His eternal Gospel, to give evidence of the unalterable laws of His moral order for this generation, whether people like it or not. Although humble and sinful men, we, in the bondage of faith and obedience to this heavenly command, possess the right to give evidence of the Word of God and to condemn every action which outrages human dignity, justice or charity and loads upon the head of of people the horrible responsibility of innocently shed blood. As bishops of the two Protestant Churches we protest against devout members of our congregations being punished only for being considered Jews from a racial point of view. They are being punished for a Jewish mentality from which they, and in many cases their ancestors, have solemnly disconnected themselves. Their lives, as regards Christian spirit and morality, are not considered in the least.

Finally we, as Hungarians and as clergymen, repeatedly implore Your Excellency to put an end to the cruelties disapproved of even by yourself and to enforce the declaration made by a prominent member of your Cabinet, protesting against the very idea of a senseless and cruel destruction of the Jews. We do not wish to aggravate Your Excellency's political position; we even wish to promote the solution of the great task you took upon yourself. For this reason, for the time being, we do not carry our protest before the Hungarian public, although this course will incur for us the reproach and accusation of the leading bodies of the Christian Churches. Should, however, our intervention prove ineffective, we will be obliged to testify before the congregations of our Church and the Protestants of the world that the we did not suppress the message of God. As a last attempt we appeal, through the kindness of your Hungarian heart and the Christian feelings of Your Excellency, to the leniency of the Royal Hungarian Government. We desire that this, the most painful manifestation in our whole history up to now, should become the case of the Government. (219)

Receive, Your Excellency, the sincere declaration of our deep respect.

Budapest, June 20th, 1944.  

Signed: Dr. Laszlo Ravasz, Reformed Bishop of the Danube.

Jarros Vasarhelyi, Reformed Bishop of the Transylvanian Diocese.  

Dr. lmre Revesz, Reformed Bishop of the Trans-Tisza Diocese.

Dr. Andor Enyedy, Reformed Bishop of the West Tisza Diocese.

Dr. Bela Kapi, Lutheran Bishop of the Trans-Danubian Diocese.  

Dr. Scindor Raffay D.D., Lutheran Bishop of the Banya Diocese.  

Zoltan Thuroczy, Lutheran Bishop of the Tisza Diocese.  

Dezso Kuthy, Lutheran Bishop of the East Danubian Diocese.  

In the name of the Universal Assembly of the Hungarian Church, as well as in the name of the Committee of the Hungarian Lutheran Churches, we hereby testily that the Reformed and Lutheran Bishops signed, with their own hands, the original draft of this memorandum on separate copies. The highest legal representatives of the above-mentioned two Churches herewith present to Your Excellency these proposals, with which we are in lull agreement.   

Dr. Terro Balogh, Superintendent and Lay President of the Universal Assembly.   

Baron Albert Radvanszky, Universal Superintendent and Civil President of the Hungarian Lutheran Churches.  

Dr. Laszlo Ravasz, Bishop and Clerical President of the Universal Assembly.  

Bishop Bela Kapi, Clerical Head of the Hungarian Lutheran Churches.  

The deputation submitting this memorandum, which in its way was a kind of ultimatum, supported it by word of mouth. Prime Minister Sztojay answered bluntly:  

"The two Secretaries of State of the Ministry of the Interior (Endre and Baky) have reported 'that, except in certain cases, no atrocities had been committed. Germany has need of man power, and the Jews are taken there for labour purposes ... "

In reply to this cynical, but evidently untrue, answer, the Protestant deputation pointed out to the Prime Minister that deported babies, pregnant women and old people were certainly of no use for that purpose. Prime Minister Sztojay's answer to this was that a strong family affinity is characteristic of the Jews, and that the authorities, therefore, did not wish to separate families. They did not want the Jews working abroad to feel anxious about the families they had left behind, nor the families to worry as to the fate of the deported Jewish men. (220)

The deputation proposed that children whose parents had been selected for such "labour purposes" were to be allowed to be looked after by the Churches. The Prime Minister consented to this request, but asked that it be submitted in writing. The deputation immediately composed and handed over the written request. It was never answered ...

As the numerous interventions and protests to the Government and the Prime Minister had produced only trifling results, ft and as Sztojay had not even replied to the memorandum addressed to him, Bishops Ravasz and Kapi decided to address an open declaration to the congregations and to the Protestant Christianity of the world. In this declaration they repeated "urbi et " orbi", the protest addressed to the Prime Minister.

"Reverend Sir!

We beg all reverend brethren under our authority to read out next Sunday alter the Divine Service our Following message to the congregations:

To all congregations of the Hungarian Reformed Church and of the Hungarian Lutheran Church! Grace to you, and Peace From God, our Father, and Jesus Christ!

Our brethren in Jesus Christ! The undersigned bishops of the Hungarian Reformed Church and of the Hungarian Lutheran Church address you and inform you, in the presence of God, as to the steps taken before the Royal Hungarian Government in the name of the Protestant Churches. We notify the congregation that the two Protestant Churches, alter several proposals both by word of mouth and in writing, on June 21st presented to the Royal Hungarian Prime Minister a solemn memorandum of request and protest. This memorandum pointed out the more than regrettable events accompanying the concentration and deportation of the Hungarian Jews, whether Christians or not.

After having stated that the solution of the Jewish question violates eternal Divine laws, the memorandum continued its proposals as Follows: "We have been commanded by God to preach His eternal Gospel, to give evidence of the unalterable laws of His moral order For this generation, whether people like it or not. Although humble and sinful men, we, in the bondage of Faith and obedience to this heavenly command, possess the right to give evidence of the Word of God and to condemn every action which outrages human dignity, justice or charity and loads upon the head of our people the horrible responsibility of innocently shed blood. "

At the same time we beseeched the Royal Hungarian Government to put an end to the cruelties which were also condemned by members of the Cabinet, and to enforce those declarations that protested against the very supposition of the destruction of (221) the Jews, while at the same time they issued orders that the Jews should be treated in a humane way. We were deeply afflicted when we were forced to admit that our entreaties had been in vain.

We, as the Bishops of the two Protestant Churches, considered it to be our duty to inform our faithful, as well as every member of our congregation and the universal community of Christ's Holy Church of these events. We summon the congregations to repentance and the whole Hungarian nation to self-humiliation under the mighty hand of God. Pray to Him and beseech Him to turn His mercy and His supporting Grace towards our Hungarian nation. Your loving brethren in Christ: the last Sunday in June, 1944.)

The proclamation was lithographed and, as a necessary precaution, put into differently coloured envelopes. It was intended to post it to the two thousand clergymen in the country from different provincial post offices.

At this point the Minister of Religion and Education, Stephen Antal, sent word by telephone to say that he wished to negotiate. He stated that he had discussed matters separately with the Catholic Church and had come to an agreement with the Primate, the details of which he explained. Later it transpired that Stephen Antal on the one hand deceived the Prince Primate and on the other hand informed the Protestants in a misleading manner as to this agreement. Once again it became evident what a fatal mistake it was that the Christian Churches could not be brought together to take common action.

On July 11th Minister Stephen Antal, accompanied by Secretary of State Nicholas Mester, visited Bishop Ravasz on his sick-bed at Leanyfalu. The Reverend Albert Bereczky, Bishops Bela Kapi and Imre Revesz, and the Rev. Szabolcs Lorinczy were present. The Minister declared that the Prime Minister had promised the abolition of atrocities, the cessation of further deportations and that the isolation of the Jews would be carried out in a humane manner. "That", he said, "was the agreement with the Catholic Church." He could not at that time produce it in writing, but that was the text and essential contents of the agreement with the Catholics. At great length he persuaded and threatened the sick bishop that if they persisted in protesting in public, the Church would be "overwhelmed", or the Government would seize power. If, however, they came to an agreement, the lives of 250,000 Budapest Jews could be saved.

The Bishop believed the Minister's statement regarding the agreement with the Primate, but he insisted that the clergy should, at any event, be allowed to read out a short note in the Reformed Churches. This note was immediately drafted. It read as follows: ') In accordance with the statutes of the Protestant Churches, this letter was carried by messengers to the nine Protestant bishops, who signed it. (222)

"The leaders of both Protestant Churches have repeatedly intervened with the competent Government authorities regarding the Jewish question and especially with reference to the baptized Jews. Their endeavours in this respect are continuing."

On Sunday, June 16th, after the morning service, this short note was read out by all clergymen of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches.  

While Minister Antal was visiting the Primate at Gerecse on June 6th, Prime Minister Sztojay received the Nuntio, Monsignor Angelo Rotta. On this occasion the Papal Nuntio condemned with very strong words all that had happened in connection with the solution of the Jewish question in Hungary. He said that it was abominable and a disgrace for Hungary. The Nuntio remarked:

"Now you can see, where the application of the race theory leads to in practice. Persons, who were born Christians, or who have been Christians these 30 to 40 years, are treated in the same unjust way as the other Jews."

He especially objected to the behaviour of the Gendarmerie, which was often cruel and humiliating.  

In his reply the Prime Minister protested against the strong expressions of the Nuntio. He explained that the treatment on a racial basis had not commenced with the present Government, but had been established in a legislative way by previous governments. He begged the Nuntio to recognise the following facts:

"The deportation of the Jews is not a question of race destruction. Our ally is in need of man-power. This man-power can be either racial Magyars or racial Jews. The racial Magyars are engaged in the fight against Bolshevism and are dying in their thousands defending Christian Hungary and Christian civilization in general. On the other hand they must maintain order and secure production at home, not only in the interests of the Hungarians, but also in the interests of the foreigners living here. It is, therefore, only natural that we prefer to place the racial Jews living here at the disposal of our ally, the more so, as the racial Jews are generally representatives of destruction. In 1918 they were the ones responsible for the greatest destruction and the ones to ally themselves with the Bolsheviks. There are exceptions in this respect, but in general this statement is, without doubt, acceptable."  

Regarding the methods of the Gendarmerie, Prime Minister Sztojay admitted that on "a few occasions and in a few places certain members of the executive powers have used inhuman methods. This, however, occurred in direct contravention of the strict orders of the Government, and those responsible have been called to account. To-day the situation is such, that if anyone wished to inspect a Jewish transport, he could do so and convince himself that the deportations are being carried out in a humane manner." (223)

He told the Nuntio that he had suspended the order for all Jews living in the area of Budapest to be disposed of as "man power", The Council of the Baptized Jews had been established at his instigation. He remarked, finally, that if the Churches had personal requests as to exemptions, these would be given every consideration.

The Nuntio, nevertheless, insisted on his observations. He raised objections regarding the deportation of persons under 16 and over 60 years of age, as well as of those unable to work and those who were in no way part of a family. Minister Sztojay replied:

"The children and old people are also going out with the Jews who will be used as man-power. The Germans have stated that the Jews work harder ii their families are with them."

In addition he pointed out to the Nuntio that "there is a gigantic propaganda campaign being carried out by the Jews. Parts of the reports are exaggerated and Jewish agitation and hysterics are notorious".

He drew a parallel between the Jewish orders and the bombardments of the Allies, which were destroying dwelling places, thus leaving the Christian inhabitants with insufficient accomodation. In connection with this the Nuntio remarked that the bombardments were part. of the necessities of war and the crowding together of bombed-out persons could not be compared with the horrible situation arrived at by the isolation of the Jews. This situation has been brought about systematically. The Prime Minister answered that the isolation of the Jews was necessary, because, during the present life-and-death struggle between the Hungarian nation and Bolshevism, the Jews were a bad influence.

"They are defeatists", he said, "and side with the other party although the victory of Bolshevism would engulf Hungary."  

Monsignor Rotta admitted that "there was a certain Jewish danger, the elimination of which was necessary", but he emphasized that it should be done with due respect to Christian morality and the rights of the Church.  

He objected to the fact that Jews were not allowed to leave their homes before 11 a.m. and, therefore, could not attend Holy Mass or partake of the Holy Communion. He requested that baptized Jews be allowed to leave their dwellings earlier on Sundays and Church holidays, so that they would be able to fulfill their religious duties, He asked, furthermore, that the following persons should not be obliged to wear the yellow star: parents of priests, owners of Papal and Church decorations and members :of the Order of the Holy Grave, of which there were in Hungary only three or four. This was agreed to. The Prime Minister then asked the Nuntio to intervene with the Primate in an attempt to force the latter to withdraw the pastoral letter. The Nuntio was not willing to do this, because, as he emphasized, such a step would hinder the freedom of the Church.

"It is the (224) right and duty of the Church", he declared, "to protest against anything that interferes with Christian morality." He begged the Prime Minister not to do anything which might restrict the liberty of the Church, and not to dishearten the Holy Father, nay, to court his favour, for after the war, no matter how it ended, Hungary would have need of him. Hungary, having but few friends , especially among her neighbours, would need the moral support of the Vatican.*)

The agreement with the Primate having been completed, the Prime Minister informed the Nuntio of the measures taken:

Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 346/Res. Pol. 1944.

Budapest, July 15th, 1944.

Your Excellency.  

On the occasion of your visit of June 6th, you deigned to make some remarks and proposals as to the solution of the Jewish question in Hungary.

Seeing the great interest Your Excellency has shown in this special sphere of Hungarian problems, I beg to inform you of the present situation regarding this question.  

As I had the opportunity of stating in the course of your abovementioned visit, the deportations have been stopped and we have ceased to avail ourselves of Jewish man-power for labour services abroad.

Provided the compulsory labour of Jews should continue at a future date, the converted Jews will be exempt. The baptized Jews will remain in Hungary, and although they will live in a state of isolation, they will be granted free practice of their religion.

The 'Union of the Baptized Jews of Hungary' was founded in consequence of Government Order No. 2540/1944. M.E. of July 12th, 1944. In future this Union will be competent to represent the interests of the converted Jews. The latter will no longer be members of the 'Union of Hungarian Jews'.  

The families of Christian priests and clergymen (parents, brothers and sisters of Catholic priests and the parents, brothers, sisters, wives and children of_ Protestant clergymen) will be exempted from wearing the yellow star with the consequences appertaining to it.  

An opportunity has been granted to some thousands of Jews, and, furthermore, to Jewish children under the age of ten, to emigrate to enemy territory or to neutral territories. Similarly a possibility is materialising of granting material aid to the internees concentrated in Hungarian camps through the International Red Cross.

 *) Extract from Sztojay's report on his talk with the Pap al Nuntio on June 6th, 1944, 225

In the hope that the above-mentioned measures, which are proofs ol the humane and chivalrous feelings of the Government, will fully and in every respect satisfy the Church and its intercessors, I beg Your Excellency to accept the expression of my esteem.

Apostolic Nuntiature,

 Hungary.

Your Excellency,

Sztojay

Royal Hungarian Prime Minister

N. 161/944

Budapest, July 26th, 1944

Disz-ter 5.

I thank your Excellency for the obliging lines of 15th inst. addressed to me in connection with the Jewish question in your letter N. 346/Res. Pol. 1944. I consider it a repeated proof of Your Excellency’s goodwill on this subject, which I gratefully acknowledge.

I take into consideration the number of mitigations which have appeared in connection with the Jewish orders, the severity of which had really been excessive. And yet, ii we take into account the proposals of the Nuntiature, it is obvious that the concessions granted are very lar from being truly satisfactory.

In any case, even if we accept the above-mentioned mitigations, we must judge their value very skeptically, the more so, as we possess no guarantee as to their scrupulous execution. Unfortunately the executive authorities have shown, until now, much malevolence and opposition to all that would have meant an alleviation in the late of the Jews. Our doubts are even more justified in the case of baptized Jews. If we consider only the fact that the settlement of petitions regarding exemptions is met with nothing but obstructions, then it is clear that we must fear that promises are becoming illusionary and remain nothing but promises.

I do not doubt the energetic intervention of Your Excellency, nor do I doubt that trust may be put in the value of the promises given by the highest authority and that they are, at the same time, of an official character.

I take the opportunity, Mr. Prime Minister, to assure you of my highest esteem.

                                                                      (signed) ANGELO ROTTA

                                                                        Apostolic Nuntio. (226)

X.

PROTESTS OF THE ALLIED AND NEUTRAL STATES.

A bout this time the events taking place in Hungary found an unfavourable echo abroad.

At the end of March, President Roosevelt in a broadcast appealed to the Hungarian people and advised every Hungarian family to take under their protection either a Jew or a foreigner, who had fled to Hungary to escape the Nazi persecutions, "for", he said, "helping the persecuted might help the Hungarian people as well."

Several weeks later the "Kossuth Radio" appealed to Cardinal Seredi and Laszlo Ravasz, doyen of the Protestant bishops, to challenge Nazi terrorism.   At the beginning of April the B.B.C. broadcast from London contained a message addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Hungarian people. In this message he summoned the Hungarian Christians to do everything in their power to alleviate, as much" as possible, the sufferings of their fellow men exposed to open terror through the German invasion. Another serious warning arrived at the end of April, when a report from Zurich told of the registration of the Budapest flats and the execution of the ghetto order. Should the ghetto order be carried out in Budapest, it was threatened, a terror bombardment by British bombers would descend upon the capital.

The Agudas Israel World Organisation, 39, Lavater Strasse, Zurich, through its European representative, Dr. Zwi Taubes, Professor of the Zurich School for Rabbis, tried to obtain every possible moral, as well as some material, support and to get it into Hungary.

When, in the month of June, the deportations from the country reached their height, several representatives of the Jewish Administrative Committee, as well as Mr. Nicholaus Krausz, called upon the Swiss Minister, Mr. Jager, Consul Lutz, the Swedish Minister, Mr. Danielson, and the Secretary of the Swedish Legation, Mr. Per Anger, the Spanish Legation and the Papal Nuntio, Monsignor Rotta, and informed them of the horrors of the deportations. The afore-mentioned 16-page protocol, telling of the terrors of the Auschwitz "Vernichtungslager" had been received in Budapest a short while previously. The experiences of two Slovak Jews, who had succeeded in escaping from Auschwitz at the cost of terrible sufferings were included in this document. Dr, Waldemar Langlet, Swedish Lecturer of the Budapest University, received this protocol from the Jewish Administrative (227) Committee, and, complying with their request, handed it over to the Swedish Minister, Mr. Carl Ivan Danielsson.   

However, other precise information had been obtained abroad, more precise even than that available to the Hungarian public, regarding the deportation of three fifths of the Hungarian Jews to Polish territory, the cruelties in connection with the deportations and the mass executions. At the end of May, 1944, the Consular Office of San Salvador at Geneva, through couriers, obtained detailed information from Mr. Nicholas Krausz, which was passed to the Secretary, M. Mantello. The British Legation in Bern forwarded the information to London, and thus Mr. Eden, Mr. Cordell Hull and President Roosevelt were informed as to the real situation.

The Sztojay Government hastened, unsuccessfully, to deny the facts. Cypher Telegram 6264-74 June 26th.

Ankara 99

Vichy 47

Bukarest 141

Madrid 50

Sofia. 55

Lisbon  78

Zagreb 58

Copenhagen 79

Bern 92

Helsinki 41

Bratislava 62

"News has appeared in neutral and enemy press of Hungarian Jews being deported to Germany.

"This news is incorrect, as the Hungarians are sent to Germany f o r l a b o r p u r p o s e s. As the German Government stood in need of man power for war production and construction of vital importance, it had requested the Hungarian Government to place man power in addition to the present contingent at its disposal. It is a well-known fact that more than ten thousand Hungarian factory and farm labourers are working in Germany, as well as Rumanians, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs, Spaniards, Frenchmen etc. In view of the man power situation in this country, and our total participation in the war, the Hungarian Government was unable to raise the lull contingent of workmen for Germany. It wished, however, to comply with the German request by placing Jews at the disposal of the German Government. On the basis of this agreement, Jews have been sent to Germany. As experience showed that the working capacity of the Jews decreased when they were separated from their families, these were sent along with them. Jewish men and women, who are able to work , will be occupied in factories and buildings. Their families will do some other kind of home work and will be adequately supplied with food and other necessities."

(signed) SZTOJAY (228)

On June 26th, through the Swiss Legation, President Roosevelt in a sharp note, called upon the Hungarian Government to stop immediately the deportations and the measures adopted against the Jews, saying, among other things: "I rely not only on humanity, but also upon the force of weapons.'' He threatened the Hungarian Government with grave reprisals and a relentless bombing of Hungarian towns.

On June 27th, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, in the name of the American people, protested against the "massacre of the majority of the Hungarian Jews", He also threatened heavy retaliation if the deportations did not cease. In Switzerland Dr. Taubes and Mr. Banzai called the attention of the Swiss authorities and of the representatives of the neutral and Allied countries to the events taking place in Hungary. Mr. Banzai then forwarded the facts to Mr. Roswell D. MacClelland, Director of the War Refugee Board and representative of the American Quakers in Geneva. He in turn sent them to the U.S.A. Legation in Bern, and so they reached America.

The Exchange Telegraph forwarded Mr. Mantello's information to 70 Swiss newspapers and the entire world press. Four hundred copies of the two reports of Mr. Mantello were published by the Swiss "Hungarian National Front" and sent to leaders of the Swiss Christian Churches and to University Professors.

The first news regarding the fate of the Hungarian Jews appeared in the Swiss papers towards the end of June and the beginning of July. On July 6th, in an article entitled "Hitler et les Juifs" published in the "Journal de Geneve", Mr. S. Stelling Michaud drew the attention of the whole world to the fate of 800,000 Hungarian Israelites and innumerable Poles, Slovaks and Czechs, who had sought refuge in Hungary. After having been locked up in ghettos they were deported and finally murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Thus they suffered the same fate as their co-religionists belonging to another nationality.

On July 8th, the "Gazette de Lausanne" published, on its front page, a very effective leader by the pen of its editor, Mr. Georges Rigassi. As a result of this article, entitled "Les Juifs persecutes", the details of which were obtained from Ankara, the "Commission Economique pour les Refugies" also protested against the fact that 800,000 Hungarian Jews, as well as those who had fled to Hungary, had been interned since April 16th. 400,000 of these had already been put to death by gas in Auschwitz. The editor concluded his leader with the remark that this was done by the "Christian, noble and chivalrous" Hungarian nation. A translated version was circulated in Hungary, though, of course, in secret. The article, the tone of which was very scornful, stated that the deportations had inflicted a stain on the honour of the Hungarian nation, which could never be removed. At the instigation of the 16 Black Book (229) Jewish Administrative Committee the article, which especially had great influence on the factors of political life, was presented to Regent Horthy by his son.

On July 14th, "La Vie Protestante" published a powerful article by Mr. E. Marion entitled "Les martyres Juifs". The following Swiss papers published a series of articles: "La Suisse": "Le point de vue Hongrois sttr la deportation des Juifs"; "Tribune de Geneve"; the "Neue Zurcher Zeitung" and "Die Nation". The latter published, b under the title "Tagebuch des Grauens" (Diary of Horror) the " terrible details of the deportations from Nyiregyhaza, Munkacevo, Dagyvarad and Kassa.

Due to the reports of the Swiss press at this time, the whole world was informed of the terrible fate of the Hungarian Jews. In all churches the sermons on July 2nd dealt with this subject. Under the leadership of Karl Barth of Basel, Emil Brunner of Zurich and Dr. A. Vissert Hooft of Geneva all lecturers and scientists of the Swiss universities issued a memorandum of protest.

In a news bulletin of July 5th, British news agencies reported  that Mr. Eden, in an open debate in the House of Commons, answered the questions of Members of Parliament Silbermann, Galacher and others. He explained the British point of view as far as the Hungarian Jewish question was concerned. Mr. Silbermann, M.P., declared that, according to trustworthy information, by the middle of June more than 400,000 Jews had been deported from Hungary to Poland, Austria and Jugoslavia, 100,000 of whom had already been executed.

Mr. Eden, in his reply, emphasized that according to news obtained from various reliable sources, it was to be presumed that the Hungarian and German authorities were deporting Jews from Hungary to Poland and other territories in a barbaric way. As to how many persons were killed in the course of these deportations, he was unable to give precise facts and figures. "There are no definite data at our disposal as to how many Jews have been deported up to now·, he said.  

Finally Mr. Eden declared:

"The British Government has up to now done everything in its power to improve the situation and will continue in this course of action. As we have been informed, His Holiness the Pope has taken diplomatic steps in this matter. King Gustave V. of Sweden has sent a personal letter to Regent Horthy."

The Foreign Secretary ended his speech by declaring that the  actions and behaviour of the Hungarian Government had filled the British Government with abhorrence. The B.B.C. would be called upon to express to the Hungarian Government the feelings which filled the hearts of the British people and the House of Commons. (Later the B.B.C., in sharp words, criticised the Hungarian Government and its anti-Jewish actions, emphasizing that (230) the British Government would retaliate by punishing the war criminals.)

This was the warning of the B.B.C.:

"We draw the attention of the Hungarian Government to the consequences. Every day the Red Army gets nearer to the heart of Hungary and retaliation will be certain!"

The message of the Swedish King to Regent Horthy read as follows:

"Ayant appris [es mesures extremement dures et severes de Votre Gouvernement vis-a-vis de la population juive en H ongrie je me permets de m' adresser personellement ii Vofre Altesse Serenissime pour la prier au nom de l'humanite de prendre des mesures en laveur de ceux qui restent encore ii sauver, de cette race malheureuse. Cet appel ii Votre coeur genereux est dicte par mes vieux sentiments d'amitie pour Votre pays et par mes souhaits sinceres pour la bonne reputation de la Hongrie dans la communite des nations.

GUSTAF R."

The Regent wired the following reply:

A Sa Majeste Gustave

V. Roi de Suede,

STOCKHOLM

J'ai reru l'appel que Votre Majeste m'a adresse par le fil dans l'esprit de la plus grande comprehension. Je prie Votre Majeste d' efre convaincu que je lais tout ce qui est dans mon pouvoir dans les conditions actuelles pour faire respecter les principes de l'humanite et de l'equite. Tres sensible aux sentiments d'amitie que Votre Majeste eprouve pour mon pays je La prie de les garder pour le peuple hongrois dans ces heures de lourdes epreuves.

                                                            NICHOLAS DE HORTHY,

                                                      Regent du Royaume de Hongrie

The British and American Governments had previously called upon the neutrals to do their utmost in assisting the Hungarian Jews.

On June 30th, 85-year old King Gustav V. of Sweden sent Mr. Raoul Wallenberg, a young member of a well-known Stockholm family with a diplomatic past, to Budapest. Under the title of "Secretary of the Swedish Legation" he arrived as a special diplomatic representative. Mr. Wallenberg brought a wire of the King with him. On July 1st Mr. Danielsson, the Swedish Minister, handed over the wire to Regent Horthy. This wire, referring to the "traditional Hungarian chivalry" emphatically begged the Regent to use his influence in the name of humanity to spare the Hungarian Jews further persecutions and sufferings.

The Swedish press, with an interest quite understandable, reported the action of the king, who enjoys extraordinary popularity (231) in his country. Several days later the Stockholm papers brought reports datelined Budapest, according to which "the first effects of the King's action were noticeable". It was attributed to Nicholas Horthy's influence that the Hungarian Red Cross received a permit from the Hungarian Government to assist in the emigration of Jewish children under 10 years of age and such Jews as wished to leave for Palestine. The first news of an improvement in the situation of the Jews was followed by further reports, which were willingly published by the Swedish press:

"At the personal intervention of Regent Horthy, the Hungarian Government has decided not to deport the baptized Jews from Hungarian territory; in mixed marriages the wife or husband of Jewish origin would be exempted from wearing the Star of David, and all other Jews would be treated in a humane way." 

 As we see, the Swedish press was entirely misinformed about the whole question and published misleading news given out from Budapest. The information of the Swedish press that, by July 10th no more than 200,000 Jews altogether had been deported from Hungary, was also false. Finally, every Swedish paper published on its front page the following sentence quoted from Regent Horthy's telegraphic reply to King Gustav:   

"I shall do everything in my power under the present circumstances to enforce the principles of Justice and Humanity.*"

The Budapest Nuntiature always dutifully informed the Vatican of the events taking place. The Pope, seeing that until then all steps taken by him had proved ineffective, wished to make another and greater attempt, and therefore, on June 25th, he sent the following personal message to Regent Horthy:

"Supplications have been addressed to us from different sources that we should exert all our influence to shorten and mitigate the sufferings that have, for so long, been painfully endured on account pf their national or racial origin by a great number of unfortunate people belonging to this noble and chivalrous nation. In accordance with our service of love, which embraces every human being, our fatherly heart could not remain insensible to these urgent demands. For this reason we apply to Your Serene Highness, appealing to your noble feelings, in the lull trust that Your Serene Highness will do everything in your power to save many unfortunate people from further pain and sorrow.

                                                                                            PIUS XII."

On July 1st the Regent replied as follows to the message of the Holy Father:

"I have received the telegraphic message of Your Holiness with deepest understanding and gratitude. I beg Your Holiness to rest assured that I shall do everything in my power to enforce the

*) On this occasion Prime Minister Sztojay perused the original text and protested against it. Thus, instead of the expression: "In the present situation of Hungary", the milder "under the present circumstances" was Incorporated in the wire. (information of Mr. Jungerth-Arnothy.  (232)

claims of Christian and humane principles. May I beg that Your Holiness will not withdraw your Blessing From the Hungarian people in its hours of deepest affliction.

                         NICHOLAS HORTHY, Regent of Hungary."*)

The Nuntiature handed in copies of several of its notes to the Regent. He was also informed of events in a series of talks with the Nuntio.

We ought to remark at this stage that during July several Hungarian representatives abroad drew the attention of the government to the damage done to the cause of Hungarian foreign policy by the treatment the Jewish question received. The most valuable hint came from the Charge d'Affaires in Switzerland, Imre Tahy. (Tahy was the Secretary of the Legation.**)

The Ministry of the Interior was competent for the Jewish question. Prime Minister Sztojay retained the title of Foreign Minister, but rarely interfered with the affairs of the Foreign Office, His permanent deputy, Dr. Michael Jungerth-Arnothy, Minister Plenipotentiary, controlled affairs. When the afore-mentioned opinions of the foreign press and the reports of the Hungarian representatives arrived ( the first being that of the Swiss representative), and when the neutral Ministers accredited to Budapest (the Papal Nuntio, the Swedish, the Swiss, the Spanish and the Portuguese Ministers), intervened, Minister Jungerth, 'who represented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Cabinet Meetings, thought it necessary to broach the Jewish question at a Cabinet Meeting. (This occurred, unfortunately, at a time when the provincial Jews had already been deported). Prime Minister Sztojay, who naturally had been previously informed of this stey on the part of Minister Jungerth-Arnothy, did not oppose it, but, with the Germans in view, he cautiously refrained from taking part in the discussion.

*) This telegram was not shown by the "Cabinet Office" to Prime Minister Sztojay knowing that he would protest against this text. (information of Mr. Jungerth-Arnothy.) ") Imre Tahy only pretended to be the head of the Legation under the Sztojay Government. Actually he was only the representative of Baron George Bakach-Bessenyey, who had become a dissident. Imre Tahy acted on his directions, while Baron Charles Bothmer took over the affairs of the Legation, (233)

XI.

CROWN COUNCIL AND CABINET MEETINGS ON THE JEWISH QUESTION.

The Jewish question was occasionally made the object of discussions at Cabinet meetings. On May 17th Minister Jungerth Arnothy reported to the Cabinet Meeting that the Nuntio had shown him a letter from Pope Pius XII addressed to Angelo Rotta, in which the Pope said: "Hungary is the country of Holy Mary and St. Stephen. The treatment of the Jews will leave an eternal stain on the honour of Hungary."

At that time Prime Minister Sztojay objected to the intervention of the Nuntio, saying that this question was "res iudicata", The solution of the Jewish question had begun on March 22nd. The Minister of the Interior, Jaross, announced that in accordance with the wishes of the German military authorities the evacuation of the Jews from Karpatalja, a theatre of military operations, had meanwhile commenced on May 17th. He reported that when the evacuation of the Gendarmerie District of Kassa had been completed, the Transylvanian, or Kolozvar and Marosvasarhely, Gendarmerie Districts would be cleaned up. (This post facto announcement was approved of by the Cabinet meeting.*)

On June 1st Prime Minister Sztojay said, confidentially, that, in his office as Prime Minister, he would depart on June 6th on an introductory visit to Hitler. As the question of the Jewish deportations was certain to be discussed, he asked for information as to its progress. Jaross informed him that the deportations from the Gendarmerie District of Miskolc and Szekesfehervar were in progress and would be followed by Szeged and Debrecen.**)

(In the course of this visit Hitler declared that until the Jewish question was settled, there could be no discussions regarding the German troops leaving Hungary. John Voros, Chief of the General Staff, accompanied Prime Minister Sztojay. As it happened, the invasion had begun that day.***) At a Cabinet meeting on June 10th Prime Minister Sztojay referred to the news circulating regarding the atrocities and said : "It is to be feared that this will lead to 'pro-Semitism'. The deportations should therefore be conducted in a 'humane' manner, as the authority of the Sztojay Government has already suffered damage abroad as a result of this report."

*) Minutes of the Cabinet meeting

**) Minutes of the Cabinet meeting. Statement of Stephen Barczy before the People's Court …

***) Sztojay before the People's Court. (234)

On June 19th and on June 20th (at that time a Cabinet meeting, was held every day) Minister Jungerth-Arnothy produced his information regarding the hostile atmosphere created abroad as, a result of the deportation of the Jews. Minister Jaross emphatically denied the facts as reported from abroad Minister Imrédy insisted that the Foreign Minister should intervene with the neutral legations, asking them to induce the British and Americans to cease their attacks on Hungarian cities. Finally the Cabinet meeting decided:

(1) Secretaries of State Baky and Endre were to attend the next Cabinet meeting in order to report on the Jewish question.

(2) The Foreign Minister should protest against the bombardments.

On June 21st Secretaries of State Laszlo Baky and Laszlo Endre attended the Cabinet meeting, where they read their reports. Baky declared that the progress of the concentration of the Jews had been precisely agreed upon with Eichmann:

"Everything happens according to detailed plans and preparations. There is no trouble, the complaints are unfounded. The Jews are sent under proper conditions to Germany to work. Hungarians and Gendarmes accompany them, but only as far as the camps. Inside the ghettos and during the train journeys only Germans communicate with the Jews."

The reports of the two Secretaries of State, especially the more detailed one of Endre, which we are publishing in its entirety, gave an extraordinarily reassuring description of the position the Jews found themselves in.

REPORT OF SECRETARY OF STATE LASZLO ENDRE

(Read out at the Cabinet meeting of June 21st, 1944)

The clearance of the country from Jews began on May 3rd and is still in progress. In accordance with Government orders isolation centres or ghettos have throughout the country been assigned to those Jews who are obliged to wear the discriminating badge. With the exception of Budapest, the concentration of the Jews was completed by May 31st. In the capital the process of isolation is at present in progress and will be completed by midnight on June 21st.

The concentration was carried out by my administrative authorities, assisted by Gendarmerie and Police. I was determined, on general principle, to carry out the concentrations with the least possible offence to the interests of Christianity. In spite of this, minor offences were committed, especially in the provinces, which have however found redress in the meantime. In places where no entirely isolated quarters could be assigned to the Jews, my administrative authorities appointed certain houses to be used for the purpose of their accomodation. As the isolation met special (235) difficulties in such places, the necessary advice and information was given on the spot partly by myself and partly by my expert delegates. In general every person obliged to wear a yellow star is also obliged to live in the ghettos. Most of the trouble, and the majority of individual excesses, were caused by the complicated variations of mixed marriages. At this point the predominating blood of the Jews showed itself and taught us that, for this reason, it ought to have been ruled that families were not to be separated whenever possible: Measures contrary to the spirit of the law had to be adopted in many cases by reason of the mixed marriages. In mixed marriages, where only one partner was a Jew from a racial and religious point of view, only that partner was obliged to wear the yellow star and had to move into the ghetto. In the majority of these cases, however, it happened that the Christian partner, on his or her own accord, followed the Jewish wife or husband to the ghetto.

The housing shortage throughout the country seems, for the time being, to have been overcome by the concentration of the Jews. Although it can not yet be shown statistically how many many apartments were released, the reports which have arrived up to date show that this question seems to have been solved.  

Nevertheless, a different course being impracticable at the moment, most of the Jewish belongings were left at the original flats of the owners. The Minister of Finance has received an authorisation regarding the collection, registration and storage of these properties. The collection and registration is in progress throughout the country. The Gendarmerie and Police, on my instructions, are assisting the Minister of Finance in this task. Furthermore a Government Commissioner for the Liquidation of Jewish Property has been appointed.

After the concentration into ghettos had been ordered, the Jews made every attempt to escape from there. They attempted to exert all their connections, influence and material resources in order to make good their escape. The Police and Gendarmerie discovered proper "factories" for forging documents, where false documents were produced for Jews. We have to state, openly, that as far as aid to Jews is concerned, the priests and clergymen of all ranks of the Christian Churches unfortunately stand in the first row. Protection and intervention has never been on so high a scale as to-day. The assistance rendered the Jews by Christian priests and clergymen goes under the name of Christian and neighbourly charity.

The Administrative Committee of the Association of Hungarian Jews has been founded. This committee represents the interests of the Jews as a unique central authority and acts as connecting link between the Jews and the Government authorities. Appropriate provision was made to ensure that the interests of Jews of Christian faith will be properly represented on this committee. (236)

The desertion of Jews from the country, especially to Rumania, has begun. Of our neighbouring countries it was Rumania who, by negligent guarding of her frontiers, made it possible for the Jews to escape. By acting in this way, Rumania appears wishful of promoting her secret aims of a foreign policy in favour of the Anglo-Saxons. I have requested the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take the necessary steps in this matter through his representative.

The necessity for taking over and registering Jewish property was followed, naturally, by diverse abuses, concealment of properly, bribery, misuse of power of office etc., etc. In all cases brought to my notice I have taken the necessary steps. At every conference I have emphasized the necessity of employing an iron hand when putting a stop to these misuses. At the beginning of the concentrations the Ministry of Defence enlisted 80,000 Jews for "military labour service" either by calling them up or by asking them to volunteer. These Jews, for the time being, form no part of the transports sent to Germany.

On my instructions, Jews of Israelite as well as of Christian faith and concentrated into ghettos may be visited by their rabbis, priests or clergymen in order to be able to receive the consolations of their religion.  

The sanitary service in the ghetto is supervised by Jewish doctors resident there. I have attached particular importance to the point that Jews, not being too keen on washing, should be kept under continual medical supervision, so that infectious diseases might be checked in time. Those seriously ill, and women about to give birth have been sent to hospitals. The food in the ghettos is satisfactory. The Jews are allowed to leave the ghettos during certain hours of the day. Order and discipline in these ghettos have been enforced by every possible means, partly by my authorities and partly by Jewish police appointed by the Jews themselves. In general the spirit and order of the ghettos has proved calm and satisfactory. Suicides have been rare, and then only in camps immediately prior to departure. However, since the news has spread among the Jews that their deportation is connected with an exchange of German prisoners-al-war from England and the repatriation of Hungarians who have failed to return home from the U.S.A., their behaviour has returned to the carelessness of the liberal years before the war.

Another phase of the cleaning up action is the concentration of the Jews from ghettos into concentration camps. From these camps the actual transportation and deportation commences.

The evacuation of Jews for working purposes from the territories of the 8th Division at Kassa and of the 9th Division at Kolozsvar, as well as from the southern borders, commenced on May 14th, that is to say, before the concentration of Jews began in other areas as these territories were declared zones of military operations. The increasing danger of partisans and the approaching (237) of the war to the frontiers of the country made it absolutely necessary to take immediate and swift measures. Especially in the Karpatalja and Transylvanian territories the Jews were quick at lending a helping hand to Soviet parachutists and partisans. The clearing out of the above mentioned territories became an immediate duty. In these territories concentration camps were established, where the Jews were assembled, and their transportation commenced in accordance with a system and a timetable, which had been settled previously. The Jews were each allowed to take into these camps only 50 kilos of luggage and food lor 14 days. The German Security Police, assisted by the Hungarian administrative authorities, provided the guards and looked alter the food supply. The deportation of the Jews from the territories of the 8th and 9th Divisions was completed by June 7th. Altogether 275,416 Jews were deported from there, whereas 340,162 Jews were evacuated from the South. Thu& 615,578 Jews were deported from the above mentioned three zones of military operations.

In a chronological order, the Jews of the ghettos in the territory of the 2nd (Sekesfehervar) and the 7th (Miskolc) Divisions were the next to be transported into camps. The deportations from these areas were completed by June 15th, involving 50,805 Jews of the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th Divisions and the southern borders.

At present the transportation into camps and the deportation of the ghetto Jews of the 5th (Szeged) Division and the 6th (Debrecen) Division is in progress.

The deportations from the territories of the different Division& were preceded by conferences in which the commander, the Lords-Lieutenant of the territories affected, the police and the gendarmerie took part. They received the necessary detailed instructions either from Secretary of State Baky or from me. A representative of the German Security Police was always present at these conferences.

The deportations from the assembly stations generally proceeded calmly and undisturbed. In one case, in Karpatalja, a transport of this sort was attacked by a small group of partisans, but these were scattered by the escorting troops.

Despite the severe precautionary measures taken, escapes from the camps and the waggons occurred. The search for the fugitives is still proceeding.

Except for some isolated cases, the Gendarmerie have not made use of their weapons in the course of these cleaning-up operations. Investigations as to whether the use of arms in these few cases was justified have been instituted. Before being allowed to entrain, the Jews were subjected to a thorough luggage and body search. Alter the Jews had been transported from the ghettos into camps, and from the camps into waggons, the administrative authorities, as far as possible, ordered these places to be (238) immediately disinfected. The camps and ghettos were returned to their original condition. Unmarried Jewish doctors, engineers and veterinary surgeons were released from the camps, transported to the Headquarters of the Division and there employed in their respective capacities.

By order of the Minister of Justice, Jewish inhabitants of jails and reformatories under obligation to wear the yellow star, have been concentrated into camps. Lunatic asylums, sanatoria, hospitals, convalescent homes and other places suitable for hiding Jews have also been combed out.

The general principle in connection with the transportation to camps and the deportations was that everything should be done in a humane way and in accordance with the Christian spirit. Whenever I found any misuses, I instituted detailed investigations and the severest punishment. I ordered a so-called restoration service to be inaugurated, which is intended to secure, as far as possible, the comfort of the Jews about to be deported and which operates at stations and frontier posts. The Jewish Council has been charged with the organisation of this charitable service by Jews not obliged to wear the yellow star.

The cleaning-up operation is in progress at present. In those parts of the country that have been cleared of Jews, the questions arising in connection with economics, politics, security, police and nationalities have shifted to quite a different plane. In these territories it is, as if the atmosphere has been liberated from a nightmare of many centuries and the very air has changed.

The insecurity of the first weeks has ceased. The strong and healthy circulation of the blood has commenced in a body rid of blood-suckers. On the economic side the black market has been dealt a death blow and the black prices have rocketed downwards. In the market places there is almost an abundance of goods, supplies are at official prices and often the seller seeks a buyer under this price. Usury and its accompanying phenomena have ceased to exist. Although there has been a lack of capital, the spirit of enterprise has shown itself. Trade and commerce are impatiently waiting for the arrival of the stores of the confiscated Jewish establishments and businesses into the economic bloodstream of the country. In these places it is no longer necessary to fear the depressing economic superiority of the Jews, and bravely initiative has begun to show itself. Whispering Jewish heads, converging on each other, are no longer to be seen in the streets; no _ longer are sly eyes taking stock of the approaching Aryan. In restaurants, inns, places of amusement, and wherever the good things of life were to be grabbed with both hands, and where the Jews have ruled up to now, they are no longer to be seen. False rumours, whispering propaganda campaigns, destruction, corruption of the civil servants, extortion on the part of the Jewish lawyers, avalanches of law suits - all have ceased. The reinforcement (239) of partisans in zones of military operations, the concealing of Soviet parachutists, espionage, acts of sabotage, organisations of Left-wing policy - all have come to an end. The situation as regards public security has been stabilised, and the typically and characteristically Jewish intellectual crimes have ceased. There is no one to excite the restlessness experienced up till now on the part of the minorities. Alter the deportation of the Jews, the Christian inhabitants have endeavoured to settle down to a new life. Everywhere a Feeling of liberation is to be noticed, which, alter the depression and Fear of decades, is inaugurating an age of prosperity.

Budapest, June 20th, 1944.

                                           (signed): Vitéz Dr. LASZLO ENDRE.

 In his reply Minister Jungerth-Arnothy remarked sarcastically:

"One almost regrets not having been born a Jew and thus not to be able to join these pleasure trips."

Endre reported only the more pleasant facts, whereas the daily reports of Lieut. Col. of Gendarmerie Ferenczy gave a picture of what really happened:

"In the concentration camp of Szolonok, Mrs. Lewis Neubert, a widowed Jewess, was shot by the Germans lor attempting to escape. Ten Jewish persons, mostly unknown, committed suicide by means of an unidentified poison.

Three Jewish individuals committed suicide in the Bacsalmas concentration camp. Three old Jews died of senile debility.

Four suicides and one natural death occurred in the concentration camp of Bekescsaba." (Ferenczy's report of June 29th). The following is an interesting example of how Ferenczy acted in concert with the Germans:

"According to the reports of the German Security Police, which takes over the Jews in Kassa, escorting troops have scared the Jews in their transports with the Following atrocious rumour: They would be shot by the Germans as soon as they crossed the Frontier. The commander of the troops in question has taken steps to stop this rumour." (Ferenczy's report of June 17th, 1944).

There's humanity for you! They took steps to ensure that the Jews "would not be scared" by the truth!

Following on the two Secretaries of State, a report was read by Field Marshal Gabriel Faragho, Commander-in-Chief of the Gendarmerie, in which he stated that 20,000 gendarmes had taken part in the operation. Throughout, disciplinary punishment had to be inflicted in only three cases, He admitted that he had heard atrocities and the Nagyvarad torture chambers mentioned.

After that, while Minister Jaross indulged in cynical laughter, Endre remarked that "the Jews are not being insulted by anybody except the police established by themselves in their ghettos." (240)

After these favourable reports had been received, Prime ~ Minister Sztojay considered it necessary to declare: 

"Now and then things have been exaggerated. I therefore 11 request the Minister of the Interior to have the deportations executed in a humane way and in accordance with the intentions of the Government. 90 Jews must not be transported in one waggon, just on account of a shortage of waggons and because a greater number of Jews had to be disposed of than had been anticipated it does happen, such cases give ground to generalisations and are promptly exploited by the Jews."

The next speaker was Nicholas Mester, Political Secretary of State of the Ministry of Religion and Education.

(At that time Mester maintained close connections on the one hand with the Office of the Regent through Julius Ambrozy, Head of the Cabinet Office, who possessed great influence with Horthy, and, on the other hand, with some members of the Jewish Council and the Administrative Committee. He accepted his position in the Sztojay Government only with the consent of Zoltan Tildy, leader of the Smallholders' Party and at the request of Bishop Ravasz. At that time Mr. Tildy concealed himself in the apartment of a Reformed pastor, Albert Bereczky. Bereczky, on his part, openly declared everywhere that he condemned the treatment of the Jewish problem, which should have been approached from a humane angle. He declared that the Christian Churches ought to have condemned the persecution of the Jews in general, not merely standing up for the interests of the baptized Jews. It was Bereczky who established a connection between Secretary of State Mester and Zoltan Tildy, as well as between Mester and certain leaders of the Jews (Samuel Stern and Otto Komoly). On both lines many definite steps in favour of the Jews were taken in the course of later actions. Secretary of State Nicholas Mester introduced the Rev. Bereczky to Julius Ambrozy, who took the same point of view regarding the Jewish question. Thus the enthusiastic clergyman of the Reformed Church reported to the Regent through the Chief of the Cabinet Office. The trio Ambrozy-Mester-Bereczky greatly influenced the point of view taken by Regent Horthy from July to October.*) Secretary of State Mester explained what repercussions the handling of the Jewish question had had from the point of view of internal policy ... He mentioned that several members of Christian Churches had visited him. Cardinal Seredi had declared, in his presence, that the situation was unbearable. The future of the Church was at stake, and he would not watch events inactively. The Protestant bishops expressed themselves in a similar manner. Rectors and professors of several universities had called on him in desperation on account of the persecution of famous professors. Cristian professors of the universities had declared that, unless the persecutions were stopped, they would resign their positions forthwith. He mentioned

*) Information supplied by Nicholas Mesler. (241)

the names of several famous Jewish scientists, whose names were well known not only in Hungary, but throughout the civilised world. (Bela Foldes, then 96 years of age; Leopold Fejer etc.) He could not take upon himself the responsibility of persecuting such people. Petitions as to their exemption had not been settled by the Ministry of the Interior. In cases of favourable decisions, these came late, when the persons in question had already been deported. (He mentioned the cases of Professors Bela Purjesz and Stephan Rusznyak of the Szeged University, stating that although Minister of the Interior Jaross had signed their exemption documents, their deportation could not prevented, as the executing authorities in Szeged declared that they accepted such documents only, if they had been signed by Endre or Baky.) He requested, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Education, that they might be allowed " to present a proposal regarding the exemption of the "cultural workers", and that the whole Jewish question be removed from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior.

The Minister of Education, Istvan Antal, was also present at this Cabinet meeting. It was known that he did not approve of the cruelties committed in the course of the solution of the Jewish question and that he even disapproved of them. He did not, however, dare oppose the Germans and their hirelings, Endre and Baky. Secretary of State Nicholas Mester had been invited to attend this Cabinet meeting by Sztojay at the request of Minister Antal.*)

After that Bela Imrédy spoke.

"No matter how the war ends", he said, "the manner in which the Jewish question was dealt with will be an important factor in the eyes of international, and particularly American, public opinion. I admit it has been a great thing to rid ourselves of the Jews, but in view of the above facts, it should have been done in a humane manner. Why has the agreement with Eichmann only existed by word of mouth? Why has it not been put into writing? As regards the fate of the Jews, the Government should share the responsibility with Parliament. This question should be brought before it and the speeches, considering the importance of the subject, should be put into writing and attached to the protocol." (From confessions before the People's Court and the minutes of the Cabinet meeting.)

Imrédy then announced that Veesenmayer had called upon him and informed him that Germany had claimed the food rations of the deported.

Lewis Szasz also spoke on the subject, remarking curtly that individual injuries must not be exaggerated.

In his concluding speech Prime Minister Sztojay gave only two concrete instructions. He ordered Martin Zoldi, late Captain of ' Gendarmerie, to be expelled from the country, and he directed the Ministry of the Interior to give priority to the settlement of outstanding exemption petitions presented by the Jews. (The Ministry ') Information of Nicholas Mester. (242) granted about 400 petitions altogether. Most of these were seconded by Nicholas Mester in favour of scientists, professors, artists and writers.)

That was the total result of the Cabinet meeting summoned to discuss the Jewish question.

After this Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Sztojay visited Veesenmayer and showed him cuttings from foreign papers about the horrors of Auschwitz, himself remarking: "Well, that is enemy propaganda!", which Veesenmayer hurried to confirm.*)

 The following day Field Marshall Faragho was summoned before Horthy, who declared that he would not permit further deportations.**)

On June 26th a Crown Council was held under the presidency of the Regent. Horthy informed the Crown Council of the protests of the Pope, the International Red Cross and the Americans. He also exposed several grave cases which had come to his notice. (Tungsram Plant, Komarom, Kiskunhalas, etc.)

At his request Minister Jungerth-Arnothy announced that animosity was felt abroad against Hungary on account of the treatment of the Jews. The Regent called Gabor Faragho to account because of the behaviour of the Gendarmerie. Faragho reported what his instructions and orders had been and emphasized that the Germans were the cause of the grave atrocities which had occurred. Sztojay and Imrédy spoke in defence of the Germans. Finally Horthy obviously lost patience and closed the discussion in an irritated voice, saying: "I won't stand it any longer! I won't allow the deportations to bring more shame upon Hungary! The Government shall take measures to remove Endre and Baky from their positions. The deportation of the Budapest Jews shall be stopped. The necessary steps shall be taken by the Government."***)

The declaration of the Regent during the Crown Council had no result at all. On the following day, June 27th, a Cabinet meeting was held in accordance with his instructions, to discuss the execution of the Crown Council's decision. At this Cabinet meeting Minister Jungerth-Arnothy referred, first of all, to the ultimatum of the American Foreign Office. He then pointed out that Rumania, in order to gain favour with the Western powers, had offered to mitigate her own Jewish laws. For the sum of 400,000 leis she had granted emigration permits to Jews. He then explained the note of the Hungarian representative in Madrid, Mr. Hollan, containing the Spanish proposals with reference to the emigration of Hungarian Jews. Minister Jungerth recounted that Slovakia had been occupied by the Germans in 1939, Rumania in 1940 and Bulgaria in 1941. In spite of that there were still 18-20,000 Jews in

*) Veesenmayer's Confession before the People's Court.

**) Statement of Field Marshal Faragho

**) Statement of Jungerth-Arnothy. At this time Ho r thy referred to his two Secretaries of State as "the two sadist scoundrels, who cannot be kept under control." This was also mentioned before the People's Court by Mrs. Stephen Kovaca, wife of a university professor. (243)

Slovakia, 250-300,000 in Rumania and 40,000 in Bulgaria. Why then had Hungary to deport her Jews at such a rate, when the Germans had invaded the country only in 1944? Why had Hungary thus to incur the wrath of the entire neutral world? At the end of his speech, in accordance with the wishes of the Papal Nuntio and the Christian Churches, he proposed alleviation in favour of the baptized Jews and advised the acceptance of the proposal of the International Red Cross as presented by the Hungarian Minister in Switzerland.

A hot debate ensued. Ministers Remenyi-Schneller, Jurcsek and Imrédy, among others, opposed the acceptance of the proposal. Finally, Jaross objected to the interference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Jewish question being a matter for the Ministry of the Interior to deal with. (Jaross even announced his resignation, but later withdrew it.)

Finally the Cabinet meeting consented in part to the proposals of the Deputy Foreign Minister, but actually did nothing to put an end to the deportations. They dared not even inform the Germans of the Regent's point of view. (From the minutes of the Crown Council and Cabinet meetings.)

The fourth and fifth "cleaning-up operations" were in full progress. As a consequence more than 120,000 Jews were deported from the trans-Danubian district.

In the. course of the fifth “cleaning-up operation" in the area of the 3rd (Szombathely) and 4th (Pees) Gendarmerie Districts, the concentration of Jews into camps was completed by June 30th.*)

From July 4th to July 6th 29,556 persons were deported in ten trains. 410,223 members of the Jewish race in 139 trains had been deported by July 6th in the course of the operations directed by Ferenczy. (Ferenczy's report of July 9th.)

The concentrated Jews experienced the worst conditions at Zalaegerszeg. Here the system adopted by the investigators of the Gendarmerie were even more inhumane than anywhere else. They employed the most disgusting methods in an effort to induce the Jews to hand over their valuables. One investigator, a certain Bela Horvath, excelled in this kind of questioning. As a result of the tortures inflicted, thirty of the persons examined had to seek medical assistance. Several persons died of their injuries, others were driven mad and many put a stop to further suffering by committing suicide.**)

After the Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Sztojay called on Veesenmayer and presented the following memorandum, as he did not wish, and obviously was not able, to act without German consent.

*) Ferenczy's report of June 30th 

**) Several of the tortured persons gave evidence ' before the People's Court in the course of the trials of January, 1946, and confirmed the facts given above. The People's Court condemned Bela Horvath to penal servitude for life. The inhumane character of the tortures and the high number of tortured persons were considered sufficient evidence. (244)

Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

322/Res. Pol.

    1944.

MEMORANDUM:

Of late several international charitable and humanitarian organisations have applied to the Hungarian Government for permission to carry out certain acts of charity.

Although these proposals possess a general humane aim, they also intend, in the course of their activities, to give aid to the Jews. Among these definite proposals, the following may be mentioned:

1. On June 11th, the Royal Swedish Minister in Budapest requested the opinion of the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the activity to be assumed by the Swedish Red Cross, which would have following character:

(a) To assist orphans and destitute children by supplying them with lodging, food and clothing, the Childrens' Homes to be established by the Hungarian Red Cross.

(b) To assist bombed-out persons and those in need of help and lodging.

(c) To assist the emigration to Sweden of those Jews, who had received Swedish nationality from the Swedish King.

(d) To assist the emigration to Sweden or Palestine of those Jews, who had relatives in Sweden or who for a certain length of time had maintained commercial relations with that country. The number of Jews in this category amount to about 300-400.

2. Emigration of the Jews to Palestine.

The immigration into Palestine will be suggested by the Immigration Committee of Palestine, which will apply to the British Government for immigration permits. The permits obtained would be forwarded through the Swiss Government to the Swiss Legation in Budapest. On April 26th the latter proposed to the Hungarian Government that a permit to leave the country be granted to the following Jews, who are in possession of a Certificate of immigration into Palestine:

(a) 1,000 children under 16 years of age and 100 adults as escorting staff.

(b) Nine families per week-about 30-40 persons.

 (c) 600 persons by steamer to Constanza.  

(d) 1,450 families.

Altogether about 7,000 persons.

Until now a regular emigration of Jews from Hungary has taken place, so that about 4,000-5,000 persons have left the country for Palestine. The Swiss Legation is now enquiring ii this will continue to be permitted by the Hungarian Government.

The Turkish Minister in Budapest announced that he has been empowered to grant transit visa to a considerable number of Jews passing through Turkey en route for Palestine. (245)

3. Through the intermediary of a third party the American War Refugee Board has applied to the Hungarian Legation at Bern, asking them to forward the following proposals:

(a) Clothing, food and other articles would be sent to the Jews and other internees in camps and ghettos.

(b) Pecuniary assistance would be given to the Jews, combined with the settlement of the Hungarian dollar debt in pengos.

(c) Transportation of Jewish children under 10 years of age to Palestine.

According to trustworthy information, Rumania is negotiating with the U.S.A. on similar points. She has promised the transportation of about 40,000 Jews, 5,000 of which have already been sent from Constanza to Istanbul. According to the information of the Turkish Minister in Budapest, the necessary transit visas to Palestine have already been granted.

The Hungarian Government has also examined the above proposal from the following points of view:

1. (a) After the first World War the same was the case when prisoners of war were exchanged.

(b) The Swedish Red Cross has already, during the first World War, rendered great services to Hungary with regard to the nursing of the wounded and the welfare of the prisoners of war.

(c) These services of the Swedish Red Cross would presumably be of the same great importance alter the present war.

(d) In view of these actions the Swedish Red Cross enjoys great respect in Hungary.

(e) Sweden is the protecting power of Hungary in almost all enemy countries.

 2.  (a) In Great Britain, and especially in the U.S.A., a great number of ethnical Hungarians are living.

(b) Many of the Hungarian subjects living there own considerable property.

(c) Hungarian subjects are interned in these countries. A strict refusal of these proposals would almost certainly have a disadvantageous influence on the treatment of these people.

The above considerations have induced the Hungarian Government to make a close study of these proposals and after mature examination a positive attitude has been adopted in so far, as these proposals do not interfere with the exploitation of man power in Hungary.

In all these questions the Hungarian Government desires to act in conformity with the German authorities and therefore requests the German Legation to inform them of the attitude adopted towards the above proposals by the German Government. The German Government is most courteously requested to take into consideration, when examining the matter, the motives responsible for inducing the Hungarian Government to give so much attention to the proposals.

Budapest, June 27th, 1944. (246)

XII.

BAKY'S REBELLION CRUSHED-DEPORTATION OF JEWS STOPPED.

Finally the Regent was forced to adopt a firmer attitude as a result of the deterioration of the internal political situation in Hungary. The differences of opinion between the parties of Imrédy and Baky had come to a critical stage. Colonel-General Teno Ratz, Deputy Prime Minister of the Sztojay Government, created the so called "Organisation of National Rescue", a leading member of which, Vincent Gorgey of the staff of "Uj Magyarsag'', considered the time ripe for an action against the Regent. This young man was an enthusiastic partisan of Laszlo Baky' s, whose party was meanwhile- at loggerheads with the Regent himself. Secretary of State Baky indeed belonged to the most extremist members of the Government and his party wished to usurp power, even if it meant accepting German help.

After nightfall on June 29th, Gorgey tried to carry out an attempt on Stephen de Barczy. A junior officer of the Arrow Cross Party, Cornel Lang, decided to acquire from Secretary of State de Barczy, then residing in the Goldberger Castle at Szentendre, the keys which opened the doors to the tunnel leading directly from the Prime Minister's Palace to the Regent's private apartments. In possession of these keys-according to Imrédy’s statement-Baky intended to have the Regent arrested and to attempt a coup d'etat.

This attempt miscarried. In spite of this, Baky turned out the Gendarmerie; who, during the first days of July, suddenly appeared in the streets of Budapest, walking about in twos and threes and armed with bayonets. An official notice even declared: "1,600 gendarmes have been brought to Budapest in order to check whether the concentration of Jews in the houses allotted them and marked with a yellow star has been carried out to the full extent." This official comment served to disguise the real aim: the ruthless deportation of the Jews from Budapest! The further details of the deportation were discussed by Laszlo Endre, Adolf Eichmann and Gabriel Faragho towards the end of June. Their plan was to organise a benediction ceremony for the gendarmerie colours for July 2nd. The colours were to have been bestowed on the special police formations of Galata. The Regent's Consort would present the colours and the ceremony was to be held at the Square, of Heroes. After the presentation the members of the police formation were to be granted three days' leave, ostensibly for the purposes of sightseeing, but in fact to gather information regarding the situation (247) of the Jewish houses. As an air-raid precaution, the Lord Lieutenant later decided to cancel the presentation ceremony.

Faragho instructed Colonels of Gendarmerie Victor Tolgyesy and Tibor Paksy-Kiss as to their role. The Jews living in the suburbs of the capital were to be rounded up by the troops of the Galata Honved Battalion, commanded by the first-named, whereas the Jews of the capital itself were to be accounted for by the Nagyvarad Gendarmerie Battalion commanded by the latter. Based upon the experiences of Nagyvarad, Colonels of Gendarmerie Eugen Peterffy and Baksy-Kiss worked out the details of the deportation and communicated them to Ferenczy on June 28th. Endre even held the usual meeting at the County Hall and provisionally fixed three collecting stations for the Jews of Budapest: the great market square, the pig market and the sports grounds near Vaci-Road. 

On July 7th Horthy summoned Faragho into his presence and gave his orders for the gendarmes to leave the capital at once, repeating these orders to the staff officers of the Gendarmerie in the frame of a speech.

That same night Col. Tolgyesy was taken from his apartment in the Hotel Pannonia to the Fortress in an armoured car escorted by troops carrying tommy-guns. There he was informed by Major General Lazar that the latter had, by order of the Regent, been appointed Military Commander-in-Chief of the capital. He advised Tolgyesy go leave Budapest immediately and to take his gendarmes with him. Colonel Paksy-Kiss, on being summoned to the Fortress at 4 a.m. the following morning, received similar advice. Meanwhile Colonel General Szilard Bakay, Commander of the Budapest Army Corps, tried to get in touch with Faragho in order to find out what his real intentions were. As he could not be found at his office nor at the gendarmerie barracks, Bakay rang him up at his home. Faragho declared "to have jumped out of bed" on hearing the telephone ring and Bakay, reassured, hung up without further remark.*)

At 9 a.m. on July 8th, at a time when already more than 3,000 s gendarmes had arrived in Budapest, the sirens suddenly began sounding, without the broadcasting service giving any prior warning of an air-raid. The alarm lasted several hours, the "all-clear" not sounding till late in the day. The news soon leaked out: An attempted coup d'etat by Baky's gendarmes had been thwarted. The Army Group, faithful to Horthy, proved to be stronger than Baky's gendarmes. In accordance with the dispositions of Colonel General Geza Lakatos and Major General Karolyi Lazar a battalion of the 1st Armoured Regiment, stationed at Esztergom, arrived complete with its armoured cars and took possession of the capital. No less than 80 different types of armoured cars were drawn up at Óbuda and the troops stationed at the Albrecht,

*) Ferenczy's statement to the police. Faragho denied having had discussions with Eichmann and Endre regarding the deportations, (248)

Andrassy and Ferenc barracks, more than 2,000 strong and armed with machine-guns, were ordered to stand by. (Col. Beleznay's statement.) This demonstration proved sufficient to remove all not absolutely trustworthy gendarmerie officers and to disperse the gendarmes with the aid of reliable officers, who had been summoned in the meanwhile. Infantry Regiment No. 9, ordered up as a reserve from Szeged, was not even called upon to act.

The day after the failure of the Baky coup d'etat, on July 9th, Imrédy delivered an important speech at Pees:

"Daydreamers chasing adventurous plans may save their frolics for quieter times! WP. have no need of desperadoes, we want no coups d'etat!"

But the Minister did not forget the Jewish question either:

"This was a resolute operation! In contradiction of the malevolent rumours spread abroad I want -to emphasize that neither the hands of the Hungarian authorities nor those of any Hungarian individual are stained with a single drop of Jewish blood!"

The middle of July finally brought a turning point in the fate of the Jews of Budapest. Aided by Baky, Endre and their accomplices and in spite of the decisions of the Crown Council, the Germans did not stop the deportations. They actually fixed the beginning of the deportation of the Budapest Jews for July 10th. The strategic position of Germany had by this time become deplorable. Already the Baltic area had been given up and the great material battle in the West seemed to have been decided in favour of the Anglo-Saxons. The Russians were advancing on the Carpathians and the great Soviet summer offensive of 1944 in the Tarnopol-Luck area had just begun.

Horthy and his advisers at last realised that Germany stood on the threshold of military collapse.

This enlightenment as well as the easy victory gained over Baky acted as a stimulant to the Regent and his entourage, They even dared challenge the Germans in matters relating to the Jewish question.

The Regent, after all, began to "see the whole Jewish problem more clearly," despite Sztojay's continual assertions that "the Germans required a steady flow of workmen from Hungary and that this was the reason why he sent the Jews to the German factories." For this purpose, he declared, full powers had been granted to the Jaross-Endre-Baky trio.

As a matter of fact Sztojay and his ministers were fully aware, -remembering only the negotiations conducted with the Reformed Church-that the deportation of old people ad children, of cripples and invalids, by no means served labour purposes only, but that the greater part of these unfortunate persons,-some immediately, others later- found death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Birkenau. (249)

Horthy no longer accepted the explanations given by Sztojay and Jaross, which previously he had been willing to credit: namely that women, children and old people accompanied the able-bodied men for reasons connected with the highly developed family sense of the Jews, which would make a parting unbearable to them. He also discredited Eichmann's explanation, which was "to stop Jewish labourers from deserting when working in isolated places." Through his son, Miklos Horthy jun., the Regent was at this stage continuously kept informed of the true situation as shown by the Jewish Council's communiques. With stubborn obstination Sztojay and Jaross insisted that the Jewish communiques were "products of invention" and nothing but the "usual gossip of cowardly Jewish sensation mongers." Their attempts to mislead the Regent were now doomed from the beginning and they therefore turned to Veesenmayer, who for his part also denied the authenticity of the reports received by the Regent.

The Budapest representatives of the neutral countries, on the other hand, held a conference under the chairmanship of the Papal Nuntio, Angelo Rotta, as a result of which they presented a new protest to the Sztojay Government, demanding firmly that the inhumane persecutions of the Jews and the deportations be stopped at once.

Finally the Regent, influenced by the marked change of the strategic situation-the Allied invasion was at that time proceeding to plan-furthermore by the victory gained over the "Baky attempt," by the vigorous action of the Christian Churches and by the menacing attitude of the enemy countries as well as by the reiterated protests addressed to the Government by the Budapest representatives of the neutral countries and, last not least, by the insistence of members of his family, summoned Prime Minister Sztojay and issued the plain order: the deportation of the Jews has to be stopped.

On receiving this news, three members of the Jewish Council's Administrative Committee (Stern, Peto and Wilhelm) addressed a letter of thanks to the King of Sweden, at the same time imploring him to continue his assistance, This letter, through the Secretary of the Swedish Legation Wallenberg, was conveyed to Stockholm by special courier. The last deportation train left Bekasmegyer Hev station on Saturday night, July 8th. The suburban Jews (from Ujpest, Kispest, Pesterzsebet etc.) were concentrated at the brick works of Budakalasz together with no less than 17,500 Jews of various foreign nationalities from Budapest and the provinces.

The Christian public of the capital could therefore, already in July, take direct notice of all the horrors of deportation. The authorities could no longer pretend that "the difficulties imposed by the great distances in the provinces" hampered their interference. Here, in a suburb of the capital, in the closest vicinity of the Regent" and the authorities and the 1,000,000 Christian inhabitants of the metropolis, Jews were beaten black and blue, thrashed (250) to within an inch of their lives by the gendarmes, who stripped their victims of all their possessions, herded them into the freight-cars and sent them off on their last journey.

That very day "Magyarsag" published the following paragraph:

"Of all the orders of the Government, hardly another one was acclaimed with such enthusiasm by the broad public as that restraining the rights of the Jews."

 Throughout the first week of July the Germans speeded up the concentration of their Jewish victims in readiness for deportation. The Commandant of the concentration camp at Bekasmegyer, Major of Gendarmery Andrassy, willingly lent them his support. Wyslizeni and Ferenczy, the ghouls of deportation, were both there. The work would not wait, everybody knew the date: on 1 July 10th the deportation of the Budapest Jews would commence! 

(There were only few persons who managed to escape from Bekasmegyer and lived to tell the tale of their ordeals. Having bribed some of the more well-meaning gendarmes, they represented themselves as Christians, who had been brought into the camp by error. They requested to be escorted to Budapest in order to collect their documents. Some of the gendarmes indeed accompanied them-on the average for about 5,000 pengos-and left them at their homes, but as a record was made of the number of Jews a gendarme took out of the camp with him, he was obliged to pick up some other wearer of the Star of David and take him back to Bekasmegyer.

The same searches were carried out here, as at Nagyvarad and other concentration camps, the same methods were applied in order to extract information regarding hidden valuables, including one highly refined method involving the use of electric current, the same broken mass of humanity were loaded into freight-cars and sent to their doom in some foreign land ...

Including these transports, Lieut. Colonel Ferenczy reported the deportation of 434,351 Jews in 147 trains …(251)

XIII.

DISMAY, CLAIMS AND INDEPENDENT' ACTIONS OF THE GERMANS.

On July 8th Eichmann, to his great amazement-learned from Endre that in accordance with the orders given to Sztojay by the Regent and confirmed by the Prime Minister in a short letter addressed to the Primate, Cardinal Seredi, the deportation of the Budapest Jews had to cease with effect from that date.

"In all my long practice, this is the first time such a thing has happened to me," he stormed at Ferenczy, "this won't do at all! It's contrary to all agreements! I can't get over this!"

The Government did not dare to inform the Germans of the full implications of the Regent's orders. Instead, they beat about the bush, of which Sztojay gives us an example.

First of all he referred to the protests of the foreign envoys and the demands of the Christian Churches of Hungary. Then he reported that Hungarian industry could not possibly do entirely without the skilled craftsmanship of the Jews. Therefore they intended, for a start, to retain all baptized Jews and had instituted a system of conscription for this purpose.

On July 8th Jaross, on Horthy's orders withdrew from Baky the right to make public surveys and from Endre the authority to administer Jewish affairs. Both of them went on leave and the gendarmes retired to their stations. Eichmann, consequently, had lost all power and had to turn to Himmler for further instructions. As a result of these he entered into negotiations. To begin with, he asked the Government to consent to the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants of the 7th, 8th and 9th districts of Budapest. Then he declared himself to he content with a mere 10,000 Jews. Obviously he does not want to give the impression at home that there is no job for him! His claims having been rejected, he indeed started working himself, setting about the liquidation of the Prison Camp at Kistarcsa. Very likely he felt strong enough for that!

From the very day of their entry in Budapest the Germans - as has been related - harassed the Jews. This went so far, that they arrested them at the railway stations, tram stops and in the street, without deigning to explain their actions. Persons arriving from or going on leave were arrested and forthwith despatched to the detention barracks at Kistarcsa. As a result some 2,000 persons were packed into a camp that offered accomodation to 200 persons at the outside. 190-200 persons were crammed into rooms with a floor space of no more than 50 square meters. Food etc. had to be provided by the Protecting Office, which for years now had been looking after the camps at Garany, Csorgo, Reese and Nagykanizsa, (252) where Jews of uncertain nationality such as the Jewish refugees from Germany, Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia, had been interned. The food was prepared in a people's kitchen run by the Jewish Orthodox Synagogue. This had also been installed for years and fed the thousands of weary Jews that passed through the detention barracks.

On or about March 25th, the 280 prominent Jewish journalists, lawyers, etc., who had up to then been held as hostages in the School for Rabbis in Rokk Szilard Street, had already been transferred to Kistarcsa. Five big one-storied pavilions constituted the internment camp of Kistarcsa, one of them being reserved for German military prisoners. Throughout the period of the German occupation the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, who had been given sentences of imprisonment, were guarded here.

One of the remaining four pavilions was reserved for an altogether different class of prisoners - notorious shirkers, vagabonds, prostitutes as well as Communists and Socialists - who had already spent years there in custody. The large pavilion "B" in the centre was allotted to the hostages. In the camp these were called "the B-s" for short. They were accorded special treatment, were not obliged to work and 10 young pupils of the School for Rabbis in Rokk Szilard Street were detailed to look after their welfare. As a special favour the hostages were allowed to sleep on palliasses.

Another category of prisoners were the so-called "Gestapos", who of course were not hostages, but had simply been captured by the Germans, spent some time at the Budapest County Prison and had then been sent to Kistarcsa camp. They were taken there by special German "Black Marias" and were guarded by Lemke of the SS, the infamous chief bailiff of the Budapest County Prison.

Some very interesting groups were to be found among the "Gestapo" prisoners, of which there between 800 and a thousand. So for instance the almost complete staff of the X-Ray Department of the Jewish Hospital in Szaboles Street, who had been arrested by the Gestapo on a charge of running a wireless station among the X-Ray instruments. Another group was the so-called "MAK-Brigade", officials and architects of the Hungarian Coalmines Ltd., who had been accused of sabotage.

To the third category all those individuals belonged, who had been arrested and interned by the Hungarian authorities, among them Jews picked up at the railway stations on March 19th and 20th and those who had been caught using public telephone boxes.

The permanent strength of the camp varied between 1,500 and 2,000 prisoners. The first reduction took place on April 28th. When, as a result of the continual applications of the Jewish Council, the Ministry of the Interior ordered a revision of the cases of those people, who faced no other charge than having arrived or intended to depart from Budapest on March 19th and 20th. A mixed ministerial and police commission undertook a survey at Kistarcsa, cross- (253) examined hundreds of prisoners, made a report and informed them that they would be discharged. But instead of being set free, they were handed over to the Gestapo on April 28th, who at dawn alarmed the whole camp, crammed some 1,000 persons into freight-cars and deported them. This was the first deportation train to leave Hungary. (One of its "passengers" was the Parliamentary Deputy John Vazsony.)

The transport having left, the strength of the camp was of course at once reduced to about 350 to 400 prisoners. Naturally this number was quickly raised again under the pretext of various petty offences: omitting to wear the yellow star, Jews found in places of amusement etc., until the strength was once more 1,500 persons.

The commander of the camp, Inspector of Police Stephen Vasdenyei, showed a fair measure of human understanding, taking into account the circumstances, By no means could this be said of his deputy, Inspector Jamborfi, who with his own hands ill-treated the prisoners. The warden af the camp, Florian Szemzo, and his deputy, Kenyer, both behaved correctly. On the other hand the behaviour shown by the Gestapo men, who drove out every day for the purpose of investigating, was appalling. A detective by name of Varga was also appointed to the camp, but was, for unknown reasons, arrested towards the beginning of June. Another man, a clerk employed by the Protecting Office by name of Miklos Gal, was arrested together with him. The proceedings against him were stopped by the Chief Constable, but nevertheless he was never released. Later on he was taken to the detention barracks at Sarvar and was finally deported to Germany. Since then there has been no news of him.

After Gal's arrest, Sandor Brody, departmental head at the Protecting Office, took over his job and a new detective, Inspector Vasarhelyi, was appointed to the camp. With the aid of the latter, Brody finally managed to find a way of dealing with the correspondence of the prisoners, smuggling their letters out and bringing in the replies to them. Later he even devised a system by which he could handle their remittances and managed to supply them with genuine and forged documents, which the prisoners used in order to prove their Aryan origin, or at least that they were the consorts of Aryans. Prisoners released were never set free immediately, but always handed over to the Protecting Office for further custody. This office as a rule released them immediately, but continued to be responsible for them. (Vasdenyi not only succeeded in obtaining the discharge of children, but also often the discharge of adults and of parents together with their children.)

On July 12th Vasdenyi acquainted Brody of the fact that the Gestapo had given notice of a new deportation train being scheduled to leave Kistarcsa on July 14th. At least 1,000 men had to be found in the camp for this transport, another 500 prisoners were to be supplied by the auxiliary detention barracks in Rokk Szilard Street. (254) The Gestapo soon ascertained that they could hope for no more than 1,450 prisoners from both places together, therefore a further group of 50 was collected from Horthy-Liget. The majority of these were journalists and lawyers, who had been interned there. The three groups of prisoners arriving from three different places had to be assembled at the detention barracks in Budapest and were to be deported from there.

The Jewish Council took immediate action, and informed the Regent's Chief of Cabinet, the foreign legations and the Prince Primate. These decided to intervene without delay, and their joint efforts produced favourable results; The Regent summoned Jaross, who denied having the slightest information on the subject but agreed to find out everything about it as soon as possible,

It was not long before he was forced to admit that, in spite of the Regent's orders, the Germans were continuing the deportations, though not from Budapest, but only from the camp at Kistarcsa, as they no longer had the assistance of the gendarmerie at their disposal. Altogether Eichmann and Wyslizeni had a force of some 150 SS men left, and with so small a force they dared not tackle the deportation of the 20,000 Jews of the capital. For that reason they concentrated on Kistarcsa, as this was somewhat out of the way and they had a better opportunity of bullying the police guards.  

The Regent ordered Jaross to have further deportations stopped, even if he had to use force and that the train, in case it had already left Kistarcsa, should be stopped and taken back there, Jaross passed the order on to Ferenczy and Captain Lulay, the latter's deputy, marched off with his company of gendarmerie.

The order recalling the train, which had since moved off from Kistarcsa, reached it not far from Hatvan, and, turning back immediately, it was back at Kistarcsa that same evening. Every one of the 1,500 occupants were safe, even those who had previously been detained at Rokk Szilard Street and Horthy-Liget. (This is an indisputable proof of the ability of the Regent and his Government to enforce their orders as far as the Jewish question was concerned, provided they wanted, or chiefly, if they dared to do so ... )  

Eichmann's amazement knew no end. The Regent dared countermand his orders to the SS, and that under the threat of arms? It seemed to him that the authority of the Gestapo and SS was at stake. His new failure enraged him beyond words. His spies. and informers among the entourage of the Regent and the Ministry of the Interior soon enlightened him that the news of the departure of the train had reached the Administrative Committee through Dr. Brody and that they had alarmed everybody they could get hold of.

At 8 a.m. on July 19th Eichmann summoned the members of the Administrative Committee to his Headquarters on the Svabhegy. (255) After having been kept waiting there in a room for hours, they were not allowed to leave, and even the telephone was disconnected so that they could not get in touch with anybody. Finally Eichmann's deputy, Huntsche, engaged them in an endless, though insignificant, discussion. One of the topics brought up was whether the atmosphere of panic then gaining in intensity among the Jews could be dispelled by arranging cinema and theatre performances. The "conference" lasted the whole afternoon, until 7 p.m. The following day the explanation was obvious: while the Committee members had been detained on the hill, a large Gestapo detachment had unexpectedly occupied Kistarcsa, taken possession of the telephone and prevented Vasdenyei from leaving his office. SS Commander Novak asked him whether Secretary of State Baky had already put in an appearance? Baky had not yet arrived and Vasdenyei knew nothing with regard to Baky's movements. On hearing this Novak took a seat and waited. Shortly afterwards Pal Ubrizsy, commander of the auxiliary detention barracks in Rokk Szilard Street, arrived and produced a letter from Baky giving him full authority to act in his name. He also carried written orders saying that all prisoners at Kistarcsa were to be handed over to the Germans for deportation. (This is another proof of Baky' s close connection with the Germans, a detail which was not even mentioned at his trial.)

After this Commander Novak ordered the Jews to fall in, whilst Vasdenyei tried to dissuade him in favour of the prisoners, but Novak insisted on a transport of 1,500 persons being dispatched, because this was the number of the last transport which had been brought back. As it happened 280 prisoners had been transferred from Kistarcsa camp to Sarvar only two days previously by order of the Ministry of the Interior in order to cope with the overcrowding at Kistarcsa. Vasdenyei would now have had to fall back on the hostages from "B" pavilion in order to make up the 1,500, but he bargained and argued until the Germans agreed to forget about the 280 prisoners now at Sarvar. Thus the transport left with only 1,220 prisoners.

While these negotiations were going on, the Germans somehow caught sight of Brody working in his office. Lemke, who was present, at once decided to take him with them, as he had already annoyed the Germans beyond endurance and in order to prevent him from giving warning of the present operation. On German instructions Vasdenyei placed him under the escort of one his office clerks, but instead of sending him out into the court-yard, among the other prisoners, he was helped to escape through a small side door leading to the living quarters, Brody lost no time in getting to Budapest, where he made haste to report to the Jewish Council in Sip Street. Naturally he was mystified when he found none of the members of the Council there: - these were not released from the Svabhegy until 7.30 p. m. when the German detachment returned from Kistarcsa with the news that the train had already left. (256)

Terrible scenes accompanied the departure of the train. As usual, prisoners were beaten and ill-treated whilst they were being taken to Rakos Station in open trucks. There they were bundled into the freight-cars in groups of 80 to 90. The direction taken by the train was later reported by the prisoners, who wrote the names of the different stations on scraps of paper, which they threw out of the ventilators. These were collected by well-meaning persons and forwarded to the Protection Office. News was thus sent from Mezonyek, Hidasnemeti and Kassa: The train proceeded at top speed and got the prisoners across the Hungarian frontier within 12 hours. (Statements of the hostages, the members of the Administrative Committee, of Dr. Sandor Brody, Laszlo Ferenczy etc. At this stage the almost miraculous escape of one of the prisoners, Samuel Pollak, ought to be mentioned, He managed to escape from one of the open trucks and limped back to Kistarcsa, where he felt "safest". Vasdenyei thereupon gave him shelter, Pollak, too, mentioned the cruelties perpetrated in the course of loading the prisoners on the trucks ...)

The news of further deportations soon became known abroad and drew forth a violent protest. The Hungarian envoy in Bern sent following wire:

7008 CIPHER TELEGRAM No. 137.

From the Royal Hungarian Legation at Bern.

Red Cross Chief intimates by letter further deportations to take place. Germans have deported 1,200 men and women from Kistarcsa on 19th inst. and 1,500 persons from Sarvar 24th inst. using trucks and trains. If this is fact, Hungarian Government has broken its promise. Sooner or later this will become public knowledge and have inconceivable sequels from governments interested and world public opinion. Red Cross Chief requests Hungarian Government's comment concerning abovementioned information. May I draw Your Excellency's attention to the importance of this question, the more so, as even the person of His Serene Highness the Regent is mentioned in the communique of the interested governments.

I beg to be supplied with a more distinct explanation of the term "safety reasons" mentioned in circular telegram No. 140 and with information regarding the destination of Jewish transports from Budapest.

Red Cross demands urgently transit-visas for delegates F. and V. Request immediate telegraphic reply. BOTHMER.

Deputising for Sztojay, Remenyi-Schneller hastened to reassure him: (257)

6649 No. 145 CIPHER TELEGRAM

Exung

Reply to Cipher Telegram No. 137 Bern

Request you inform Red Cross Chief ii possible verbally of subordinate German authority's proceedings, removing Jews from camps at Kistarcsa and Savar without Hungarian Government's consent. Strong protest has been filed with German Government. Repetition of similar occurrences need not be feared. As evident from circular telegram, Hungarian Government and its authorities will in future retain exclusive right of dealing with administration and execution of Jewish question.

                                                                             Remenyi-Schneller.

(258)

Part IV. –

Struggle for Liberation from the Nazi and Arrow Cross Oligarchy, Rescue Actions in Aid of Jewry.

I.

AIDED BY THE GERMANS A GROUP OF JEWS PREPARES FOR FLIGHT AMIDST THE UPHEAVALS OF DEPORTATION.

With the predomination of Hitlerism and the accomplishment of the Austrian "Anschluss"-as a sequel-of which the Jewish laws were promulgated in Hungary-the situation of the Jews became precarious. For that reason a number of Hungarian Jews tried to obtain immigration permits from the various foreign legations. None of them, however, were inclined to grant them admittance to the countries they represented. Palestine was the only country to admit Jews from Hungary regularly, if only in limited numbers.

After the outbreak of war the official organisation of the Jews of Palestine, the so-called "Jewish Agency for Palestine", with the aid and assistance of the British and Palestine Governments, allotted a larger quota of immigration permits to the Hungarian Jews. Permits were granted first of all to Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Rumania, but also to Hungarian Jews. After Italy's entry into the war, the facilities for transportation by sea were at once cut off. The limited and complicated methods of overland transportation had to be resorted to, and were indeed used systematically until the Germans invaded Hungary.

As it happened, the Hungarian Office of the Jewish Agency for Palestine was in March 1944 in a position to dispose of no less than 600 immigration certificates to Palestine, which had not been allocated owing to transportation difficulties and traffic restrictions. (By September of the same year, this contingent had reached the figure of 19,000). After the German invasion of Hungary, the emigration from here to Palestine had to cease entirely, but nevertheless this remained the permanent basis of the  rescue actions started later on.

On March 16th, 1944, the Commissioner of the Palestine Office in Turkey, Chaim Barlas, sent a wire to the Palestine Office in Budapest, saying that immigration permits had been obtained for 600 owners of certificates, who should travel to Constanza and from there to Turkey.

Although for some time the work was hampered by the German invasion, the head of the Palestine Office in Budapest, Miklos Krausz, lost no time in obtaining the permission of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, which was granted on March 28th with the remark that the consent of the German Legation still had to be obtained. On Krausz's request the Hungarian Foreign Ministry (261) contacted the Legation, who replied that they would have to refer the matter to Berlin.

The Gestapo, already in the first days of the occupation, stressed that they were willing to collaborate with the Jews in Hungary and informed the latter that no harm would befall them, provided they co-operated with the Germans in economic questions and complied with their requests. It is understandable that the newly created Jewish Council gladly adopted this attitude and made every effort to show the greatest possible loyalty. For this reason the Jewish leaders of those days, even at present, are frequently accused of "collaboration," although the plain reply to this is, that they acted under compulsion and that their object was a "race against time."

Corresponding with this action of the German Gestapo, the visible leaders of which were SS-Obersturmbannführer Krumey and SS-Hauptsturmbannfuhrer Baron Wyslizeni, another action was started by the same persons, in which however the head of the Office for Jewish Affairs of the Budapest Gestapo (Judendezernat), SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, and the economic adviser of the Gestapo, SS-Obersturmbannführer Kurt Bacher, took part.

To enable the action to be carried out, two persons from the Jewish side were allowed to participate, one of them being Dr. Rezso Kasztner, a Zionist journalist from Kolozsvar and son-in-law of Dr. Joseph Fischer, President of the Jewish Council of Kolozsvar and head of the Hungarian branch of the "Waad Esra ve Hacala" relief commission of Palestine. His activity should have consisted in the distribution of the amounts remitted by the Hacala for rescue purposes. A special committee was to have been formed from among the refugees, which was to help them reach Palestine.

Dr. Kasztner never created any committee of the sort, but preferred to dispose of the amounts remitted in his own way. His companion was a Budapest official by name of Joel Brand.

These two exponents of the Zionist organisation first of all offered to assist Polish and Slovak Jews in reaching Palestine. With the assistance of their organisation they established connections with Poland, Slovakia and Turkey, as well as with Switzerland. A messenger service was established, the couriers of which had to carry out their financial dispositions and to support rescue work. In the course of this task, which went on for years, they got into touch with a certain Joseph Winninger, a member of the Reichswehr, who very scrupulously carried out an important courier service for them in return for adequate payment.

Through Winninger, Dr. Kasztner and Brand managed to establish contact with a liaison-officer of the Reichswehr by name of Dr. Schmidt, who was at that time stationed in Budapest. This Dr. Schmidt affirmed that the struggle between the Reichswehr and the SS formations, which, as was well known, was then going on (262) in Germany, would end with the victory of the Reichswehr, and that therefore the dreadful persecutions, which the Jews doubtlessly had to endure in Poland and elsewhere, would come to an end. In those countries, of course, the Jews would have to be kept working in the concentration camps, but their lives would no longer be imperiled and their treatment would be humane. The only counter-claim the Reichswehr would present to the Jews for this service was that the European Jews would have to effect a payment of 2,000,000 U. S. Dollars in order to ensure the security of their surviving co-religionists. For this transaction the following short and sharp formula was invented by the Germans: "Preservation of Substance,"

After the German occupation of Hungary, Dr. Kasztner and Brand immediately established connections with Krumey through Winninger and Dr. Schmidt. These latter persons took an interest in the negotiations, although it seemed that the prospects of a victory of the Reichswehr over the SS were doomed to remain an illusion. The discussions therefore developed along the line that there was no further question of a deliverance of the European Jews, but that the claim for $ 2,000,000 would merely be the price of rescue for the Jews of Hungary, In the course of the debate Dr. Schmidt, representing the Wehrmacht, and Krumey, as representative of the SS, showing themselves to be in some sort of harmony, arrived at an agreement, the details of which stipulated the granting of immigration permits to a group of 600, or later even of 750, persons-the so-called "Aliah" group-by way of experiment.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Kasztner had started negotiations apart from the Jewish question in general, and had also brought up the question of the 600 persons in possession of certificates. Days, even weeks, passed by, but the Foreign Ministry's request remained unanswered by Berlin and therefore Krausz, for his part, joined into Kasztner's discussions. On the occasion of one of these discussions, in the early days of April, Kasztner declared: The Gestapo promised to permit the emigration of the 600 owners of certificates in the near future. Hereupon the Palestine Committee immediately began to draw up a list. A few days later Kasztner reported again, this time saying that the Gestapo did not agree to the party proceeding via Constanza, but that the transport was to set off in closed freight-cars in direction of the Spanish frontier, so that the Hungarian"' authorities would be misled and would take it for another deportation instead of an emigration.

(Later experiences show that the German intentions of granting such concession could not be taken serious and that their true aim was similar to that of the discussions entered into with the Jewish Council: to draw the attention of the Zionist leaders to these questions and to divert it from the preparations which were already being made secretly for the solution of the Jewish problem in Hungary.) (263)

These negotiations were prolonged to the utmost. Requests almost granted by one the executives of the Judendezernat, would not be recognized by another. The collusion necessary was arranged to the last detail. The SS referred to the Wehrmacht and vice versa, and if this method would no longer do, the responsibility for the delay would be shifted on to the Legation, and so time went by.

Meanwhile the Orthodox Jews, too, were busy in an attempt to institute certain steps. Connections were established with Slovakia, from where the Orthodox Rabbi of Pozsony, Weissmandel, sent a letter in Hebrew containing all the advice his experiences entitled him to give. Weissmandel-this wise, old, experienced Jewish priest, who had obtained important and far-reaching results in connection with the deliverance of Slovakian Jews and who, by suitable means, had ever since remained in touch with the various Eichmanns and Wyslizenis acting over there-suggested that the same methods might be tried in Hungary, that had proved successful enough in Slovakia to save at least a quarter of the Jews there. He explained the measures to be adopted in order to avoid the total deportation of the Jews in Hungary, taking into account that just this was a fundamental basis of Germany's policy with regard to the Jews. Furthermore he revealed details of the so-called "Europe Plan," which was then already materialising in Slovakia, as a scheme which could possibly be of advantage to the surviving Hungarian Jews as well. He pointed to Baron Wyslizeni and described him as the only person able to carry on negotiations and to discuss the counter-claims, by means of which the SS would be inclined to desist from their idea of a radical solution of the Jewish question.  

In accordance with Weissmandel's advice, and independently from the discussion of Dr. Kasztner and Brand, the President of the Jewish Orthodox Church Council, Philip Freudiger, had a conversation with Hauptsturmführer Wyslizeni. The basis of this discussion was still the 2,000,000 U.S. Dollar payment mentioned above. Moreover, Weissmandel had described Wyslizeni as being trustworthy, besides being an esteemed adviser of Eichmann, the head of the Judendezernat. Obviously, the negotiations were proceeding well enough. A success was to be hoped for. Freudiger kept the Jewish Council constantly informed about his discussions and the latter did not regard the amount asked for as exorbitant, seeing that the lives of almost one million Jews were at stake, although the number of those immediately concerned might have been 10 or 15 per cent less. The primary conception of the plan was to assemble the Jews in labour camps for the time being, where they were to carry out work of a character as yet undefined. The negotiators considered it a foregone conclusion that the Jews would be financially responsible for the establishment of the camps, and Freudiger therefore suggested that the Jewish capital, shortly to be confiscated, should at least partly be made available for this purpose. Although the Germans did not grant the request in so many words, it was also not rejected altogether. The German claim, (264) fixed as a preliminary condition of negotiation, was the payment in advance of a first instalment of 200,000 U.S. Dollars. This the Jews did, the sum being collected unofficially by the Jewish Council. In the course of the discussion the sum rose first to $ 220,000 and then to $224,000, Winninger and Schmidt claiming this amount as a cut. The Council paid up and set about the preparation of the necessary plans.

As regards the members of the Council, only a few of these were fully informed of the details of the discussions, but these were looking hopefully into the future. At this stage the Hungarian Government suddenly and unexpectedly interfered, ordering the total confiscation of the Jewish capital - the Jews had until then been completely under German orders -, and so radically carried out this measure, that no more than 3,000 pengos were left at the free disposal of any Jewish person . . . This order meant that the Jews were immediately reduced to poverty. There was no chance of disposing of Jewish public securities or other bonds either, moreover the anti-Jewish decrees and laws promulgated in the course of the last year or two had meant heavy expenditure, which had almost completely exhausted the capital of the Jewish welfare institutions. Bank accounts, bonds and securities belonging to Jews were confiscated, their shops closed, a stop was put to their economic activities. The Hungarian Jews were doomed to lose their fortunes and their income at one blow. They had nothing left except some cash and jewels, which eventually they handed over for safekeeping to Christians.

Meanwhile there was an almost incredible drop in values. Quotations for gold and diamonds showed a fall of up to 70 per cent. Apart from that it must be remembered that the majority of the Jews were poor people, who of course had no reserves at all. After all this, it is easy to understand that. the negotiations begun with the SS came to abrupt end, seeing that the material basis of the plans discussed had suddenly vanished.

Some other difficulties arose as well. Dr. Schmidt for instance, - dealing through Kasztner and Brand, - was naturally informed of the discussions going on between Freudiger and Wyslizeni and observed these with growing distaste, the more so, as he, the representative of the Wehrmacht, looked askance at the negotiations carried out by Wyslizeni on behalf of the SS. Rivalry was soon developing between Dr. Schmidt and Wyslizeni, and this not without grave results. Dr. Schmidt called on Eichmann complaining of Wyslizeni's clumsiness, giving it as his opinion that it would have been possible to squeeze a considerably higher amount than $ 2,000.000 out of the Jews of Hungary. Apparently Eichmann listened to Schmidt's arguments and made semblance of abandoning Wyslizeni, at any rate dispensing him from further discussions with Freudiger, whom he contacted himself. Officially he hinted that Wyslizeni, having committed some offence of insubordination, had been transferred to the provinces. (Later it transpired that this (265) too was a wangle. As a matter of fact Wyslizeni had been posted to the provinces by the German High Command as Inspector of Deportations.)

From now on Eichmann conducted negotiations in person, soon even pushing out Krumey, whom he described as being too compliant by far with regard to the Jewish question. At the same time Eichmann had Winninger and Dr. Schmidt locked up for having drawn a cut of $ 24,000 instead of the $ 20,000 which had been approved of. The crux of this matter seems to be the surplus $ 4,000, which they dared to keep for themselves, only sharing the $ 20,000 with Eichmann and his staff. As far as the $ 200,000 are concerned, Eichmann remitted this amount to the SS Finance Office.

During the later phase of the discussions, Kasztner and Brand finally agreed with Krumey that the "Aliah" project was to affect only the 600 persons already in possession of the Palestine Certificate, but that this was to be increased to 750 persons, if a sum of 15,000.000 pengos were paid in to. the "Sondereinsatzkommando" (the official title of the Judendezernat.)

This was the situation when Wyslizeni's and Freudiger's negotiations were interrupted. As already mentioned, Wyslizeni took up an appointment in the province, the exact nature of which was as yet unknown. On the other hand Kasztner declared that Eichmann was in future willing to deal only with two persons, and that these were Kasztner and Brand ...

Freudiger thereupon resigned, but did still not give up his connections with the Germans, chiefly obtaining exact and reliable information about the further development of the discussions through Krumey.

It soon became evident that the "Aliah" project was doomed to failure. The Germans argued that they were unable to support Jewish immigration into Palestine as this was contrary to agreements they had arrived at with the Palestine Arabs. Instead of this, Eichmann suggested a new plan: in return for consignments of war material, Hungarian Jews were to be allowed to emigrate to South America. German industrial towns were at this time being subjected to extremely heavy attacks by the Allied Air forces and the shortage of war material in the Reich was becoming menacing...

Money and gold seemed to be less valuable to them than war material in view of the growing difficulties their agents encountered when attempting to make purchases in neutral countries. This mere and undeniable fact would most likely have induced Himmler to consent to some such plan - the Judendezernat being directly subordinate to the SS Reichsfuhrungsamt. At that time Eichmann - evidently by higher inspiration and instruction - expressed the idea which later remained the fundamental basis of his discussions : "Gebt mir LKWs (Lastkraltwagim), und ihr konnt liir jeden LKW 100 Juden haben!" (Give me trucks and you can have a hundred Jews lor every one of them!) (266)

The middle of April had meanwhile arrived. Nobody in Budapest knew exactly what was happening in the northern and southern frontier areas, which had meanwhile been declared operational zones by the Germans. Nevertheless the news spread that the Jews there were being isolated in ghettos. It is true that the Germans agreed to this, but Endre and Baky by far exceeded any German suggestion when they instituted their concentration camps and employed the dreadful methods already described.

Towards the beginning of May the reports arriving from Slovakia contained the first authentic account of the horrors of Auschwitz. On being approached in the matter by Freudiger and Dr. Janos Gabor, Krumey plainly denied the authenticity of the protocol. The railway conference held in Slovakia at that time was duly reported and towards the middle of May official statements proved that the deportation of the 310,000 Jews of the concentration camps of Sub-Carpathia and Transylvania had begun. It seems clear therefore that Eichmann suggested the idea of the consignments at precisely the same moment, in which 300,000 Jews had to face the catastrophe of deportation, as a hint that he would be prepared to abstain from this measure, if the consignments of war material were forthcoming, - or at least to postpone the final decision until the discussions had been concluded.

In order to make events more easily understood, we have to draw a short character-sketch of the two persons then acting as the representatives of the Hungarian Jews. The journalist Dr. Kasztner, being to some extent an idealist, was doubtlessly imbued with outstanding abilities. Strongly attracted by politics and with a predisposition to dictatorship, he was jealous of any person who could have possibly achieved a result and thereby curtailed his personal success. By nature a bohemian, he was never punctual. As member of the Zionist Federation, he judged nearly every question from that point of view. Imbued with almost incredible ambitions, his only aim was nothing less than to be the exclusive leader of the 1,000.000 Jews of Hungary, bearing the sole responsibility for their welfare and to be credited with every single success of the rescue work. He insisted on knowing every detail of the discussions, no matter whether it concerned practical, economic or technical questions, although he was unable to train himself to be punctual and entirely lacked any gifts of organisation. His companion, Joel Brand, was a man of considerably smaller calibre, but doubtlessly possessed greater practical sense.

The discussions finally resulted in even Eichmann consenting to a representative of the Hungarian Jews being sent abroad. Turkey was the only country that could be taken into consideration and there Barlass, the delegate of the Palestinian Jews, was already working as a kind of plenipotentiary. Kasztner himself never doubted that the excessive German demands, particularly with regard to war material, could never be satisfied, nevertheless he (267) hoped that by providing other goods and materials in addition to downright war material, some agreement might be arrived at.

Although Eichmann had given his consent to the departure of a Jewish delegate in order to negotiate abroad, he was not inclined to suspend the deportations in the meanwhile. This was a hard blow and meant that the 310,000 persons concerned were almost certainly doomed. The activity of the delegate could therefore only benefit the remaining 600,000 Jews.

In order to fully understand what was happening, it must be borne in mind that Kasztner was never willing to inform the Jewish leaders as to the progress of the negotiations without being pressed to do so, although he was acting with the authorisation of the Jewish Council. When hard pressed he would reveal some of the details, but even then the listeners had the impression, and rightly so, that his report was fully uncoordinated and unreliable. It was obvious that he intended to be the only one to have a grasp on the situation, fearing that possibly somebody might contest his leadership.*) It is therefore a fact that the grave question of the future of the Jews was discussed "de nobis - sine nobis", just as if this had been an exclusively private affair of Dr. Kasztner and his intimate circle. The negotiations with Eichmann being solely conducted by Kasztner and Brand, it was not surprising that the delegate finally chosen had to one of them.  

Again it was a blow that Eichmann's choice fell on Brand. It has been claimed that Eichmann chose him on purpose, judging him to be incapable of conducting negotiations and thus from a start condemning the whole action. This point of view still exists, although as far as the real aims of the negotiations are concerned, these served no other purpose than to mislead the Hungarian Jews into believing that they constituted a means of escaping their fate and would be allowed to carry on their silent work of co-operation.

Brand's appointment created extraordinary consternation among the members of the Jewish Council. This was an enormous task, which should have been tackled by somebody aware of the full weight of his responsibility, some extremely clever and gifted personality, - but never by someone who did not even recognise the full implications of the situation of the Jews and was, on top of that, entirely unknown abroad. Indeed, Brand would never have been appointed, had Dr. Kasztner cared to let the one or the other of the Jewish leaders participate in the discussions, or had at least given them full details regarding their progress. There can be no doubt that through his course of action Dr. Kasztner has incurred a grave responsibility. The question was immediately raised, whether Dr. Kasztner could not go abroad instead of Brand, taking into account the former's abilities, which fully qualified him for such a mission. But Kasztner was not prepared to leave. Evidently

*) Kasztner's point of view, on the other hand, was that one ought not create too much noise about discussions of so delicate a nature and that therefore secrecy must be maintained. He did, however, inform President Komoly of everything he did. (268)

he was fully aware of Brand's incapability of continuing the discussions at home and in his jealousy protested against the initiation of a third person. With that the Hungarian Jews had lost the battle! The die was cast as soon as Brand left for Istanbul. He had instructions to acquaint the representatives of the big Jewish organisations in the Turkish capital with the facts of the situation, to discuss the question of consignments and to return as soon as possible with their binding offers.

Time fled. The deportations in Hungary were carried out at full speed, those of Sub-Carpathia and Transylvania being followed by more deportations in other parts of the country. The houses of Budapest had already been marked with the yellow star, and yet no message was received from Brand but the stereotype "Affairs are going well, hope to be back soon with suitable authorisation to continue discussions." Telegrams arrived and were sent off, correspondence, though with great difficulties, was initiated, and still there was no sign of Brand's return. News arrived from different quarters: Brand staying in Palestine, Brand arriving in Lisbon, Brand leaving for Budapest. Meanwhile a never-ending stream of deportation trains rolled off in the direction of Auschwitz. There was hardly a Jew in Hungary, who did not mourn a relative, a friend, an acquaintance among the victims. Suddenly more news: "Brand cannot return himself! Instead another delegate will be arriving from Istanbul, bringing with him all necessary agreements concerning the consignments and therewith the authorisation to continue the discussions. Otherwise there is no news."

Still there was no trace of Brand. New rumours circulated: Brand has left Palestine by air for England in order to settle agreements with the British and American authorities concerning an en bloc emigration of the European Jews. Brand has arranged everything and is waiting in Lisbon for a German plane to take him home. And finally: Brand has arranged everything, but is no longer in Lisbon, but in Istanbul, as he is unable to obtain the Hungarian visas.

Confusion and embarrassment in Budapest. Naturally there was no chance whatsoever of obtaining a reliable report regarding Brand's activities. Even Dr. Kasztner, who alone bore the full responsibility and that without having been fully authorised by the Jews he represented, became uneasy and attempted-post festum-to establish closer contact with the Hungarian Jews. Until then he did his best to cover Brand's actions in every respect, but finally he had to confess that to entrust Brand with the mission had been an "unhappy choice" . . .

At least 400,000 Jews had been deported by now and the number was approaching the 500,000 mark. Brand still did not return ...

Meanwhile a series of new offers on the lines of "trading with live Jews" were addressed to the Reichsfuhrungsamt through the offices of the Economic Section of the SS. The object was to (269) have further deportations suspended and to reopen negotiations quite apart from Brand's discussions. These offers were made by Freudiger on behalf of the Jewish Council. Kasztner for his part continued to deal with Eichmann in political matters. The economic head of the "Sonderstab", SS-Obersturmbannführer Bacher, was opposed to the deportations from the very beginning. "What I need", he argued, "are goods. And without live Jews to exchange for them, I cannot obtain industrial products or raw materials." Eichmann was of a different opinion. He believed tha.t the continuation of the deportations would make the foreign Jews more compliant even if it did mean that fewer Jews survived over which to haggle.

Finally it was due to Bacher's efforts that Eichmann, as a result of lengthy discussions held with Kasztner, agreed to work on a basis of a so-called "open account"-until the whole situation created by Brand's mission had been cleared up. This meant nothing else but that the Jews were obliged to hand over all kinds of negotiable values, such as banknotes, gold, jewels etc., whereupon they were placed in a German holding camp, as a reward being allowed to stay there until the transports would be included in the "Military Transport System" and conveyed through Germany to Spain. The necessary entry permits would have to be obtained by the Jews from the Spanish authorities, Here it must remarked that the Jewish Council-by virtue of a concession obtained from Eichmann through Freudiger and Wyslizeni-managed to rescue several prominent Jews from the provincial ghettos and to have these brought to Budapest. Kasztner himself, with the assistance of Eichmann, rescued 350 Zionists from his hometown, Kolozsvar. In Budapest these people were held in a so-called "Vorzugslager" in the Deaf-Mute Institute in Columbus Street, which had been equipped by the "Sonderstab" and was guarded by SS-men in order to protect the inmates against the gendarmerie and the Hungarian Gestapo. Naturally this camp had not been established by the SS simply to show their sympathy for the Jews.,, Similar camps had been established in several other occupied countries for the purpose of, in their own words: "einen Grundstock an negotabilen Personlichkeiten aul Lager zu halten liir den Fall, dass irgend ein Auswanderungsplan gliickt." (being able to dispose of a reserve of negotiable personalities in case the one or the other of the emigration plans should mature). On the other hand the camp served the purpose of accommodating all those persons necessary to continue further discussions of the Jewish question. Experience with similar places abroad had proved that these camps, with rare exceptions, were also evacuated sooner or later and their inhabitants deported. In Hungary they planned to get rid of the inmates of the Columbus Street camp first of all, no matter what projects of emigration could be realised.

In the course of the negotiations Eichmann, as mentioned already, consented to the transport leaving for Spain. In his cynical 270 manner he merely remarked: "It is possible that the transport might be attacked by bombers on its way through France", but at the same time adding "dass durch Bomben beschiidigte oder vernichtete Jud en nicht als gelielert und empfangen betrachtet werden, sondern liir sie eine Ersatzlielerung bewilligt und geleistet werden kann." (Jews injured killed as a result of air attacks shall not be considered as having been forwarded and received, but that a supplementary transport may be authorised to take their place.)  

Conforming to the first "Aliah" plan the strength of the first transport was fixed by Eichmann at 600 to 750 persons, but Kasztner succeeded in getting his 350 Zionists from Kolozsvar on the transport without them being included in the total. Finally he manoeuvred the strength permitted up to a total of 1,600 persons, and when the transport finally left, official records show that it consisted of 1,709 persons.

Towards the middle of June, however, it became evident that Brand's mission had failed entirely. Even the B.B.C. broadcast from London contained some enigmatic remarks, saying there could be no question of supplying goods. In view of the speed at which the deportations proceeded, the Germans grew increasingly nervous, fearing that in case some kind of an agreement was arrived at later on through the services of a more fitted delegate than Brand, there would be no human material left to serve as an equivalent of the goods required. For that reason a second "Vorzugslager" was established in Austria, at Strasshof near Vienna, and six deportation trains containing roughly 15,000 Jews from Szeged, Debrecen and Baja arrived there towards the end of June. These persons had to remain there awaiting the favourable terms hoped for and expected by the Germans. There they were "stored in a refrigerator", as "Eichmann used to express himself. ("Sie sind dort auls Eis gelegt!")

Thus matters were standing, when the first special Spanish transport set off under the guidance of Dr. Kasztner, who took care to include the Zionist leaders in the affair, but insisted on the right of decision. The official password of this transport was: "Aliah directed to Erez"-this obviously being a transport leaving for Palestine.

The SS strictly stuck to the condition that U.S. $ 2,000 per head were paid into the "open account", and in order to do this, wealthier persons had to contribute larger sums in order to make the inclusion of many of the Zionists, and chiefly of Dr. Kasztner's party, possible. The committee of Dr. Kasztner's party had its headquarters at No. 12, Sip Street, and its leader, Otto Komoly, was also the President of the Zionist Federation. Sandor Offenbach and Ernest Szilagyi, the members of the committee, were Social -Zionists, a group to which also Kasztner belonged.

The scenes that took place in those offices beggar description. Frightened to death by the deportations, whole crowds stormed the offices in their agony of fear. Heartbreaking scenes occurred. (271) In a desperate attempt to save their lives, Jews were digging up every item of value still concealed and throwing it on the counter in the committee's office for the sake of being enlisted as paying passengers. People wept, threatened, shouted, begged, implored to be allowed to join the transport.  

Meanwhile lists were drawn up and changed dozens of times by request of the various Jewish leaders and members of the Council. Admission was claimed for one, whilst another candidate, enjoying but weak support, was hustled out. Those fortunates who were finally registered, were sent to the Columbus Street camp, and, after this had been filled to capacity, to two auxiliary camps specially established.

It has to be stated that the organisation of this transport was deplorably bad. The Jewish interests raised serious objections to the fact that various individuals, who had deserted their former confessions decades ago, managed to squeeze out far worthier persons.  

Grievous charges were brought against Kasztner & Co. in general-(Brand having left, his place was being taken by his wife) -because no account had ever been rendered by them in respect of the huge sums collected by that time. Similarly, Kasztner never accounted for the amounts paid into his account from foreign sources. Dr. Kasztner and his companions have therefore only themselves to blame, if Jewish circles in general distrusted their activities from the beginning and, even up to the present time, are suspicious of their management of funds.

The first transport left on the night of Friday, June 29th. Among its passengers were to be found nearly all Zionist leaders-(President Komoly stood back at almost the very last moment)-as well as prominent members of the Conservative element of the Orthodox Jews. Only few of the better-known Neologues joined them, among them Dr. George Polgar, head of the Protecting Office. The Germans considered this transport a "model collection “, referring to the Jews as "samples". As they pointed out, they always took good care to dispatch the "Parade-Juden" (show pieces) first of all.

The agreement stipulated that further transports were to be dispatched on an "open account", being adjusted in form of a ''Zug um Zug Leistung" (train by train settlement), until a new general agreement had been arrived at.

For five days the transport was detained at Magyarovar, various pretexts and objections being given as reason. Rumours of a small-pox epidemic circulated and it was reported that Strasshof was overcrowded to such an extent that no further drafts could be admitted there. The Germans alleged that the Hungarians were not prepared to grant the necessary permission for the train to proceed and so it was finally turned back and directed to Bratislava via Komarom. On examining the documents of the train there, it soon transpired that the transport was bound for - Auschwitz! The despair of the passengers (272) can well be imagined . . . On enquires being made, the members of the SS escort stated that this was due to a clerical error as a German town of a similar name should have figured the route list. What really had happened has never been explained, in any case the conductor, after having pocketed a certain sum for his troubles, took the train off in a northerly direction at the very next junction and, instead of proceeding to Auschwitz, steamed into Western Germany. Finally they landed in Bergen-Belsen, near Hanover, where they were to stay until the consignments of war material had arrived in Germany. The first instalment was supposed to consist of 30 tractors. For this purpose Kasztner intended to open a credit in Switzerland and instructed Sally Mayer to effect a payment of 2 million Swiss francs a certain Swiss trustee, who was acting both for Kasztner and the Germans. This should have sufficed to get the first transport out of Germany and to allow the second transport to leave Hungary.

Soon however it became clear that things would not work out as simply as all that. For one thing the amount at the disposal of Kasztner in Switzerland was nothing near the sum required, then again there was no prospect of obtaining a foreign credit for the purpose of paying for the required consignments. A memorandum received much later informed the competent officials that the money, although at hand, could under no circumstance be used for such purchases.

In the meantime the suggestion was made to pay the Germans in cash. As the SS was still not willing to forego the agreed consignments and taking into account the desperate letters arriving from Bergen-Belsen begging for aid and assistance, the sum necessary to purchase the Swiss tractors was finally collected in Budapest. As soon as Sally Mayer heard about this, he immediately threatened to have all further remittances stopped in case the tractors were handed over to the Germans. This interference no doubt had as a sequel that no further transports could leave Hungary, thereby costing hundreds of thousands of human lives ...

In the end even Kasztner had to admit that he could no longer rely on Brand. He therefore entered into further discussions regarding consignments on an "open account" and even Offered to go abroad himself with one of the delegates of the "Sonderstab'' in order to discuss and settle the plan with the foreign Jewish organisations. (273)

II.

EFFORTS OF ANOTHER ZIONIST GROUP TO SAVE TENS OF THOUSANDS WITH NEUTRAL ASSISTANCE.

The action to have some part of Hungarian Jewry taken under neutral protection really started immediately after the German invasion. For the very first time provisional passports were issued under the auspices of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in favour of Hungarian Jewish families, whose close relatives-living in Sweden-intervened on their behalf. These provisional passports recognised the bearer as a Swedish subject, the more so as his foreign citizenship had to be correctly notified to the KEOKH office after he had been previously released by the Ministry of the Interior from all ties to the Hungarian State. Although this procedure by no means corresponded with international customs in force at that time, it was nevertheless tolerated by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

While Kasztner's discussions with the Gestapo threatened to 1 have reached a deadlock, Miklos Krausz, for his part, considered, the time ripe to give up his spontaneously passive behaviour and to commence activities. Contrary to Kasztner's opinion he argued as follows:

(1) The Gestapo is not to be trusted. The annihilation of European Jewry has proved that this organisation always attempted to divert the attention of the Jewish masses by promising alleviations in order to be all the better in a position to commit its atrocities. Therefore the continuation of any sort of connection with the Gestapo is not only useless but downright detrimental.  

(2) The terrorism of the Gestapo in Hungary cannot be compared with similar events that took place in other countries, as in other places the actions of the German Forces of Occupation were carried out by their proper organs. In Hungary, however, a country that officially had been occupied by so-called Allies, they had to depend on traitors-Hungarian Quislings-if their plans were to be carried out effectively. Furthermore they had to conceal the atrocities committed against the Jews, as well as the deportations, before the broad masses of the Hungarian population.

(3) The Sovereignty of Hungary remaining formally untouched by the German occupation, the foreign legations remain in Budapest in a body. Because of that the Germans are compelled to hide the deportations not only before the Hungarian people, but by virtue of the mere presence of the neutral legations and in view of the tactical aspects of the question, before the world as a whole. (274)

(4) The advance of the Red Army on the Hungarian borders apparently explains the fact that for the sake of the rescue of the Jews, time has to be won. Therefore measures have to be adopted that will thwart and upset German calculations, at the same time creating a chaotic situation.

(5) Considering the aspects mentioned above, it would appear obvious that the initiation of any action of relief or assistance would hold good prospects for the Hungarian Jews.

As soon as the failure of Dr. Kasztner's projects became evident, Miklos Krausz felt impelled to act independently.

He requested an audience from Minister Danielsson, the Swedish Envoy in Budapest, and, as representative of the Jewish Agency in Budapest, proposed that the Minister make arrangements for the dispatch to Budapest of a special delegate of the Swedish Red Cross. He even suggested that the President of this federation, Count Oscar Bernadotte,-a personality known throughout the world-should possibly come himself. Appropriate negotiations were started, but the Germans declined to grant the Count an entry permit into Hungary and therefore, towards the end of June, the King of Sweden appointed Mr. Waldemar Langlet, at that time Press Attache of the

Swedish Legation,

Budapest delegate of the Swedish Red Cross.

The following correspondence took place in this matter: Royal Swedish Legation, Budapest.

MEMORANDUM

By means of Verbal Note No. 92 of July 4th of this year the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been informed that Mr. Waldemar Langlet, an official on the staff of the Swedish Legation, has been appointed Swedish Red Cross Delegate in Hungary. In this capacity Mr. Langlet submitted to H. E. the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jungerth-Arnothy, a schedule of his proposed activities, these being substantially directed to assisting children, women and elderly people in need of aid. In accordance with the principles of the Swedish Red Cross, no differentiation can be made as regards the nationality, race or religion of the persons receiving assistance, and this point had been made clear in the schedule of activities mentioned above. As the Swedish Relief Action has to be carried out in full agreement with the Hungarian Red Cross a declaration stating that the Swedish Red Cross Organisation's proposed Relief Action would not be limited in its scope by restrictive measures on the part of Hungarian authorities would be gratefully appreciated. Budapest, July 14th, 1944. (275)

The Office of the Chief of Cabinet of the Hungarian Regent.

Budapest, July 25th, 1944.

Your Honour!

Referring to Your Honour's communication addressed to the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, may I herewith be permitted to inform you that the Royal Hungarian Government, as far as Your Honour's sphere of activities in your capacity as delegate of the Swedish Red Cross is concerned, on no account intends to institute restrictive measures on the plan of action as submitted by you to the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  

The harmonious collaboration of Your Honour with the Hungarian Red Cross will be supported by all legal means. With the expression of my highest esteem,  

                                                             I am, Your Honour,

                                   The Chief of Cabinet of the Hungarian Regent.

                                                           (sgd) de Ambrozy.

Dr. Langlet immediately requested permission from Jungerth-Arnothy for safe-conducts of the Swedish Red Cross to be issued in favour of "some" of the persecuted persons. This request was later presented to the Cabinet Meeting by Jungerth, who stressed that only 300 to 400 persons would be affected. The necessary permission was therefore actually granted.   

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon ascertained that Langlet had exceeded this number considerably. Naturally he repeatedly requested that the contingent be raised and this was also granted by the Ministry on several occasions, although they did not refrain from intimating that safe-conducts of this sort had no legal backing in international respects. Langlet of course knew all about that, but nevertheless presented Jungerth-Arnothy with the argument: "Why should he not issue documents such as the so-called safe-conducts, which merely proved a connection between Swedish interests and the bearer, whose main patron was the Swedish Red Cross-especially if the protected persons had confidence in them and felt reassured!"

Miklos Krausz was on friendly terms with the Swiss Legation, which at that time represented British interests and therefore also those of the Jews of Palestine. The person entrusted by the Swiss Legation with the protection of British and foreign interests was Consul Charles Lutz, whilst the Envoy himself, Minister Maximilian Jager, looked after the Swiss interests.

At Krausz's request Lutz issued the owners of the certificates already mentioned with legitimations. These documents stated that the bearer stood under the protection of the Swiss Legation until such time as the journey could commence. By virtue of these legitimations a great number of persons were later released from the internment camps, from labour service and even from the provincial ghettos. (276)

What was more, the Swiss Envoy addressed another Verbal Note to the Hungarian Government in order to have the emigration scheme put into effect.  

At that time a new institution under the leadership of Miklos Krausz was set up in the so-called "Glass-House" at 29, Vadasz Street, by the Swiss Legation, respectively by Consul Charles Lutz. The new organisation was called: "Emigration Department of the Swiss Legation-Representation of Foreign Interests,"

Meanwhile Miklos Krausz continued his activities of informing foreign countries of the true state of affairs. informational articles were dispatched by Rumanian couriers and in roundabout ways also to Dr. Posnerd at Geneva, who presented them to the competent authorities. Others were sent to the address of Barlass, at that time delegate of the Jewish Agency in Turkey. Thus the horrors perpetrated in Hungary became known all over the world as Dr. Posner showed the articles to the British and American Envoys in Bern. Dr. Barlass, on the other hand, forwarded the reports reaching him to the leaders of the Jewish world, to Dr. Weizmann, Dr. Nahum Goldmann and Moishe Shertock.

Krausz also tried to induce the British Government to grant recognition to the owners of certificates-whose numbers had in the meantime risen to 8,000-as Palestinian subjects and to instruct the Swiss Legation in Budapest to take charge of their protection and to authorise the Swiss Minister in Budapest to issue legitimations in this respect.  

As we have already stated, the Swiss Minister, on June 26th, delivered President Roosevelt's protest. Similar measures on the part of other countries followed subsequently and the deportations were stopped. Impressed by the favourable atmosphere and the intervention of, the Swiss Legation, the Hungarian Government repeatedly urged the German Government to grant emigration permits to the 8,000 Jewish families, and indeed, on July 10th, the Hungarian Government was already able to intimate that in principle the Germans were inclined to comply. The details were to be discussed separately.

Rumors of this spread through the city like wildfire and while the question was being discussed almost daily in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the crowds were scrambling for a chance to obtain one of these permits. Tens of thousands of people, who, obviously encouraged by the first Zionist transport, also wanted to emigrate to Palestine and hoped thus to escape deportation, presented themselves at the Sip Street offices. Reports circulated about some "obligatory" work, which was to be performed in Germany and would last some months, the people taking part thereafter being released through Switzerland. (Evidently this report can be explained by the fact that the arrival of Kasztner's first group in Bergen-Belsen had become known. Without knowledge of the financial negotiations going on behind (277) the scenes, the conclusion was arrived at "that labour service had to be performed in Germany.")

In the meantime discussions were continued in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the presence of the representatives of this Ministry as well as of the Ministry of Commerce, the Swiss and German delegates as well as those of the International Red Cross and Miklos Krausz acting on behalf of the Jewish Agency. Finally they agreed to the following decisions:

(1) To draw up a collective passport.

(2) The Hungarian State Railways to place a weekly contingent consisting of one complete train of 30 cars with 72 seats each and two luggage vans at the disposal of the action.

(3) Each emigrant to be allowed to take with him 80 kilos of luggage.  

(4) Officials of the Swiss Legation and the International Red Cross to be permitted to accompany the transport as far as Constanza.

(5) The special trains to run under the insignias of Switzerland and the International Red Cross.

(6) Each group to be escorted by a well equipped detachment of gendarmerie. (This was recommended by Ferenczy as a protection against possible Gestapo attacks.)

(7) Labour enlistments to be stopped for the duration of the term of emigration.

(8) The Foreign Office to place a courier at the disposal of Mr. Krausz, through whom the latter can advice Mr. Barlass and ask him to keep sufficient ships ready at Constanza for the transport of 8,000 families. Moreover the Hungarian Government to send direct notification to Mr. Barlass via the Hungarian Ambassador at Ankara.

Eichmann, who at the beginning of July had already reported to the Reichsfuhrungsamt that the liquidation of the Hungarian Jews had been completed and that only the technical part required a few more days, saw a loss of prestige in the delay of the deportations and flew to Himmler for new instructions. Veesenmayer took the same line in his negotiations and threatened to rob the country of its sovereignty by turning it into a Protectorate. Eichmann then returned with new instructions.

Sztojay got in touch with Veesenmayer and General Winkelmann on July 21st, requesting to be acquainted with their attitude towards the emigration of Hungarian Jews to Palestine. Both stated that the German standpoint had been announced and that the action might continue.

The Prime Minister thereupon informed Councillor of Legation Csopey and Consul Lutz in the presence of the German Councillor of Legation of the following:

(1) The Hungarian Government agrees to the action of emigration to Palestine as before and they may, therefore, continue the technical arrangements. (278)

(2) The Prime Minister had questioned the German Envoy as to the German attitude, whereupon the Envoy had answered that the German Government agreed to the operation. Here Hr. Grell, the German Councillor of Legation, remarked that the actual departure was dependent on negotiations between the Hungarian and German Governments regarding some political question, which he did not intend to discuss. (He had in mind the German offer to permit the emigration to Palestine on the condition that the remaining Jews were concentrated in camps in Western Europe.)

(3) Permission for the emigration via Constanza will be given by the German authorities in Budapest. Regarding the journey via Germany, the result of the steps taken by Minister Veesenmayer in Berlin will have to be awaited.

(4) The Minister of the Interior has no objections against the scheme of transporting emigrating Jews from their homes and not from concentration camps, but he thinks it necessary to simplify the scheme by assembling the Jews about to emigrate in special houses.*)

Negotiations were continued with Kasztner, in which Hauptsturmführer Grusont representing Bacher also took part. Freudiger was informed by Grusont that the SS followed a higher aim in offering to exchange the remaining European Jews for war material and particularly trucks. Himmler took the view that "the actions of England and America were directed by Jews" and that the United Nations could therefore be persuaded to cease waging war against Germany and to join the latter in the struggle against Russia. They intended to solve this political aim by offering the Jews in exchange and would allow the Jews, in the event of a successful solution, to leave Europe. If this scheme did not succeed, they would have liked to exchange a certain number of Jews for war material and, by doing so, compromise the Jews in the eyes of the Russians.

 Negotiations to this effect developed to the stage that Kasztner and Grusont left for Switzerland in order to continue them there. Before beginning negotiations, Kasztner demanded that the entire group at Bergen-Belsen be taken to a neutral country. Eichmann agreed to show his " good intentions" by transporting 500 Jews, who could be selected in Budapest, to Switzerland. Kasztner accepted this offer on condition that the rest should also leave German territory before the negotiations were begun, as otherwise it would be impossible for him to show proof of the sincerity of the German offer. (This transport thereupon actually arrived in Switzerland.) As is evident by the above, certain differences of opinion in Germany on matters of home politics and military strategy offered Hungarian Jewry a basis for negotiations, which was, however, neglected at that time. It was not realised that the German Legation,

*) 432/Res. Pol.-1944. Daily Report of Councillor of Legation Csopey.  (279)

that is Minister Veesenmayer and, principally, Councillor of Legation Feine, took the part of Ribbentrop and Goring, that is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Wehrmacht. Ribbentrop was prepared to grant the neutral countries concessions and the Wehrmacht had no objection against neutral rescue actions, provided they were supplied with foreign war material.

Opposing them was Himmler, the leader of the SS. His representatives in Hungary were Bacher and, as far as the legation was concerned, Councillor of Legation Grell, both of course supported by General of SS Winckelmann. The SS, too, agreed to the emigration of the Jews, but in addition to war material they demanded the entire wealth of the Jews or the value thereof in dollars, gold and jewels.

Eichmann, who in his capacity of head of Dept. IV/a of the Security Police (Sicherheitsdienst) was a direct sub-ordinate of Himmler's and who was therefore obliged to keep to his instructions and even to collaborate up to a certain point with Bacher, would have preferred to forget about the material aspect and to proceed with the deportations without the slightest hesitation. For him the physical destruction of the Jews had preference over the interests of war although no doubt he would have been best pleased to also secure the wealth of the Jews for the SS-without despising the smaller part, which he himself could have pocketed in the process.

These various points must be borne in mind in order to understand both past and future events. As far as the Hungarians were concerned, the Sztojay Government was hardly interested in the 1 fate of the Jews, but all the more so in their wealth. The measures instituted by them in an attempt to gain their ends have already been described. The exponents possessing active influence in the Jewish question and who represented the Government-that is Endre and Baky and their executive officer, Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy sided with Eichmann: their motive was blind hate, and their every effort went to support Eichmann's destructive intentions with all the power at their disposal. Theirs may not have been the decisive word when the time came, but they were enthusiastic tools of Eichmann's wishes.*) As the reader will have noticed, there was an important difference between the two Zionist actions. The one organised by Kasztner relied fully on the SS as the ruling power in Hungary. The Palestine action initiated by Krausz, on the other hand, reckoned with the support of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and placed reliance in the neutral countries, that is on their negotiations and agreements with the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the course of the Nuremberg trial Wyslizeni confessed: "The deportation of the Hungarian Jews proceeded smoothly, because Secretaries of State Endre and Baky supported us with great understanding and Lieut.-Col. of Gendarmerie Ferenczy assisted us on Baky's instructions by placing the gendarmerie at our disposal." (280)

First of all let us follow the further developments of Kasztner's action. The first group in Bergen-Belsen became impatient whilst negotiations were still proceeding, whilst at the same time the SS in Budapest demanded settlement of the "open account" and delivery of the tractors. Kasztner was incapable of finding his way through the maze of accounts and for that reason enlisted the help of a Zionist friend, Andor Byss [Biss], so that there might be a slight chance of clearing up the chaos.

Events suddenly took a grave turn: Kasztner, returning from Switzerland, was arrested on the staircase of his block of flats. Resistance was useless, be was dragged away. (It had happened several times before that Kasztner had been taken into custody for interrogation purposes by either the German Security Police or the Hungarian Police or the anti-espionage organisation, but he had he always been set free again by the SS.) This time nobody knew which organisation had arrested Kasztner or where they had taken him.

In Kasztner's absence Freudiger was instructed by Eichmann to continue the negotiations. Wyslizeni, who had in the meanwhile appeared once more and seemed to have gained Eichmann's confidence, told Freudiger that the delivery of 250 trucks from Switzerland was the object of the discussions, and that Eichmann would have to insist on these, as they were, for him, a matter of prestige. As Freudiger said, quite correctly, "Eichmann has got himself into a corner", The price quoted for the 250 trucks was by no means exorbitant, but Sally Maier [Mayer], the Swiss representative of the Jewish Agency, vetoed the demand, emphazising that it was an open secret that the SS intended to make the best of the opportunity and to use the trucks as proof that "the British were supplying the enemy with war material against their own Allies, the Russians". Six days later Kasztner returned. He stated that he had no idea who had arrested him and that his eyes had even been bandaged before he was interrogated. It was his opinion that he had been arrested by a group sympathising with Endre and Baky and had only been released owing to the energetic efforts of the SS. (Later on it transpired that Ferenczy had arrested Kasztner off his own bat. Ferenczy had suddenly realised that Eichmann was "letting him take the can back" by having the deportations executed by him, whilst he, at the same time and behind his back, set Jews free and allowed large groups of them to leave the country against adequate repayment. Ferenczy reported this to Endre and Baky, and these gentlemen, "indignant" at the business sense of the Germans, tried to wreck further negotiations by arresting Kasztner. It was Ferenczy's deputy, Captain Lulay, who carried out this mission. First of all he took Kasztner to Alag. Then, as he had business to attend to in the provinces, he made his victim accompany him in another car and under a gendarmerie escort and dragged him through a number of provincial towns in an attempt to stop the SS from finding out his whereabouts. Finally, however, (281) the Germans discovered Kasztner's. involuntary hiding place and set him free.)

In the meanwhile the war situation in the west took a striking turn for the worse. The air attacks destroyed one German industrial centre after the other, making the question of supply of war material from foreign sources an increasingly urgent one, and as no agreement could be reached in Budapest regarding the bartering of the Jews, Bacher on July 19th flew to Berlin in order to discuss new conditions with Himmler.

(Eichmann made use of the absence of Bacher [Becher] by storming Kistarcsa Camp and deporting the persons interned there.) Bacher had picked an unfortunate moment for his trip, as owing to "the attempt made on Hitler's life on July 20th, Himmler had bigger things to worry about than the Hungarian Jews. He instructed Bacher to come to an agreement somehow.

On returning to Budapest, Bacher opened up new negotiations with Kasztner. He informed him that an agreement regarding the number of Jews affected could be reached, but that it was of the utmost importance that the negotiations were concluded as soon as possible, so that the deliveries might commence. Plans to be formulated would have to include German Jews and Jewish nationals of the countries occupied by Germany, including Rumania. Bacher - it is not known whether by mistake or intentionally - gave the number of Jews surviving as three millions.

Consequently Kasztner began to form a new group without delay. It was decided that the wealthier members of the group would have to pay not only for themselves, but also for less fortunate Jews, as the coffers of the Jewish Council were empty and no money for this purpose had been received from abroad, whereas the transport expenses had to be paid and the persons interned at Strasshof fed. A system was instituted, by which the Jews applying for enrolment were divided into two groups: the poor ones were sent to Vadasz street for inclusion in the Krausz transport and the rich ones, able and willing to pay, entered their names in a list lying up in a room of the Dohany Street synagogue, where the financial questions were discussed. Each person there was required to pay at least 100,000 pengos, and anybody not in possession of sufficient cash could offer gold, jewels or even real estate. Thus a new group of roughly a thousand persons was formed and accomodated in the camp in Columbus Street, which had meanwhile been emptied to a large extent. Otto Komoly, who with several companions had stood back from the first transport a few minutes prior to its departure, was the head of this new group.  

Thousands of Jews stood in queues outside the "Glass-House" in Vadasz Street day by day in order to enter their names for the new transport. Towards the end of July the Swiss collective passport was issued. (The Hungarian Government would not issue passports, as it did not recognise Hungarian Jews as Hungarian (282) citizens,) The collective passport contained the personal data and photos of 2,200 persons, the exit permit of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the transit visa of the Rumanian Government. On August 2nd the passport was handed to the German Legation for its endorsement. From day to day the German Legation postponed the granting of the necessary visa, stating that everything was in the best of order with the exception of some very minor details, which no doubt could be settled in next to no time. This went on for so long, that Sztojay grew impatient and intervened in person. He received the reply that it was necessary "to wait a few more days". Towards the middle of July the German Legation informed the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the visa could only be granted, if the Jews remaining in Budapest were concentrated somewhere in the West. The reason offered for this demand was "that the Budapest Jews might join some partisan movement and could therefore, as a very hostile element, not be allowed to remain in Budapest". Under these circumstances the Swiss Legation was not prepared to accept the visa.

A few days later Consul Lutz had a private discussion with Councillor of Legation Feine, in which he explained the position. When Eichmann, who was staying in Budapest, heard that the German Government was prepared to permit the emigration of 8,000 Jewish families, he realised that this exodus of some 35,000 to 40,000 persons would adversely influence the chances of the transaction proposed by the SS and Gestapo. For that reason he made a protest to the German Legation. Veesenmayer informed him that the permission had been granted as a result of instructions received from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whereupon the SS requested a postponement of the actual granting of the permission until they had been able to intervene in Berlin. They came to an agreement and Eichmann flew to see Himmler in Berlin.

Himmler compromised with Ribbentrop, whose leanings were towards the Wehrmacht, after the latter had declared not to be able to revoke the permission promised to Switzerland; finally they agreed - and this decision was made known to the Hungarian Government by the German Legation - to grant the permission for the emigration to Palestine to take place, provided the Jews remaining in the country were taken to a camp in Western Hungary. There can be no doubt that this agreement satisfied Himmler and Eichmann, as it would have been very easy to remove the Jews in Western Hungarian camps from the country in trucks, as had already been done in Kistarcsa and some weeks later in the internment camp of Sarvar.  

Not unlike the Swedish Red Cross, the International Red Cross in Geneva soon started to issue safe-conducts, in the main instance to its own employees.

These safe-conducts of the Red Cross organisations did not confer "foreign nationality" but merely "promised protection". The same applies to the legitimations issued by the Swiss Legation to (283) the owners of the certificates mentioned previously. All this was discussed later.

Simultaneously with the handing-over of the Swiss collective passport, Sweden requested the issue of an exit permit for the 640 Jewish persons, who had been supplied by her with a provisional passport. Similar requests were made by the Portuguese Legation for 9 persons, and by the Spanish Legation for 3 persons of Jewish origin.

Germany raised no objections against the departure of these persons and the German Legation in Budapest granted the requests made, emphasizing however, that no freight-cars were available for this purpose.  

The reason for the delay in the issue of the permits was that they still hoped the "big plan" might materialise and that it would be possible for them to barter Jews against war material.

The Allied invasion of France and its immediate success, as well as the newly begun Russian offensive, put an end to these negotiations and finally proved the undoing of Himmler's proposed trade in human beings. At the same time these events stiffened Horthy's resistance to such a degree that for some months to come there was no serious talk of a deportation of the Hungarian Jews.

(During the autumn Kasztner and Bacher's agent made a trip to Switzerland, where the negotiations were continued until it became possible to rescue the Bergen-Belsen group by allowing it to enter Switzerland.)

It has not been possible to get to the bottom of all facts concerning the vast Zionist rescue-attempt and the reasons for its failure. It must however be said here that the aid given to Hungarian Jewry by foreign quarters was too scanty by far. To this day the competent leaders of the Hungarian Jews have been unable to ascertain the exact amounts - both with regard to their sum total and the use they were to be put to - that were received from abroad for this purpose. World Jewry has still to determine, who or what is responsible for the fact that the opportunity of rescuing one million Jews by paying 2 million dollars was missed. Following communication, addressed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, at that time living in Berlin in the pay of the Nazis, to the Hungarian Government, is as significant as it is interesting:

        The Grand Mufti.                                          Berlin, June 22nd, 1944

His Excellency,

The Royal Hungarian Foreign Minister,

BUDAPEST.

Your Excellency,

In the course of this war many Balkan Jews have been emigrating to Palestine. In their issues No. 157 and 158 of April 14th and May 5th the fortnightly periodical "Information de Palestine" was able to write: "The number of Jews, who emigrated to Palestine during the month of April, exceeded 1,000." The "News from Arabic Countries (284) ", published by the Foreign Office in Berlin, has contained frequent reports of Jewish transports to Palestine via Turkey. In their edition of March 21st, 1944, the London "Times" stated that "the Jewish Association 'Aliyah' alone was able to transport 5,000 Jewish children and juveniles from the Balkan to Palestine since the outbreak of war, thereby rescuing them from Nazi oppression. After regaining their health many of them entered the fighting services, whilst others are being trained for agriculture and industry."

This is but a poor example of the damage which these Jews are capable of doing, the dangers of which I already pointed out to the Royal Hungarian Government over a year ago.

Quite apart from the military and propagandistic damage caused by this emigration, the Jews, as Your Excellency will be aware, are in possession of a mass of important secret information and maintain a number of secret organisations. Furthermore these thousands of Jewish refugees are beginning to be a burden to the Palestinian Arabs. Also on other Arabs this emigration will make a bad impression, they will not be able to understand that these transports originate from countries, with which they maintain friendly relations.

Whilst expressing my lull admiration for the measures instituted against the Jews by the Royal Hungarian Government, I believe that particularly at this time there will be Jewish attempts to escape to Turkey and Palestine via Rumania or Bulgaria. Therefore I beg to request the Royal Hungarian Government to instruct all competent authorities not to permit the departure of Jews and to lake all steps necessary to stop the open or secret emigration to Palestine.

I have high hopes of the Royal Hungarian Government instituting these measures in the interest of the Hungarian and the Arab people.

With the expression of my greatest esteem for Your Excellency,

                                                                     I beg to remain

                                                          (sgd) AMIN L. HUSSEIN.

The Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its representative in Berlin, Sandor Hoffmann, replied as follows:

Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ref.: 374/Res. Pol.-1944. Budapest, July 14th, 1944.

Subject: Memorandum of the Grand Mufti concerning Jewish emigration to Palestine.

Enclosed please find copy of letter dated June 22nd, addressed to me by the Grand Mufti and requesting the Royal Hungarian Government to prevent Jewish emigration to Palestine.

You are instructed to deliver following message to the Grand Multi in reply to his abovementioned letter: (285) "The Royal Hungarian Minister lor Foreign Affairs has received the Grand Mufti's letter which dealt with the Jewish emigration to Palestine, with full appreciation. He wishes to inform you that the requests contained therein will be given the fullest consideration.

                                                                   For the Minister

                                                      (sgd) JUNGERTH-ARNOTHY

The activities of the Red Cross did not come to an end with that: on August 12th the Swiss Envoy to Hungary, Baron Charles Bothmer, reported in his letter No. 236/Res. Pol.-1944 that on August 9th he had received a letter from Prof. Burckhardt, then of the International Red Cross, containing various questions regarding the Jews intending to emigrate to Palestine. In its strictly confidential reply No. 584/Res. Pol..-1944 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs authorised the Envoy to inform the International Red Cross as follows:

"The Royal Hungarian Government acknowledges the full competence of the International Red Cross regarding all emigrations and rescue actions initiated or negotiated by the International Red Cross in Hungary. As far as Hungarian interests are concerned, the Royal Hungarian Government will issue all permits necessary. Permits other than these will have to be obtained by the International Red Cross from the countries concerned."

On August 25th Envoy Bothmer reported in his letter No. 362/Res. Pol.-1944 that on August 21st he had received a communication, No. F 59/5/65, from Max Huber, the President of the International Red Cross, to which was attached a copy of the Anglo-American message regarding the transportation of Jews to foreign countries. Huber had requested an early reply and, "from the point of view of the governments concerned and of public opinion", had drawn the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to the importance of facilitating the soonest possible departure of this transport consisting of 2,000 persons. In its letter 598/ Res. Pol.-1944 the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied, emphasizing that the Anglo-American statement was incorrect, as not the Hungarian Government had been responsible for the proposal of sending the Jews to neutral countries, but the Red Cross, the Palestinian Emigration Committee and various Refugee Organisations. The Hungarian Government had conscientiously done everything in its power and could not be held responsible if these actions had not fully succeeded up to the present day (Sept. 2nd, 1944). (286)

III.

INDIVIDUAL ATTEMPTS AT RESCUE - GERMANY AND HUNGARY FIGHT FOR THE JEWISH CAPITAL.

A worse fate befell a small party, which, like the Zionists, had paid considerable sums to be allowed to proceed to Palermo in a plane supplied by the Gestapo, from where they intended to try and reach Egypt. The industrial magnate Dr. Albert Hirsch, the director of the "Fonciere", Frigyes Ribary and his family, the managing director of "Paper Industries Ltd.", Dr. Heinrich Hercz and his wife and well as the widow of the former managing director of "Cotton Industries Ltd.", Robert Szurday, fell into a trap prepared by a gang of confidence tricksters who were working hand in glove with the Gestapo. Per head these rich Jews paid between one half and one million pengos for permission to take with them an unlimited amount of foreign currency and jewels. The party set out on its journey, travelling to the airport in a private car. In conjunction with the Gestapo, the gang attacked them on the way there. They were robbed of everything and afterwards , deported. Albert Hirsch and Heinrich Hercz died in Mauthausen, Mrs. Szurday in Auschwitz. (Ribary's statement to the Police.)

A second group consisting of Dr. Helmuth Bittner and Lajos Mencsik and their families and led by Erwin Quittner also disappeared. A third group (Armin Erdos, Rezso Bergely, Miklos Vitez and their families) suffered a similar fate. They were robbed of everything and some of them were deported.

 Another well planned attempt at escape was successful. It furthermore possessed an extraordinarily interesting background concerning the economic and industrial aspects of the country. Ever since the German invasion began, a struggle went on behind the scenes concerning the actual crux of the matter: the Jewish wealth. The German point of view was simple enough: "We solve the Jewish problem-therefore Jewish wealth becomes our property!"

The following points go to prove this:

1) The Jews are "expelled" from the areas on the northern and southern frontiers, the "operational areas", and their mobile property is loaded into freight-cars and taken to Germany.

2) "Special demands" dispose of the wealth of the Budapest Jews.

3) The Jews about to be deported are not searched by the Gestapo. They are allowed to take their luggage with them and the Germans instruct them to take as much food as possible. Once in Auschwitz, all this will belong to the Germans in any case. Sometimes they are so greedy that they start the institution of ghettos, which is, of course, combined with looting. (Kecskemet!) (287)

4) As soon as the Hungarian Government issues decrees forbidding the free disposal of mobile Jewish property, they enter into negotiations with the Zionists. They declare themselves willing to let all Jews get out of the country, if they are supplied with war material and given a few million dollars in gold and precious stones. As the confiscation of property puts an end to these negotiations, small groups are allowed to escape on handing over foreign currency and jewelry, or on arranging the supply of Swiss medical supplies and trucks.

5) As part of the "Chorin Action" rich families are released on allowing the Germans to "rent" the extensive war plants. Other concerns are confiscated and Jewish landed property is sequestrated.

6) The leader of the Hungarian Gestapo, Peter Hain, is induced to hand rich Jews over to the German Gestapo, - but "the confiscated property of those handed over belongs to the Germans". (The incredibly valuable paintings, carpets etc. of the Jeno Kaldi, Ferencz Chorin, Hatvany, Kornfeld, Weiss families).

7) The Sztojay Government is required to hand over the food rations of half a million deported Jews.

8) Finally the Sztojay Government is stung to the tune of two million pengos, being "transportation costs" of the Jews.

The Sztojay Government, however, was also interested in the movable wealth of the Jews. A large number of decrees was issued in order to safeguard this "national wealth". The problem excited the imagination of the Endre and Ferenczy groups, encouraging them to extend their activities. Sztojay created a special ministerial department for Imrédy, the "Ministry of Economics", in order to secure the Jewish wealth for Hungary and to prevent its falling into German hands.

The following steps were taken with this aim in mind:

1) A Government Commissioner for the safeguarding of Jewish property is appointed. Gold, jewels and securities are deposited in banks, where the Germans cannot get at them. The shops and business premises are closed (later on the members of the Arrow Cross movement were to seize all these assets). An attempt is made to prepare an inventory of all Jewish property left behind. ("Good neighbours" have been removing things for the Germans). Internment and use of the gendarinerie prevent Jews leaving their valuables with Aryan friends. Gendarmes and midwives are sent into the ghettos where searches conducted with utmost brutality deprive the Jews of their last possessions.

2) A Government official is attached to the Jewish Council in Budapest, whose duty it is to check the German demands and, if possible, to thwart them.

3) The "luggage vans" of the deportation trains are uncoupled. Deportees are not allowed to take luggage with them into the concentration camps, not even the most necessary articles of daily use. They are not permitted to take food into (288) the freight-cars. And why should they? The Germans are only waiting to take it from them.

 4) A minister with cabinet rank is appointed to counterbalance the German industrial demands.

5) Objections are raised to the rescue attempts (Zionists, Ferenc Chorin). Especially Imrédy does everything to preserve the Jewish property for Hungary. This leads to a sharp conflict between him and Peter Hain, and he suffers a defeat at the hands of Baky, who is a paid tool of the Germans.

The bone of contention therefore was the Jewish wealth, valued at something like 8 milliard gold pengos. For the sake of this, hundreds of thousands of human beings had to be destroyed in the gas chambers! It was the biggest robbery of all times!

The negotiations concerning the Manfred Weiss works were particularly distressing to the Sztojay Government and finally induced them - and the Regent, who found it difficult to make up his mind - to adopt a more unrelenting attitude. At this stage the Sztojay Government had already lost much of its authority in the eyes of Horthy, and whilst up to then the presence of Veesenmayer in the Fortress had been the decisive factor, the Regent now - mainly under the influence of Gyula Ambrozy - ventured to protest against the German economic imperialism, which had been steadily increasing in Hungary. About the middle of May Horthy dropped the passive attitude he had shown until then and in an increasingly energetic manner attempted to influence the run of events. On May 20th, for instance, he addressed the following letter to the Prime Minister:

"Some short while ago a decree of the Royal Hungarian Government - quite rightly - prohibited the confiscation of landed property. It is, however, even less permissible to allow agricultural, industrial or commercial enterprises or the estates, buildings, equipment or raw materials needed to maintain them, to be handed over to a foreign power, or for a Government Department to sanction such actions. If we cannot ourselves produce everything needed in these critical times to further our exertions, if the lull output of industry and agriculture is not at our disposal, this not only means the end of the sovereignty of the State, but makes every administration and the control of supplies necessitated by the present circumstances impossible.

No military or civil authority, not even the Cabinet member who would normally have been competent, may in future arrive at an arbitrary decision in matters affecting the transfer to a foreign power of agricultural, industrial or commercial enterprises or the estates, buildings equipment or raw materials needed to maintain them. Every matter affecting this question must be brought before the Cabinet Council and, should this arrive at a (289) decision Favouring the transfer of the object in question, my consent is required before the transfer is finally permitted.

Every request or demand made in this connection by a foreign power must be treated in accordance with the afore-said and must be granted by the Cabinet Council and receive my consent before it can be agreed to. Should I refuse my consent, the Minister concerned will be entitled to give this as the reason for non-compliance to the competent representative ol the foreign power concerned.

You are instructed to take all steps to ensure that the contents of this letter are brought to the notice of all members of the Royal Hungarian Government and that the instructions contained herein are complied with."

(The foreign power mentioned in this letter can of course only mean Nazi Germany. The agricultural, industrial and commercial enterprises referred to in the letter were Jewish property threatened with confiscation by the Germans.)

The extremely rich families of Baron Weiss, Chorin, Kornfeld and Mauthner tried to make the best of this bitter struggle by making it the basis of their attempt to escape. After weeks of negotiations, in which the younger brother of Hermann Goring also took part, it was agreed to seek the help of the High Command of the SS by offering them material advantages. The industrial plants of the Weiss-Chorin-Kornfeld group as well as those of Mauthner were transferred for 25 years. The owners took their gold and jewelry with them and were promised a further payment of US $ 600,000 once they were abroad; this, however, never came to pass. Each family had to leave a hostage in Vienna, so that they would not be able to indulge in anti-Nazi propaganda from abroad. The 45 richest members of these Jewish families, most of whom had been baptized for some time, went to Vienna by car, from where, 6 weeks later, the Lufthansa took them to Zurich via Stuttgart. (4 others were accomodated in a Viennese hotel) From Zurich the party flew on to Lisbon some days later. (On March 19th Dr. Ferencz Chorin and Baron Morie Kornfeld had sought refuge in the monastery of Zirc. They were followed to this hide-out by a detachment of Gestapo, having carelessly betrayed their secret in the course of a telephone conversation. Since then they had been under Gestapo supervision and, at first in Vienna and later in Budapest, had been threatened with death until they had agreed to the "transaction'',)

Imrédy had wished to stop the flight of the Chorin family. He even asked Veesenmayer and Winckelmann to intervene, but Himmler, whose final decision had been sought by Kurt Bacher, the head of the Economic Office, had given his permission for this flight to take place. At that time Himmler had been given carte blanche, and - following Goring's example - intended to (290) organise a Himmler concern. In justification of his step, Imrédy referred to the protection of "patriotic" interests, in reality his motive was his hate of Chorin and Kornfeld.

The affair of the Jewish art treasures is another one to be discussed at this stage. The political police of Peter Hain mainly concentrated on those treasures, which had not actually been hidden, but had been stored in the cellars of Budafoke as a preventive measure against air-raids. The greater part of these inestimable treasures was formed by the collection of paintings belonging to the family of Baron Herczog, among them paintings by El Greco, Van Dyke, Goya, Rembrandt, Rubens, Gauguin and other old masters. Years ago the director of the British National Gallery had offered one million pounds sterling for the collection. Furthermore there were magnificent Persian carpets, brocades, gobelins, and ecclesiastic treasures, all of which had, by order of the Sztojay Government, been registered just as conscientiously as the treasures belonging to Jeno Kaldis and other rich Jewish collectors. Peter Hain had all these treasures taken to the Svabhegy, where he exhibited them in conjunction with a propaganda campaign in the local press. Denes Csanky, as Government Commissioner, then took over the custody of these treasures, but a considerable quantity of gold and jewels had vanished under the hands of Peter Hain and his accomplices. It was mainly Imrédy who was concerned with this question, and it was as a result of this surrender of art treasures, industrial equipment and products to the Germans that he was involved in a sharp conflict with the Germans and the Baky group, which seemed to be prepared to surrender unconditionally. The Germans demanded part of the art treasures for themselves, saying that as the Hungarian political police had handed the culprits over to them, they would also have to hand over the confiscated valuables found in their possession. An investigation of Peter Rain's activities was started, in the course of which this notorious Gestapo spy succeeded in escaping to Germany. Imrédy, however, was overthrown by the Baky group. Following statement about Hain was published later on by official quarters: "He has not proved sufficiently conscientious in his supervision of the Jewish property now regarded as national wealth and has embezzled at least 60 million pengos." The greater and best part of the art treasures was taken to Germany in military trucks ... (291)

IV.

LARGE SCALE ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

The other large scale attempt at escape of the capital's Jews was that they tried to place themselves under the protection of the Christian Churches.

By the beginning of July the position taken up by the Christian Churches, as well as their various interventions was widely known and the rumour circulated "that the baptized Jews would not be deported." (We have seen that this rumour had some foundation!) As a result of this a veritable "fever of conversion" broke out among the Jews of the capital. According to Budapest official records altogether no more than 4,770 conversions were registered, experts, however, declare that at least 80,000 certificates of baptism - the greater part of these faked ones - were held.

First of all a run was made on the parish office of Tereyvaros, as this quarter was the one most densely inhabited by Jews. As they did later on for bread, so those who wished to be baptized formed a queue on both sides of Nagyinezo and Profeta Streets. Order was soon disturbed as - mainly under the influence of the yellow press, for which this occasion was too good to miss, - members of the Nyilas (Arrow-Cross) organisation appeared between the Church and the parish office, picked a quarrel with the waiting crowd, entered the Church and beat up those waiting there. After several similar events, some of the parish offices exhibited posters saying: "Conversions are no longer taking place".

Under the influence of the extremist attacks the following statement was, on July 24th, issued to the press by the Primate's chancellery through the Catholic news-agency, "Magyar Kurir":

"With regard to the recurrent desire for conversion to the Catholic Church, which nowadays is widespread and rife, it is pointed out to the heads of parishes and ecclesiastic offices by the competent ecclesiastic authority, that in this question it is necessary to observe most conscientiously the standpoint o! the Church. The rites connected with the sacrament of baptism are to be strictly adhered to. The term of dogmatic instruction laid down is to be prolonged, as it is now, in view of the growing number of candidates for conversion, more necessary than ever for the priest responsible for the baptism or his deputy to ensure that the applicant not only possesses the dogmatic knowledge required, but also yearns for the Church of Christ from the (292) bottom of his heart and has sincere intentions. The sacrament of baptism can only be administered after the conscientious observance of a term of probation, and only to those, of whom it can be taken for granted that they seek not only the possession of a certificate of baptism, but mainly the regenerating force and redeeming grace of Christ, that is to say to those, who will not only augment the number of so-called register-Christians, but who wish to be a part of the community of the Church of Christ. Furthermore it is only natural that neither the sanctity of the church nor the fervour of the faithful should be allowed to suffer as a result of the instruction of the applicants."

Similar statements were issued by the Lutheran and Calvinist Churches.

These statements emanating from ecclesiastic quarters lulled the conversion fever for a little while. It flared up again, when posters were exhibited requesting all converts baptized before August 1st, 1941, to report this fact to the competent parish offices, so that a list could be prepared and forwarded to Section IV of the Municipality. The Union of Christian Jews in Hungary was established by a decree and, under the leadership of Gyorgy Auer and Sandor Torok, began its function by asking all Jews holding a valid certificate of baptism to report. The applicants were required to complete printed forms. More than 70,000 persons reported, paid 15 pengos and in return received a small cardboard certificate.

An appeal was made to the baptized Jews, asking them to report their personal particulars. It had become known that crowds of people, who had only the "intention" of being converted, had registered with the new Union. (Not very much later, on October 15th, the functions and activities of the Union of Christian Jews ceased.)

A number of those Jews, who wished to be baptized, were instructed by serious religious teachers, mostly in the shelters of certain houses marked with the Star of David. A good many, however, fell into the clutches of impostors, "pseudo-priests", who swindled their victims of more or less substantial sums under the pretext of collecting "fees". The three months' term of instruction prior to conversion would in most cases just about have expired at the time when the "Nyilas" seized power, and for this reason a considerable part of the baptisms were never carried out. 20 Black Book (293)

A HUNGARIAN RELIEF ATTEMPT: THE HORTHY ACTION.

In July 1944 the idea occurred to Miklos Mester, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Education, - to whom Gyula Ambrozy, Horthy's Chef de Cabinet, had made urgent representations that something definite ought to be done for the more effective protection of the Jews - that the Regent himself should grant exemption to certain Jews. Until the project could be realized, Ambrozy, in the name of the Regent, signed a number of provisional (temporary) exemption certificates for Jews or threatened persons of Jewish origin.

The proposed "exemptions by the Regent" were not intended to be published in the official gazette in order to avoid their large number attracting attention. At a Cabinet Council Imrédy and his associate Ministers protested against the project, which therefore could not be carried out until Imrédy, Kunder and Jaross had resigned from the Sztojay Cabinet. After that a Cabinet Council of the Sztojay Cabinet conferred on the Regent the right to exempt Jews.

The requests had to be presented personally and the exemption granted also included members of the family. (The exempted Jew was permitted to retain his flat and did not have to wear the Star of David). The procedure was that the party concerned presented his request at one of the Ministries, who submitted it to the Regent's Cabinet Office. The great majority of the Ministries refused to accept such requests. The Ministry of Education was the exception to the rule. Istvan Antal, Minister of Justice and temporarily in charge of the Ministry of Education, as a matter of fact, never signed a single application, as he had his eye on the Nazis. Nevertheless, he knew very well and permitted that his permanent deputy, Political Secretary of State Miklos Mester, signed and submitted all such requests. (In the Ministry of Education signal services were rendered by Secretary Gustav Csomor, Departmental Chiefs Andras Molnar, Geza Bernat and Janos Pusztai, Councillor Zoltan Bassola and Secretaries Kalman Tar and Sandor Simon*).

Secretary of State Mester tried, in the course of this action, to help members of the scientific, intellectual and artistic world, who were Jews or of Jewish extraction. This is one of the most fascinating chapters of this relief action.

First of all some people were to be saved from deportation from Transylvania - as in fact they finally were. On behalf of Erno Ligeti and his family (Ligeti was later murdered by

*) Statement of Miklos Mester. (294)

members of the Arrow Cross organisation), a famous Transylvanian author and journalist, they had to approach Baky. This letter, reflecting on the epoch, was later found among the documents produced at Baky's trial:

Secretary of State Laszlo Baky,

Ministry of the Interior, Budapest.

We consider it to be the first duty to our Hungarian honour to request that two Jewish journalists, who were interned in Transylvania yesterday, be released. One of them is Erno Ligeti, the other Andras Arato. Throughout the twenty years of occupation of Transylvania these men, from the very start, took an active part in the struggle of the Hungarians, were members of the Hungarian party and, as champions of Hungarian civilisation, suffered persecution and imprisonment at the hands of the oppressing Rumanian regime. We request that immediate steps lor their release be taken by Koltai and Chief of Police Peter Hain.

Budapest, April 2nd, 1944.

                                                                                  (sgd) Miklos Mester,

                                                                                 Alajos Gaal,

                                                                                 Dezso Albrecht.

As a result of this Ligeti and Arato were actually set free.

A serious internal conflict concerning the Jewish professors went on in the universities. The medical faculty of the Peter Pazmany University at Budapest did not even propose Lajos Adam and József Frigyessy, both famous professors of medicine, for exemption. They even wanted to close Adam's surgical hospital. As the result of a proposal of Secretary of State Mester Gyula Ambrozy arranged with the Regent that both men were exempted and could continue to exercise their profession.

On the other hand Imre Lukinich, dean of the faculty of arts, represented the interests of his colleagues of Jewish origin most vigorously. Thus the world-famous archeologist Andreas Alfoldi, as well as two other regular professors, who were of Jewish origin, could retain their positions.

Geza Doby, rector of the Budapest József Polytechnic and Bela Mauritz, Jeno Koltai-Kasztner and Janos Angyan, rectors of the universities of Budapest, Szeged and Pecs, took up a vigorous stand on behalf of the professors of Jewish origin, who were renowned contributors to Hungarian science. Apart from the above-mentioned, the following professors took a generous share in protecting their persecuted colleagues in the course of the relief action: Zoltan Csuros, Janos Mester, Sandor Imre, Bela Erdody-Harrach and Istvan Dekany.

In spite of the protection afforded them, Geza Mansfeld, the famous professor of medicine, was deported from Pees together (295) with his wife and daughter. Although the Ministry of Education tried to save them - the exemptions were purposely held back by the local police authorities - the intervention was unsuccessful.

In spite of the exemption granted them, Bela Purjesz and Istvan Rusznyak, professors of medicine at Szeged University, were deported to Austria. As a result of repeated requests submitted by the professorial staff as well as the urgent intervention of Secretary of State Mester at a Cabinet Council, they were eventually brought back from Vienna. University professor Karoly Marot of Szeged was even allowed to retain his chair by reason of the exemption. The following well-known Jewish scientists and professors were granted exemption in the course of this action: University professors Bela Foldes, Lipot Fejer, Istvan Rusznyak, Bela Ranschburg, Antal Kovesi, Lipot Klug, Kornel Korosi, Lajos Torok, Ede Mahler, Henrik Apaly, Gyula Bence, Karoly Engel, Tibor German, Pal Otto Mansfeld, Frigyes Riesz, Karoly Neumann, Istvan Weiser, Geza Sasvari, Denes Konig, Karoly Goldzieher, Andras Peter, Armin Flesch, Lajos Gozony, Jeno Rosenthal, Bela Kelner, Peter Rona, Pal Oravec and others, together with their families.

The Ministry of Education also took up the case of the artists and authors of Jewish extraction. Among those exempted were: Imre Balassa, Imre Farkas, Imre Foldes, Milan Fust, Jeno Heltai, Erno Ligeti, Gyorgy Sarkozi, Gyorgy Szanto, Albert Szego, Zsigmond Szolosi, Jozsi-Jeno Tersanszky, Sandor Torok. (The petition of Jeno Heltai was written by his son, Janos Heltai and presented by Gizi Bajor. Heltai got to hear about this a few days later and on July 25th addressed a letter to Secretary of State Mester, in which he declared that he did not approve of the step taken by his son without his advice having been sought, and that he did not wish to ask for exemption. He justified his point of view by writing:

"I cannot refer to merits, I have never asked favours or partiality for myself. I have always been ready to meet what fate had in store for me. This country, in which I have been born, has given me many pleasant and good things; perforce I must now accept the bad ones as well. I should be denying the whole of my past, if now, at the end of a long life, I should seek to alleviate my lot by presenting a petition to be exempted from something, which my fellow-brethren, stricken in the same manner, cannot avoid. This I will not do, even ii those who love me and to whom my fate presents anxiety, should eventually suffer. I will not present the petition."

In spite of his protest, Secretary of State Mester submitted the name of Jeno Heltai for exemption, and the petition was promptly endorsed by the Regent.)

Other authors and artists exempted were: the author and theatrical manager Jeno Janovics, the Transylvanian journalists (296) Erno Ligeti and Andras Arato, the sculptors Miklos Ligeti, Lajos Petri, Ede Kallos, Ede Teles, Geza Csorba, Vilmos Csaba Perlroth and Lajos Gimes, the opera singers Mihaly Szekely, Livia Dobay, Oszkar Kalman and Pal Komaromi, the actors Kalman Rozsahegyi, Gyula Gal, Gyula Gozon and Gyula Bartos (Kalman Rozsahegyi was granted exemption No. 1, which enabled theatrical manager Alador Kovacs to renew his contract at the National Theatre), the historian Gabor Tolnai, the Asiatic explorer Ervin Baktai, the painters Adolf Fenyes and Istvan Zador, the scientists Ignac Kunos, Ilona Berkovits, Jozsef Geszti, Edit Lenard and Geza Feher, the public school teachers Gabor Ervin, Jozsef Balassa, Oedon Beke, Rafael Fuchs, Mozes Rubinyi, Morie Dercsenyi, Jozsef Turoczi Trostler, Immanuel Brull and Laszlo Barkoczy, Professor of Music Ele Sarkadi, the composers Emil Lichtenberg, Imre Ungar, Janos Hammerschlag, Mrs. Gyorgy Kosa, Leo Weiner, Bela Zerkovits, the art historians Karoly Sebestyen, Antal Rado, Jozsef Biro, Bela Lazar, Maria Farkas and Anna H. Zadar, the historians of music Lorand Basch, Istvan Lakatos and Beneze Szabolcsi, the translator Ivan Boldizsar, the pianist Mor Gonczi, the librarian Gabor Halasz, the decorative artist Bela Halmi and others.

It is interesting to mention that the Regent, following a proposal of the Ministry of Education, also exempted such scientists and other prominent intellectuals, as had previously been arrested by the Gestapo and deported. This, of course, was of no practical value, as for instance the exemption of Frigyes Fellner, Geza Mansfeld and Jeno Mohacsi could not prevent their tragic fate, but "by this action the Regent and the Ministry of Education did express their solidarity and their protest against the procedure adopted by the Nazis."*

According to official records, Minister of the Interior Jaross granted, from March till July 31st, 1944, 550 petitions for exemption by virtue of Decree No. 1730/M.E. 1944, which, if one includes the families, meant exemption to about 1,000 persons. The Regent, by mid--September, had granted 616 exemptions. (In the case of exemptions granted by the Regent, each exempted person received a separate certificate of exemption, in the case of those granted by the Ministry of the Interior, only the head of the family was issued with this document.)

On top of this, a number of separate interventions were necessary in many cases of persons thus exempted, as the Nazis and their tools, the Endre-Baky clique, very often did not respect these exemptions. In such cases the Section VI. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs intervened. At first they addressed themselves to the German Legation in Budapest, requesting the release of the arrested exempted persons. This procedure, however, was not effective. On July 26th, the Hungarian Legation in Berlin

*(Statement by Miklos Mester.) (297)

received a list of 48 names together with the order to obtain the German Government's assent in principle. Again there was no answer. On September 9th a third list, containing the names of 63 exempted persons, was forwarded by courier. Also to this there was no answer. The intervention could not succeed, because, as the Nazis knew only too well, the deportees in question were no longer alive. This case has a certain similarity with other interventions of Section VI., concerning the unwarranted arrest of British, American, French etc. and Hungarian subjects. Generally these requests were not even answered. In this instance too, the Nazis showed no respect for Hungary's sovereignty.

An interesting light on this situation is thrown by the minutes of a conversation between Sandor Nekam, Councillor at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the German Councillor of Legation Grell, which took place on July 21st and concerned the interventions on behalf of exempted Jews, who had nevertheless been deported:

"At my request the German Councillor of Legation Grell called on me this afternoon. I informed him that several cases of deportation had already come to our knowledge, in which persons were concerned, who, in accordance with the stipulations of Hungarian legal regulations, could not even be regarded as Jews, and who had been included in the transports by the  provincial authorities either by mistake or as a result of over-great zeal. I asked him to request the German authorities to permit the return of such persons. –

"Grell replied that much as he regretted it, there could be no question of a re-transport to Hungary of these persons, who had in the meanwhile been handed over to the German authorities. This, according to him, would be contrary to the convention concluded between the Hungarian and German authorities concerning Jewish labour-service in Germany. In accordance with the convention, the Hungarian authorities decide which Jews they want to hand over to Germany, but once this has been done, they lose all jurisdiction over them. The persons handed over are so firmly embedded in German economic life that it is impossible to effect their removal. Furthermore, the technical problems presented by their re-transport would be well-nigh unsurmountable."

Councillor Nekam pointed out that mistakes were bound to occur in the process of carrying out such large-scale operations, and that therefore a possibility of re-patriation ought to exist for such cases. To this Grell replied that the utmost concession that could be made was. to allow the highest Hungarian authorities, the Prime Minister and eventually the Regent, to address themselves in some few, quite exceptional cases directly to the competent German authorities. But even in those cases, he added, there was not much hope of success. (298).

Finally he declared himself ready to accept, when the opportunity offered, a list of those deported accidentally, containing their exact personal data, but once more stressed that their re-transport could not be considered until after the end of hostilities.

A petition containing 26 names was presented by the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council. Although this committee stood under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, Bonczos, the new Minister and successor of Jaross, did not dare to pass this petition on and the persons listed therein were exempted by the Regent on the proposal of Mester. Three members of the Council submitted petitions for "property exemption" in respect of themselves (Stern, Peto and Wilhelm). Mester also recommended that this be granted, but owing to the Nyilas coup d'etat the matter never progressed.

The office of the Regent's Chef de Cabinet also accepted direct petitions for exemption. On August 20th the Official Gazette contained the news that it was possible to obtain exemption. The result was that thousands upon thousands of petitions were either handed in personally or sent in by post. The little palace swarmed with crowds of lawyers and agents and finally the well-meant action was drowned in a quagmire of unlawful abuse of influence and graft. The greater part of the roughly 30,000 petitions presented with the intention of obtaining the "Horthy exemption", was never even registered. Only those were attended to, which had been presented before August 20th and those, which, out of turn, were pressed by lawyers and agents. Finally, during the siege of Buda, the Nyilas, with a view to saving their skins, did away with the documents and birth certificates of the Jews, which had been deposited together with their applications.

As the Sztojay Government proved to be powerless against the Germans, Regent Horthy toyed with the idea of relieving the Cabinet in May. Sztojay was neither capable of getting through the difficulties of internal policy nor could he arrive at any compromise with the Szálasi clique.

After years of refusal, Horthy decided to receive Francis Szálasi on May 13th, permitting him to open "negotiations concerning the internal and external policy", whilst in the meanwhile he called back to Budapest General Lakatos, Commander of the VII. Army, then fighting the Russians. He told him to take a rest, to retire to his estate in the country, assuring him that he would receive a wire in due course. This meant that he would nominate him for the office of Prime Minister. General Lakatos had never cared about politics, and as - on July 7th - he actually received the wire, he first of all asked to be given some time for reflection, as he was afraid that the Germans would not permit the dismissal of the Sztojay Cabinet. This question the Regent had discussed with his chief counsellors, (299) Count Bethlen and Ivan Rakovsky, who considered Lakatos in hesitating, and so it came about that only the Minister of Interior was replaced on July 7th (Bonczos taking Jaross' pl. Lakatos was recalled on July 17th. Horthy had written a letter to Hitler, in which he stated that he wished to rely Sztojay. This letter was handed to Veesenmayer, who answered that he could not at that moment pass on the letter to the Fiil as the latter was at present visiting some unknown sector of front. Actually, however, he reported Horthy's proposal to Him. On the following day, July 18th, the German Envoy requested another audience with the Regent, in the course of which read out an ultimatum, dictated - so he said - by Ribbentrop over the telephone. It contained the threat that, what, alterations in the Sztojay Cabinet were carried out, Horthy be prepared for the worst. (Statement of General Lakatos be the Peoples' Court.) 300

VI.

A FLOOD OF ORDERS IN JULY.

While the attempts at rescuing the Jews were still going on, and at a time when the threat of deportation was still hanging over the heads of the Budapest Jews, attacks were beginning to be made on Jewish flats. Mainly responsible for this was Ladislas Nagy, who became a Secretary of State under the Nyilas regime . . . It was at that time that the "lodging commission" was formed, whose first director was Alois Haynal. Daily the "Lion of the Don" was delivering speeches, but things did not get better - there were so many, who applied for apartments. In Nyilas papers these events were reported as follows:

"The capital is more than ever overrun by bugs. Since the Jews have been moved together in Budapest, the biggest problem of the summer seems to be how to get rid of them. Nearly 100 per cent of the Jewish apartments vacated were found to be full of bugs and this now presents a serious problem for the Christian public."

 A great number of decrees overwhelmed the Jews in the course of this month:

Huge placards announce who is entitled to a flat. After this, an order is issued stating that all Jewish goods become the property of the State.

The National Relief Organisation for Members of the Forces publish a proclamation saying that war-orphans would not in future accept gifts from Jews. All gifts of this kind will be refused, therefore it is up to the Hungarian Christian public to make good the loss by helping more than ever ...

By order of the Lodging Commission a list has to be compiled by July 31st, showing all Christian tenants and sub-tenants accomodated in Jewish houses. (Except that the list was compiled, nothing much came of this.) Mixed marriages are taken under permanent supervision. In the provinces the Jewish partners have to wear the Star of David - contrary to law - they are allowed to leave their homes only at certain hours of the day; they must report to the police once a week and cannot leave their place of domicile without a special police permit.

A new battle developed between Imrédy and the Nyilas. The question of Imrédy’s Jewish origin had not been allowed to fall into oblivion. Propaganda was still being carried on. Partly for this reason it was forbidden, on July 4th, to write or paint political slogans or party insignia on walls, fences etc.

This order gave the Jews hope there would no longer be insulting remarks and inscriptions appearing against them on the walls. Of course nothing was changed, the Nyilas propaganda (301) continued to write its slogans on the walls. Later a popular feature was a drawing of Imrédy with pronounced Jewish characteristics …

A short while later all documents were withdrawn which up till then had been providing some Jews with a little more than the legal allowances. This started a new fight with the members of the Jewish Council. They were accused of having passed Gestapo legitimations on to their relatives and friends, whilst other Jews could not obtain any owing to their restricted numbers.

This caused a change to take place in the Jewish Council. One of its members, Nison Kahan-Frankl, had resigned prior to seeking refuge in the country. A lawyer, Ernest Boda, and Louis Stockler, a lace manufacturer, were his successors. (The latter had taken part in religious affairs, but was nominated on July 22nd by Minister Jaross.) Another change had taken place at the Protecting Office. The lawyer Steven Foldes was nominated to take the place of George Polgar, who had left because of illness.

The attempt against Hitler's life occurred on July 20th. From that day onwards all Jews remaining in Central Europe had to endure a more terrible treatment than ever. A few days later the Germans were again clamouring for the deportation of the Budapest Jews.

As a result of this, all Jews naturally tried to provide themselves with efficacious documents of exemption. (302)

VII.

DESPERATE FINAL ATTEMPTS OF THE GERMANS TO DEPORT THE BUDAPEST JEWS AND THEIR FRUSTRATION.

By saving themselves, the Jews somehow seemed to have lost their nerve. Everybody was anxious about the fate of his relatives in the provinces. The news got about that they had not been taken out of the country, it was said that they were all concentrated in the neighbourhood of Kassa. Repeatedly one heard that a number of freight-cars crammed with Jews about to be transported to other parts of the country was to be seen at the suburban railway stations of Budapest. The Executive Committee despatched parcels with comforts to all stations mentioned, but no such train could be found. Delegates were sent to Kassa and its neighbourhood, but all this was done in vain. (It can therefore officially be stated that all Provincial Jews had been deported by the middle of June. Only those of the capital remained - although diminished in numbers - as the last remnant of Hungarian Jewry.)

In July the neutral countries were increasing their pressure on the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On June 20th Robert Schirmer, an agent of the International Red Cross, arrived with the mission of establishing contact with the Hungarian Government regarding Jewish questions.

On July 21st, Sztojay received him. Shirmer delivered a letter addressed to the Hungarian Foreign Minister by the President of the International Red Cross, Max Huber, and reported that the International Red Cross had handed him a letter to present to the Regent in person. He requested permission to visit the Jews accomodated in the houses marked with the Star of David and to inspect the concentration camps. He also stated that the International Red Cross was prepared to offer its assistance in removing the transport difficulties experienced by Jews intending to emigrate to Palestine or to other countries. At the same time the International Red Cross asked that the practise of sending Jews abroad for labour purposes (deportation) might cease and that they be permitted to remain in Hungary. Instead of deporting them, he proposed that they be concentrated in ghettos, a practise then usual in Germany. Not long ago he had inspected the ghetto of Theresienstadt, which held some 20 to 30,000 Jews. This seemed very satisfactory, and he therefore considered this solution suitable also for Hungary.

Sztojay promised to make enquiries, whereupon he would let Schirmer have a reply.*

*) Minutes of the discussion between the Prime Minister and the agent of the International Red Cross on July 21st, 1944. 303

Sztojay discussed those requests of Schirmer's which had a German angle with Ambassador Veesenmayer and General Winckelmann. In the course of this discussion he stated that it appeared to be most desirable to offer the International Red Cross a chance of v i s i t i n g t h e J e w s 1 i v i n g i n G e r m a n c o n c e n t r a t i o n c a m p s. T h a t w o u 1 d k i 11 m a n y o f the rumours and would constitute the most effective denial of the rumours circulating abroad. Veesenmayer promised to discuss Sztojay's proposal in Berlin and to refer to it later.

Sztojay also discussed the requests made by the delegate of the International Red Cross to the Minister of the Interior. As a result of this he was able, through Councillor of Legation Csopey, to inform Schirmer as follows:

1) The Hungarian Government has no objections to his visiting the camps of Sarvar and Kistarcsa.

2) The Minister of the Interior grants permission for him to visit the houses marked with a Star of David.

3) The Jews will no longer be sent abroad for labour purposes and their future fate is being made the subject of further discussions. As far as the Jews remaining in Hungary are concerned, the Hungarian Government approves of the ghetto system and intends to introduce it as soon as the problem becomes pressing. (Extracts from a report by Councillor of Legation Csopey on his conversation with the delegate of the International Red Cross on July 23rd, 1944.)

Schirmer visited some of the marked Jewish houses of Budapest, the Jewish Emergency Hospital and the internment camps of Kistarcsa and Sarvar. The reports of Councillor of Legation Csopey and of Gyorgy Meszaros, an official of the Ministry of the Interior, quote him as having expressed his satisfaction.

On the intervention of the Red Cross the Apostolic Nuntio requested permission to send food parcels to those persons persecuted for racial, religious or political reasons. This was granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (379/Res.Pol. 1944.)

Through the Hungarian Charge d'affairs in Bern [Tahy], the American "World Refugee Board" expressed the wish to send parcels to the deportees. The Hungarian Christian Churches too were appealing directly to Sztojay on behalf of the Jews. The latter instructed his deputy to deal with these matters instead of passing them on to the Ministry of the Interior. On July 19th these matters were extensively debated by the Cabinet Council after Arnothy-Jungerth had submitted a report on them. Jaross and his assistant Imrédy, as well as Jurcsek, Szasz and Remenyi-Schneller all protested against the proposition of the "World Refugee Board", which was finally rejected, although the Cabinet were ready to make allowances. On July 25th the Swiss Envoy proposed to transport children - "regardless of their origin" - to Switzerland (304). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sanctioned this plan, which nevertheless failed, because all children concerned were Jews and the escorting staff consisted mainly of female members of the aristocracy. The Germans therefore interfered and vetoed the whole action.

A new Swiss proposal was forthcoming: all Jews - men and women,_ capable of working should do so in the country until the war ended, while the aged, the children and the invalids should be cared for in camps under the supervision of the Red Cross. The Cabinet Council held on July 29th arrived at no decision regarding this proposal.

In the meanwhile the conflict with the Germans, who were still indignant about the suspension of deportation, continued. For three weeks a press campaign was waged, The Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to put out dementis regarding all sorts of reports concerning the Jewish question that were circulating abroad.

About that time the German Legation in Bern, with the intention of dispelling the indignation of the foreign press, invited the foreign diplomats to be present at the performance of a film.

This film dealt with the deportations from Nagyvarad in. Transylvania. Its opening scenes were particularly horrible. Women were thrashed, children beaten and ill-treated and a large number of deportees were being relieved of their possessions by Hungarian gendarmes. Crammed trains and the obligatory two buckets are to be seen, but there is no evidence of food being supplied to the victims. Not a single German soldier appears, nobody but Hungarian gendarmes in their characteristic hats with the cock's feather are to be seen, and unfortunate deportees, thousands of unfortunate deportees. . . German soldiers are shown only as the train is leaving the country and has reached German territory.

The scene changes . . . Red Cross nurses open the sealed freight-cars, extracting - with visible indignation - the corpses, distributing fresh water and food and tending the sick. The unfortunate deportees, who had suffered so much at the hands of the cruel Hungarians, are bathed and disinfected, and, after having been allowed to rest, are given easy and healthy jobs of work by the kind-hearted and so obviously humane Germans ...

This film, which, by accusing their Allies, tried to exculpate the Germans themselves, had also been sent to other countries by the Germans.

In accordance with instructions received by Arnothy-Jungerth, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hungarian Charge d'affaires in Bern, Baron Bothmer, protested against the exhibition of this film. For the time being, the Germans were forced to stop this sort of propaganda. (305)

By this time more exact information had been published abroad regarding the deportation of the Jews than one could have hoped for. According to this, 500,000 Jews had been taken out of the country. It was stated that the majority of these were taken to Auschwitz and a smaller number to the assembly centre at Strasshof in Austria. On June 27th 2,567 Jews from Szolnok arrived here, on June 29th 6,841 from Debrecen, on June 30th 5,739 from Szeged and 5,640 from Baja. On the following day a group of 1,700 Zionists passed through the camp. (The main Strasshof complement consisted of women and children from Szolnok, Szeged and Debrecen, who were later taken to different parts of Austria and were thus able to save their lives.)

Following report covering the measures adopted against the Jews by the Hungarian Government was forwarded to the foreign legations by Sztojay on July 18th:

Referring to the measures adopted by the Hungarian Government in the Jewish problem, the position at present is as follows:

I.

1) For the time being Jews are no longer being sent abroad for labour purposes.

2) In accordance with proposals made by the Swedish Red Cross, the War Refugee Board and the Jewish Agency for Palestine, we have permitted Jewish emigration to Sweden, to Switzerland, to Palestine and to other countries.

a) As far as the operation of the Swedish Red Cross is concerned, those Jews will be allowed to emigrate, who have been granted Swedish nationality by the King of Sweden. Jews with relatives in Sweden or those who have had commercial connections with Sweden for a certain period will be allowed to emigrate to that country or to Palestine.

b) Through the good offices of the Swiss Legation in Budapest the Jewish Agency for Palestine has been authorised to make emigration to Palestine possible for several thousand Jews. These persons will be allowed to emigrate as soon as they are in the possession of emigration certificates made out by the British authorities.

c) In accordance with the above-mentioned proposal of the War Refugee Board, the Hungarian Government authorises the International Red Cross to send children under ten years of age to Palestine. The same Board, furthermore, has been authorised to assist materially the Jews interned in Hungary.

II.

 Apart from the above-mentioned measures, following alleviations in the treatment of Jews were approved: (306)

1) No more converted Jews will be sent abroad for labour purposes.

2. a) A special body, the Council of Converted Jews, was formed on July 6th for the purpose of representing the converted Jews.

b) All Jews baptized by August 1st, 1944, will remain in the country but will be separated from non-Jews.

c) They will be given opportunities of attending to their religious duties.

3. a) These rules will not only apply to the converted Jews living in Budapest, but also to those in the provinces.

b) A revision is promised in respect of the converted Jews already sent to Germany for labour purposes.

4. Those people to be regarded as converted Jews will be ascertained as soon as possible. The regulations to be issued will apply not only to the Jews between the ages of 16 and 60 but to Jews of all ages.

5. The following persons have been granted the right not to wear the Star of David:

a) Members of the families of Christian clergymen and of converted Jews in Holy Orders (parents, brothers and sisters, as well as wives and children of the Protestant pastors),

b) Possessors of Clerical (Papal} decorations,

c) Members of the Order of the Holy Grave.

Ill.

1. a) The Regent has the right to exempt a certain number of Jews.

Furthermore the following are exempted:

b) Jews married to Christians,

c) Jews, who have been awarded certain war decorations (The Medal of Merit in gold etc.),

d) Jews, who have rendered particularly important services to Hungary,

e) Clergymen and priests of the Christian Churches.

2. The deportation of Jews for labour purposes will in future only take place with particular. regard to the laws of humanity. The Red Cross will be granted the right to carry out inspections.

3. Permission has been granted to send food parcels to the persons interned in concentration camps through the intermediary of the Red Cross.

Very interesting is the reply of the Hungarian Legation in Switzerland: (307)

A reply. Royal Hungarian Legation, Bern.             Bern, July 24th, 1944.

Ref. No.: 34/pol. -1944.

Subject: The Jewish Problem in Hungary.

Further to my report submitted through different channels I respectfully beg to add:

The measures instituted in this matter by Your Excellency have come - if I may say so - as a real relief, as, at least as far as the Jewish question was concerned, public opinion was strongly against Hungary, so strongly in fact, that grave fears arose.

On July 17th I travelled to Geneva, where on the following morning I met Burkhardt, the director of the International Red Cross. I had the chance of discussing matters with him for three quarters of an hour. As a preliminary I informed him regarding the proposals submitted to us and of the acceptance thereof, as well as of the fact that the deportation of the Jews would cease. I then asked him to bring this to the notice of the competent authorities.

I explained to him that Hungary, having been requested to do so by an allied Government, placed labour forces at the disposal of the Reich. As, however, in the course of our close co-operation, a further request was made for even more Hungarian workers, which we had to refuse, we concluded a regular agreement by which it was arranged to substitute Jewish workers for the Hungarian ones we could not spare. For that reason there could be no question of deportation or inhuman treatment as far as we were concerned. The rumours regarding mass-murders and atrocities reported in the press-campaign, by the way, took place. beyond the frontiers of Hungary; their denial, therefore is the responsibility of Germany. Our activity went no further than assembling the Jews, the rest was done by the employer of the labour. I know nothing of any atrocities or cruelties which are said to have been committed by Hungarians in the course of the concentration. I do, however, suspect that these have actually occurred, since it is a well-known fact that certain excesses are unavoidable on these occasions. I did assure him, though, that such cruelties are unnatural to the Hungarian people, who take it as a matter of fact that Jews are obliged to work, as they themselves work exceedingly hard. Of this the country has given outstanding and undeniable proof during these years of war. This is furthermore proven by the fact that we cancelled the deportations on hearing the opinions voiced by the foreign press regarding the atrocities - which, I repeated, could not be verified by Hungary - and even accepted the counterproposals, in many cases enabling their practical execution. I drew his attention to the fact that the Jewish problem was solved long ago by all East- and South-East European countries, and that this had never been discussed in any way whatsoever. It is (308) therefore most unjust to brand Hungary as inhumane and uncivilized, when it was this country that offered the Jews place of refuge after the persecutions of the last five years. Naturally our close co-operation with our allies enforces the necessity of speedily solving the Jewish problem also in Hungary, but an inhumane treatment is foreign to the nature of the Hungarian nation.

I then emphasized that innocent people in Hungary were being indiscriminately bombed and fired on by planes, while at the same time the world and those advancing the proposals mentioned base their appeals on the laws of humanity. I asked Burkhardt, when reporting our conversation to the competent authorities, to use his influence in an attempt to put a stop to the terror attacks from the air, which are incompatible with the same laws of humanity. Apart from any political reason for this, I expressed my fears of all that achieved by our good will being destroyed by hostile propaganda, should the air attacks continue.

Burkhardt was - this is the best word - shaken by my report. In the name o1 the Red Cross he thanked me most profusely and asked me to convey the expression of his gratitude to my Government. The Red Cross, he said, was seriously worried in observing the events taking place in Hungary in connection with the Jewish problem and the gigantic press campaign against Hungary which was constantly gaining in momentum throughout the world. He added that he himself, having known the Hungarian nation for years and having always admired its noble character, had no explanation for the methods mentioned by the press. Although he is convinced that the rumours are exaggerated, the old proverb "No smoke without fire" seems to be as true as ever, as several Facts have proved that the rumours were not unfounded. To be quite honest, he had not expected his intervention to be quite so successful, but, naturally, he was exceedingly pleased, not only in the interest of the cause, but also in the interest of Hungary, as he hoped very much that this would calm public opinion. He will certainly not omit to inform the competent authorities and, for his part, will, in the name of the Red Cross, do everything , to bring about a cessation of the terror attacks against Hungary. As he did throughout the interview, he also jotted down notes on this point. For the rest he intended to supervise the Hungarian operation personally until such time as President Huber returned from his vacation. He informed me that Dr. Schirmer would be instructed to take over all Hungarian affairs and specially drew my attention to the outstanding qualifications this gentleman possessed. Dr. Schirmer will be assisted by a second person yet to be appointed, but who would be particularly suitable for the job in hand.

We agreed that the most suitable way to calm general public opinion would be for the International Red Cross to issue a communique, as any political misunderstanding or possible (309) malevolent press attacks would thus be avoided. Apart from these points I left the wording of the communique to Burkhardt. As a result the attached communique was published on the frontpage of all daily news papers on the following morning.

Respectfully I would like to say that in my opinion it might be best, if no special communique is published in Budapest, as - if I am a correct judge of the situation - it would be exceedingly difficult to word a communique in such a way as to conform both to internal and foreign points of view.

After the local public had been informed by means of the abovementioned communique, I considered it advisable also to inform the local authorities. I therefore visited the Chief of the Political Department, Stucki, and informed him of the facts. The Chief of the Political Department expressed his satisfaction as to the steps taken by us, as he, too, had seen a danger to the bonds of sympathy and the friendly relations existing between Switzerland and Hungary. He added that the Swiss Government had informed Your Excellency of this through their legation in Budapest. He furthermore hoped that the attitude of the press, as far as Hungary was concerned, would now be more helpful. I requested him to assist us in obtaining the good will of the press.

At a social gathering I was given the opportunity of discussing the matter with the Apostolic Nuntio and the German, the Finnish and the Bulgarian Ambassadors, all of whom expressed their satisfaction on hearing that the deportation of the Jews from Hungary had ceased. The Rumanian Ambassador was also present, but I was careful to avoid discussing the matter in his hearing, as - I have this from reliable sources - all information from Budapest in the past reached Switzerland through the Rumanian courier.

The Nuntio, by the way, remarked that he had expected nothing else from Hungary, which had always been a Christian nation, and that he, personally, very much regretted what had happened previously. I informed the German Ambassador of the fact that I had drawn the attention of the International Red Cross to the contents of the communique, and he said he hoped "that this terrible campaign will now cease." He told me that he had also discussed the question of the press with Federal Councillor Pilet-Golaz, who had explained that the press could not be gagged without risking a far more dangerous explosion of public opinion in some other form.

I drew the attention of the German Councillor of Legation to the fact that we, for our part, had instituted steps to deal with the attacks directed against both of our nation’s, but that I considered it necessary for the Germans to deny the rumours regarding the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. , In connection with the Jewish problem I cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of keeping the promises made, as otherwise the consequences would be such that neither the (310) Government nor any individual whatsoever would be able to assume the responsibility as lar as the vital interests of the nation are concerned.

                                                                 (sgd): TAHY

                                                       Councillor of Legation

                                                 Provisional Charge d' Affairs.

En closure: No. 457/Res. Pol./1944.

Extract from "Der Bund" of July 19th, 1944.

                             Hungary Stops Deportation of Jews.

A Communique of the Committee of the International Red Cross. Geneva, July 18th. The Committee of the International Red Cross in Geneva announce that they have been officially informed that the deportation of Jews from Hungarian territory has been stopped. This is the reply of the Hungarian authorities to the steps taken by the Committee of the International Red Cross on behalf of the Hungarian Jews. The Committee of the International Red Cross has furthermore been authorised to send food-parcels to Jews interned in Hungary.

The Hungarian authorities have invited the Committee of the International Red Cross to help evacuate all those children below the age of ten, who are in possession of an entry visa to a reception country. Finally information has been received, according to which all Jews in possession of the required visa will be allowed to emigrate to Palestine.

As a result of the indignant tone of the commentaries of the foreign press, official dementis were published by order of Sundermann, deputy of the German Reichspressechef (Chief of press). The same denials were published by the Hungarian press on July 20th. In a mass of lies and dissimulations he tried to prove how humanely the Hungarian Jews were being treated by German soldiers.

"We have taken great pains to ensure that the Jews are employed on work to which they are most fitted by reason of their faculties. All humane points of view have been taken into consideration. the Jews are allowed to write and to receive letters and parcels from everywhere. Their accomodation and food is good." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted on the publication of a Hungarian communique, but Veesenmayer did not agree with its text. He altered it, and this time it was the Hungarian Government which protested against its publication. Finally - after two or three weeks of controversy - the whole idea was abandoned. Arnothy-Junge then got the envoys of the neutral countries together I and declared in their presence:

"The Hungarian Government has Forbidden deportation of any kind, but the Germans have nevertheless succeeded in getting (311) additional transports out of the country with the aid of Nyilas sympathisers on the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In future the Government will prevent all deportations."

This declaration was made possible partly because of Himmler's wired agreement to the suspension of deportation. As a result the Cabinet Council accepted the afore-mentioned Swiss proposition.

Ferenczy was received by Prime Minister Sztojay in the presence of Stefan Antal. (This is the moment in which Ferenczi's ambiguous role begins.) He gave a full report of the deportations, blaming Baky, Endre and the Germans for the horrors perpetrated. The story gf the photographs taken at the railway station was mentioned, as well as the cruelties of Auschwitz, of which he knows only from hearsay".

Sztojay received him once more, this time in the presence of Imrédy, Homan and Remenyi-Schneller. Ferenczy presented a memorandum to Sztojay and Jaross, in which he requested an audience with the Regent, to whom he wanted to report in person. He also expressed a wish to visit Auschwitz and to get to the bottom of what was happening there. Sztojay agreed to all this. Eichmann, however, refused, saying 1 "he could not visit Auschwitz until 30 days after the last deportation." Sztojay also promised to do what he could in order to obtain an audience with the Regent for Ferenczy, but warned him not to say anything insulting about the Germans "as the Regent does not like them at all".

Ferenczy vainly awaited the promised audience with the Regent. Therefore "he tried to reach his aim by using different means."

Before relating the further developments in the Jewish question, it must be mentioned that the conflict between Imrédy and Baky reached its height during the first days of August, Baky thought he was being dropped because of the increasing importance of Imrédy. Through the deputies of General Winckelmann he obtained indisputable proof of Imrédy’s Jewish origin: all documents shown to the commission: by Imrédy had been forged or substituted by documents of German citizen. Baky was a dead man anyway, but as he knew he must fall, he at least wanted to drag Imrédy with him. Imrédy had been dropped by his own party as well as by the Germans and was compelled to resign. Two of his friends, Anthony Kunder and Andrew Jaross, found themselves in a similar position, which finally led to their tendering their resignations on August 7th. (Jaroks had to leave his post as a result of the Regent accusing him of "being powerless against the two Secretaries of State.")

Nicholas Bonczos became the successor of Jaross, whilst the Minister of Industry also took over the Ministry bf Commerce. On taking over the Ministry of the Interior, Bonczos remarked: (312)

"I want every Hungarian to be sincere, and I will do my best to see that all soldiers and gendarmes behave in a proper and respectable manner."

Once Baky had been dropped, a new Chief of Police made his appearance - General Gabriel Faragho.

Day by day the situation between the Regent and the Germans became more tense. In July the Regent tried to begin negotiations with England. This action should have been conducted via Switzerland, but the Allies made it known that the only way to obtain an armistice was to ask Moscow for it. As Switzerland maintained no diplomatic relations with Russia, the whole action was doomed from the beginning. The next step to bring about an armistice was General Naday's journey to Rome, from where he intended to inform Soviet Russia of Hungary's wish to open negotiations. As the Russians got wind of this, they sent a message to General Bela Miklos, Commander of the First Army, with instructions as to where the delegates could cross the lines. With that a Hungarian delegation of three ventured into no man’s- land to see what could be done.

The Regent was very well aware of the fact that the success of this discussion depended to a great extent on the opposition shown to the Germans, who, at that time, could claim no more soldiers from Hungary as they were no longer in a position to arm them. Only the Jewish problem remained, and this was another question in which Regent Horthy wanted to show resistance.

To escape further German claims for deportation, Bonczos tried to settle matters in accordance with the Swiss proposition. Colonel Heinrich was entrusted with the execution of the action. All male Jews between 48 and 60 years of age were called up. This meant about 50,000 men, which had to be medically examined by Jewish volunteer doctors. Of the 50,000 scarcely a few thousand were capable of working and were employed on clearing away rubble and debris resulting from the air attacks. (Until then, Nyilas members had been in a habit of fetching Jews away to work without taking any notice of their age or sex.)

Thus the Government stopped the deportations and began to carry out the Swiss plan, which they had accepted long ago. By August, however, a number of SS-Detachments were again encircling Budapest. Eichmann was continually threatening the Government and declared that "he would use the SS in order to carry out the deportations." But by the end of August the general war situation seemed to imply that the Germans no longer had time for large scale actions. Turkey broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. In Finland, President Ryti resigned and Marshal Mannerheim took office. Normandy and the Bretagne were liberated; French troops were disembarking in the South of France and threatening Paris. On August 20th Rumania asked for an armistice and on August 25th Paris was lost. German policy was visibly failing. Eichmann's threats did not mean much, but (313) the SS groups in Trans-Danubia and around Budapest were constantly increasing in strength.

The crisis was at hand. The Executive Committee of the Jewish Council got to know that Eichmann had handed a map to Lieut. Col. Ferenczy, on which all localities, from which the Jews were to be deported, had been underlined in red. August 27th was the day on which it was intended to begin with the operation. A great number of German lorries were brought to the capital and a brick-factory in Bekasmegyer was again prepared as assembly centre. But the Red Army was approaching. "Racing against time" did not seem hopeless for the Jews - it has always seemed to be their only hope.

Veesenmayer and Winckelmann immediately requested an audience from the Regent. They referred to their agreement with the Hungarian Government, which stated that decisions concerning the Jewish question could only be taken by the Germans, and tried to persuade Horthy to agree to the deportation of all Budapest Jews. Should he persist in refusing, they threatened to accomplish the whole action by themselves. But the Regent was not willing to budge an inch from the attitude he had adopted.

(Precisely at this time the Regent had heard about a statement made by the famous Hungarian author, Francis Herczeg, whose experiences at the German Legation had quite disillusioned him. Herczeg had approached the Legation with the request that the painter Stephen Farkas, proprietor of the publishing firm of Singer & Wolfner, who had been his publishers for years, should be set free. One of the officials told him they would do their best "if Mr. Farkas had not yet made the acquaintance of the crematorium", The Regent was deeply impressed  by this statement, which certainly confirmed him in his resolution.)

Eichmann required further instructions and flew to Berlin. A few days later he returned and the Germans showed a still more menacing attitude, Nicholas Horthy jr. told Ernest Peto that the capital was totally unprotected and that it could hardly boast a garrison at all. Budapest was surrounded by SS Regiments and the Germans had a free hand. It was not even possible to bring in reinforcements from the provinces, as the Germans were very keen observers.

A few days later all German armed forces in Hungary were assembled for the purpose of a full-scale parade in the streets of Budapest. The Jews were finally persuaded that no possibility of resistance existed. There were no military forces in Budapest to prevent deportation.

A plan was emerging, with the help of which the Germans were to be cheated into allowing Hungarian troops to be brought to Budapest. It was known that Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy - the cruel persecutor of the Jews - was growing more nervous day by day as a result of the approach of the Red Army. As an officer he (314) must have known that the Regent and his entourage were attempting to get out of the war. Ferenczy tried to let the Jews think: "Deportations have taken place entirely at the request of the Germans, by whom all cruelties have been committed."

The Jewish leaders were well aware of what was going on, but they preferred to let him think that they were convinced of his benevolence and humane intentions. They told him that they looked upon him as the only man who could save the Jews of Budapest. Taking into consideration the Allies this could only do him good. Ferenczy seemed to like his role. Twice he visited President Stern and declared: "I am ready to turn against the Germans, if I know there are enough armed forces backing me up." He only requested an audience with the Regent in order to get his personal instructions. (This was his "alternative way" of obtaining an audience with Horthy.

Only President Stern, Peto and Wilhelm knew that Nicholas Horthy jr. had been asked to obtain the audience for Ferenczy. It was a somewhat unusual demand, as generally the Regent did not receive officers of so low a rank officially. On the other hand, who was to know if the whole matter was not a case of "agent provocateur"? Nevertheless Horthy jr. persuaded his father to receive Ferenczy. Thus it happened that Ferenczy was instructed by the Regent to find out how many German troops were stationed in Hungary. Within a very short time Ferenczy reported that the could find nothing but "depots and hospitals, but no real forces." Horthy was very pleased with this report - which was false!

Later on Ferenczy stated that the Regent had told him:

"I do not care what happens to the little Jews, but I certainly don't want the valuable and wealthy ones to be taken out of the country.

This was one of his confessions before the People's Court, which were not repeated at the trials of Jaross and his companions, merely because these questions did not occur to those responsible. It is obvious that the prosecutor at the trial of Jaross, Endre and Baky did not know much about Ferenczy's case.

The Germans were continuing the assembly of their trucks and the preparations at Bekasmegyer.

Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy asked a member of the Executive Committee what the attitude of the Nyilas would be, if the deportations did not take place? With this he established connections with the Social Democrat Deputy Louis Kabok and the leader of the iron industry workers, Alexander Karacsony. The Left-wing representatives were nevertheless visibly nervous and suspicious. The conference dealt with the armed forces of the Left wing and the help that could be expected from them in the case of a rebellion against the Germans. (Very possibly Ferenczy can be blamed for the death of Kabok and Karacsony.)

Excitement among those members of the Jewish Council, who knew about the negotiations, was increasing. They all felt the (315) weight of their responsibility. Continually they were afraid that Ferenczy might cheat and that finally he would proceed with the deportations in spite of his promises.

Ferenczy reported to the Council that Eichmann had handed him a detailed plan of the intended deportations. In it, districts and streets were clearly shown. Furthermore the exact date was fixed: August 27th! The last transport was due to leave Budapest on September 18th. All available trucks were concentrated around the capital. Wyslizeni's group prepared the departure at the brick factory of Bekasmegyer. Once more the dreaded gendarmes appeared in the streets of Budapest. (They were supposed to be creatures of the Regent, but who was to be sure of this?)

The neutral legations were interfering, asking permission to accomodate their proteges in special houses. As a result of this the Government nominated a certain number of houses, but all this came too late, as the people staying in the houses nominated refused to hand them over. Another difficulty was caused by the obvious fact that the wealthy Jews were able to save their lives in a number of different ways, whereas the poor ones were unable to do anything whatsoever.

This injustice led one of the members of the Executive Committee to claim social justice for the poorer Jews. On August 14th he lodged a protest, which was repeated on August 17th. At the Committee's session on August 22nd he finally described the whole situation as intolerable. Those interested themselves would have to decide about the deportation of the "protected Jews."

"It is extremely unjust," he said, "to grant advantages to a certain class of Jews at the expense of the rest ... "

This remark was a perfectly just one and therefore, as absolutely disinterested people, Ernest Boda and Louis Stoeckler were asked to go into the matter.

In Stoeckler's opinion, deportation had been mentioned only by Ferenczy. He judged the Germans to be too busy even to think about it. Bonczos had been appointed Minister of the Interior and deportations had ceased. Discussions with the Swedish Legation had been re-opened at this moment. (Stoeckler had been the only one not to seek exemption from wearing the yellow star.)

As the Jews noticed the increasing activity of preparations, they became more and more nervous. Every day new quarrels were started with the members of the Jewish Council, into whose hands they felt they were completely delivered. They were not at all sure of Ferenczy: will he make good his promise?

One day Phillip Freudiger and 72 of his companions left Budapest for Bukarest in sleeping-cars and equipped with false passports.

Eichmann got to know about this, and as soon as it was proved that Gabriel Janos, a member of the Jewish Council, had information regarding the plan, he was arrested. On August 17th, Samu Stern, Ernest Peto and Charles Wilhelm shared his fate. (316) This caused the panic, that had broken out among the Jews, to increase. Many of them had no other thought but that this was the beginning of the deportations, especially as these three members of the Council had been present at the discussions with Ferenczy. They remembered Kistarcsa: perhaps those three would be confined until the deportation began or ended?

But their confinement did not last very long: the Regent was informed of the matter and insisted on their liberation. Stern and Wilhelm were set free at once, Peto - who had torn up his Swedish passport in the car which had collected him - received a thrashing and was not allowed to go for another couple of days. It was during these days that the Hungarian Government discussed the following remarkable German note:

German Legation,

Budapest.

A. No. 405.

V e r b a l  N o t e.

Further to the request regarding a humane treatment of the Jewish labour transported to Germany submitted by the Hungarian authorities in a different connection, the German Legation wishes to inform the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs that according to reports received from the competent German movement authorities a sufficient food supply, especially for those transports expected to cover several days, would be particularly desirable. May we therefore request the competent Hungarian authorities to pay particular attention to the question of supplying transports with food For the duration of their journey. The competent German authorities furthermore request that the Jews entering Germany for labour purposes be sufficiently equipped with clothing, bedding, household utensils etc. and particularly shoes, as well as with palliasses, in order to ensure that they enjoy reasonable comfort during the first weeks at their new place of work. These demands seem to be in lull agreement with the requests made by the Hungarian authorities.

The German Legation would be very grateful if this question could be looked into by the competent authorities and especially ii preventative measures could be instituted to avoid that badly informed customs officers deprive the Jewish labourers of equipment or food carried for the above-mentioned purpose.

Budapest, August 12th, 1944.                             Stamp.

 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quite seriously, replied to this note, which urges deportation and continues to talk about "labour purposes", and which demands food and equipment in a most bare-faced manner, as follows: (317)

                                     Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

                                                                    Budapest

                                                           545/Res. Pol. 1944.

The German Legation,

Budapest.

Referring to your esteemed verbal note A. No. 405 of August 12th concerning the food supply and equipment of Jews about to be sent to Germany for labour purposes, the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes much pleasure in informing the German Legation that it has not failed to inform the Hungarian Central Office immediately that the suggestions contained in the above-mentioned verbal note are to be put into practise. Budapest, August 21st, 1944.

His Excellency,

                                         Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

                                                                Budapest 5

                                                         45/Res. Pol. 1944.

Dr. vitez Miklos Bonczos, Royal Hungarian Minister of the Interior.

Subject: Request of the German Legation in Budapest to issue Jews about to be sent to Germany lor labour purposes with equipment.

Enclosed please find a copy of Verbal Note A. No. 405 of August 12th, addressed to this office by the German Legation. It contains a request that the Jewish transport departing lor Germany be liberally supplied with food and a suggestion that they be equipped with the clothing, household articles, bedding, palliasses etc., which they will need to settle down at their place of work.

The German Legation furthermore requests that the customs authorities be instructed not to confiscate items of equipment taken by Jews lor this purpose.

I beg to be allowed to request Your Excellency to put into practise as soon as possible the suggestions contained in the abovementioned verbal note.

                                       Sgd: Csopey, e. h. Councillor of Legation.

On August 21st the Gestapo requested the names and personal data of all members of the Executive Committee. In Ferenczy's opinion this meant the beginning of the deportation by August 27th.

As a result of the intervention of the Pope, the Christian Churches and the King of Sweden, the Regent had put a stop to the deportations in June. Therefore everything had been quiet for a while. But towards the end of August the Papal Nuntio heard about the new German preparations for deportation, and he therefore invited the neutral (Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese and Swiss) Envoys to discuss the situation. The Nuntio, accompanied by (318) M. Danielsson, the Swedish Ambassador, then paid a visit to the Deputy Prime Minister, Remenyi-Schneller, and presented him with following note:

"The Envoys of the neutral States represented in Budapest have been acquainted with the fact that the deportation of the Jews is about to be accomplished. They all know what this means, even though it be described as 'labour service'.

Regardless of the fact that Hungary's reputation is suffering extensively under these schemes, it is the human duty of the representatives of the neutral countries to protest against these actions, which are opposed to all Christian and humane feelings. The representatives of the neutral powers herewith request the Hungarian Government to Forbid these cruelties, which ought never to have been started. They hope that Hungary will return to its humane and chivalrous traditions, which, until now have guaranteed its place among civilized nations.

Budapest, August 21st, 1944.

sgd: Angelo Rotta, Papal Nuntio.

Carlos de Liz Texeira, Portuguese Charge d'Affairs.

Antoine J. Kilchmann, Swiss Charge d' Affairs.

Carl Ivan Danielsson, Swedish Minister.

Miguel Sans-Briz, Spanish Chargee d'Affairs."

At the same time another delegate visited the Minister of the Interior, Bonczos, who gave him a "somewhat disappointing" answer.

Horthy too had been informed of the diplomatic intervention. This was at the time, when Sztojay had already relinquished his office in favour of Remenyi-Schneller, the senior member of the Cabinet. On August 22nd - referring to the aforementioned intervention - the Regent instructed Remenyi-Schneller to inform the Germans of his decision: he is not willing to agree to further deportations. None of the Ministers dared to deliver this message, so Ferenczy took it. He called on Eichmann and told him: The Hungarian Government is not prepared to allow the deportation and the Government, if necessary, is prepared to offer armed resistance.

Eichmann was furious and tried to threaten Ferenczy as he realised that he had been deceived. But he was not prepared to go to the length of armed clashes, Once more Wyslizeni was sent to Berlin for further instructions. On August 24th Himmler's answer arrived. Eichmann again sent for Ferenczy and told him that the German Government was prepared to discuss the matter with the Hungarian Government. The Ministry of the Interior received following letter-obviously only a formality:

In this note the Government proposed: (319)

1) The Nazis to hand back control over the affairs of the Hungarian Jews.

2) The Jews of Budapest to be put to work.

3) Those unable to work to be settled in provincial camps under the supervision of the Red Cross.

4) Arrested deputies to be handed over to the Hungarian Courts of Law, the Jews in the internment camps to be released and the Law Court in Foutca to be handed back.

5) Jewish property stored in German magazines to be returned.

(We have to mention here for impartiality's sake that certain marked indications point to the fact that Laszlo Ferenczy was, in actual fact, an "agent provocateur". Emphasizing, by order of the Nazis, that August 27th was the date fixed for the first deportations from Budapest, he intended to win partly the confidence of the Regent, partly that of the Jewish leaders. This purpose he achieved completely. The Nazis concentrated their troops, as it turned out later, for a bigger task. At that date Sztojay's fall was a fait accompli. On July 15th Horthy informed Hitler in a letter that he wanted to appoint Lakatos Prime Minister, as Sztojay had shown himself to be too weak. He asked his consent and meanwhile sent Sztojay on sick-leave. The seizure of power by the Szálasi gang was already in the fore-ground. Neither were the intended negotiations with the Russians a secret. The deportation of the Jews only served as a pretext and as a misleading motive in order to disguise the real purpose of the troop concentrations. Laszlo Ferenczy was nothing but a tool in this game for higher stakes. For its sake the "deportation scare" previously described was launched, as a result of which a real panic broke out among the Jews. Rashly and hysterically some Council officials declared "that by the evening two or three gendarmes will stand at the gate of each house marked with the Star of David," although, carrying out Government orders, Ferenczy had already taken steps on August 24th to prepare the transfer of the non-working Jewish population of the capital into camps.)

VIII.

AGREEMENT WITH THE NAZIS REGARDING THE FUTURE FATE OF THE HUNGARIAN JEWS.

The Nazis concluded the new agreement with the Lakatos Cabinet, which had taken office on August 30th. First of all they made it clear that they protested against the 200,000 Jews of Budapest-an unproductive community in a country at war-doing nothing but consuming. (Naturally the Nazis did not mention that these Jews were deprived of their right to work by Nazi-inspired decrees, and that these were responsible for their enforced idleness!) An agreement was then concluded with the Lakatos Government, according to which the Jewish population was to be removed from Budapest, concentrated in the provinces and put to work. (According to the Government, this was the sole means of saving the remainder of the Jews!) Simultaneously the Government decreed the dissolution of part of the Jewish internment camps; at other camps, where Jewish prisoners were held under the most varied of pretexts, they were released by the score. A few weeks later the Government succeeded in setting free the hostages of Kistarcsa, who had been interned there for well-nigh on six months. The Jewish political prisoners detained at the Gestapo prison in Fo utca were the only ones, whose liberation could not be achieved. The Nazis had been intending to deport them since the middle of July, but by order of Lieut.-Gen. Faragho police and gendarmes kept a watch on the building and thus prevented the transport coming off*).

On July 28th the Executive Committee had already requested the liberation of these prisoners. The petition, containing very significant data, was worded as follows:

July 28th, 1944 No. 5438.

To: His Excellency, The Royal Hungarian Minister of the Interior.

S u b j e c t: Detention of persons not previously tried and against whom no final internment order was made.

Since March 19th many of our Jewish fellow-brethren have been taken into custody without being accorded a trial under criminal procedure and without the formality of the promulgation of a regular internment order, based on administrative procedure having been observed. The antecedents of the above-mentioned persons and the method of the.ir arrest were almost the same in each case, by which the perfect innocence of those concerned is illustrated. For instance:

*) Statement of Col. Jozsef Czigany, published by the newspaper "Vilag" on January 1st, 1946. (321)

a) One group is composed of those, who were arrested at one of the railway stations of Budapest. These persons were not aware of the fact that all travel had been banned by the German troops of occupation as far as Jews were concerned, nay, they were not even in a position to know of this order. Such cases are: persons who were travelling on March 19th and arrived in Budapest the same evening, those who went to the stations on March 20th resp. 21st in order to depart lor their homes, persons awaiting arriving passengers or accompanying those departing and persons living in Budapest and working in suburban localities or vice versa.

b) many persons, against whom nothing has been proved, have been taken info custody as a result of anonymous and unfounded denunciations, and many, without any reason whatsoever, have been arrested in the streets.

c) some provincial towns gathered their Jewish population together and, having declared them to be "unreliable", sent them to Budapest under escort. All these persons are detained at the detention barracks in the Mosonyi utca, at Police Headquarters, at the Royal Criminal Court in Pest, at Horthy-Grove, in the farmstead of Thokolg-Fuzeser, in the hospital annexes in Wesselenyi utca and Beth/en fer, in the Majestic, Mirabella and Lomnic Hotels on the Svabhegy and at other places.

We wish to respectfully present following request:

To deign to order that all persons detained without having undergone a lawful trial or in respect of whom no lawful order for their detention has been promulgated, should be immediately set free, as no legal reason exists to justify their continued detention."

On taking office as Prime Minister, General Lakatos broadcast a speech to the nation giving particulars of the composition of the new cabinet. After Baky and Endre had been finally got rid of, Ferenczy was charged with the management of the Jewish affairs. He addressed following memorandum .concerning his new functions to the Executive Committee:

"Liaison Officer of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie at the Headquarters of the German Security Police, Budapest.

                     XII, Evetke utca 2, II.

                                                                  Ref. No.: 112/biz. 1944.

Subject: Affairs of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council. Budapest, August 28th, 1944.

By order of the Royal Hungarian Minister of the Interior I wish to inform the President of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council that from now on no authority or organ whatsoever, be it Hungarian or Allied, has the right to negotiate with or give orders to the above-mentioned Committee, with the sole exception of Lieut.-Col. of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie Vitéz Laszlo Ferenczy, who acts exclusively on behalf of the Royal (322) Hungarian Ministry of the Interior. In case any other authority or organ wants to give orders to or discuss any matters whatsoever with the Committee, this can be done exclusively through Lieut.-Col. of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie Vitéz Laszlo Ferenczy.

                                                              (sgd) Vitez Laszlo Ferenczy."

Ferenczy was not satisfied with the method by which the Jewish doctors of the Union had selected the men fit for work (out of 50,000 only 1,500). He issued orders for a new conscription to take place in all districts, beginning with Pozsonyi utca. Medical officers went from house to house, carrying out  examinations. Soon the long-winded character of this procedure became manifest, as the Board of Veterans directing this conscription, in harmony with Chief Medical Officer Jozsef Doby, now declared everybody capable of working in order to avoid their internment in concentration camps. Those found fit and enrolled in the so-called "air-raid companies" were allowed to stay in their flats.

As a further measure the Government ordered, in accordance with the agreement concluded with the Nazis, a military formation -a labour company of Jewish men and the younger Jewish women-to be created within the cadre of the 1st Honved Division. (Capt. Endre Gobbi was appointed to command this in place of Col. Heinrich of the General Staff, with whose work the Germans were not satisfied.) On introducing the new system, the following official communication was published:

"The Government, fully utilizing the possibilities established by law, intends to extend the liability for employment on important work for the defence of the country to Jews as well as other Hungarian citizens. Therefore all male and female Jewish persons between the ages of 14 and 70, who have passed a medical examination, are liable to be called up for work of this nature within the country's frontiers.

"A mixed commission will visit all Jewish blocks of houses every morning and individuals will be detailed for labour service in accordance with their special training, resp. their capacity for work. Jews declared lit for either military or home defence service will be assigned to tasks, which correspond to their special training and usefulness.

"Work done as a result of the home defence service will be paid at the usual existing rates and emoluments will be remitted immediately.

"Jewish persons declared unfit for military or home defence service will be settled in the provinces. These settlements will be established by the Jews themselves under the supervision of the Red Cross. They will be employed in different branches of home industry, such as basket making etc. They may also be employed in other industrial work or by factories etc. in the neighbourhood of these settlements. (323) "Jews called up for home defence service will mainly be employed in war industry. They will be accomodated in houses marked with the Star of David and as near to their working places as possible.

"As a rule the Hungarian Red Cross will be directly responsible for their food supply and medical and sanitary care. Children below the age limit will be cared for and looked alter in Red Cross institutions.

"Jewish persons unable to work, among them the aged and sick, will eventually be accomodated in the Budapest Charity Hospital.

"As the stipulations of home defence service apply to all citizens without exception, the Government, in extending home defence service to include Jews, also declares liable lor home defence service those Jews in possession of exemption certificates. "If the Jews called up for home defence service are required to serve outside the capital, members of their families are allowed to accompany them and will also be fed and accomodated to the fullest extent by the competent authorities. Labour conditions and accomodation correspond in every respect to the up-to-date requirements of modern labour and are able to withstand even the most severe criticism."

The new conscription of the Jews commenced on September 7th. Each district had its own recruiting office, in which the mixed commissions worked. These were composed of army surgeons and officers, the representatives of the Veterans' Board of the Jewish Council and delegates of the Union of Christian Jews. They carried out the enlistment of all Jews still in Budapest and between 14 and 70 years of age. (As we have already related, 30 classes - those between the ages of 18 and 40 - had by that time been called up for auxiliary labour service and therefore, strictly speaking, only the youngest and oldest classes, the sick and persons exempted for other reasons appeared before the recruiting commission.) The recruits, whose number - they were in all but 2,000 - is naturally not very high, were ordered by the 1st Honved 1. Division to dig trenches in the vicinity of the capital.

By reason of his commission Ferenczy, too, with great zeal started to prepare for the concentration of those unfit for digging trenches, the aged men and women and the children. By car he visited the village of Tura, where he surveyed a camping ground. Within 24 hours he already wanted to send the first batch of unfit Jews to this village, requiring them to walk the 45 kilometres between Tura and Budapest. The Jewish Council immediately appealed to the Minister of the Interior, Bonczos, stressing the point. that the Red Cross had not even had a chance of examining the suitability of the place. For this reason, they said, concentration there was not only impossible, but also contrary to the agreement. The Minister called Ferenczy and ordered him to reexamine the camping ground chosen together with a delegate of the Red Cross. (324)

Complying with the entreaties of Secretary of State Mester, the Regent, through his Chef de Cabinet, sent for Samu Stern. The Chef the Cabinet, Ambrozy, instructed Stern to wear just a plain grey suit and personally, in great secrecy, conducted him up the back-stairs of the palace into the presence of the Regent. President Stern drew the Regent's attention to the serious and dangerous situation that was liable to arise out of the concentration. True enough, the Sonderkommando for the extermination of the Jews had left Budapest after the conclusion of the agreement-in an ostentatious way-, but obviously this was intended to throw dust into the eyes of the Hungarians. He recalled that the defenceless Jews of Kistarcsa and Sarvar were simply smuggled out of the country and pointed out that the Jews about to be assembled in lonely concentration camps in the provinces might easily share their fate and be disposed of in a similar manner. Camouflaged Nazi bombers might attack the camps. Samu Stern referred to a speech of the Regent, held at the Ludovika Academy, in which he had declared: "Regrettable mistakes must be put right and the injury done to Hungarian honour must be wiped out!"

Horthy listened carefully to these arguments and declared that, contrary to the agreement with the Nazis, no concentration would take place.

The Red Cross, too, did everything within its power: in six weeks not a single camping ground in Western Hungary proposed by Ferenczy was declared to be, in accordance with the stipulations of the agreement, " fit for accomodation at European standard."

(In the agreement concluded with the Nazis the Government had inserted the clause that accomodation in the provinces should be at European standard and that this should be ensured by the Hungarian Red Cross.)

Ferenczy reported to the Regent that he was unable to enforce the agreement concluded with the Nazis, but in spite of these remonstrations Horthy did not pre ss the matter and thus it came about that the camps were never established.

Meanwhile the Ministry of the Interior finally got rid of Baky and Endre. (Baky was discharged on September 5th and Endre pensioned on September 7th.)

After the failure of his attempted coup d'etat, Baky, till October 15th, appeared only once in public, at Kolozsvar on July 18th. Here he declared: " We did efficient, thorough work. Who would have dared to believe that just one month after power had changed hands, not a single Jew would be left in Carpatho-Ukraine, Miskolcz, Nagyvarad and Kolozsvar?" Nevertheless, he did not completely quit political life. He founded a secret society by the name af "Kalaka". Among its members following interesting names were to be found: Bishop Istvan Zadravetz, Ministers Bela Lukacs, Lajos Szasz, Istvan Antal, Miklos Bonczos, Tibor Gyulay, Ferencz Zsindely, Secretaries of State 22 Black Book 325 Kadar, Fey, Mester, Lieut.-Gen. and Lord-Lieutenant Laszlo Mezey and others. Meetings were held every week and here the idea to found the "National Union" was conceived. (Baky's written statement, prepared by himself in the Marco utca prison.)

On the pretext of having his "eczema" attended to, Endre had already gone on sick-leave in August. He stayed at Velem until he was called up for military service and until the events of October took place, he "fought" well behind the front-lines, being employed in the Army's Supply Area in Transylvania.

Called to account a year later for his activities in connection with the deportations, he defended himself as follows:

"I was not imbued with hatred against the Jews. I realised the necessity of settling the Jewish question, and to achieve this I always fought in the open. Nevertheless, I never even dared to think of a solution of the kind that finally came about. It was not I, who called for deportations, I merely took part in their execution, as I was ordered to. In doing so, I wished to mitigate the German methods - I had neither power nor the chance to prevent deportations. II anyone could have prevented them, it might have been, at the best, the Regent. If such had been his intentions, he could have taken advantage of the European situation at that time and refused to consent to deportations. For when, just prior to the conclusion of the action, he made a serious protest and displayed a resolute demeanor this attitude produced a result."*)

In another confession he stated:

"I consider myself an adherent of the doctrine of racial purity. I considered all Jewish ambitions, which ran contrary to Hungarian interests, harmful and opposed only those. It is true that I initiated, at least in part, the decrees enacted against the Jews, but I declare nevertheless that neither we nor the Hungarian Government had the slightest knowledge or suspicion of what happened to the Jews once they were deported, we had no idea of Auschwitz nor of what took place in some of the ghettos. On the whole we knew that the deportees were taken away for labour service and I interpreted the fact that even babies were sent along with them as desire not to split up families. I was told that they would be employed on labour service until the end of the war and that afterwards the Germans would be responsible for their permanent re-settlement."**)

Witnesses, however, give an entirely different account of Endre's real behaviour. One of them, for example, is quoted below:

"About the middle of April, 1944, the Hungarian Jew Exterminating Squads under the leadership of Ferenczy and myself were formed by Endre as a result of a conference in the Ministry of the Interior, which was also attended by Eichmann and his henchmen.

*) Endre’s statement to the Political Police on October 10th, 1945. Dossier No. 3854/ H45 of the People's Prosecutor in Budapest

**) Laszlo Endre's statement to the People's Attorney, October 15th, 1945. (326)

For the whole length of the duration of deportation, Endre indefatigably visited the various scenes of deportations and ordered the removal of "unreliable" elements. The gist of his instructions was that he insisted on the most ruthless execution of his orders, assuring everybody on behalf of the internal organisation that, contrary to the past, nobody had to fear reprisals for committing smaller or greater atrocities. He also emphasized 'It is better to give such orders by word of mouth rather than in writing'. Regarding the exemption certificates, he gave orders that we should consider these - all and sundry - 'fakes' and that we should make no exceptions. 'By all means', he said, 'dispatch everybody. In any case, complaints will be investigated in Kassa by the Germans assisted by a Hungarian commission.' He frequently paid surprise visits to smaller places of deportation with the intention of catching officials in the act of hiding Jews.''*)

Councillor Perlaky was entrusted with the management of Jewish affairs. Through his assistance the liberation of Jewish hostages and internees was made possible. (Of the 139 journalists called upon by the Council to report at Csepel, only 55 did so, and these were distributed over the two camps there. By the time their liberation was possible, only 11 remained. These, by pure accident, had been accomodated in Horthy Grove, where they were left behind, forgotten men, when the July deportations took place. These they escaped, together with the 220 hostages detained at Kistarcsa since March 22nd, who were also set free on this occasion.)

The police permitted the Jews to hold Divine Services on the religious holidays forthcoming: they were allowed to move about without restrictions from 8 a.m. till 8 p.m.!

The Jews tried to perform a sad duty, when a committee (the members of which were Andras Balog, Istvan Foldes, Albert Geyer, Sandor Groszmann, Dezso Sandor, Jozsef Sebestyen, Miklos Szego and Miklos Vida) led by Lajos Stockler visited Col.-General Gusztav Hennyey, the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. Their object was to secure aid for the deportees. This delegation, after applying to various international Red Cross organisations for aid, begged the Minister for Foreign Affairs to obtain the Nazi Government's permission to send parcels to the deportees. Hennyey took steps to this effect, the Swedish Red Cross even sent parcels, but, naturally, everything was stolen by the Nazis. This committee also forwarded lists to the neutral countries showing location of camps etc. Expressing the thanks of the Jews, the president of the committee told the Minister for Foreign Affairs:

"This has been the Hungarian Government's first kind gesture towards the Jews for a long time. We know how to appreciate this!"

*) Statement of the former Captain of Gendarmerie Marton Zoldi to the Political Police on October 25th, 1945, 22 (327)

IX.

EFFORTS OF THE LAKATOS GOVERNMENT TO POSTPONE THE SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH PROBLEM. FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CONCLUDE AN ARMISTICE.

Horthy set the Lakatos Government a threefold task on its assuming office:

a) To restore Hungarian sovereignty as far as possible in spite of the German occupation;

b) To stop the persecution of the Jews immediately;

c) To prepare an armistice for Hungary and to carry it out at the given moment.

The ideas and measures adopted in the Jewish question by the Lakatos Cabinet have already been outlined in the aforesaid. The only success as far restoring Hungarian sovereignty went, was that, shortly after the Government came to power, some members of Parliament detained by the Gestapo were handed over to the custody of the juridical authorities of Hungary. (Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, Ferenc Nagy, Lipot Baranyai, Zoltan Tildy jr.)

Regarding the third point, the Anglo-Saxon powers, through the Hungarian Minister in Bern, repeatedly advised the Hungarian Government to seek an armistice from the East. On August 31st Prime Minister Lakatos in a conversation with the German General Guderian expressed it as his opinion that eventual "V-weapons" would never have a decisive influence on the outcome of the war.

At the Crown Council held on September 7th the Regent 1 stated that he thought the time had come to begin negotiations 1 with the view of obtaining an armistice, seeing that the passes of the Southern Carpathians were in the hands of the Red Army and that three Russian Armoured Corps were advancing into Transylvania. At the same time Horthy pointed out that in spite of t he German occupation he had no wish to betray the Germans and to negotiate without their knowledge, and that he therefore intended to inform them of the negotiations as soon as these were started.

Csatay, Minister for Home Defence, proposed that the Germans be requested to transfer five divisions from the Western Front in order to defend Transylvania. (This proposal was accepted in the hope that owing to the military situation on the Western Front the Germans would not be able to accede to this and that the refusal would then serve as a justification for seeking an armistice.)

Lakatos, soon after the council ended, asked Veesenmayer and his military attaché, General Greiffenberg, to call on him. The two Germans were somewhat surprised by the demands presented (328) by Lakatos. But it was the latter's turn to be surprised, when next morning - that is before the Hungarian 24-hour ultimatum expired - Greiffenberg called on him and informed him that four divisions were already en route for Hungary. The fifth was to be dispatched in a couple of days' time. Thus Horthy and his Government were deprived of their pretext for starting armistice negotiations. Contrary to their promise, however, the Germans did not direct the divisions to the front. They garrisoned them around Budapest, because they knew about the plans of the Regent and the Government through messages passed to them by Remenyi-Schneller, Minister of Finance and Jurcsek, Minister of Supply. It is therefore evident that these forces were not brought to Hungary to defend the country, but to prevent any action contrary to German interests. (On August 31st Szálasi had an interview with the German Minister, Veesenmayer, and expressed his willing ness to take over the supreme power with the help of the German forces.)

A secret Council was convened by the Regent on September 10th. Five civilian and five military members were present. Count Istvan Bethlen, Count Morie Eszterhazy, Count Gyula Karoly, -- all former Prime Ministers-, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs Kalman Kanya and Baron Zsingmond Perenyi were the civilian members. The Armed Forces were, represented by General Roeder, General Sonyi, General Naday, the Chief of General Staff General Voeroes and the Minister for Home Defence, General Csatay. The Prime Minister, General Lakatos, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs also attended the meeting.

The secret Council decided that negotiations for an armistice must be started immediately.

A Cabinet Council was convened for September 11th for the purpose of passing a similar motion. But unexpectedly the Cabinet failed to arrive at a similar decision, as the ministers, in violent speeches, protested against an armistice and turned down the proposal.

(The ministers did not dare declare themselves openly anti-German in the presence of Remenyi-Schneller and Jurcsek, the more so, as Csatay referred to the German divisions garrisoned around Budapest with the obvious aim of preventing any anti-German move on the part the Government.)

Lakatos thereupon tendered his resignation. He intended to reshuffle his cabinet, leaving out Remenyi-Schneller and Jurcsek. But in the end both of them retained their portfolios by explicit request of the Germans.

The Government, as required by the constitution, convened Parliament for September 21st. The political parties had been dissolved on August 24th. A peculiar situation was thus created, as, at least de jure, none of the deputies belonged to a political party. The Prime Minister, contrary to parliamentary custom and possibly for the first time in parliamentary history, 329 wore a general's uniform and, on addressing the house, made following statement regarding the Jewish question:

"An order is being carried out for the final settlement of the Jewish question, which, by applying most rigidly the possibilities afforded by the law, will gradually ensure that the most harmful elements and the slackers will do useful work."

During the debate the Jewish question was once more raised. Tibor Korody,-once a member of- the Nyilas, who had since changed his mind-said:

"During the six months of the Sztojay Cabinet’s reign we have witnessed a mass of decrees, which were of no practical value to the nation and had no other purpose than to harm some people, notably the Jews. (Loud interruption from the extreme left, where the Nyilas members were seated). We are well aware that the many decrees dealing with the Jewish question and published and executed in the course of these six months have not improved our position as regards the war. On the contrary, it can be regarded as sabotage of the total war effort that in this country, and especially here in Budapest, where the labour shortage is acute, 250,000 Jews, whose ability to work could have been fully utilized, were for six months forced to be consumers only and to produce nothing, because they are deprived of their liberty to moue around freely. (Noise on the extreme left. Rainiss: 'Let's have them back as bank directors! That would be the best thing to do!') When one strikes the balance, it would seem necessary to revoke the aforementioned decrees, which were issued without authorisation. At the very least it would be necessary that they are presented to Parliament for examination."

The parliament turned down the motion.

In the early days of September Col. Kuban was instructed to establish contact with the Russians. His reports were favourable and therefore, assisted by the commander of a partisan formation in Slovakia, General Faragho, Domonkos Szentivanyi, Minister Extraordinary, and Count Geza Teleki crossed the frontier on September 22nd and set out on their journey to Moscow to negotiate an armistice.

Early in October Russian forces crossed the river Tisza. At the same time one cipher telegram after the other arrived from Moscow. On October 9th General Faragho reported on the armistice conditions presented to him by the Foreign Commissar, M. Molotov. Among others, the conditions included the obligation to attack the Germans and to withdraw Hungarian troops and Civil Administration from the territories re-occupied by Hungary after December 31st, 1938. Meanwhile Russian armoured units had reached the neighbourhood of Kecskemet (80 km south of Budapest). In order to meet the stipulations of the armistice the Lakatos Government; through special agents, requested the Russian High Command to delay the advance of the Red Army for several days. The High Command agreed to this request and (330) Faragho reported their decision on October 12th. The Regent thereupon gave instructions for the Crown Council to meet on October 15th.

While the negotiations went on in Moscow, the opposition parties, united in a "Front of Independence," began the formation of a resistance movement. The leaders of the Hungarian Jews wholeheartedly wished to join this movement, and through Major Barta, who occupied an important post in the Ministry for Home Defence, paid 100,000 pengos in fees to the Front of Independence. The Commander of the Regent's Guard, Lieut.-General Lazar, was ordered to organise the resistance of the troops loyal to the Regent. He also negotiated with the representatives of the Jewish Executive Committee, Beer and Gergely. It was agreed that in the case of necessity the Jewish labour companies garrisoned in Budapest and numbering about 25,000 would be armed. As a result of the negotiations the Committee forwarded a list of the companies and attached a map showing their locations. A plan was also feverishly worked out for the arming of the labour companies. A proclamation was prepared and ought to have been supplemented by detailed instructions to be given by Lazar on October 15th. (The proclamation of the armistice was timed for October 18th.)

Well-informed circles openly discussed the fact that members of Szálasi’s Arrow-Cross Party were being armed by the Germans in the Huvosvolgy (a residential district in Buda) and were preparing to assume power. The Lakatos Government had already in September decided to arrest Szálasi and Gabor Kemeny as well as the leaders of the Eastern Front Association, Ney and Bolhoy. Colonel of Gendarmerie Kiraly was instructed to carry out the order, but was soon forced to report that Szálasi and company were hiding in houses occupied by the Germans and that armed German soldiers guarded them. Lakatos protested indirectly by hinting to Veesenmayer and Winckelmann-but received no answer.

An association, the National Association under the chairmanship of the Minister of Commerce, Szasz, was formed about this time from among the members of the two houses of Parliament. The purpose was to unite all pro-German elements and to prevent all armistice negotiations. Rainiss, Jaross, Racz, Vajna, Szolosi, Kolozsvary Borcsa, Olah and Huszovsky were among the leaders of this association. It boasted about 150 members, all of them deputies known for their pro-German leanings. A delegation of the association paid a visit to Lakatos and protested against the armistice. This protest was repeated at the sitting of the Parliamentary Committee for Home Defence.

In early September, Arrow-Cross propaganda leaflets were dropped from German planes. The Government intended to start proceedings against the authors but was unable to do so, as they enjoyed German protection. (331) The Executive Committee of the Jewish Council got in touch with Horthy jr. and through him drew the attention of the Regent to the menacing situation. A reassuring answer was given, stating that a sufficient number of loyal troops was available to prevent any attempt against the regime. 1 General Szilard Bakay, commander of the Army Corps stationed in Budapest, was the commander designate of the troops loyal to the Regent. On October 10th he was kidnapped by the Germans, who took advantage of ~ misty autumn morning. This action of the Germans left no doubt about their decision to oppose and prevent, if necessary by force, all attempts to obtain an armistice.

Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy-this shrewd man-apparently having been informed through German sources of what was about to happen in the course of the next few days, agreed with the "Nyilas" leaders that he was to continue his job and remained on the best of terms with the SS.

While the Red Army was advancing between the rivers Tisza and Sebes, Koros and their shock-troops reached Kecskemet and Szolnok and while a big tank battle was raging around Debrecen, Szálasi was hiding at the SS. Headquarters in Verboeczy utca. At the same time Emil Kovarc, who had just returned from Germany, where he had sought refuge when a warrant for his arrest was issued in connection with a bomb outrage committed by him against the synagogue in Dohany utca, was, by order of Szálasi, making the final preparations for the seizure of power. (332)

Part V.

The Life of the Budapest Jews under the

Szalasi Terror.

(October 15th, 1944, to February 13th, 1945.)

I.

THE ROYAL PALACE: OCTOBER 15th AND 16th.

A Crown Council was held at the Royal Palace at 10 a.m. on October 15th. The General Staff Chief of was absent from Budapest. In his stead, Col. Nadas, Chief of Operations, reported on the military situation. He explained that the tank battle raging around Debrecen, where the Russians were supposed to be surrounded, would not end with a German victory, and that they would be forced to withdraw as soon as the Russian reinforcements arrived. General Vattay, senior A.D.C. to the Regent, who had been instructed to form an opinion on the morale of the troops, reported that the First and Second Armies defending the Carpathian Range could, according to the statements of Generals Dalnoki Miklos and Veress, be described as absolutely loyal, but that the same could not be said of the Third Army, commanded by Lieut.-Gen. Heszlenyi. Vattay also reported that all measures had been taken for the defence of the Palace and the wireless station.

Remenyi-Schneller and Jurcsek were not present at the Crown Council, as Lakatos had resigned the day previously. Nevertheless his whole cabinet, with the exception of Remenyi-Schneller and Jurcsek were sworn in again on October 15th. After the Government had taken the oath, the Crown Council accepted the terms of the armistice.  

Something, however, happened in the meantime.   

The Regent's proclamation was already prepared. The Regent's Chef de Cabinet had sent for the Chief of the official press agency, M. Hlatky, to whom he handed the text of the proclamation with instructions to have it broadcast. The exact time of the broadcast would be fixed by the Crown Council. He also assured Hlatky that the Guards had been ordered to stand by and defend the radio station.

The program of the Crown Council was changed in the last minute. The Regent announced that the armistice agreement had already been signed. He then asked the members of the Council, who of them was willing to follow him on the road he had taken. Prime Minister Lakatos was the first to speak. The Chief of Operations, as already mentioned in the foregoing, made his report on the military situation. The statements of the Ministers were to follow, but it was announced that the German Minister, Veesenmayer, whom the Regent had asked to call on him, had arrived.

It was exactly 12 a.m., when the Regent received Veesenmayer. He at once informed him that he had signed an armistice 335 agreement. Veesenmayer was visibly surprised, however, h-e soon recovered and immediately took the offensive by alluding to a "regrettable" incident, which had occurred during the morning drive of Niklos Horthy jr. Veesenmayer then told the Regent that his son had been arrested by the German police while negotiating with enemy agents.

At 9.30 a.m. on October 15th the son of the Regent had asked for a car with an armed escort. The reason given was that he had to pay an urgent visit to Pest on the other side of the Danube. The Commanding Officer of the Guards ordered three armed sergeants to accompany Horthy jr., whom, at the same time, he warned to remain in the Palace, as some important events were expected to occur in the course of the day. Horthy jr., referring to the visit as being an official one, was unwilling to cancel it. Several minutes after 9.30 a.m. he left the Palace. Shortly afterwards a detonation was heard, and about 15 minutes later one of the three sergeants arrived back. He reported that Horthy jr. had ordered the car to stop on the corner of Galamb and Piarista Streets and that he was assaulted by German soldiers and SS. on leaving the car. Horthy jr. defended himself, but was shot, after which a blanket was thrown over him. He was then dragged to a car and carried away. The escorting guards had hurried to his defence, but had soon been wounded. One of them had been shot through the lungs, the other through the stomach. As they were lying wounded on the pavement, one of them threw a hand grenade. The detonation of this had been heard at the Palace. One of the sergeants later died on the spot, the other one succumbed to his wounds in hospital, while the driver was severely wounded in the arm. Regarding himself, the sergeant stated that when Horthy jr. was assaulted, he had run to a nearby telephone box intending to ask for help. While doing so, he had been attacked by persons wearing the Star of David, was beaten and lost consciousness. On recovering he immediately hurried to the Palace and made his report.

It was later discovered that SS Commander Scorzeny, who in 1943 had liberated Mussolini, and his men had assaulted and kidnapped Horthy jr.

The Regent's son had left the Palace for the purpose of negotiating with representatives of Marshal Tito. But he had been deceived: the "representatives" were members of the Gestapo, as were the alleged Jews, who had assaulted the sergeant. The whole action had been carefully planned and its aim was, as Veesenmayer stated before the People's Court, to blackmail the Regent.

The Regent had been exceptionally nervous during the Crown Council, as he had already learned of his son's fate. Nevertheless-before receiving Veesenmayer-he ordered Hlatky to stand by. On returning from the interview with Veesenmayer he gave instructions for the proclamation to be broadcast. (336) Ambrozy passed the order to Hlatky, who was waiting in the studio. The Regent then swore the Government in and, whilst he was still in the act of doing so, the arrival of Ambassador Rahm was announced. Horthy-while the proclamation was being broadcast,-received Hitler's special envoy.

Veesenmayer already knew about the plans of the Regent and the Government since September 11th. Through Gabor Kemeny, Szálasi passed word to Veesenmayer's political adviser, Kurt Haller, that in the name of the nation he refused to accede to the Regent's demand for an armistice and that he was ready to assume power. On September 26th Veesenmayer flew to the German Headquarters and saw Hitler. He submitted his report on his negotiations with Szálasi, who from then on lived in the offices of SS. Sturmbannführer v. Pfeffer-Wildenbruck, which were located in the house adjoining the German Legation and therefore enjoyed extraterritoriality. On his return he told Szálasi that the Fuhrer had decided to remove the Regent and that he, Szálasi, was to be regarded as the only reliable factor. From that day on he stayed in the house of the German police in Werboczy Street.

Rahm's interview with the Regent lasted 45 minutes. Hitler's representative was by no means afraid of using threats. He said that the four German divisions were still surrounding the capital and that a special police force with the cover-name of "Panzerfaust" was to be set up. It was to be commanded by General von der Bach, who had been given his orders directly by Headquarters.

The Regent was extremely shaken by what he had heard, saying that he only then realised what he had done and that he would try to cancel the whole agreement.

Horthy's promise was not taken seriously and Rahm took the necessary steps. (Rahm only learnt after he had left the Regent, that the proclamation had been broadcast.)

In the early afternoon one unfavourable report after the other was received at the Regency. General Hindy had arrested his own Corps Commander, General Aggteleki, thus showing his junior officers what line to take. Reports were also received that armed "Nyilas" formations were demonstrating in the streets and that some police units were joining them. In Trombitas utca and in three different localities in the Pasaret district, the Germans were arming members of the "Nyilas" Party. Leaflets printed in Vienna were distributed all over the town.

In the meantime Prime Minister Lakatos, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hennyey and Minister Ivan Rakovszky had an audience with the Regent, who informed the ministers of the particulars of the armistice signed in Moscow by General Faragho.

At 4.30 p.m. reports were received that the radio station had been occupied by the Germans, the gendarmerie units ordered there having arrived too late. The situation was tragic, as only (337) the day before the 24th German Armoured Division had arrived in Budapest with 42 brand new "Tiger" tanks.

When Hennyey left the Regent, he handed over to the ministers of the three neutral countries accredited in Budapest the text of the proclamation.

The occupation of the radio station and Szálasi’s proclamation, which followed shortly after, as well as the fact that the majority of the police units joined the "Nyilas.'' made it impossible to fulfill the terms of the armistice, and therefore the Regent accepted the Prime Minister's suggestion that he was willing provided his son and General Bakkay were set free - to declare that the armistice did not also mean a surrender and that the Hungarian troops must go on fighting until a fresh answer was received from Moscow.

Lakatos and Hennyey called on Veesenmayer at the German Legation, where they were very coldly received. Veesenmayer stated that he was only willing to begin negotiations, if the proposals were put down in writing.

About 7 p.m. Lakatos returned to his office, where he dictated a proposition consisting of 5 points and then went to see the Regent in order to obtain his final approval. Horthy declared that he considered everything lost, nevertheless he approved of the text as prepared by the Prime Minister. Lakatos again called on the German Minister and handed over the note. After that, at about 10 p.m., he again returned to the Palace and continued negotiations. While these talks were going on, it was reported that Janos Voros, Chief of General Staff, was also acting contrary to the Regent's orders. (It was later discovered that Janos Voros, after the proclamation had been broadcast, had ordered a code-word to be sent to t he First and Second Hungarian Armies, which would have resulted in the troops laying down their arms and going over to the Russians , The staff officers in charge of the military radio station, however,-being pro-Nazi-had not sent the word agreed upon, but telegraphed a false order, which contained instructions contrary to the proclamation. Janos Voros later succeeded in joining the Russians and published a statement in which he denounced the false order issued in his name.)

Chief A.D C. General Vattay at 11 p.m. expressed his fears for the life of the Regent. They decided that the best thing to do would be to hand the power over to the Germans instead of Szálasi and thereby expose German aggression. At 3 a.m. Councillor of Legation Feine arrived and Lakatos dictated the following suggestion to him: "The Regent and his family are placing themselves under the protection of the German Reich, but he reserves for himself the right to take with him his close assistants, requests that press and radio be forbidden to attack him and finally that the Germans should prevent all excesses of the extreme Right-wing elements and all blood-shed." (338) [Gerhardt] Feine returned at 5.15 a.m. and told the officials that the German troops surrounding the fortress had received orders not to make use of their arms as yet, and then drove to the German Legation accompanied by Lakatos.

General of the Guards Karoly Lazar was in charge of the defence of the fortress. In the fortress itself-partly in the Palace, partly in the Nador Barracks-were the body-guard formations: 200 men, armed with only 50 tommy-guns and several heavy machine-guns.

A complete battalion of 643 officers and men armed with the most up-to-date weapons and another battalion of 800 officers and men, which also included an Armoured Car Company with four armoured cars, was stationed in the barracks, At 6 p.m. on October 15th all gates to the fortress were closed and mines were laid. Two mines exploded during the night, tearing to pieces a "Nyilas" Lieutenant, who with his men was attempting to locate the mines. At 8 p.m. General von der Bach, over the telephone, addressed an ultimatum to the Hungarian Commander, demanding that the mines be cleared by 11 p.m., as otherwise he would order his tanks to attack. Veesenmayer too protested over the phone that he could not move freely because of the mines. He too demanded that the mines be cleared. This was done at the place where Veesenmayer wished to leave the fortress. At 4 a.m. it was reported to General Lazar that the Germans were patrolling the surroundings of the Var and at 5 a.m., the SS. forced one of the southern gates of the Royal Palace and prepared to launch an attack from there. The fighting started at 5.15 a.m. After the first shots were fired, Lakatos phoned-as was discovered later-from the German Legation, asking to end all resistance. Not another single shot was to be fired, because, as he said. otherwise terrible things might happen.

Several minutes past 6 a.m. Veesenmayer, accompanied by Lakatos, arrived at the Palace. Horthy was already waiting for him in the lobby. While the guard was presenting arms, two cars left the Palace, the first one with Horthy, Lakatos and Veesenmayer, the second one with their entourage. The members of the Regent's family left some short while later and walked to the Nuntiature, which was just next door to the Palace.

Once inside the car, Veesenmayer informed Horthy that he had received orders from the German Headquarters to take him and his family to Germany. The Regent thanked him for the information and gave orders to Lakatos to accompany his family from the Nuntiature to the "Hatvani Palace," where he was kept in custody together with his A. D. C's,

It was just on noon on October 16th, when an SS-man came in and addressed the Regent:

"The Prime Minister wants to talk to you!"

The Regent asked Lakatos, who was standing next to him: (339)

"Who is that?"

"Szalasi!" answered Lakatos.

Szalasi was shown into the room next to the Regent's and Horthy went in to see him. When he returned he whispered to Lakatos that an SS officer had been present throughout the interview and added:

"The fellow wanted me to hand the power over to him, but I kicked him out!"

Two hours later Lakatos was taken to the German Legation and there conducted into a room, where Rahm, Veesenmayer and Feine were waiting. Veesenmayer told Lakatos that Hitler offered Horthy and his family treatment in accordance with his rank, if he accepted the following conditions:

a) if he resigned in accordance with the law;

b) if he nominated Szálasi for the office of Prime Minister;

c) if he consented to publish the following statement:

"Only the misuse of my name made it possible for a proclamation of the nature of that of October 15th to be published."

Lakatos refused to accept the offer, and was then taken back to the Hatvany Palace. He reported to the Regent, but unexpectedly the latter said: "I don't mind," whereupon Lakatos returned to the Legation and informed the Germans accordingly. By this time it was 3.30 p. m. The Regent expressed only two wishes: the first one was that his son should be near him, and the second that he should be allowed to return to the Palace the following day in order to collect his personal belongings. Twice more Lakatos had to go to and from the Legation before the text of the proclamation had been finally drawn up. Its essence was that the armistice did not mean surrender and that the troops must go on fighting.

At 7.30 p.m. Rahm prepared the text of the document announcing the Regent's resignation; the Hungarian text was prepared by Ferenc Rainiss. Later in the evening Veesenmayer took Lakatos to the Royal Palace, which was full of looting German soldiers, where they packed Horthy's personal effects. (The official residence of the Prime Ministers and Lakatos' private flat were looted by the Germans and the Nyilas, but the Germans did not allow any Nyilas to enter the palace. Its valuable furniture was removed in its entirety by the Germans.)

Lakatos was conducted to a bath-room, and it was in this room that he handed over the draft of the document which had been prepared at the German Legation. Horthy's first question was what had happened to his son. As Lakatos could give no answer, Veesenmayer was asked into the room, who, with a smile on his face, said that he would join the special train on the following day either in Vienna or in Linz, and that this was only a small detail for which he could give no guarantee, but that in the whole he was speaking the truth. (340)

Hesitatingly Horthy looked up to Lakatos, who said that he had no reason to doubt the Minister's statement. Horthy thereupon signed the instrument of his resignation and charged Szálasi, who represented the majority in the country, with the formation of a new Government. (There was no question in this document about Szálasi’s sovereign rights.)

Veesenmayer took the document and as Lakatos was no longer needed, they arrested him and took him to the Tihany. On October 30th Jeno Szollosy, the new Deputy Prime Minister, called on him and forced him to countersign the instrument of resignation. On the following day Lakatos was taken to the Sopron-Kohida prison. Horthy, together with his family, was taken to Germany, but his son did not join them in spite of the promises made. (341)

II.

SZALASI'S REIGN BEGINS WITH A POGROM.

On that historical Sunday afternoon, the Regent's proclamation was broadcast twice. After that the transmission was interrupted, and when it started again, German marches were played. This was followed by the false Order of the Day pretending to emanate from the Chief of General Staff Janos Voros, which ordered the fighting to continue. In the evening, the music was stopped unexpectedly and an unknown voice announced that Ferenc Szálasi’s Order of the Day would be read to the Hungarian nation in arms.

This was followed by the proclamation of the Arrow-Cross Party.

On the night following Szálasi’s assumption of power, pogroms broke out all over the country. In Óbuda Jewish labourers were rounded up, part of them were taken to the Margit and the others to the Chain Bridge, where they were shot and thrown into the Danube. At 7.32 p. m. on October 15th the ambulance was called out to a man, who had committed suicide, when he heard that Szálasi had taken over the government. Two hours later the ambulance rushed off to save a dying woman, who had been shot. From then on, the ambulance had to answer hundreds of calls to cases of suicide and to render first aid to the victims of Nyilas atrocities.

Atrocities were also committed in the country. In one small village, for instance, the Nyilas slaughtered 160 doctors and technicians belonging to a Jewish labour company,

Some Jewish labourers managed to get hold of arms and, together with Communist and Socialist workers, tried to offer resistance in a number of houses, but it was not long before machine-guns and even artillery were brought into action against them and they were defeated. The following day, October 16th, found the Tisza Kalman and the Teleki squares strewn with the corpses of innocent Jews, who, according to the official statement, had been executed by way of punishment. This was the start of Ferenc Szálasi’s and the Arrow-Cross Party's terror ...

The Order of the Day and Szálasi’s proclamation, as well as the proclamation of the Arrow-Cross Party as broadcast, did not mention the Jews. But while Jewish blood was being shed in the streets of Budapest and nobody willing to stop the looting could be found, the Minister of the Interior, Gabor Vajna, considered the time ripe to state the Government's point of view regarding the Jewish question: (342)

"I order all officials of the civil administration and all police officers to do their utmost to safeguard and maintain good order, discipline and public safety. The orders issued and published by means of posters have been inspired by an overriding sense of responsibility to maintain public services and a life as nearly normal as possible as well as being guided by certain principles and necessities. As regards the Jewish question, I am in a position to state that we will definitely solve it. This solution, - even if it be inexorable -, will be such as the Jews deserve in view of their past and present behaviour. For the solution of the Jewish question detailed instructions will be issued and carried out. Nobody shall take upon himself the right to act as a despotic and arbitrary judge of the Jews, as the solution of this question is the business of the State. And everyone can rest assured that we will solve this question. Emphatically I wish to warn all Jews and those who serve their interests, that every authority in the State is keeping a close watch on their activities and, having due regard to the war, that I will carry out all measures already instituted or about to be instituted with extreme severity. In this respect I do not differentiate between Jews belonging to the Catholic, Protestant or Israelite Churches: I deal only with the Jewish race. I will not acknowledge the validity of any safe-conducts or foreign passports issued by whomsoever to a Hungarian Jew. At present all Jews living in Hungary are subject to the control and direction of the Hungarian State. And we will tolerate interference from nobody, whether in Hungary or abroad. No person of Jewish blood should therefore allow himself to think that he can violate the decrees and laws of the Hungarian State with the assistance of foreigners. II, in spite of this, any Jew should attempt to do anything against the Hungarian State, the army of our Allies or the civil population, or to commit any crimes whatsoever, I will inflict such reprisals upon the Jews in Hungary, as will give lull satisfaction to our nation and to our Allies."

A state of siege had been declared in Budapest, but its rules did not apply as far as the atrocities against the Jews were concerned.

The Government decided that the Minister of Justice, Laszlo Budinszky, should handle the Jewish question. In accordance with the programme of the Government he was guided in this by the following aspects:

"The Jews have to work lor the nation. Their treatment will be in accordance with their behaviour. Their legal position is regulated by law. No differentiation between one Jew and the other can be made. Once the war has come to an end, the Jews will be removed from Hungary to some place to be fixed upon by international agreement. Jewry shall never be allowed to return to the Hungarian "Lebensraum". Marriages contracted with Jews are invalid. Everybody is entitled to make free use of this right; those who abstain from doing so will be liable to the same treatment (343) as their Jewish consorts. In such cases the children must be regarded as Jews."

Jews in possession of exemption documents issued by the Regent or of safe-conducts issued by a foreign power, who therefore had not been compelled to wear the Star of David or to live in houses marked with this emblem, were advised by radio to move into such houses by 6 p. m. the same day. Later in the evening the order was cancelled in spite of the statement made by the Minister of the Interior, which said that the Szálasi Government would not differentiate between Jews in possession of safe-conducts or exemptions and those not holding such documents. (The cause for the cancellation of the order was that the neutral envoys protested to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gabor Kemeny and threatened to break off diplomatic relations if the order was not cancelled.) (344)

III.

OCTOBER 16TH --IN THE GHETTO.

On the afternoon of October 16th the doors of all houses marked with the Star of David were closed by order of the police and all persons obliged by law to wear the Star of David were forbidden to leave or to enter the houses. The doctors were not allowed to visit the sick, not even women in labour could summon help. The dead were left unburied and the occupants of the houses had to live on the contents of their larder - if this wasn't empty anyway - as they could not go out shopping.

Therefore neither the members nor the staff of the Jewish Council were in a position to reach their office in Sip Street, with the sole exception of Miksa Domonkos, one of the members of the Industrial Branch. When he arrived there, he found heavily armed Nyilas units preparing to search the building. Domonkos at once rung up the one competent authority, Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy. He told him that he was alone in the office and was unable to deal with the complicated obligations of the Council (supplying internment camps, running public kitchens and fulfilling the German demands.) He also informed him that several Nyilas men had already entered the building, whilst others were assembling in the courtyard and firing their rifles, and reports about the atrocities committed throughout the town and calls for help were coming in every minute. He added that the intruders were hindering him in the execution of his duties and that they had expressed the wish to take him away with them.

According to the notes made at the time, Ferenczy replied as follows: "Everything is all right as it is: at last the Jews are getting what they have asked for!" With those words he put down the receiver.*) Ferenczy's power is made evident by the fact that when Domonkos, after having talked. to Ferenczy on the phone, told the Nyilas gang 'Ferenczy disapproves of your actions. He will come at once to restore order, so you'd better leave immediately', they followed his advice!

About 11 a.m. [Imre] Reiner succeeded in reaching the building. Here he found the desperate Domonkos, who informed him of everything! that had happened. He showed him the reports prepared for Ferenczy and told him that the latter had severely threatened the members of the Council, demanding that they continued their work at once**). The telephone was ringing every minute and people from all over the town complained desperately about the ill-treatment,

*) Statement of Miksa Domonkos.

**) Statement of Reiner, (345)

separation and killing of the Jews. But not only the Jews were asking for help, even the ambulance sought their assistance and demanded the intervention of the Council, because they were not allowed to enter the houses marked with a Star of David and to render first aid to the injured or to comfort the dying.

The records of the Budapest Voluntary Ambulance Service contain references to a series of murders on October 16th. From that day onwards 60 to 70 calls per day were not rare. The victims were nearly all Jews, mostly young Jewish labourers, who had to be treated for injuries caused by bullets. Three times the ambulance was called to a place in Dohany Street just opposite the synagogue, where the Nyilas had shot eight Jews. Twice the Nyilas hooligans forbade the ambulance to interfere, and when finally, hours later, they were allowed to get on with their job, they found that only one of the eight victims was still alive, the others having meanwhile died of loss of blood. Similar cases were frequent and police officers and kind-hearted people were continually ringing up the Council asking for help for Jews found shot. Many other calls received were requests for aid to be given to Jews found starving in air-raid shelters.

(When one member of the Council left the Council building, he met the sad procession of thousands of Jews escorted by armed Germans and Nyilas. They had been dragged out of the "Star of David" houses in the Teleki Ter, where their armed resistance had been suppressed.)   

Again and again fresh atrocities were committed. A new band of armed Nyilas men entered the Council building and Domonkos had great difficulties in preventing looting. Again he telephoned Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy and asked for help, but instead he was threatened most seriously by the latter and ordered to ensure that the three leading members of the Council, [Samu] Stern, [Erno] Peto and [Karoly] Wilhelm, reported at the Sip Street Headquarters immediately. Only later was it learned that he intended to arrest them, as they knew that his behaviour was contrary to that displayed previously.

Though Ferenczy did not lift a finger to help the Jews*), he was-as already pointed out-respected to such a degree that it was possible to liberate within two or three days all prominent members of the Jewish Council not deported by then simply by means of a note composed by one of the members of the Council and delivered by Christian messengers, which began with the words 'In the name of Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy ...' This member of the Council not only maintained his position later on, but by illegally wearing a captain's uniform was even regarded as an "official organ" by the Nyilas. Later on the Nyilas looked upon him as an official representative of the Ministry of Home Defence attached to the Jewish Council and throughout the Nyilas reign

*) Ferenzcy promised several times that he would intervene, but never kept his word. Once or twice he used the trick of telephoning and issuing orders in the presence of the person concerned. These instructions never reached their destination, because he used a dead telephone ... (Evidence of Denes Burier.) (346) respected his orders. (Several weeks later the Commissioner for Jewish Affairs officially appointed him' "Supervisor of the Ghetto").

It must be added that a member of the Institute for Jewish Research entered the Council building and, in possession of an order signed by the Head of the Institute, demanded the surrender of a number of typewriters. Again the spell cast by the uniform and the mention of Ferenczy's name acted in the same way as it had on the different Nyilas gangs.

The same day some Nyilas officials accompanied by high-ranking police officers inspected the synagogue and the houses adjoining it and decided to set up a prison camp there. Shortly afterwards thousands of Jewish men and women were herded in. Altogether nearly 6,000 people were driven there. Many died, but it was impossible to bury the dead, as the building was so tightly packed that it could not be entered. They were also left without any food whatsoever and it was not until two or three days later that permission was given for some supplies to be delivered.

Happily enough, the intervention of the foreign legations helped. Wallenberg managed to have some of the holders of Swedish passports released and on the third day-after many interventions-all prisoners were allowed to return to their homes. Several days later the first batches of Jews were conducted to some brick-works outside the town and soon afterwards it was learned that they had already left the country at Hegyeshalom. (347)

IV.

THE MALE JEWISH POPULATION DIGS TRENCHES.

Several days later the synagogue in the Dohany utca was once more full of prisoners. They too had to starve and several clays later the Nyilas in the presence of police officers stripped them of all their valuables and possessions. After that they were driven to the brick-works, from where the road led to deportation. The Nyilas demolished the equipment of the synagogue and rifled the alms boxes in addition to robbing the parishioners.

In the early hours of October 20th, Nyilas and police forces entered some houses marked with the Star of David and turned all male occupants out into the yard. Here they picked the men between the ages of 16 and 60 and ordered them to be ready to leave in an hour's time with full equipment and sufficient food to last them for three days. In some places the foreign safe-conducts were respected and in some others documents issued by the Jewish Council were also accepted. But as a rule the Nyilas even got very old and sick people out of their beds. In many cases they proved themselves to be open to bribery. Corruption was already rife and some Nyilas men, after receiving a few hundred pengos, were ready to accept all exemption documents.

The men were taken to the race course and other open spaces, where they were formed into companies. Here, neither foreign safe-conducts nor exemption certificates were accepted and even exemptions ordered by a decree on October 15th for military purposes were not respected. (The certificates issued by the district doctors were also ignored and 50,000 people, many of them sick and crippled, set out on their journey to meet death.)

At mid-day the Hungarian Telegraph Agency issued a statement according to which:

"A decree of the Minister of the Interior will be published in to-morrow's official gazette. This decree, promulgated by request of the Minister without Portfolio in charge of total mobilisation, provides for the employment on compulsory labour service of all men between the ages of 16 and 60 obliged to wear the Star of David and living in houses marked with this sign. The decree will come into force on October 20th."

This decree, which was purposely issued late, granted exemption from labour service to those in possession of a foreign safe-conduct or an exemption certificate, but in spite of all protests, they had all been enlisted the previous day. "Many people were dragged away without an overcoat, hat or suitable shoes. As from that day many officers and men attached to such labour units demanded equipment and food from the decimated Jewish Council, (348) because? they were harbouring some unfortunate victim of the action. In this difficult situation it was only lucky that the military authorities behaved correctly and tried to help.

Each following day brought new problems. There were humane police officers, who made it possible for cripples among the Jews, who had escaped being shot by the Nyilas, to be transported back to their homes. With the assistance of the International Red Cross and the Swedish Legation it was possible to transport many cripples and invalids to the Jewish Council building, where an emergency hospital had been set up. The means. of transport were carts hired at incredibly high prices. Many of patients thus transferred to the emergency hospital were already so exhausted and so badly shaken by the ill-treatment they had suffered, that they died en route. As many as 15 to 20 at a time were buried in the grounds of the Council building."*)

On October 22nd Stockler, a member of the Executive Committee, telephoned Szálasi, whom he knew personally through having served as a staff officer with him, and requested an audience. Szálasi’s A.D.C., Lieut. Gombos, told him to address himself to the Minister of the Interior, as "the leader of the nation does not grant audiences in Jewish questions." The secretary of the Minister of the Interior, Captain of Police Kutassy also refused an interview on behalf of the minister as "Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy is in charge of Jewish questions and M. Vajna, the Minister of the Interior, will only grant an interview, ii he (Ferenczy) advises him to do so."

Ferenczy turned down the request--and on the contrary informed Stockler that the Minister of the Interior demanded the setting up of a new Jewish Council. He had no objections to old members of the Council staying on, but he was against Stern, Peto and Wilhelm belonging to it. Later on he agreed to the demands of the members of the Council that Stern should not be deprived of his membership. The new Council was therefore formed under the chairmanship of Stern; Stockler, Berend, Foldes, Komoly, Nagy, Szego and Vas being the other members. (Officially the Council was never nominated, but de facto it acted through the afore-mentioned members.)

On October 23rd-by means of posters distributed throughout the town-the Government ordered all men, including those left at their homes, as well as all women between the ages of 18 and 40 to report the same day. On Stockler's repeated protests pregnant women and mothers of small babies were exempted. The rest followed their menfolk on foot.

*) Extract from the diary of M. Domonkos. (349)  

V.

THE THEFT OF JEWISH PROPERTY.

Colonel Arpad Toldy was appointed the new Commissioner for Jewish Affairs. (The Jewish property accumulated passed from the hands of M. Turvolgyi into the hands of Col. Toldy. According to police reports, the valuables were transported via Obanya, Zirc and later to Brenbergbanya near Sopron on the so-called "gold train". There Toldy ordered the goods to be unloaded and regrouped, thereby mixing up individual belongings. Toldy later on took the train on to Austria, where some waggons-containing 44 cases of gold and two cases of specially selected jewels-were directed to Innsbruck, the rest was taken to Salzburg, where it fell into the hands of the Allies. This rest consisted of 61 cases containing assorted golden jewelry, gold watches, 700 kilos of precious stones, 114 kilos of diamonds, 160 kilos of real pearls and 300 kilos of coined gold and two separate cases filled with handpicked diamonds and real pearls.)

At a meeting held at the Ministry of the Anterior, the Minister of the Interior stated: "It seems to me that order cannot be restored, unless I have some members of the party executed on the spot!" *)

On October 28th members of Eichmann's staff appeared in the Council building and asked to see the President and his deputy, whom they took with them to their Headquarters. There they were left to cool their heals for an hour, because Herr Huntsche was unwilling to receive them. He merely sent word that they were to stop conspiring with the International Red Cross and the neutral legations immediately as otherwise they would make the acquaintance of his iron fist.

He then ordered them to report daily. When they did so on the following day, he presented them with an electricity and gas bill for 3,000 pengos and asked for its payment, which was made with the approval of Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy.   

After this interview Stern reported that Ferenczy was after his life and that he was therefore forced to resign. (Later on Capt. Lulay, Ferenczy's deputy, stated that the latter only wanted Peto and Wilhelm killed and not Stern, because the president was an old man and he had nothing against him.)

After the removal from Budapest of the men and women, the Szálasi Government did not lose a minute in collecting and stealing those Jewish movables, which were left in the possession of the Jews by the Sztojay Government. On November 3rd a decree was published, according to which

*) Lieut. Col. Ferenczy's evidence before the People' Court. (As he never did this, order never was restored.) (350)

All Jewish property was to become national wealth  and had to be handed over to the State. This property was to be used to cover expenses arising from the war and to restore war damages, the expenses caused by the welfare of war victims and those deriving out of the execution of the Jewish decrees. All measures in this connection were the responsibility of a Commissioner nominated for this purpose and acting under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior.

The following properties did not have to be handed over:

(1) Objects destined for use at Divine Services and religious ceremonies; robes used by priests in the execution of their functions; prayer books, religious relics, family portraits, graves and tombs.

(2) Personal and other letters of the Jews; school books and means of instruction of Jews and their household.

(3) Medicines and medical instruments, in so far as they were needed by Jews or their household in view of illness or physical disability.

(5) Food, fuel and lighting equipment as needed by the Jews and their household.

(6) 300 pengos in respect of each family and an additional 100 pengos in respect of each member of the family.

(7) All furniture, cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, linen and personal belongings not in excess of those required for ordinary use and all tools and instruments needed for a trade which could be exercised by the Jews.

All property not,-or in excess of that,-mentioned above had to be handed over to the State ... (351)

VI.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE ENTRENCHING COMPANIES.

On November 2nd the Red Army defeated the German and Hungarian troops defending the capital, and the retreat of the Axis troops was more in the nature of disorderly flight. The Russian armoured units followed close on their heals and reached Kispest, 13 kilometres from the centre of Budapest. For two weeks the Jews had been digging trenches under the supervision of pioneer troops and Nyilas men. The protocols of that time record a great m any atrocities and murders and clearly show how the starving Jewish slave-labour was blackmailed, beaten and illtreated by their guards. One company, for instance, received no bread until they had been enlisted five days, and in two weeks they had soup only three times-on the other days they were either given nothing, or they received a coffee surrogate, which was unsweetened at that. In most places the guards stole all cash and valuables, Jews were killed and executed on the excuse of attempted flight and without exception the companies were seriously ill-treated.

As a result of the attack of the Red Army, these Jewish companies were ordered to move back on Budapest on November 2nd. The roads were packed with retreating German and Hungarian troops. Time and again the heavily-loaded Jews were pushed off the track into the ditches at the side of the road, whilst military police and their guards forced them to keep on moving. The rain was pouring down. Those unable to keep up with the main body were shot. Their bodies littered the road in their hundreds, whilst the rain soaked the ground and made the going even more difficult. The worst atrocities were committed when the companies were passing Horthy Bridge. The bridge was guarded by Nyilas units, who shot any Jew to whom they took a dislike. The heaviest casualties were suffered by the 24th Company. When the matter was brought to the notice of the police, they occupied the bridge and its approaches and from then on protected the companies as they passed the bridge, thus preventing further murders.

On November 3rd, 60 Jews unable to move were dragged to the edge of a shell crater in Pestszentimre and shot. They fell into their ready made grave and some earth was thrown over them. Later on, seven severely wounded Jews managed to extricate themselves and were saved by the population.

The Entrenching Companies were ordered to the other side of the Danube into Transdanubia, because it was feared that the unexpected drive by the Russian Army could not be stopped and 352 that at least the left bank of the Danube would fall into the hands of the Russians. But troops hurriedly rushed to the front succeeded in stopping the Russian advance and the front was stabilized exactly in line with the trenches dug by the Jewish labour.

As the danger had been averted, at least for the time being, a number of Entrenching Companies were ordered back to the left bank of the Danube.

Once the military situation took another turn for the worse, the Jewish Companies-partly by rail and partly on foot-were again shifted to Transdanubia. At Hegyeshalom, the Hungarian-German frontier station, Colonel Bartha, the Hungarian officer in charge, handed over 60,000 men to the Gestapo. The hardship had weakened the old and sick to such an extent, that thousands died en route or in the provisional camps whilst on their way to the frontier. Losses were augmented by the inhuman treatment of the Nyilas guards and the fact that they were practically starved. On November 6th other units were moved to the right bank of the Danube. Their camp was the Óbuda brick-works, north of Budapest. Wallenberg succeeded in saving those, who were in possession of a Swedish safe-conduct certificate. On November 8th the others were ordered to begin their march of death towards the frontier. This had to be reached within eight days. (353)

VII.

INTERVENTION OF THE NEUTRAL MINISTERS.

After October 15th the persecution of the Jews was once more the watchword of the moment and was carried out in a spirit more embittered than ever. Realising this, the Apostolic Nuntio decided to disregard the usual diplomatic channels, calling, shortly after the news of the formation of the new Government had reached him, on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baron Kemeny, and advising him to employ the greatest possible moderation in tackling the Jewish question.

On October 21st, the Nuntio had a conversation with Szálasi, which lasted more than two hours, a good half of which was taken up with the discussion and defence of the right of the Jews. Szalasi promised that the Jews would not be deported nor exterminated,-a promise repeated even in public-, but that it was his wish that the Jews should "work for Hungary".

The Apostolic Nuntiature, in a lengthy note, demanded that the labour service should be carried out under humane conditions. The exemptions granted by Horthy, as well as all other distinctions, should retain their validity. The Nuntiature further requested that facilities granted by former governments and passports and other documents issued by foreign legations be respected. Promises and concessions were made in answer to these demands. In order to use these concessions to the best advantage, the Nuntiature took under its special care a great number of religious institutes and houses (about 25). where several thousand Jews found an asylum. The Nuntiature also issued some 15,000 safe-conducts, the owners of which for the greatest part succeeded in saving their lives.

Under the pressure applied by the World Jewish Congress and other Jewish world institutions, the neutral legations once more took up the rescue work with all means at their disposal. Under permission granted by the Sztojay and Lakatos Governments, the Swedish Legation had already for two months been issuing safe-conducts similar to the provisional Swedish passports, which granted Hungarian Jews Swedish nationality and, although not making individual entry into Sweden possible, promised collective repatriation. The Swedish example was followed by the Portuguese and Spanish Legations.

To start with, only those persons were granted a safe-conduct, who had relatives or friends in the respective countries, but after a short while even the slightest business connection offered an excuse good enough to ensure the allocation of a safe-conduct. (354)

(A great number of safe-conducts were procured by means of forged documents through people, who made it their business to supplement their income in this way. The Swedish safe-conducts were issued free of charge, whilst the Portuguese and Spanish Legations charged a nominal fee, arguing that later on a situation might arise, when they would be responsible for the maintenance of the bearers of safe-conducts.) The Lakatos Government released those Jews from Hungarian citizenship, whose documents were in order and certified as such by the Hungarian police, and who then had to report weekly. Foreign citizenship was also respected, if the person claiming it could produce a letter certifying his nationality and signed by the legation concerned. Jews to whom this applied did not have to wear the Star of David. Of course this procedure was not based on international law, the less so, as neither party seriously believed in a transport to a foreign country.

The legations and the Red Cross extended their protection to buildings as well. This too had no foundation in international law and in most cases this "extraterritoriality" was not fully respected. Nevertheless, it at least offered some protection.

The safe-conducts were issued in Vadasz Street. For weeks on end thousands of people queued up for them, and the crowds at times assumed such magnitude that mounted police and gendarmerie had to be called out to restore order, in which they often succeeded only with difficulty. Under the pressure of the extreme Right-wing press, the Nyilas carried away scores of people. Nevertheless the Swiss Legation decided as late as October 23rd to issue separate safe-conducts in German and Hungarian to all persons figuring on their collective passport. These persons were then to be considered in possession of a valid passport. But, contrary to those issued by the Swedish, Portuguese and Spanish Legations, these safe-conducts bore no photograph, and even the Swiss Minister refused to sign them. (These omissions were later to prove fatal to the holders of these safe-conducts.)

Raoul Wallenberg was directing the same kind of work at the Swedish Legation. This 32-year old native of Stockholm was no professional diplomat. He was the owner of an ex- and import firm, had visited Budapest several times in this capacity, and had made a number of friends there. In July 1944, in reply to a request made by the Jewish organisitions, he consented to come to Budapest. Towards the middle of July the Swedish Minister made him an Envoy Extraordinary with the rank of a Secretary to the Swedish Legation in Budapest.

In the course of the negotiations with the foreign legations, the Szálasi Government intimated that it was prepared to exempt only those persons of Jewish origin, who were in possession of. a valid passport. Thereupon the Swedish Legation issued 4,500 certificates signed by Wallenberg, stating that the safe-conduct held by the bearer was a valid passport. Once these certificates (355) had been issued, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to accept the neutral point of view.   

On November 2nd, an official statement was made. The members of the Nyilas Party, apparently as a result of the negotiations with the neutral legations, were advised to accept the safe-conducts without exception.

The statement said: "The sale-conducts issued by the foreign legations and the extraterritoriality of their buildings must be respected.''

The Minister of the Interior gave his subordinates following order: "All persons in possession of a foreign sale-conduct or an exemption certificate issued by the Regent are to be brought to Budapest and are to be enrolled in the newly formed 701st Labour Company, the so-called Foreign Labour Company, stationed in Benczur utca."

Contacts with military commands were established and representatives of the legations visited every labour camp in order to ensure that the orders were carried out to the fullest extent. The strength of the Foreign Labour Company soon exceeded several thousand, so that it had to be split up into a number of companies. This was the origin of the so-called "protected" companies.

Szalasi, after his negotiations with the neutral ministers, signed the instructions issued to his Government with following characteristical endorsement: "l have made the above decisions in the Jewish question and I am not willing to negotiate any longer in this question with anybody whosoever."

The instructions passed on by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabor Kemeny, were as follows:

"l divide the Hungarian Jews into the following six classes:   

1) Jews in possession of a foreign passport, who have presented their passport to the police by November 28th. They are required to move at once into the so-called 'protected houses' (Palatinus houses), and, provided there are no transport difficulties, have to leave Hungarian territory immediately.

2) Jews provided with a sale-conduct (Schutzbrief). These Jews are also required to move into protected houses and have to leave Hungarian territory in accordance with the stipulations of the treaties to be signed with the foreign legations at a later date.

3) Jews previously granted an exemption by the Regent and now in possession of an exemption certificate of the Minister of the Interior, that is to say: a) those in possession of the golden or the large silver medal for gallantry, b) those who have added to the good name of Hungary either abroad or at home. They are exempted in so far as they are not compelled to wear the Star of David, but cannot take part in economic, social and political We. (356)

4) Religious functionaries (priests, nuns etc.) are fully exempted, but have to leave Hungarian territory at a later date and must at once enter a monastery.

5) Jews of Christian faith. These are required to move into the ghetto and have to wear the Star of David, but can mark their windows with the sign of the Cross and are permitted to attend Christian Divine Service.

6) Ghetto Jews. Old and sick persons and children. I herewith order the establishment of a ghetto in Budapest, to be situated in the VIIth District. This ghetto is to have four gates, one to each cardinal point."

It was soon apparent that the promises made by Szálasi were nothing but mere words and that the concessions were valid only for a short term. Under the covering name of "Compulsory Labour Service" deportations were restarted with the greatest possible sadism. As a consequence, the calls paid by the Nuntio and the Secretary of the Nuntiature on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his staff became more and more frequent. In the course of one of these conversations, the Secretary of the Nuntiature presented the Minister with a memorandum, in which the Apostolic Nuntiature made the following proposals with a view to rendering the conditions of compulsory labour service more humane:

1) Exemption of pregnant women,

2) If the labour camp is situated in the same town, in which the person concerned is normally domiciled, that person should be permitted to return to his family in the evening.

3) Humane conditions should govern the lives of those forced to live in concentration camps.

4) When performing dangerous work, the lives of the persons concerned should be endangered no more than absolutely necessary.

5) Prompted by the desire to ensure better treatment, we offer to set up labour camps, especially for women, within the framework of religious institutions.

As a rule these and similar proposals were well received and promises, sometimes even orders, were given, but the subordinate authorities failed to carry them out or openly violated them. Protests were made continuously. Very often a number of protests had to be made in a single day, because of general instructions, or because the extraterritoriality of houses under the care of the legation was violated, or because persons issued with a safe-conduct were deported, or finally, because of atrocities committed by the Nyilas. These continual protests finally led to an acute tension between the Apostolic Nuntiature and the Government. Thinking that a joint move by the representatives of the neutral countries might produce some results, the Nuntio invited his fellow diplomats to a meeting, in the course of which a memorandum was drawn up, which was presented to Szálasi by the (357) Nuntio and the Swedish Minister on November 17th. The memorandum was worded as follows:

Me m o r a n d u m.

The representatives of the neutral countries accredited to the Royal Hungarian Government have the honour of presenting the Royal Hungarian Government with following demands:

It will be remembered that in August hall a million Jews were deported from Hungary. As the Governments of the neutral countries have positive knowledge of the real meaning of deportation, the representatives of the above-mentioned powers took a joint diplomatic step in approaching the Royal Hungarian Government with the request to prevent all further deportation. This step was favourably received and resulted in several hundred thousand lives being saved.

Shortly alter October 15th, the new Government and His Excellency Prime Minister Szálasi himself stated clearly and solemnly that there would be no more deportation or extermination of the Jews. Nevertheless the representatives of the neutral powers have been informed by an absolutely reliable source, that the deportation of the Jews has again been decided on, and that this action is being carried out with such inhumane severity that the whole world is witness of the atrocities accompanying its execution. (Babies are separated from their mothers, the old and sick are exposed to the rigours of the weather, men and women are left without food for days, thousands of persons are herded into a single brick works, women are violated, and innumerable persons are shot for the slightest offence.)

In the meantime, just as in the past, it is alleged that there is no question of deportations and that the persons concerned are only sent abroad for labour service. The representatives of the neutral countries, however, are fully aware of the cruel reality hidden behind this word and the sorry plight lacing the majority of the unfortunate victims. It is enough to remember that babies and old and sick people are amongst those dragged from their homes, to realise that there is no question of labour, but the end of this tragic journey can be foreseen from the cruelties committed in the execution of the transport.

In view of these cruelties, the representatives of the neutral powers cannot escape the obligations dictated by humanity and Christian love in expressing their most deeply felt sorrow to the Royal Hungarian Government and to ask:

1) That all decisions appertaining to the deportation of the Jews be withdrawn and the measures in progress be suspended, thus rendering it possible for the unfortunate persons dragged from their homes to return there as soon as possible.

2) Proper and humane treatment to be accorded to those compelled to live in concentration camps through being eligible for (358) compulsory labour service. (Adequate food and shelter, sanitary conditions, religious care, etc.)

3) Full and loyal execution of the decrees issued by the Royal Hungarian Government in favour of Jews accorded the protection of the legations accredited to the Royal Hungarian Government, as the number of cases, in which subordinate authorities ignore the orders issued by their superiors, is surprisingly high.

The representatives of the neutral powers hope that the Royal Hungarian Government will perfectly understand this diplomatic step and will honour the statements and promises made by His Excellency, Prime Minister Szálasi. This diplomatic step is dictated not only by sympathy for the persecuted Jews, but also by the deep affection the representatives of the neutral powers have lor Hungary, a country which they would like lo see unsoiled by a stain, which would forever mar its glorious history, furthermore by the desire to see the Government responsible lor the future fate of the Hungarian people freed from a heavy responsibility, as the reprisals imposed on -Hungary by the countries at war with her would be continued unless the deportation and extermination of the Jews did not cease. (To say nothing of the possibility of an eventual Army of Occupation in. Hungary applying the same measures against the Hungarian nation.)

The representatives of the neutral powers as well as their Governments have no other motive than the mitigation of human misery and the amplification of relief institutions for the victims of war. No matter what reception this diplomatic step is accorded by the Royal Hungarian Government, it will certainly not fail to greatly influence the Hungarian public opinion. The representatives of the neutral powers take it for granted that the noble Hungarian nation, returning to its age-old Christian traditions, will in these difficult times remain faithful to the principles and methods, which made Hungary a civilised country and deserving of the admiration of the whole world.

Budapest, November 17th, 1947.

Sgd.: Carl Ivan Danielsson, Swedish Minister.

Harald Feller, Swiss Charge d'Affairs.

Count Pongrac, Portuguese Charge d' Affairs.

Angelo Rotta, Apostolic Nuntio.

Jorge Perlasca, Spanish Charge d'Affairs. (359)

VIII.

INTERVENTION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

The resignation of the Sztojay Cabinet and the mild rule of the Lakatos Government rendered the intervention of the Churches superfluous for a period of several months. These interventions, however, had to be taken up again as soon as Szálasi’s reign started. On two occasions, (October 24th and 27th), the Primate of Hungary had interviews with Szálasi. In memoranda dated November 2nd and 8th he protested to the Prime Minister, on the one hand against the evacuation-urging him to declare Budapest and Esztergom open towns-, and on the other hand intervening in the Jewish question. In the memorandum of November 8th the Primate again made his point of view very clear. He once more used all the arguments he had employed in order to impress the Sztojay Cabinet. To begin with he pleaded for the security of Jewish lives, pointing out that all human beings enjoy the same right to that. He strongly condemned the deportation, which had begun again, and referred to the guarantee given by the Sztojay Cabinet to the effect that no more deportations were to take place. In the name of Christianity he protested against the separation of the Christian husband or wife from the baptised partner and the fact that they were to be regarded as Jews themselves, if they refused to do so. He prophesied that this hatred would bring forth vengeance and that this persecution would lead to other persecutions. It was therefore very much in the interest of those in power to put a stop to this profound hatred, because in doing so, they not only served themselves, but also the good reputation of the country.  

The next one to intervene was Bishop Ravasz in the name of the Protestant Church. Employing arguments similar to those brought forward by the Primate, he demanded the fulfillment of five points. Three of them were in connection with the Jewish question. (The treatment of the Jews to be humane, the decree affecting mixed marriages to be cancelled and their lives to be guaranteed.)

On November 24th the Deputy Prime Minister replied in the name of the Government to the demands formulated by the Primate and Bishop Ravasz. He informed them that Szálasi had succeeded in obtaining the Fuhrer's permission to grant the following points: No alteration to be made in the legal status of mixed marriages, the Jews to be separated from the rest of the population of Budapest, and the labour service companies to be directed towards the German frontier, because it was to be feared that they might commit atrocities in the case of a Russian (360) occupation. When carrying out these measures, however, the principles of humanity would be respected.  

In receipt of Szollosi's reply, Bishop Ravasz forwarded, through the representative of the Swedish Red Cross, Waldemar Langlet, a letter to the Primate, in which he wrote:

" ... I have the honour to request Your Eminence, as Head of the greatest and oldest Christian Church in Hungary and in your capacity as the foremost exponent of Hungarian Christianity by virtue of your ecclesiastical and secular rank, to give us - the representatives of the Protestant and Lutheran Churches - a lead in approaching the head of the State. My only aim in requesting this , I assure Your Eminence, is to ensure the execution of God's Commands in the name of Hungarian Christian conscience."*)

The Primate, tired of the number of unsuccessful interventions and already very ill, replied that he had already intervened with Szálasi and that he did not feel like repeating the intervention in the company of others.

He gave the same answer on receiving a demand addressed to him by the Jewish Council on November 14th. The demand, contained in a telegram, was worded as follows:

"Jews regardless of sex or age are being rounded up and deported contrary to law. The Union of Hungarian Jews requests your intervention in the name of humanity.'' To this the Primate replied: "In reply to your telegram received to-day, I have the honour to inform you that my repeated interventions in this matter have led to no results and that it would, unfortunately, be futile to repeat them."**) ") Bereczky: Book I, page 33. ") From the Archives at Esztergom. (361)

IX.

SZALASI'S INSTRUCTIONS ARE CARRIED OUT.

The Jewish Council also addressed a telegram to the Minister of Justice, M. Budinszky, in which they requested help. (Under the reign of Szálasi the solution of the Jewish question had, become the task of the Ministry of Justice.)

In answer to the telegram Budinszky wrote:

"in reply to your telegram addressed to me, I wish to state that certain measures have been introduced in the interest of the Jews in order to safeguard their lives From the destruction the war might occasion in Budapest should it become a theatre of war. This measure is only a repetition of the steps taken by both belligerents in the first World War, when they evacuated the population as far as this was possible.

For the rest, the treatment of the Jews depends fully and solely on their behaviour.

It cannot be permitted that a considerable part of the Jews, as they have done in the past, endanger the safety of the nation by committing acts of treason and espionage, or eventually by rioting.

In this life-and-death struggle, in which the nation is to-day engaged, the one or the other individual may suffer some curtailment of his rights, but this does not imply that the Hungarian lacks humane feeling.

For my part I can only advise the Jews to seek the support of the neutral and enemy powers acting as their champions to ensure that this really inhuman horror to which the unfortunate Hungarian nation is subjected, particularly From the Bolsheviks, is brought to an end, as otherwise the Government would see itself compelled to proceed most energetically against (he Jews, whilst still respecting the principles of Christianity."

In accordance with Szálasi’s instructions a number of different measures were adopted.

The head of the "Dejewification Section" of the Arrow Cross Party, Count Seranyi, and his successor, Kelecsenyi, received instructions according to which:

"All healthy Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 and all Jewish women between the ages of 16 and 40 have to work in Germany lor the benefit of Hungary, to whom war material will be delivered in return." (362)

On the basis of these instructions Kelecsenyi) gave his orders to the head of the Arrow Cross Party Dejewification Section for Budapest and environments, M. Kurt Rettmann, who-as will be seen later on-carried them out shortly afterwards.

During these days a conference was held at the German Legation, where it was decided to hand the labour companies over to the Germans for fortification works on the Sio Line and in the neighbourhood of Sopron. Three routes were agreed upon: South of the line Hegyeshalom-Gyor the Jewish Labour Companies, in their move to the West, were to use side-roads, whereas the Entrenching Companies were to use the main roads, and north of that line the Labour Companies brought back from the theatre of operations were to proceed in a westerly direction.

The Commanders of the three groups were: Eichmann, Ferenczy and Major-General Fabian. (On October 11th Ferenczy had been appointed Head of the Detective Force of the Gendarmerie.) The army was responsible for food supplies and the gendarmerie for accomodation. The daily distance to be covered was between 20-25 kilometres, the first stop being Piliscsaba.

*) Istvan Kelecseny, a law student, was deputy chief of the anthropological department" of the Arrow Cross Party. It was he, who on the basis of blood-tests - decided whether party members suspected of having Jewish blood were Aryans or not. Often enough he ascertained the pure Aryan descent of Jews enjoying high protection and as a result these were issued with exemption certificates. (Evidence produced at the People's Court.) (363)

X.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE JEWS.

Some authentic data will be given below in chronological order of the life of the Jews in the capital. On November 3rd all Jews between the ages of 16 and 40 were summoned to report for compulsory labour service. (By pain of death all those had to report as well, who for some reason or the other had been exempted the first time or who had-and there were many of these deserted from the Entrenching Companies). On November 5th the Jewish dressmakers had to report for compulsory military labour service. The Arrow Cross Party made it known that the Commissioner for Jewish Affairs had authorised the Party to proceed with the collection of movables from the Jewish flats. Food, clothing and household articles could be transported without inventory, but an inventory had to be drawn up when transporting jewels, gold or silver, watches, furs or valuable carpets.

In Budapest the Nyilas began to assume control of the Jews eligible for compulsory labour service, that is to say their arrest, beating, the looting of their houses and their deportation. A check was made in all houses, and on November 9th the order was therefore issued that all Jews were forbidden to leave their houses for three days.

The Germans continued to send armed units to the Jewish Council building, demanding more labour power and a variety of services. This and similar actions created a panic among the desperate, sick and starving people. The problems of supplying the Labour Companies and the Jews interned in the houses marked with the Star of David proved to be almost unsurmountable. The Council building itself was not very different from Hell, as described by Dante, in that about two thousand sick persons and children separated from their parents had to be accommodated. Furthermore, during the two hours in which the Jews were allowed on the streets, thousands of people called in at the office of the Council seeking help or advice.

At the beginning of November a conference was held in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in the presence of the Minister, Kemény, and attended by the Apostolic Nuntio, the representatives of the International and the Swedish Red Cross and the representatives of the neutral legations. It was decided that 8,000 Jews were to be transported abroad in the shortest possible time and that they were to be concentrated in the Northern suburbs of the city until this was possible. (364)

In accordance with this decision, instructions were issued for the removal into protected houses. The order ran as follows:

"Instructions to the air-raid wardens and caretakers of Jewish houses: In accordance with the agreement concluded by the Royal Hungarian Government and the legations of the neutral countries all Jewish persons enjoying the protection of one of the neutral countries' legations and able to prove this fact by a sale-conduct or passport bearing the stamp of the legation concerned are move into houses marked with a Star of David and assigned to them in the neighbourhood of Pozsonyi Street and the St. Stephen quarter by November 15th, 1944. The Jews enjoying protection as detailed above can obtain information regarding the flat assigned to them by either ringing No. 42-39-30 or by calling at the Headquarters of the Jewish Council, Sip Street 12.

By order of the Royal Hungarian Government, I instruct all air-raid wardens and caretakers of Jewish houses to allow Jews in possession of sale-conducts or passports issued by neutral countries to leave the house in order to move into the flat assigned to them. The Commander of Police has revoked the curlew order for November 13th, 14th and 15th in favour of the Jews in question. These persons can therefore move about the streets freely between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the days mentioned above.

Budapest. November 12th, 1944.

                                  (sgd.) By order of the Chief of Police

                                                       Janos Solymossy.

Pozsonyi Street was evacuated in accordance with the old plans, and so was, later on, its neighbourhood. Aided by the police, the Nyilas surrounded the Jewish population of the district within an hour. Men between the ages of 16 and 60 and women between the ages of 16 and 40-and in many cases also those above this age limit-were lined up and shepherded across the pontoon bridge replacing the demolished Margit Bridge to Buda and to the brick-works in Óbuda.

In accordance with the instructions issued by Szálasi, the Jews enjoying foreign protection moved to the houses assigned to them on November 15th and the following days. The armed Nyilas -amongst them young boys of 13 and 14 years of age-were waiting for them like jackals. They robbed the Jews of everything and took many cart-loads of valuables to Party Headquarters in Andrassy Street, where the loot was distributed. There was nobody to protect those moving to their new quarters from the looting and stealing, nor from being taken to the brick-works and, in many cases, from being deported (Wallenberg and his representatives succeeded in liberating and bringing back several hundred people from the frontier station. This small group arrived back sick and exhausted and gave a report of their sad and terrible adventures.) (365)

According to official statistics, altogether 15,600 Jews under the protection of the neutral legations had to move into the houses, which until then had accomodated no more than 3,969 people. Of the 15,600,

4,500 were under the protection of the Swedish Legation,

2,500 were under the protection of the Nuntiature,

100 were under the protection of the Spanish Legation,

698 were under the protection of the Portuguese Legation,

7,800 were under the protection of the Swiss Legation.

It was impossible to accomodate all these people. This was especially the case in the houses assigned to those enjoying Swiss protection, as the number of persons in possession of a Swiss safe-conduct was several times in excess of that given in the official statistics. Safe-conducts and passports were not to be issued after November 15th. By that date however, especially as far as the Swiss were concerned, an incredible number of safe-conducts had been issued. During the first days of November some 10,000 forged Swiss safe-conducts were already in circulation. The Consul [Lutz] was only allowed to issue 8,000 safe-conducts. Of these he withheld 200 for the use of his staff, thus actually only issuing 7,800 safe-conducts and certificates. People in possession of these were the legal owners and to them were assigned the 70 houses. When they arrived, they found the houses already crammed from roof to cellars with persons who were either in possession of a faked passport or none at all, but had escaped during the transport and were hiding without documents. The movement orders issued by the Swiss Legation in Vadasz Street in the assumption that the flats were vacant were valueless, as actually the rooms were already overcrowded.

The offices of the Swedish, Portuguese and Spanish Legations and of the Nuntiature were working on a sound basis, provided no faked safe-conducts were in circulation, but the Swiss Legation, a section of which was transferred to the district assigned to the protected Jews, was unable to cope with the situation. Even after six additional houses had been assigned to them, accomodation was far from adequate. In the Swiss houses 50 to 60 persons had to be packed into a two-room flat. For days hundreds of Swiss-protected Jews were camping on stair-cases and in door-ways, and this was only gradually decreasing, when the Nyilas raid began.

While the protected Jews were moving, the poorer half of the Budapest Jews-unable to procure safe-conducts, having no connections or material means, awaited its future fate fearfully in the houses marked with a Star of David. The men under the age of 60 were no longer with them, the younger women too had had to leave at an earlier date, but even so some 40,000 starving babies, small children, old and sick people and cripples were crowded into houses cut off from the world and left to the mercy (366) of the caretakers and air-raid wardens, who more often than not were Nyilas sympathisers. Their movements were strictly limited and almost only those working for the Germans or in possession of a certificate of the Jewish Council could move about to some small extent. These Jews, by order of the Minister of the Interior, had to wear a black "x" on their Star of David. These were the "working" Jews.

The rage and the thieving instincts of the Nyilas were mainly directed against the more wealthy "international" Jews, who apparently-owing to the protection-seemed to have escaped. For that reason it was comparatively rare for the Jews in the houses marked with the Star of David to be molested, whereas the Jews in the "protected" houses were often visited several times a day, deprived of their property, beaten and made the victims of atrocities.

By order of Szálasi, a ghetto was to be set up for the nonprotected Jews. On November 19th the Jewish Council was asked to call on the Police Headquarters in Mosonyi Street. There Stockler, the president, was told that a decree would be issued shortly with the purpose of establishing a ghetto. He was instructed to start making the necessary preparations at once. Whilst the preparations for the establishment of the ghetto were in full swing, the Szálasi Government decided to examine the certificates of the exempted Jews. Of the exemptions granted by Horthy only 70 were endorsed by Szálasi and 501 by the Minister of the Interior.

At a Cabinet meeting on November 19th it was decided to address a 3-days-ultimatum to the Swedish Legation, saying that if the recognition of the Swedish Government did not arrive by that time, all Jews under the protection of the Legation would be handed over to the Ministry of the Interior and deported at once. Under great difficulties the Swedish Legation in the end succeeded in averting this danger.

On November 27th the Government ordered the protected Jews to stay indoors. The same day the police and the Nyilas organised a raid on the Swiss-protected houses. The reason given by the Minister of the Interior was that some 27,500 faked Swiss safe-conducts were in circulation. The Swiss Legation was forced to admit that the seal and the paper had been stolen and that safe-conducts had been forged to an extent unknown even to themselves.

In actual fact, tens of thousands of safe-conducts were faked in the Legation's building in Vadasz Street with the aim of liberating men and women from enlistment in the Entrenching Companies. At the beginning this was done by using the official seal and paper. Later on the necessary blank forms were forged in different printing presses, whilst faked seals were attached. (Several times the misuse of safe-conducts went so far as to sell faked ones.) In the end whole Labour Companies were supplied with these faked Swiss safe-conducts. (367)   

As soon as the news of the raid reached Consul Lutz, he decided to exchange all legal safe-conducts for new ones bearing a seal with French text, as the seal of the falsifications was generally in German. (It now became apparent how mistaken the Swiss Minister had been in not using safe-conducts with photos and signatures. Minister Jager disapproved of the whole action and safe-conducts could only have been issued, if he had left Budapest, leaving Harald Feller, the Charge d'Affairs and Consul Lutz in charge of the Legation.)

The exchange of safe-conducts was directed by one of the Zionist leaders, M. Salamon. It was soon realised, however, that the new documents were made out in vain, as only an insufficient number of safe-conducts bearing the French seal were available, and because it was nearly impossible to find the dispersed owners of the genuine documents. Those who reported and asked for their documents to be exchanged were generally in possession of falsifications without being aware of that fact, as many falsifications could not be distinguished from genuine documents.

When the news of the exchange spread through the town, faked safe-conducts with French text appeared unexpectedly. Many of these were easily recognised as falsifications by the Nyilas, as the letter 'i' in 'Suisse' had been left out by mistake.   

As has already been narrated, the number of French forms was insufficient by far, and as the Nyilas - on finding some 40-50,000 safe-conducts instead of 7,800 - tore up these documents no matter whether they were genuine or fakes or whether they were made out in French or German, the Swiss Legation tried to find a new solution, because all persons whose documents were torn up were taken to Teleki Square, from where the road led directly to deportation, that is to say, to death.   

With the help of M. Salamon a list was drawn up comprising  7,800 names selected specially from among the Zionists. Following certificate was then issued by the Legation:

"The Swiss Legation herewith certifies that . . . . . . . . . No. . . . . . . . . , is included in the list of 7,800 persons protected by the Swiss Legation."

The fight ensuing among the 50,000 Jews in the Swiss-protected houses to appear on that list; which meant the saving of their lives, can well be imagined. The list was constantly changed in Vadasz Street and in the other office in Wekerle Street. The Nyilas kept on asking for the list but the Swiss did not dare to hand it over, as that would have meant the sacrificing of those not included on it.

The raid on the Swiss-protected houses was therefore absolutely arbitrary. Sheer good fortune saved some who were in possession of faked papers, whilst hundreds of persons in possession of genuine documents were ruthlessly dragged away and deported from Jozsefvaros Station. The remainder, whose papers had been accepted, were lined up in St. Steven's Park and later (368) herded into houses in Teleki Square, where they were stripped of all valuables. All persons under the age limit were taken to the station and deported. The others, all those too young or too old - in all about 20,000 persons - were taken to houses marked with the Star of David and situated in the area of the future ghetto.

The Swiss Legation made efforts to liberate at least some of the victims from Teleki Square and from the train at the frontier station of Hegyeshalom, but as - for reasons already described - too many faked safe-conducts were in circulation, these efforts met with very little success.

The records of the Voluntary Ambulance Corps show that on November 23rd first aid was given to a female person (Netti Winternitz), who had been thrown into the Danube from the Marguerita Quai. From that day onwards similar cases are frequently mentioned.

(Naturally only those cases are mentioned in which it was possible to give first aid - that is to say in which the victims, though seriously injured, succeeded in reaching the bank of the river or were rescued by some police constable.)

On November 28th the Nyilas attacked the protected house Pozsonyi Street 35 under the pretext that they had been fired on from those premises. In actual fact, Nyilas fleeing from Óbuda (North of Budapest) - which had been taken by the Red Army - had seized the house in order to turn it into a "Party-house." The Jews, several hundred in all, were thrown out and either killed or taken to the ghetto. (It was the practise of Nyilas men to enter protected houses and to shout abuse at their comrades from the windows or to fling out a hand-grenade and then accuse the Jews of the crime.)

On November 29th a new crime was committed: The Ministry of the Interior and Home Defence signed an agreement with the Gestapo stationed in the Hotel Belvedere (whose chief was Brigadeführer Hans Geschke), to hand over 17,000 additional Jewish labourers. Later on, before the People's Court, Szálasi explained his point of view regarding the Jewish Labour Companies as follows:

"They should have worked in the country and I only consented to their being taken to Germany when Veesenmayer assured me they would work in factories producing war-material for Hungary."

The truth was that the so-called "Protected Companies" stationed in Budapest were kept under quarantine for two days, after which they were taken to Jozsefvaros Station and herded into freight-trucks, 60 to 70 to a truck.

The Swedish Companies were held in separate lines. Wallenberg himself led them to the station, where Lieut. Col. Ferenczy examined their papers and gave them permission to return.

Nobody bothered about the others. The trains were dispatched and the fate of several thousand Jewish labourers was decided. (369) They were taken to Fertorakos and Balfnad Koszeg, villages in Western Hungary, and not to Germany as pretended by Szálasi. In these camps they were decimated by typhus, starvation and the cruelties of the Nyilas guards. After the liberation of Hungary, mass graves were discovered in these villages which gave a clear picture of the cruelty and the mass executions."')

*) Further details of the sad fate of the “Protected Companies" are given in the appendix. (370)

XI.

BRICK-WORKS-DEATH-MARCH TO HEGYESHALOM RESCUE ACTIONS.

From November onwards thousands and thousands of Jews were escorted to the brick-works every day. Ill-treatment was the order of the day, the victims were beaten and kicked and finally robbed of all their possessions in the various "party houses," chiefly in the notorious cellar of the Arrow Cross Party House, 2, Szent Istvan Boulevard. Here they also tore up all documents of those unfortunate Jews who-claiming foreign protection resisted.

Dreadful conditions prevailed in the brick-works of Óbuda. There was an enormous number of sick people, who, at the beginning, received no medical attention whatsoever. Later through the intervention of the International Red Cross Christian doctors volunteered to help them. (Among them were Dr. Tibor Verebely, from the Budapest University and Chief Medical Officers Dr. Boldizsar Horvath and Dr. Ferenczy.) They obtained permission to enter the brick-works and to attend the sick and supply them with medicines.

Daring rescue actions were undertaken by men and women Jews or of Jewish origin-working in the offices of the International Red Cross. With the help of police officials they often succeeded in rescuing hundreds of the poor victims by supplying them with faked passports or sending them to different hospitals with forged Christian documents.

In the mornings representatives of the neutral legations called at the brick-works. From time to time Charles Lutz, the Swiss Consul, and his wife went out and helped many unfortunate victims. There is no doubt that Wallenberg did his utmost in the interest of his proteges. He generally went out to the brick-works himself, picked out the persons enjoying Swedish protection and brought them to the Pest bank of the Danube. Unfortunately the majority was nevertheless deported.

The "death march" to Hegyeshalom began. Tens of thousands soon followed the transports on the high road to Vienna, via Gyor, covering 25 to 30 kilometres a day. Soon the high roads were covered with thousands of corpses of the deported Jews, who were weakened by privation, dysentery, typhoid and shot or mercilessly beaten to death by the Nyilas men.

The Apostolic Nuntio now permitted Sandor Ujvary, a voluntary worker of the International Red Cross, to take hundreds of blank safe-conducts with him, when, accompanied by (371) nuns, he took convoys of motor lorries with medicine, dressings and food to the miserable deported Jews.

Ujvary obtained the Nuntio’s permission by telling him quite frankly how he worked with forged legitimations, faked certificates of baptism and other documents, and how he tried to rescue the sick and exhausted Jews from the hands of the Nyilas in the hour of their greatest need.

The Nuntio said: "My son, your action pleases God and Jesus, as you are rescuing innocent people. I grant you absolution in advance. Continue your work to the glory of God!"   

Thus the small detachment of the International Red Cross started on its way. It consisted of Sandor Ujvary, author; Dr. Geza Kiss, textile merchant; Dr. Istvan Biro, lawyer and deputy for Transylvania. They gave following account of their journey:

"Wherever we went on the main roads, we witnessed the most dreadful scenes. Endless columns of deported persons were marched along: ragged and starving people, mortally tired, among them old and wizened creatures who could hardly crawl along. Gendarmes were driving them with the butt-end of their rifles, with sticks and with whips. They had to cover 30 kilometres a day, until they came to a "resting-place". This generally was the marketplace of a town. They were driven into the square and spent the nights in the open, huddled together and shivering with cold in the chill of a November or December night. The daily food consisted of a generally inedible plateful of thin soup and nothing else. One of these stations was in Gonyu. On the morning following the "rest" we saw the number of corpses, which would never again arise from the frosty ground of the market-square. Baron Vilmos Apor, the Bishop of Gyor, knew about these horrors and did everything he could to help. He organised collections and instructed the clergy of his diocese to try and assist the deportees passing through in any manner possible."

This group of rescuers had set itself the task of distributing medicine and food among the deportees driven towards Hegyeshalom. This was not often possible without encountering difficulties. The Arrow-Cross and the Gendarmerie tried to frustrate their work at all costs, they were often in danger of being arrested, they were called "Jewish hirelings." Another report reads as follows:

"In Gonyu we saw that a part of the deportees were driven on board the ships anchored in the Danube over night. Many-in their great distress-committed suicide. In the still of the night one scream was followed by the other: the doomed people were jumping into the Danube, which was covered with drifting ice. They could not stand the tortures any longer, they preferred to commit suicide. With our own eyes we saw the gendarmes driving the Jews, who arrived in pitch-darkness, over the narrow gangways covered with ice, so that scores of them slipped and (372) fell into the icy river. Rescuing or helping was quite out of the question. A great number of Jews perished in that manner. There were good-hearted Hungarian peasants in the village, through which the deportees had to pass. It was difficult to approach the marching column, as the Nyilas men and the gendarmes refused to allow any attempt to offer help. In spite of these difficulties we succeeded, on several occasions, in rescuing Jews From the column and hiding them From the gendarmes. They were clad in peasant garments and sometimes one could not help smiling on beholding such typically Jewish-looking 'peasants'.''

Some 12,000 feet of 40 mm-film were shot for the Nuntio-each foot an unrefutable witness of the horrors, tortures, cruelty and sufferings endured by the Jews of Budapest, who were transported to Germany "on loan" in accordance with Szálasi’s decree "to work for the benefit of Hungary as compensation for the war material supplied to Hungary." It is evident that this catch-word was simply used to cover up the real aim; work was quite out of the question and Szálasi and his gang simply handed the Jews of Budapest over to be exterminated.

In Hegyeshalom the deportees were partly accomodated in an enormous barn behind the town hall and partly in "Biro puszta.'' This was the last station in Hungary, the next one was already in Germany. Here, therefore, lay the last chance of releasing anyone. In the Town-Hall of Hegyeshalom the Lazarist priest Father Kohler fought to save the lives of the deportees. This high-spirited priest devoted all his time and energy to this task. The Ujvary group, as agreed with Father Kohler, pushed its way into the crowd, selecting those who were in the worst condition and who evidently could no longer endure privation and torture. They filled out the blank Apostolic safe-conducts in their names and claimed their release. After much debating and quarrelling-in the course of which Father Kohler was called a Jew and "a servant of the Jewish Pope"-they succeeded in rescuing 4,700 people out of the tens of thousands. These 4,700 were put into freight-trucks and returned to Budapest, which again involved much begging and bribing of gendarmes.

Here are a few extracts from the reports about Hegyeshalom:

"In Hegyeshalom we were surrounded by armed Nyilas men. They were most aggressive, abusing us for bringing medical stores for the Jews, when, according to them, there were not even enough lor Christians. Whilst this scene was going on, several Freight trucks with rescued Jews stood in the station awaiting the signal to start off for Budapest. We were afraid that if we debated the question of medical stores much longer, the infuriated gendarmes and Nyilas men might, in their anger, drive the rescued Jews out of the trucks. Ujvary, used to quick decisions, suddenly took the side of the Nyilas and shouted: 'They are right! We won't give the medicines to the Jew,, we'll rather let our Nyilas brethren (373) have them!' His companions at once understood what was at stake and started to distribute the medical stores among the Nyilas men and gendarmes, and whilst these were crowding round and jostling each other for the free gifts, the trucks packed with the Jews left for Budapest without further molestation."

The next report gives an account of a scene well worth mentioning:

"The Nyilas men once again attacked Father Kohler, rating and abusing him for saving Jewish lives and threatening violence. The Father bravely laced the armed Nyilas men and shouted: 'I am not afraid of you, shoot if you dare!' The Nyilas men were so impressed by the daring behaviour of the priest that they sneaked away.''

It was a common experience during these rescue trips to find that Jews, who had been brought home by means of safe-conducts, were re-arrested and taken back to Hegyeshalom. There were even cases of one and the same deported Jew being brought back to Hegyeshalom three times. (374)

XII.

THE GHETTO OF THE UNPROTECTED JEWS.

Negotiations for the establishment of a ghetto began soon after Deputy Chief Constable Solymossy made his declaration of November 18th, referred to earlier on, According to the police, the Jews-regardless of the space available-were to be taken to the Klauzalter and allowed to take no more luggage with them than they could carry. They called upon the Jewish Council to free immediately 6,000 Jewish dwellings for the Christians moving out of the ghetto. All arguments brought forward by the Council were in vain.

The only concession made was that only 10 to 15,000 Jews were to be moved each day. Regarding the food supply, the Jewish Council was referred to the Municipality, where they explained the catastrophic food situation to Alderman Janos Rosta. No food reserves were available.

According to the statistical data of Solymossy, who was also "Ministerial Commissioner for the Removal of Jews," 162 houses marked with the Star of David could be reckoned on in the projected ghetto. Of these 18 were inhabited exclusively by Jews, whereas the remainder were occupied by a mixed crowd of Jews and Christians. All in all 2,393 Jewish flats with 4,725 rooms and occupied by 3,556 persons were available. In the houses set aside for the Jews 974 flats were in Christian hands. They contained 1,997 rooms and were occupied by 4,019 persons. There were 133 Christian houses (not marked with a star) in the ghetto with 2,346 flats and 3,162 rooms and occupied by 7,961 persons.

Altogether 11,935 Christians had to leave the ghetto to make room for 63,000 Jews. This showed an average of 14 persons per room (certain houses had to be reserved for the aged, sick, infants, hospitals and offices.)

The food question of the ghetto was settled by the establishment of communal kitchens at 12, Sip Street and 13, Wesselenyi utca (Orthodox Soup Kitchen) and partly in restaurants (Stern, Skreck etc.) Further it was agreed that the soup kitchens in Bethlen Square and Szovetseg utca should continue to function, although they were outside the ghetto area and that food from there might be brought in daily.

The emergency hospitals (Wesselenyi utca and Bethlen Square) were allowed-after a prolonged fight of the Council to remain outside the ghetto area, in which the Council was also allowed to set up some other new provisional emergency hospitals. (375) (A "Swedish" and a "Swiss" hospital were also functioning in the International Ghetto.)

The Council asked to be provided with fuel as well as with food. "On the one hand the Jews have been deprived of all cash, on the other hand 5-600,000 pengos daily are needed. Besides, only people unable to work (the aged, sick and children) are taken into the ghetto, where there is no possibility of earning a living," The result of this was that a daily per capita ration was fixed at:

150 grammes of bread, 40 grammes of flour, 10 grammes of oil and some dried peas, beans or lentils.

In the event of the distribution of a meat ration to the inhabitants of Budapest, endeavours were to be made to secure a weekly issue of 100 grammes for the inhabitants of the ghetto. 600 grammes of salt per month were also included in the ration.

(This amount of food represented 690 calories, whilst at the same time the convicts were issued with food to the value of 1500 calories) At this point already we must state that, with the exception of a little oil and flour, no food distribution ever took place!

It was stated that the Apostolic protection and the Red Cross safe-conducts would not be accepted. Jewish employees of the legations had to go into an International Ghetto. Foreigners with KIOKH legitimations had to leave the country by December 1st. Permission was given for post-offices to be set up in the ghettos and Jews were allowed to correspond with each other by means of post cards. The Jewish Council was allowed 800 employees, who were issued with legitimations by the Ministry of the Interior.

On November 29th Vajna, the Minister of the Interior, issued his ghetto decree, which contained the following more important points:

"The Royal Hungarian Government decrees that all Jews living in Budapest and compelled by law to wear the yellow Star of David have to move into the territory bordered by the VII. District - Nagy-atadi-, Szabo Istvan-, Kiraly-, Csànyi- and Rumbach Sebestyen (No. 15-19) streets, Madách Imre Street, Madách Imre Square and Karoly Kiraly Street; the houses looking on to the streets and squares mentioned are not included in the territory reserved for the Jews (ghetto). People of non-Jewish origin cannot live in the reserved area, nor can they follow their profession or trade there. No Municipal or Government buildings will be situated within the reserved area, nor are public institutions allowed to maintain offices or premises therein.

We must all shoulder sacrifices in this struggle for life and death, which will decide Hungary's fate in the centuries to come. The Government of Hungary is fully aware of the great difficulties lacing the non-Jewish population in connection with their eviction, but with strong faith in a better future we must bear this sacrifice (376) as well. I will see to it that the evicted non-Jewish persons (houseowners, tenants, Christian care-takers etc.) will be given at least as good a flat as the one they had to leave.

Non-Jewish persons evicted as a result of this decree are allowed to use all furniture and movables left behind in the Jewish apartments assigned to them, for that reason they should take with them only the most essential movables. At the same time, in order to enable the afore-mentioned non-Jewish persons to put into sale storage their own furniture - more valuable for material or sentimental reasons -, which they cannot remove on account of the short time at their disposal or because of transport difficulties, I have reserved - in the houses lacing the streets bordering the ghetto - suitable flats for the storage of property of this nature.

Non-Jews must effect their removal From the territory designated as ghetto between December 2nd and 7th, 1944.

I know that the forcible removal of non-Jews painfully affects hundreds and hundreds of our Hungarian brethren, as they have to leave their Familiar, accustomed homes. But I ask them to spare a thought for those hundreds of thousands, who - in the mist and Frost of a late autumn, with infants on their arms and dragging along small bundles containing all they were able to save from their homes - march in endless columns to those parts of our Hungarian Fatherland, which the brave Hungarian Army has kept free from the enemy.

They have lost everything, but - with the hope for a better future - they are saving their bare lives. II the Hungarian, who has to move out of the ghetto area, looks at the shattered and ragged refugees of his own nationality, can he rightfully utter even one word of complaint? Let him remember that the subsidies he receives are easing his material needs and that the removal itself is not a life-and-death question affecting his own person, but is of first rate importance to the Hungarian community: the radical solution of Budapest's Jewish question.

I expect the Christian inhabitants to obey my decree with understanding and in a sell-sacrificing spirit, thereby helping to solve finally the hitherto neglected Jewish question."

On the following day it was announced that people in possession of Apostolic protection certificates and Red Cross safe-conducts could, after all, remain in the international ghetto. By December 2nd the removal of most of the Jews was accomplished. On both sides of the Danube the houses marked with the Star of David, which until then had been occupied by all Jews not enjoying international protection, stood empty. During the removal into the ghetto, wholesale killings of Jews by Nyilas men took place. Especially in the outlying parts of the VII. District, facing the "Varos-liget'', the old Jews living in the neighbourhood of the "Feld" theatre were killed. A new decree was issued according to which the Jews in the ghetto were allowed to move about freely 377 only between 9 and 11 a.m.; only those in possession of a special pass from the Jewish Council stating that they were employed on duties in connection with the maintenance of the ghetto were allowed out between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

On December 2nd the Swedish houses were once more subjected to a search. As the result of a strong protest by Wallenberg the Nyilas men were not allowed to participate in this, and so no incidents occurred. Nobody was taken into the ghetto. By contrast, there were daily searches in the Swiss houses, commonly executed by Nyilas men and police, in the course of which a large number of occupants were dragged away to the ghetto or the brickworks. (378)

XIII.

THE AMBULANCE SERVICE AS RESCUERS OF THE JEWS.

By request of the Jewish Council, the Ambulance Service placed two of their largest trucks with trailers at the disposal of the ghetto Jews and from November 15th onwards answered about 70 to 80 calls per day. In faithful execution of their duty the Ambulance Service never discriminated between races and religions; on the contrary, it can be stated that cases occurred in which they gave first aid to people in the street although they wore the Star of David - this was contrary to a decree then in force - and carried them away after having bandaged them, in order to accord them further protection.   

The Nyilas strictly forbade the Ambulance Service to attend to Jews. It was only possible to put the two abovementioned ambulances at the disposal of the Jewish Council by selling them, together with 13 other cars, to the Swedish Legation for the sum of 1 Swedish Crown on November 18th. (It is interesting to note that the Nyilas Lord-Mayor and Mayor of Budapest consented to this transaction taking place.)

With the consent of Dr. László Bisits, Chief Medical Officer, the ambulances, accompanied by Wallenberg, went as far afield as Hegyeshalom and brought back some Swedish-protected deportees, who were in a very sorry condition indeed. Dr. Bisits went to Balf-Spa to bring back 15 Jews in possession of Portuguese passports. The ambulances - despite the orders to the contrary - were also available for taking sick Jews to hospital or for bringing them back after recovery. The Voluntary Ambulance Society of Budapest had, taking everything into consideration, no small share in the rescue actions.

On December 3rd Nyilas men attacked the Jewish settlement of the International Red Cross in Columbus Street. At first some 5 to 600 Jewish emigrants occupied the camp consisting of an old cottage and an improvised barracks at the back of the Deaf and- Dumb Institute. Later on the number rose to 1,600 as refugees from Kolozsvar, Nagyvarad, Szeged and so on flowed in, who found it impossible to find some other shelter in Budapest. The camp was originally guarded by the Germans, but the "Sonderkommando" left at the end of August.

After the events of October 15th, the number of the occupants of the camp rose enormously. 3,600 men crowded into a space sufficient for perhaps 180, sleeping practically on top of each other and in shifts. There was no question of sanitary measures and as a result epidemics raved. (379)

At 2.30 p.m. on the afore-mentioned 3rd of December the ambulance was called to Columbus Street. They were refused admittance to the camp; Acting Police Constable No. 2565, who had sent for them, reported that shots had been fired in the camp and that there were a number of fatal casualties. The door was just opening and somebody ran out, leaving a bloody trail behind him. Close on his heals were a couple of Nyilas men, who again fired at the escaping Jew. The victim collapsed just in front of the doctor accompanying the ambulance: one of the shots had proved fatal. The victim turned out to be the deaf and dumb Moses Roth, aged 16.

In the ghetto the transports were being formed. In the meantime the young doctor succeeded in rescuing two young men, both profusely bleeding from shot wounds: Endre Gross, aged 21, joiner, and Mano Wertheimer, aged 17, shop-assistant. Much determination was needed to protect them, as the Nyilas men wanted to shoot them whilst they were still being bandaged. This was the 26th case in the log-book entries of the Ambulance Service for that day, and it closed with the remark: The ambulance had to leave without the accompanying doctor having been able to effect an entry into the camp. The Camp Eldest, together with his family and some other men - in all 9 persons - were assassinated by the Nyilas. Amidst bloody scenes those within the age-limit were driven into the ghetto, the others to Teleki Square and from there to Bergen-Belsen.

At 2 a. m. on December 4th the was ambulance again called out. They discovered that, starting from the corner of Alfoldi and Fiumei Streets, along the whole of Nepsinhaz Street up to the corner of Jozsef Boulevard, the corpses of members of the Jewish Labour Companies had been thrown out of the back of a truck. They were beyond help, all of them had been killed by shots through the back of the neck. (Log-Book of the Ambulance Service, item 3-9.) (380)

XIV.

THE FIRST DAYS OF THE SIEGE OF BUDAPEST.

The regular siege of Budapest by the Russians began on December 8th. From that day on they regularly bombarded Budapest, which was surrounded from three sides. Only to the West could a connection with the Axis Forces be maintained. War Correspondent Lieutenant Treff-Eichhoffer, in a lengthy article, makes the following remarks about the situation of Budapest and its Jews:

"During the days of the October coup, it once looked as ii Budapest would lose its head. That was still at the time when hundreds of thousands of Jews wearing the Star of David gave the town a characteristic aspect: so characteristic in fact that the European walking through the streets actually shuddered. At that time the fighting front was still far away ( otherwise the Jews would no longer have been there). The rebels' experiment of creating a state of chaos in the town was defeated in a very short time. With the exodus of the sons of Israel and their hirelings, which followed, peace and quiet was at last restored in Budapest, the inhabitants of which were determined to take their fate into their own hands."

On December 9th a decree was issued to the effect that a number of streets and squares were to be renamed, "particularly those bearing Jewish family names or having some Jewish connection." Hans Weyermann, Charge of the International Red Cross, arrived in Budapest and joined in the rescue work of the neutral diplomats. The situation during the first part of December is splendidly characterized in the report forwarded to the Swedish King by Wallenberg through a courier, who managed to get out of the besieged town:

R e p o r t

o n   t h e   s i t u a t i o n   o f   t h e   H u n g a r i a n   J e w s.

Since my last report the situation of the Hungarian Jews has noticeably deteriorated. About 40,000 Jews, comprising 15,000 members of the Jewish Forced Labour Corps and 25,000 other persons of both sexes were apprehended in their homes or in the street & and forced to set out for Germany on loot. The distance to be covered was approximately 240 kilometres. Since these marches were arranged, the weather has turned cold and rainy. People deep in the open without the slightest shelter. Most of them were given food and drink no more than three or four times. Many of 381 them died. The undersigned was able to establish the fact that in Moson-Magyarovar seven persons died one day and seven the previous day. The Secretary of the Portuguese Legation saw 42 corpses in one road and Deputy Prime Minister Szollossy admitted that he saw two corpses. Those not able to march any further were shot on the spot. At the frontier they were received by SS Commander Eichmann, thrashed and ill-treated and led to work in the trenches and fortifications. The enclosed photos 1 and 2 show civilians ready to continue the march, 3 shows members of the Jewish Forced Labour Corps and 4 shows two girls before and alter their march from Budapest to Hegyeshalom.

20,000 members of the Jewish Forced Labour Corps were taken to the frontier by train. As a rule they worked on Hungarian territory. A photo showing the work of the Swedish Rescue Commission is enclosed. The entrenchment work mentioned in the last report has since ceased.

The Jews have been crammed into a central ghetto supposed to accomodate 69,000 persons - but in actual fact probably containing many more -, further into an international ghetto for 17,000 persons, which already harbours 33,000. Of these 7,000 are in Swedish, 2,000 in Red Cross and 23,000 in Swiss houses. Several thousand Jews under Swiss and Vatican protection were dragged away to be deported or were transferred to the central ghetto. In the ghetto, four to twelve Jews share a room, in the Swedish houses the situation is still the most favourable.

A dysentery epidemic of not too serious a nature has broken out among the Jews. In the Swiss houses, the state of health of the Jews is still good, only five persons having died up to now. This department inoculates all protected Jews against typhoid, paratyphoid and cholera. The staff too will be inoculated in due course.

As a rule, Jewish property has been badly looted, as the Jews were only allowed to take as much with them as they could carry. The food situation will shortly be catastrophic.

A great number of Jews were kidnapped by the Nyilas, who ill-treat and torture them on their premises before passing them on for deportation.

Rumours are circulating, according to which the Brigade of Death, closely associated with Minister Kovarcs, is preparing to incite to a pogrom. I do not believe that this pogrom will spread very far, as for instance the SS organs have received no orders to arrange a systematic mass-murder of the Jews.   

0 r g a n i s a t i o n:

After the heavy blow of October, this department has been greatly strengthened. There are 335 employees as well as 40 doctors, house-wardens etc. All these, together with their families amounting to about the same number, live on the premises of the department. In all, 10 houses are used lor offices and living accomodation, one of which is in the international ghetto. (382)

Two hospitals were set up, respectively improvised, providing altogether 150 beds. A soup kitchen was installed as well. The Jews of the Swedish-protected houses hand their ration-cards to the department, which collects the provisions and distributes them.

A great part of the department's correspondence was destroyed. The provision department has bought food to the value of about two million pengos.

Results achieved: The department succeeded in obtaining passes from the Honved Ministry with the aid of which all Jews employed on forced labour but in possession of foreign documents can be sent back to Budapest.

A delegate of the department set out by car and distributed these passes. Soon alter, some 15,000 Jews returned to Budapest.

The columns en route for the frontier were sporadically supplied with food and medicines. About 200 sick persons were collected from the deportation assembly centres by ambulance and brought back to Budapest.

It was possible to rescue some 2,000 persons from deportation through intervening for some reason or the other. Of these, 500 were actually rescued from Hegyeshalom. Unfortunately this had to slop, as the German members of the Eichmann Commando threatened to use violence and force. Up to now Jews in possession of Swedish sale-conducts have been treated leniently in comparison with those enjoying the protection of other neutral powers. As far as can be ascertained, only 10 Jews with Swedish sale-conducts have up to now been shot in and around Budapest.

Budapest, December 8th, 1944.

                                                        (sgd.) Raoul Wallenberg

                                                          Secretary of Legation.

As a result of the increasing difficulties experienced by the International Red Cross-the Nyilas continually attacked and looted certain depots, among them the depot of the Swedish Red Cross, ill-treating Professor Langlet-, the need for the establishment of a more efficacious protective organisation made itself felt. Thus the "Department de cooperation" came into being on December 7th, 1944, and was incorporated into the framework of the International Red Cross. The text of the agreement-in French read as follows:

»Nous sousignees, les L ega t ions des Etats neutres, donnons pouvoir et confions le soins du »Departement de Cooperation« {Budapest II, Tavis utca 3b) de faire en notre nom et sur nos invitations toutes d emarches utiles dans les affaires, seront par nous design ees a charge pour lui d' en rendre compte ulterieurement.

Nous declarons pour notre part , que nous offrons aide et protection la plus complete au »Departement de Cooperation« 383 dans l'accomplissement des demarches engagees pour les affaires dont ii se trouve charge par le present acte. Fait a Budapest, le 7ieme Decembre 1944.«

Apart from the Apostolic Nuntio, the Charges d'affaires of the Swedish, Swiss, Portuguese and Spanish Legations countersigned this agreement.

The organisation set up an "Office for Protection" and succeeded in preventing many atrocities contemplated by the Nyilas.

Meanwhile a state of siege was declared, but this did not prevent murders being committed and looting taking place, Evidence was given in the People's Court to the effect that Szálasi forbade the prosecution of murderous party members. A marginal note attached by him to a complaint read: "This is a natural consequence of a revolution." (Evidence of Lieut.-Col. Ferenczy and Hajnacskoy.) All safes were broken open under the pretence that "the Hungarian National Bank should take over all assets for adequate safe-keeping."

The evacuation of Budapest started. Factories were dismantled and loaded on trucks. The greater part of the police was also evacuated. Knapsacks and blankets owned by Jews were commandeered. It was their turn to set out on foot for the high road to Esztergom. (384)

XV.

THE BUDAPEST GHETTO.

In the ghetto, which on December 10th had been boarded off and isolated, the situation deteriorated from day to day. At first the number to be fed was only 8,000, but this number was increasing rapidly. Prices naturally rose to phantastic heights.

Lajos Stockler, Chairman of the Jewish Council since October 28th, governed the ghetto, assisted by Dr. Istvan Foldes, Dr. Miklos Szego and Dr. Bela Berend. Captain of Reserve Miksa Domonkos proved to be an energetic assistant, as well as acting as executive official in charge of the few remaining clerks.

The Jewish Council,-whose authority at that time was naturally confined exclusively to the ghetto - did its best to put its house in order. Administrative statutes of the ghetto were drafted. The detailed arrangements provided for the following administrative organs: head occupant of dwellings-house wardens -District Magistrates-The Jewish Council.

The division. of the ghetto houses differed from the previously mentioned statement. In actual fact 291 houses with 4,513 flats comprised the ghetto. 243 houses were used as dwellings, 29 were communal buildings and 19 could not be used (war damaged, etc.)

The Jewish Council in its ghetto function continually had to tackle three very serious questions. The first was the problem of accomodation. On this point the Council was free to make its own arrangements without the interference of police or Nyilas: the task of the Council's Housing Committee was to provide, as far as possible, the necessary living space. When providing accomodation, many aspects had to be considered, as a large proportion of the ghetto inhabitants were either old people or invalids.

Throughout the existence of the ghetto, the food supply was supervised by Aldermann Janos Rosta, Head of the Budapest Food Department. Liaison with him was maintained by Lajos Stockler and Dr. Istvan Foldes. On December 7th they drew food ration cards for four weeks as well as the entitlement certificate for coal and wood. They also asked to be supplied with a small quantity of jam and soya sausage for the children, which was promised. So ration cards and promises were at hand, but difficulties arose with regard to transport. The Treasury agreed to meet the costs.

The metropolitan authorities should have started to supply the ghetto on December 8th. According to their report, only a minimal food reserve for the 60 to 70,000 persons was available, with the exception of dried soups of a low calorific value. From that day on the dreadful struggle to maintain the food supply for the ghetto continued. On December 8th, 5,782 kilos of bread were (385) distributed in the ghetto and everybody received their daily ration of 150 grammes. (The number of persons entitled to rations on that day was 38,000), One day there was "pea soup," the next "bean soup," then mashed carrots and from time to time noodles or barley-corn. There was no warm meal in the evening, but some cereals were distributed instead as long as it was possible to do so. Gradually the quantity and quality of the food deteriorated, particularly in January, when it was no longer possible to supply the town.

Other permanent problems that were gradually solved were laundries, chemists' shops, Turkish baths and a disinfestation centre.

A considerable part of the Council's time was taken up by the problem of housing the 6,000 Jewish children, who-protected by the International Red Cross-were living outside the ghetto and whom the police-as the result of the constant clamourings of the Nyilas-wanted to have moved to the ghetto by December 7th. The proper housing of such a large number of children in a ghetto overcrowded already was no mean task. The larger part of the nursing staff of the different homes proved to be unreliable and-at that time-the majority fled from Budapest, leaving the children unattended. In the name of the International Red Cross Fritz Born and, later, Hans Weyermann, who had arrived in Budapest in the meanwhile, kept in touch with the Council. By agreement the Council were willing to undertake the housing of these children, but for that purpose they had to request the town to hand over to them buildings within the boundaries of the ghetto belonging to the Municipality after these had been cleaned, disinfected and properly equipped. Long discussions on this subject took place between Lajos Stockler and Chief Constable and Deputy Commander Janos Solymossy, at that time also Commissioner of Jewish Affairs. Born and Weyermann, too, took part in some of these discussions. The Council continually postponed the transfer of the children into the ghetto, being of the opinion that it was easier for the international organisations to ensure their welfare outside the ghetto, and because they wanted to gain time. Under Nyilas pressure the police became impatient and on December 12th-in spite of the agreement, according to which no children were to be brought into the ghetto until the Municipal schools were properly equipped-Superintendents of Police Dr. Koppany and Dr. Szinyei-Merse brought some 500 children into the ghetto.

With the help of Vitéz Molnar the Divisional Commander of the VII. District had the closed premises of the Klauzal Square Hall opened and handed over for the accomodation of the children. Naturally these quarters were not adequate and their meals although all available stocks of cheese, curds and malt preparations were distributed among them-could not be sufficient. Hans Weyermann and the Lutheran pastor Gabor Sztehlo, who attended in a supervisory capacity, accordingly lodged a protest, as a result (386) of which they were again promised suspension of further transfers of children until December 22nd. It must be stated here that the excuse constantly offered by the Nyilas Party for their desire to see the children housed in the ghetto was that, as the neutral powers were not willing to acknowledge the Szálasi Government, the Nyilas Party found itself unable to tolerate the neutral and international protection of the Jews.

At that time there were six homes for children in Budapest, which enjoyed the protection of the International Red Cross. It was mainly Jewish parents, who placed their children in these homes in order to save them from the Nyilas. Each home sheltered 500 children and, fortunately, a good proportion of these survived the siege of Budapest. Some of these homes were under the management of totally unsuitable persons, who criminally neglected their charges. Various epidemics raged, infants starved. Particularly grave abuses occurred in the homes in the Teleki-Pal-, Perczel-, Mor- and Nagyfuvaros Streets: "Children between the ages of 2 and 14, starved, ragged, as thin as skeletons, huddled together in the corners of the rooms, their bodies caked with dirt, scabby and lousy, and, in their fear and endless misery, uttering inarticulate sounds. For days on end they had had nothing to eat, for days there had been nobody to take care of them. For about six weeks the children were left without supervision. Where their wardens were and why they had fled, nobody could tell."

On December 23rd the representatives of the neutral powers once more, and for the last time, assembled in the Apostolic Nuntiature for the purpose of preventing Jewish children being dragged into the ghetto. A joint action was decided upon and the following memorandum was prepared:

"The undersigned representatives of the neutral powers accredited to the Royal Hungarian Government have already twice respectfully requested the Royal Hungarian Government to intervene in favour of the persecuted and outlawed Jews. Now that the Royal Hungarian Government have found it necessary - for reasons which need not be discussed here - to lock up the Jews in a ghetto, the representatives of the neutral powers undertake another diplomatic action in asking the Government to exempt from this order at least the children.

It would indeed be impossible to understand why innocents are to be punished or why measures of sell-defence be taken against creatures absolutely incapable of doing any harm. Even admitting that the Royal Hungarian Government must protect itself against the possibilities of disturbances, it is impossible to understand this continual fear of children. We have heard it said that the Jews are the enemies of Hungary, yet even in war conscience and the law condemn hostile actions against children. Why, therefore, force these innocent creatures to live in places in many respects resembling prisons and where the poor mites will see nothing but misery, pain and the desperation of old men and (387)

They very cleverly settled down in 16, Bencsur Street and from here set out to accomplish their task. In a short time they had wormed their way into the "Refugees' Office" in the Vigado and so found an opportunity of providing the hiding refugees with all sorts of legitimations and billets. This group, under the leadership of Dr. Gyorgy Wilhelm, Dr. Miklos Kadar and Adorjan Stella, continued its philanthropic activity for months after the liberation.

Here it must be mentioned how the Zionist Youth Movement  played a most active part in the rescue actions. Clad in various illegally worn uniforms and equipped with false legitimations, groups of young Zionists nightly patrolled the streets, wearing Nyilas armlets or disguised as members of the National Guard. Often enough they accosted real Nyilas members, asked to see their documents and declared. them to be false, whereupon they confiscated them. These authentic passes and legitimations they then used for further rescue actions.

Another group of youths, consisting of both Zionists and non-Zionists, settled down in the rescue department of the International Red Cross and tried-by legal and mostly by illegal means-to rescue as many people as possible from the brick-works. This group even succeeded in establishing contact with Laszlo Ferenczy, whom they induced to grant favours by making Red Cross parcels available to him. With the authorisation of the Rescue Department of the International Red Cross, Mrs. Breuer and Vera Gorog put in a daily telephone call to Capt. Lulay, Ferenczy's deputy. In order to avoid attracting attention the code-word "Cousin Veronica called her Uncle Laci" was agreed upon, and most valuable information together with the documents required for the rescue work were obtained.

Wearing an armlet describing him as "Delegate of the International Red Cross" Dr. Pal Szappanos, accompanied by Dr. Laszlo Benedek in the guise of a "Christian doctor," took turns with various other Jewish doctors (Dr. Laszlo Tauber, Dr. Glancz, Dr. Nemet and others) in paying daily calls to Teleki Square in order to liberate Jews from deportation under the pretext of "illness."

The inventiveness of the Jewish Youth was inexhaustible and many Jews owe their lives to that animated body of men.

At this time atrocities were again occurring and Locsey issued new blue legitimations; from that time on all Christians entering the ghetto had to be in possession of these blue legitimations. At the same time-on instructions of Solymossy-he gave orders to form mixed guards (police and Nyilas) in and around the ghetto. This led to a reduction in the number of atrocities committed, although looting under the pretext of "looking for arms" took place at 10, Rumbach Sebestyen Street, 5, Klauzal Square, 30, Klauzal Square etc. (390)

The Jews were provided with green legitimations, which enabled them to leave the ghetto. In case an operation proved to be urgently necessary, they could go to the hospital in 44, Wesselenyi Street by producing a white legitimation provided by the Council; on the other hand groups could go to the hospital escorted by police.

On more than one occasion Weyermann, Wallenberg and Raile visited the ghetto in the middle of the night, bringing with them medical stores and inspecting the general situation.

Great anxiety was caused by the air-raids, which were, responsible for a great number of casualties in the ghetto. On December 10th the Presidential Room of the Jewish Council in 12, Sip Street, suffered a direct hit. Four of those present were killed outright and eight others, of whom three died later on, were severely injured. On December 20th the ghetto was the scene of a very serious raid, which claimed 36 victims and resulted in whole rows of houses in Kis Diofa, Doh and Kazinczy Streets becoming uninhabitable. The ghetto was also hit on many other occasions. Hundreds of survivors continuously had to look for new abodes, thereby increasing the already existing shortage of accomodation.

The police again pressed for the children to be housed in the ghetto. Weyermann tried to avert this by reporting to Locsey that a scarlet fever epidemic was raging among them and made their transport impossible. Accompanied by Dr. Gyurky, Chief Medical Inspector, Locsey appeared in the ghetto and insisted that the children be taken into the ghetto, although the buildings handed over by the Municipality on December 20th, that is to say on the day of his visit, were neither cleaned nor furnished. He referred to Solymossy's remark: "One can't be touchy when Hungarian children are tramping the high roads!" Following the report of the Chief Managing Doctor of the Jewish Hospital, Dr. Dezso Acel, according to which there were "already no less than 2,000 cases of dysentery in the ghetto," the Chief Medical Inspector stated that in his opinion the danger of an epidemic was increasing. Dr. Acel drew his attention to the fact that an epidemic would not halt at the gates of the ghetto, and that therefore its repression was in the common interest.

On December 21st, the ghetto was again hit by bombs. The food supplies diminished rapidly in the days preceding Christmas. Cheese and eggs for the sick were sent along as a gift from the Red Cross, but the Nyilas guard refused to allow delivery. Locsey approved of the step taken by the guard and declared that he himself disapproved of the far too generous quantities of food taken into the ghetto. Besides, he said, according to reports he had received, the Jews were in the habit of conversing over the fence of the ghetto and of receiving parcels. Janos Batta, Nyilas Chief for the VII. District, promised to institute drastic measures and ordered the guard to act accordingly. (391)

Stockler informed Locsey that at least four waggons of food were needed for the population of 60,000, taking into account only one modest meal daily. A small fraction of this actually arrived, not without the Nyilas making more trouble by molesting the carters and holding up the transport. Locsey finally compromised by ordering the carters to deliver their waybills at the gates and thus enabling the Nyilas to control the quantity of food taken into the ghetto.

An interesting visitor arrived in the ghetto in the course of the evening of December 23rd. Eichmann appeared with his suite looking for the Council but found the building empty. In his rage he hit the porter on the head with his pistol and left with the threat to have him and his whole family executed, if the Council failed to put in an appearance in full in the morning. (It will remain an ever-lasting mystery what this "bloodhound" wanted on his last visit, as the "Sonderkommando" left the capital that same night through the small gap still left open.)

On December 24th the funeral of the 36 victims of the latest air-raid together with 30 Jews, who had died a natural death, took place from the Kazinczy Street Baths. The members of the Council escorted the corpses as far as the fence of the ghetto, from where carters transported them to the Kakoskeresztur Cemetery without further formalities. As from that date no further burials took place from the ghetto. Instead the bodies were collected in the Kazinczy Street Baths and the yard belonging to it, before being carted away to the cemetery.

The police obliged the Council by transporting the corpses of the murdered-so-called "hiding" Jews-found in the streets and squares near the ghetto, which until then had been thrown into the Danube. (The latter course was no longer feasible, as by this time the Danube had frozen over.) Soon the Baths were no longer large enough to accomodate them all and they had to be taken to shops in Klauzal Square. (The corpses from the Wesselenyi Street hospital were taken to a room in a coffee house on the Boulevard, which could do no more business as it had been damaged by a bomb.)   

On Christmas Day the Nyilas brought into the ghetto 16 employees of the Swedish Legation, as well as Asta Nilson, a cousin of the King of Sweden and Margarete Bauer, who had so often represented Jewish interests at the Swedish Legation. With great difficulty Fritz Born set the two ladies free and at the same time succeeded in having the date of the transfer of the children into the ghetto postponed until December 31st. The police stated that after that day 300 children a day would be transferred into the ghetto.

On December 26th Staff Inspector Bacso became the new Chief of Police. On that day, by order of the Nyilas, nobody was allowed to leave the ghetto, and there were so many other (392) suspicious signs that Stockler tried to contact the new Chief of Police and the district-leader of the party by telephone. After a series of long talks the party leader agreed to have the old rule reinstated.

Reports of new atrocities arrived: among others a man was killed on Klauzal Square. Locsey, in the meanwhile promoted to "Ministerial Commissioner for the Removal of the Jews," still did not want to establish a police station in the ghetto, although he had repeatedly been asked to do so by the Council. The maintenance of order therefore rested on the shoulders of the unarmed Jewish police, which was naturally quite helpless against the armed Nyilas gangsters and soldiers.

In the meantime wholesale murder was going on in the international ghetto: the inhabitants of 30, Pozsonyi Street, were shot out of hand on the banks of the Danube. By the score Jewish forced labour men, hiding in the town, were arrested by the Nyilas. Ten of them were hung as a warning example by the judges of the military prison. 21-year old Anna Szenes, a Zionist girl holding the rank of lieutenant in the British Forces and employed on special duties, who had volunteered together with 2,000 comrades to fight Fascism, was shot in the same prison. Anna Szenes, who had been born in Budapest, was flown out and made a parachute jump in order to organize resistance among her fellow-believers. Her execution constituted common murder, as she had been sentenced by a Nyilas court-martial which did not by any means conform to international law.

The log-book of the Budapest Ambulance Service contains the names of those persons, whom the police rescued from the Danube and who were still living. At that time the Danube swept ashore a great number of corpses clad only in their underwear and shot through the back of their necks as well as showing signs of serious ill treatment. They were inhabitants of the protected houses and only very few escaped with their lives after having being thrown into the Danube.

On December 15th Police Constable No. 1173 reported to the Ambulance Service that Mrs. Laszlo Novak (aged 35) had been rescued from the Danube at the Pest bridge-head of the Ferenc Jozsef bridge. She had been shot twice.

On December 17th Police Constable No. 2266 reported that Oskar Hartner (aged 57), a chemist, had swum ashore in spite of a shot wound.

From December 23rd onwards-the day on which the Germans treacherously" killed the Russian bearers of a flag of truce, who had come to demand surrender-Russian Ratas ceaselessly circled the town and dropped their deadly loads. Some of the bombs also hit the ghetto.

The strength of the ghetto increased day by day and reached a total of 55,000 by the end of the year. The Nyilas collected all (393) movables left in the evacuated houses by the protected Jews, who, on their way to the ghetto, were subjected to looting no less than three times. First they were called upon to hand over their valuables before leaving the protected houses. At the gates of the ghetto (there were four: Karoly Boulevard,Wesselenyi Street, Nagyatadi Szabo Street-Wesselenyi Street, Kiraly Street-Kisidofa, Rakoczi Street-Nagydiofa Street) the "better looking" parcels were taken away from them. Finally they were left waiting in groups on Klauzal Square, whilst they were sorted out for accomodation purposes, and there they were robbed for the third time. (394)

XVI.

JEWS ILLEGALLY HIDING IN THE CAPITAL.

On December 23rd Gabor Vajna, the Minister of the Interior, issued a decree ordering all Jews hiding in the town to move into the ghetto voluntarily. Some ten thousand were affected by this decree. Some of them were hiding in Catholic and Calvinist ecclesiastic institutes and others were being sheltered by Christians. The Catholic institutions particularly were foremost in offering shelter to the baptized Jews as well as to the Jews who still clung to their faith. Here are some illustrating examples:   

The Lazarist Fathers sheltered some 30 men in their prayer house, all of whom escaped. In the house of the Sisters of Mercy 150 children and 50 adults found refuge. The children were all off-springs of deported parents and no notice was taken of their confession. The gates of the religious houses were opened only to poor and forlorn creatures; those offering money could not count on help. The Nyilas repeatedly expressed a desire to search these houses, but miraculously they were always satisfied with looking through some papers in the porter's lodge, therefore all refugees were saved. The Sophianum hid 80 women, 40 children and-later on-10 men. All refugees were saved thanks to the energetic conduct of the Mothers. The Oblatas of the Benedictines saved 10 political refugees and 82 Jews. 110 were hiding in the Sion Convent on the Svabhegy. They were discovered by the Gestapo, but the nuns succeeded in smuggling them out and offering them shelter elsewhere, so that all of them were saved. The Franciscan Missionary Sisters offered refuge to 120 children and 30 adults. Here the Nyilas carried out a raid and dragged away most of the refugees. The nuns were robbed of all their possessions. Under the pretext of illness 100 Jews were sheltered so cleverly in the hospital of the nuns of St. Elisabeth that they were not discovered in spite of the frequent searches conducted by the Nyilas. The Society of the girls of Sacre Coeur hid refugees on the premises of their bookshop. They assisted about 2,000 Jews in obtaining false papers and accomodation.   

One hundred girls of Jewish origin found board and lodging in the Regnum Marianum; all of them were rescued. The College of St. Anne was hiding about 150 persecuted people, most of them provincial refugees. Benevolent policemen successfully guarded the college against the Nyilas. 30 refugees found shelter in the Collegium Theresianum. The Nyilas searched the house three times, but met with no success, as their intended victims were able to reach the neighbouring houses through a corridor hidden (395) in a bomb-damaged corner of the building. All of them survived. The "Champagnat" Institute of the Order of Mary had 100 pupils as boarders, together with 50 adults, the parents of the children. An agent provocateur, (an SS. man from Alsace), who pretended to be a French soldier in hiding, denounced the monks. As a result they suddenly found themselves, one night, surrounded by 40 members of the Gestapo, who dragged six monks, two thirds of the children and most of the adults away. The monks, after having undergone terrible tortures, were taken to the fortress and released, but the Jews were all killed. The few adults and children left in the institute were miraculously saved. In the house of the Sisters of the Divine Saviour 150 children found refuge, but the Nyilas and the Gestapo, who were accomodated in the neighbourhood, found them and dragged them away. The Nyilas took them to their headquarters in Ujpest, from where they drove 62 into the Danube at Meder Street. These were killed, the rest deported. The "English Sisters," in two of their houses, gave refuge to 100 children and 40 adults, all of whom were saved in spite of the molestations of the Nyilas. Temporary shelter for 15-20 children was available at the Central Seminary. The "Hospitalors" of Óbuda sheltered 25 adults and 15 children, but were discovered by the Nyilas; it was, however, possible to transfer them to Pest, where they were placed in protected houses. The Convent of the Good Shepherd hid 112 girls, which twice escaped the clutches of the Nyilas by hiding in neighbouring houses whilst the convent was being searched. 150 refugees were hidden in the Jesuit College. The Prior, Father Jacob Raile, was one of the chief executives of the rescue actions. His name became legendary in Budapest. All day long he used to pull strings in the town, procuring false certificates of baptism for his proteges, the number of which increased at the rate of at least one or two a day. The rescue action of the Jesuits became so far-famed that hardly a day passed on which their house was not searched by the Nyilas. Father Raile put an end to these molestations by dressing some of the 100 Christian deserters in hiding in police uniforms and making a "police station" out of the porter's lodge. From that day onwards no Nyilas man passed their threshold. Father Reisz and particularly Father Joszef Janossy took a prominent part in the rescue action. The latter was the leader of the Holy Cross Society, which had taken charge of the rescue action of the baptized Jews. The Ranolder Institute established a "faked war industry plant" employing 100 Jewish girls. The Order of Divine Love hid 110 refugees. Unfortunately they were discovered by the Nyilas, who were billeted on the other side of the road; they attacked the Convent and dragged away and killed all refugees with the exception of five who managed to escape through the roof. 25 refugees hid in the home of the Social Sisters. They were denounced by an employee, a Nyilas (396) sympathizer. Surprisingly the Nyilas recognised all documents with the exception of those of six of the refugees, who, together with Sister Sarah Schalkahazy and Vilma Berkovits, were dragged away and murdered that same day. Safe-conducts and forged legitimations were distributed on a large scale by the Institute of St. Teresa and the refugees provided with these were placed in private houses by the Sisters. 30 found refuge in the institute itself. 26 were hiding in the home of the Catholic Youth, who also issued several hundred safe-conducts and false legitimations. Although a German Motorised Division was billeted in the home, the Jews, living on a separate floor, were able to escape. In the Home of the Sisters of Mercy of Szatmar 20 Jews were hidden, and although the inhabitants of the house-the home being part of a large tenement building-knew that the Sisters were hiding Jews, all were saved. In the Convent of Sacre Coeur 200 women and children survived the siege. 11 refugees were hidden in the small premises of the Charite. One night the manager was arrested, cross-examined and threatened. Nevertheless he did not betray his proteges, who were all saved. The Josephinum (Society of the Virgin Mary) in the very neighbourhood of the Nyilas headquarters successfully hid 60 children and two adults. 20 persons found refuge in the small hospital of the Sisters of the Eucharistic Union. They were discovered and taken away by the Nyilas, who tortured the Prioress, but finally let her off with the warning that they would kill her, if they ever caught her hiding Jews again. After her escape the Prioress immediately rented a flat-Prelate Dr. Arnold Pataky placed his own flat consisting of four rooms at her disposal-and again gathered around her large numbers of persecuted Jews. The Fathers of St. Salese gave shelter to 12 adults and 40 children. Three times the house was broken into, always in the middle of the night. On the first occasion all hidden men were taken away, whose legitimations were found to be dubious. All of them were shot. The same fate awaited the five men, who were dragged away on the second occasion. On Christmas Eve, the third occasion, 13 small boys were carried away. 12 of them were shot on the shores of the Danube, the thirteenth managed to escape by jumping into the icy river and dodging the bullets sent after him. The Prior and his deputy were taken to the Nyilas headquarters and severely beaten. Only the intervention of the Nuntio saved their lives. The Nyilas looted the seat of the Order and carried off the contents of the cash box.

In the air-raid shelter of the Order of St. Benedict, 80 persecuted Jews survived the siege. 15 others were successfully concealed in the monastery of the Cistercian Order, whilst the Carmelite Sisters accorded hospitality to 300 children.

Special mention must be made of the rescue activities of the Scottish Mission. Following the "Anschluss" of Austria, the refugees found a helping hand here. Their ministers: George (397) Knight, Gyula Forgacs and Dr. Lajos Nagybaczoni Nagy, fearlessly branded racial ideology in their sermons and lectures as being contrary to all Christian ideals. Jewish artists and writers, who, as a result of the Jewish laws, were forbidden to appear in public, were given an opportunity to express themselves in the "cultural gatherings" arranged by the Mission.

After the German forces had entered Hungary the Gestapo  carried away Miss J. M. Haining, the heroic head of the Girl's School. She was arrested on April 25th, 1944. The Scottish lady first showed her personal documents and then produced the safe-conduct of the Swiss Legation, which the Germans brushed aside with a wave of the hand. She was not allowed to take her Bible with her, although she repeatedly asked to be permitted to do so. The Swiss Legation and the Calvinist Church did their utmost to obtain her release. Bishop Ravasz intervened with Sztojay and Horthy, but was unsuccessful, although the Hungarian Government intervened on other occasions. Then on August 22nd a Gestapo man appeared at the Scottish Mission with a bundle of papers, the legacy of Miss Raining, and reported that she had died in Auschwitz, where she had been deported to. Miss Lee, who was imprisoned together with Miss Raining, later reported that she had twice been taken to be cross-examined. She was accused of: 1) working among Jews, 2) crying on first seeing the Jewish Star on her Jewish pupils, 3) dismissing her Aryan housekeeper and engaging a Jewish one instead, 4) listening to the news broadcasts of the British Broadcasting Corporation, 5) receiving many English visitors, 6) talking politics, 7) visiting British prisoners-of-war, 8) sending them parcels.

Miss Raining courageously admitted these "crimes," with the exception of No. 6. With that her fate was sealed.

The Scottish minister, George Knight, was called home in 1940, Gyula Forgacs died in 1942 and therefore the remaining minister, Lajos Nagybaczoni-Nagy was left in sole charge of the rescue action during the difficult times of the Szálasi Regime. The Mission inaugurated a Children's Home under the protection of the Swiss Red Cross, where 70 children, 30 mothers and 10 fathers, all of them Jews, found shelter. Zoltan Tildy with his family, Ferenc Nagy and Victor Csornoky were also hiding here. On December 12th, 1944, police came to the house in order to escort the Jews hiding there to the ghetto. Nagy succeeded in rescuing some of the persecuted, whereas the rest were taken into the ghetto. There, on behalf of the Mission, the visiting minister and his assistants provided them with food, until, with the help of faked documents, it was possible to smuggle them out of the ghetto and to bring them back to the Mission again, where for the future they remained unmolested.

The rescue of the Jews in hiding was greatly facilitated by the false legitimations produced by some clever groups; in most cases they were brought into circulation unselfishly and without (398) payment being demanded for them. Two groups, who carried on this work on a large scale deserve mention. Generally these actions were started in connection with the resistance movement against the Germans, although others had already existed before the German invasion, whose aim it had been - as an anti-Fascist movement - to hide English, Dutch, French, Belgian and Polish officers and men who had escaped from German prisons and to provide them with material help and personal documents. After the German invasion, partly for political and partly for racial reasons, the rescue of the persecuted became predominant and these groups with their organisation were of the greatest help to the Jewish rescue actions. Without exception the members of these groups were Christians with Left-wing sympathies. One of these groups for instance was led by: Dr. Tibor Szalay, director of the Institute of Geology and his wife, Laszlo Csuros, Rafael Ruppert, Ferenc Korom, Karoly Dobos, a Calvinist minister, Baron Jeno Josika and others. They were greatly assisted in the production of forged documents by "underground" foreigners: Capt. Roy Natush from New Zealand, the British Lieutenant Thomas Clement, Flight-Lieutenant of the R. A. F. Reginald Barratt, Sergeant Tibor Weinstein of the Palestine Regiment, the British Privates Gordon Tasker and R. W. Jones, Gordon Park, and Heburn and the Dutch Lieutenants G. van der Waals and W. Puckel.

A printing shop was organised, where they could print blank registry extracts, passes for factories, exemption certificates etc. etc. The necessary stamps were made by Lieutenants van der Waals and W. Puckel, who literally became masters of their art. They even succeeded in producing such perfect German passes, that persons speaking neither German nor Hungarian got by everywhere without the slightest trouble.

So great was the activity of that group, - and so successful - that the British Military Mission in Budapest - after a thorough examination of the facts -, submitted the names of the leaders of the group to His Brittanic Majesty together with a proposal of distinction. Until the promised decorations could arrive, Field marshal Viscount Alexander saw to it that they were issued with following document:

"This certificate is awarded to . . . . , Budapest, as a token of gratitude and appreciation for the help given to the Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen of the British Commonwealth of Nations, which enabled them to escape from, or evade capture by the enemy.

                                                             H. R. Alexander.

                                                    Field marshal. 1939-1945.

                                                 Supreme Allied Commander

                                                    Mediterranean Theatre"

Many other secret printing offices and societies were engaged in similar work and quite a large number of Christians handed their own personal documents and those of their families over to Jews in order to effect their escape. (399)

XVII.

THE NYILAS DECIMATES THE CAPITAL'S JEWRY IN THE COURSE OF THE SIEGE.

On December 23rd Secretary of State Dr. Pal Vago declared in Csepel: "We will defend Budapest to the Last man. Every street-corner, every window must become a death-bringing fortress!"

On the following day the iron ring was closed: the siege of Budapest began ... The Nyilas terror reached its peak. On December 24th, on Christmas Eve, the Nyilas stormed the Children's Homes of the International Red Cross and the Jewish Church Council in the Vilma Kiralyne and Munkacsy Mihely Streets. In the latter home they shot three women and three children aged one and a half, three and fifteen years respectively. On foot, whilst bombs and mines were raining down, they drove the children across to Buda into the Radetzky Barracks. Here Jewish forced labour men, clad in Nyilas uniforms, turned them back with forged orders. By mistake the orphans were placed in the houses 33 and 46, Sziv Street. In the latter house they were denounced by the care-taker and two children of nine and sixteen years of age were shot by the Nyilas, whilst the remainder were driven down to the Danube. 30 children escaped on the way, of which three were handed over to the Nyilas by the care-taker of the house 44 Petnehazy Street. Two of these were executed in the vicinity of the Danube, the third escaped by swimming. 27 children were later returned safely to the orphanage. The 50-year old orphanage teacher Jozsef Csillag, who had just returned from digging trenches, was thrown into the Danube together with two children, because he came to the assistance of the little ones. They were fired upon until they were no longer seen. The other children, as well as those placed in the house 33 Sziv Street, were taken back to the orphanage.

Looting continued. The news was given out that the laundries were to reopen, but the legitimate owners only received their linen back if they were Christians. The laundries were forced to hand over Jewish belongings to the Nyilas. (For some time already there had been a rule, according to which Jews could neither redeem their pawned possessions nor prolong their tickets at the time of expiry.)

Several days later a new decree was promulgated, by which Jews were forced under pain of death to move into the ghetto. Those still found outside the ghetto after December 31st would be executed. The sole exception were the patients of the hospitals in Wesselenyi Street and Bethlen Square together with a nursing staff of 10 per cent of the strength of the patients. (400) No. 2, Bethlen Square - originally the Deaf and Dumb Institute and then seat of the Protecting Office-had been turned into a hospital in the course of May 1944. The first two patients were brought in from Horthy Liget (Jeno Kaldy and Dr. Andor Glucksthal.) Shortly after, patients were brought in from Kis-Tarcsa. from among the hostages and internees. After the requisitioning of the Jewish hospital some of the departments were transferred to Bethlen Square and others to Wesselenyi Street. Slowly - but once these buildings were allowed to continue to fulfill their functions outside the ghetto, rapidly - the number of the sick and aged seeking the protection of the International Red Cross increased to such an extent that they had to sleep four to a bed and that their number, by the end of December, exceeded 2,500. Several times the Bethlen Square Hospital was searched by Nyilas organisations. At the beginning of December sick patients in the temple of the hospital were attacked and three Jewish members of the Labour Companies were shot by them.

On December 28th a serious raid on the Bethlen Square Hospital was organised. SS. men and Nyilas ordered all men down into the court-yard in the middle of the night, whilst the women were assembled in the cellar. On the following morning they were all driven on to the gallery of the small temple. There they were locked up for 24 hours, whilst their property was searched, pretendedly for arms and de facto for all valuables the gangsters could lay their hands on. At the end all men had to file past. 28 of the younger men were picked out and fallen in separately, after which two SS. officers watched them being taken away. All of them were shot in the cellars of the Girls' Commercial School in Wesselenyi Street on the night of December 30th.

The terror was raging in full force. According to the log-book of the Institute of Forensic Medicine the corpses of 50 to 60 Jews a night, mostly shot in the back of the neck, were brought in, In some weeks the total number of suicides committed by Jews surpassed the total figure for the year 1943.

"Old men, young girls, expectant mothers committed suicide. A mother would stun her daughter, who protested against the thought of suicide, with a rolling-pin, and would then lay down beside her in front of the open gas pipe. Thousands of individual tragedies took place in those days."

The corpses accumulated in the Institute in spite of the advice given to his fellow Nyilas men by Professor Ferenc Orsos: "Throw the Jewish corpses into the Danube, we don't want to have another Katyn!"

After the liberation the press were shown the corpses in the Institute by a police-commission. The new head of the Institute gave following account of the horrors, which occurred in December and January:

“In the most brutal manner the Nyilas made short work of their victims. A few were simply shot, but the majority were mercilessly (401) tortured. From the distorted laces of the corpses the conclusion could be drawn that their sufferings had been ghastly. Very few blown-out brains or. heart shots were to be found; on the other hand there was overwhelming evidence of the most brutal ill-treatment. Shooting out of eyes, scalping, deliberate breaking of bones and abdominal knife wounds were Nyilas specialties. The naked bodies bore signs of thrashing, the head and laces were badly bruised. The corpses of men and women of all ages together with those of children and infants were brought info the Institute of Forensic Medicine during the days preceding Christmas."

Each corpse bore a label on its foot, but very few labels gave the name of the victim, generally it showed only a number. The whole tale is told by the places where the bodies were discovered: Danube Quay, Dohany-, Wesselenyi Streets, Liszt Ferenc Square etc. etc., all in the ghetto or its immediate surroundings, and, in particular, in the districts containing the "protected" houses. The report went on to say: "One could see almost exactly from the movement of their feet about to start running and now stiff in death and by the horror written on their faces, how they had met their death. Most corpses were stripped to the skin."

Soon after the liberation the criminal department of the police conducted inquests on more than three thousand cases of murder and robbery. This number even increased in the later days. The People's Court had to deal with 6,200 proven cases of Nyilas murders.

Some of the tragic events of those days are also contained in the log-book of the Budapest Ambulance Service. At 2.15 a. m. on December 10th the ambulance was called to the Ujpesti Rakpart, where Sandor Weingartner (aged 21), supposedly a cadet-sergeant, but in actual fact a member of the Jewish Forced-labour Companies, was lying with a shot wound. The ambulance, while rendering first aid, was hampered in their work by shots fired at -them by Nyilas from Drava Street. The wounded man - in spite of the rule still in force forbidding this - was taken to the Military Hospital No. 11, where First Lieutenant Dr. Tibor Lukacs admitted him, although he knew that the patient was a Jew. (Journal K, item 6.)

At 6.10 a.m. on December 15th, the ambulance was called to the Nyilas book shop, 4, Kossuth Street. This shop had been blown up by unknown hands on the previous day. The ambulance found the corpses of members of the Jewish Forced-labour Companies among the debris; they had all been shot in the back of the neck. Round their necks they carried tags with the text: "Revenge for the outrage on the Nyilas Book-shop." That same day, and bearing similar tags around their necks, Jews were found hanging from the trees of Szabadsag Square, (Journal D, items 7-14.)

At 4.10 a. m. on December 29th Police Constable No. 1001 called the ambulance and reported that Jews were being shot 402 near the Széchenyi Quay on the banks of the Danube, he had already called the fire-brigade, but it was imperative for the ambulance to come out as well. The ambulance found following victims, who were unconscious but still alive: Mrs. Istvan Grosz (aged 46), housewife; Jeno Halmat (aged 17), student; Mrs. Iszo Hatman (aged 29), housewife; Ilonka Singer (aged 42), housewife; Marianne Bogner (aged 16), housewife; Miklos Reinhardt (aged 20); Hugo Krausz (aged 53); Sandor Bergstein (aged 50). All of them were wounded and taken to hospital.

The Jewish members of the Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Resistance Movement were arrested and executed at 36, Visegradi Street on December 29th. 20 men and women were dragged from 39, Legrady Karoly Street (a house under Swedish protection) to the Party Headquarters at 35, Pozsonyi Street. They were stripped naked, lined up against a wall and shot. Jews in hiding at 49, Damjanich Street were discovered and executed. 273 Jews from 21, Katona Jozsef Street (another Swedish-protected house) were taken to Szabadsag Square, where they were deprived of their clothes. 80 of the younger men were picked out and shot; the remainder, including the completely naked women, were taken into the ghetto.

On the following day 40 Jews were taken away from 48 b, Legrady Karoly Street and killed. Dezso Bano, a worthy elder of the Jewish community, together with his wife and daughter (Mrs. Laszlo Somogyi), his son-in-law and his two grandchildren, were among the victims.

A group of 40 armed Nyilas men invaded the "glass-house," 29, Vadasz Street, where 2,700 Jews were hiding under the pretext of "representation of foreign interests" kept up by the Swiss Legation. 1,500 were driven out into the street, the remainder were able to hide in the cellars and had to stay there for about an hour and a half, exposed to the bitter cold and the machine-guns of low-flying planes, before help arrived. Arthur Weiss, the heroic commander of the house, defied the Nyilas order to evacuate the house and delayed the operation until military forces and police arrived to rescue them. In the meantime the Nyilas had wounded some 40 inmates of the house and had commenced looting. On that day they were forced to leave, but they returned on the following day and fetched the commander, Arthur Weiss, whom they killed.

On the night of December 31st the Nyilas invaded the Hotel Ritz in spite of the fact that it enjoyed international protection, and dragged away several persons. Otto Komoly, Chairman of the Zionists and of Group A of the International Red Cross, as well as member of the Jewish Council had been hiding here for several days. (Previously he had been living at the Red Cross Headquarters at 52, Baross Street, but this was not considered safe enough.) From the Ritz he was taken to the local Nyilas Headquarters at 14, Varoshaz Street, where he fell into the hands of Kurt Rettmann, Imre Nidosi and their accomplices - a group renowned for (403) the horrible atrocities committed by them -, who killed him. With him a second member of the Jewish Council, Janos Gabor, lost his life. Only a short time before he had been released from the Gestapo prison and had been taken to Hegyeshalom by the Nyilas. Weak and ill as he was, he asked Wyslizeni to help him, but, in spite of the many favours Gabor had shown him, the latter refused him with the cynical words: "It won't hurt you to work in Germany!" With that Gabor's fate was sealed.

The lives of the other Council members too were constantly endangered. Even Christians found it dangerous to venture out into the streets during these days, and the ceaselessly dropping shells, landmines and bombs claimed innumerable victims. Another danger was the fact that Nyilas and police, looking for Jews and deserters, refused to accept any legitimation whatsoever. In the twinkling of an eye they made up their minds: the document was torn up or pocketed and the owner was nothing but a simple "hiding Jew", who had had the misfortune to have been caught and whose fate was sealed; a bullet after some dreadful tortures at an Arrow Cross Headquarters ...

These were the days in which the press - or what remained of it in town - quite bluntly incited to murder and pogrom. The "Osszetartas" for instance called the Jews: "henchmen of the Anglo-Saxon-Bolshevik Coalition, who have been taking the side of our enemies since the very. beginning and who - through their leaders - have definitely concluded an alliance with these enemies. They must be treated accordingly!''

After the enforcement of the ghetto decree, the daily paper "Hare" gave an account of the situation entitled "The Big Isolation." It was inspired by Bela Berend, a member of the Council. According to this article the Jews were satisfied with the arrangements made:

"Jewry itself is grateful to the Szálasi Government for the solution of the complicated case of the capital's Jews, as a result of which - after thorough consideration and hard work - they are settled on a legal basis giving general satisfaction. The Minister of the Interior has settled the late of the Jews living in Budapest by assigning them a territory sufficiently large - and used by them for ages - where they can live and work unmolestedly. The solution seems to be a perfect one. The town's Jewry must accept this solution with gratitude, as the ghetto terminates their continual wanderings and the uncertainty of their lives and because, provided they behave on the territory assigned to them, there will be no Hungarian, who out of sheer malice or an excess of fanaticism would wish to harm them. Hungarian chivalry will come into its full right, and so will Hungarian firmness. There is a full guarantee in the person of the "National Leader" and in the knowledge, power and wisdom of his Government. We succeeded in interviewing some Jews, and all of them accepted, with equanimity, the ghetto as a place of safety, where - thanks to the good-will of (404) the authorities - they can live, work and rest within fixed limits. We Hungarians will never violate these limits, if the Jews keep strictly to the rules!"   

With this Rabbi Berend intended to make an impression on the Nyilas and indirectly defended the ghetto.

Whilst the party newspaper, in its hypocritical article, wrote that the inhabitants of the ghetto "were living in satisfaction and safety", the daily ration in both ghettos consisted of one plateful of bean or peasoup and an occasional 50 or 100 grammes of bread. People with money could buy on the Black Market - the price of a kilo of bread rose to 500 pengos. (At the same time the price for rationed bread was 1.50 pengos and of unrationed bread - outside the ghetto - between 10 and 12 pengos.) People were starving in the ghetto, and a typhoid epidemic was raging. In the emergency hospitals of the ghetto, in the air-raid shelters and in the cellars of the houses people were dying. Often enough three or four had to share a single palliasse in the hospitals.

On January 1st and 2nd the inhabitants of the protected house 41, Nagyatadi Szabo Street were moved into the ghetto. At the same time houses in Paulay Ede-, Nagymezo- and Nagyatadi Szabo Streets were searched. On this occasion Father Kun and his accomplices killed more than 200 Jews.

The legations were informed that the Government intended to put an end to the various protections afforded and were preparing to move the inhabitants of the international ghetto into the isolated ghetto. As a result Wallenberg intervened everywhere and even addressed himself to the German Town Commander:

Memorandum

Some 53,000 persons inhabit the Budapest Ghetto at Klauzalter. Of these several thousand suffer from undernourishment and are lying in the tenement houses used as hospitals. Most of these people have no mattresses and many lack even blankets. The Ghetto is not heated. Originally the area now serving as ghetto was inhabited by 15,000 people, and under these conditions the Jews are living at a scale worse than any Hungarian refugee. Naturally they have no soap and only very little water and but few candles. As it is impossible to accomodate the whole of the population in the air raid shelters during attacks, the death rate is comparatively higher than anywhere else in Budapest.

On paper, the authorities of the capital have made a food allotment of 900 calories per head and day. Even today, the members of the Armed Forces receive 3,600 calories per man and day, and the lowest ration scale in r: ' .2 prisons amounts to 1,500 calories. Here it must be mentioned that the Jews have to carry out all necessary work to maintain the ghetto themselves, including clearing up after air raids and extinguishing fires started by incendiaries. (405)

The authorities have provided only a small proportion of the supplies promised; for instance there has been no issue of salt, vegetables and flour. Cooking oil was the only commodity of which the greater part was delivered.

In order to keep alive Jews living in the ghetto, the International Red Cross found it necessary to intervene and to send a' certain amount of food to the ghetto. Today transport facilities have ceased to exist, as the contractors, since yesterday, refuse to carry out transports. Furthermore, as a result of military and other official and unofficial requisitionings, the supplies of the International Red Cross have been diminished to such an extent, that it has become impossible to solve the food problem of the ghetto From this source, even if transport was available.

As there are no quantities of food worth mentioning in the ghetto, it is a fact that the ghetto will be starving within three days, that is, January 5th. It is impossible for the Jewish population to obtain food by their own efforts, as Jews are not permitted to leave the ghetto. This was the position, when the Legation was told that it was intended to march the occupants of the Foreigners' Ghetto into the Central Ghetto. In the Foreigners Ghetto, in which some 35,000 persons are held, the food position is similar to that in the Central Ghetto.

It would be absolutely impossible for the inhabitants of the Foreigners' Ghetto to take even the minutest quantity of food with them on such a foot march.

For humane reasons this plan must be described as utterly crazy and inhuman. The Royal Swedish Legation is not aware of any similar plan ever having been carried out by any other civilized government.

As the Royal Swedish Legation is of the opinion that the circumstances described in this memorandum must lead to the intervention of the highest responsible authority in Budapest, that is, the General Officer Commanding, the Royal Swedish Legation has considered it necessary to submit all facts of the case to this officer.

Budapest, 3 January, 1945.

                                                             sgd: R. Wallenberg,

                                Secretary of the Royal Swedish Legation.

On January 4th the Swedes in the protected houses were informed that they would have to leave and move into the ghetto. It was announced that food was very short and that they should take with them what they could; furthermore, that it was forbidden to take money, valuables and tobacco into the ghetto and that everybody was liable to be searched. The Swedish Legation wanted to enforce its protection also for the future, but it was possible that food supplies would be exhausted in a fortnight. The announcement closed with the words "Stand by to move, the order may arrive any minute!" (406)

The text of the proclamation was as follows:

Proclamation

1) The Legation has received information to the effect that in spite of the agreement concluded with the Hungarian Government - the Jews protected by the Royal Swedish Government will be moved from the houses in the district of Pozsony ut into the central ghetto. In view of this the Legation considers that the protection hitherto afforded will no longer be effective.

2) In view of this fact the Legation calls upon the staff of the Legation and their relatives to hold themselves ready to move into the ghetto or some other place at a moment's notice. The Legation therefore orders that:

a) The whole of the food supply to be found in the houses inhabited by the staff is at once to be distributed. Three days rations from the common stocks are to be kept on the premises of the Legation for eventual common meals.

b) Every employee of the Legation and the members of his family have to pack their belongings in the following way: one parcel will have to contain the distributed food supply and personal food stocks, in any, and furthermore the necessary linen and reserve footwear. This parcel should be so constructed that it can be carried in the manner of a knapsack. It must also contain one or two blankets. Instead of one, two parcels can be prepared, ii more convenient. The principle is that this or these parcels may have to be carried by the owner over long distances. Therefore different parcels are to be prepared for adults and for old persons and children. The supply of medical stores must also be included in the parcel containing necessities.   

c) The remainder of the belongings have to be packed in separate parcels marked with the name of the owner.

Several hundred Jews protected by the Portuguese Legation were also transported to the ghetto from 5, Ujpesti Rakpart.

Very few - with the exception of those immediately concerned - know the interesting story of the Portuguese protection, which we give here in outline:

The first safe-conducts were issued in the summer of 1944 by the Swedes, who had sent a list containing 120 names to their Budapest legation. Persons, whose names figured on the list, were to be afforded protection. The Swiss followed this example and the Portuguese came into line as third nation.   

At that time Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho was Portuguese Charge d'Affaires in Budapest and he procured the permission of the Portuguese Government to issue safe-conducts to all persons, who had relatives living in Portugal, Brazil, or the Portuguese Colonies and could show definite proof of this.

The petitions had to be handed in to the office of the Portuguese Consulate, Duna utca, where they were accepted by Consul General Gyula Gulden, managing director of the Herend porcelain factory (407) and son-in-law of Gerbaud, the chocolate manufacturer. A special department for this purpose under the leadership of Dr. Ferenc Bartha, a well known Budapest lawyer, was set up. Each safe-conduct was signed personally by the Charge, who rigorously examined every individual case. After the Consulate had been hit in an air-raid, it was transferred to a villa in Buda and later to the Hotel Ritz.

At that time Portuguese safe-conducts were highly valued, because the Portuguese - unlike the other legations - did not issue safe-conducts, but regular passports. The owner had to sign a declaration that he did not lay claim to Portuguese nationality by reason of the passport, which expired on December 31st, 1944.   

After the events of October 15th a great run on these safe-conducts started, but the Portuguese Charge d'Affairs signed an agreement with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs not to allow the number of safe-conducts issued to exceed 500. (In actual fact about 800 were issued.)

Dr. Ferenc Bartha, the head of the office, did his utmost for the protected Jews. He even brought them out of the Kistarcsa Internment Camp through his personal intervention. When on November 15th Nyilas authorities ordered the protected Jews to move into the so-called protected houses, the house No. 5 Ujpesti Rakpart was assigned to the Jews enjoying Portuguese protection. On moving in, it was at once evident that it was too small. One or two days later, permission was obtained to declare three more houses - the two Phonix houses and one in Katona Jozsef Street - Portuguese protected houses. 500 of the 800 protected Jews moved into 5, Ujpesti Rakpart and the remainder into the other houses. Offices were set up in the different houses by the inmates through which their affairs were managed.

The largest office of this kind was in 5 Ujpesti Rakpart and was managed by Dr. Sandor Brody. A telephone was procured and a joint food store set up, as the movement of Jews was restricted and they depended on a communal food supply. Four to eight people were living in a room. Consul General Gulden visited the house once more in November, but left Budapest soon after.

In his absence Count Pongracz - who represented the Charge d'Affaires, as far as the Nyilas were concerned - visited his proteges only once: to prolong the validity of the passports for three months and to sign them, a formality the Jews insisted on most energetically, so that the Arrow-Cross people would not be able to dispute the legality of the document.

Dr. Ferenc Bartha maintained continual contact with the protected Jews until he was severely wounded. The Consulate had to leave the evacuated Hotel Ritz and moved into 9, Zrinyi utca. Soon after the house received a direct hit and several members of the Consulate's staff were seriously injured. During the siege the telephone lines became useless and thus the Portuguese houses were left totally unprotected, but were not molested. (408)   

State Prosecutor Dr. Bela Richter was at that time in charge of air-raid protection at 5, Ujpesti Rakpart: he behaved exemplary. When during the siege people were crowded into the shelters, of which, in accordance with the regulations, there were "Christian" and "Jewish" ones, Bela Richter had Jews admitted to the Christian shelters, so that all should have their fair share of the available space.   

One night soon after Christmas the Germans called out the occupants and demanded quarters in the house. They established a kitchen in the court-yard and a food store. Brody, the spokesman of the Portuguese-protected Jews, went down at 2 a.m. to open the door. The Germans immediately ordered the evacuation of the basement and the first floor. Great excitement ensued. With the help of Bela Richter, Brody succeeded in pacifying the Germans and induced them to be satisfied with an empty shop and store premises. From that time on 25 to 30 German soldiers were accomodated in the house in addition to the 500 Jews.

Later the Nyilas twice raided the house. Again Bela Richter proved to be a friend in need. He rang up the Chief Commissioner of Police and the Police Commander of the protected ghetto, Chief Commissioner Tarpataki, and energetically protested against all atrocities. Brody was hiding about 40 men without safe-conducts in the house and when, in the course of the Nyilas raids, they were in grave danger of being taken away, he rescued them from the Nyilas claws by his energetic bearing and by bluffing them with the legitimation of the Portuguese Legation.

Already they were beginning to hope that they might survive the siege in that same house (by that time they had already suffered four fatal casualties from shell hits), when at dawn on January 4th, 1945, Nyilas and police detachments pulled the Portuguese-protected Jews out of bed and ordered them to line up at once. Owing to the continuous shelling and machine-gunning this took hours and at about nine a.m. the woe-beridden group started its march into the ghetto ...

To the story of the Portuguese protection belongs the fate of their forced labour men:

Soon after November 15th a protected company was formed from the forced-labour men under Portuguese protection. They were on duty in the Portuguese-protected houses. On November 26th they were ordered to report at the Albrecht Barracks. They went quietly because - so they were told by the Legation - the Minister for Foreign Affairs had promised that they would not be harmed in any way. Consul General Gulden, whose advice they sought, also told them to obey the order. From the barracks they were taken to the goods station at Jozsefvaros, put into freight-cars and sent to the neighbourhood of Sopron.

Only two or three succeeded in escaping in the course of the journey, amongst them the editor Dr. Istvan Kemeny. The Consulate intervened with Lieut. Col. Ferenczy, who gave them a (409) note to the effect that these forced-labour men could not be taken away, but by the time officials of the legation arrived at the station with this order, the train had already departed. The inhabitants of 5, Ujpesti Rakpart undertook an independent action to free them. They bribed a German captain, acquired a motor-lorry and the house-master went after them to Sopron. There, however, the Germans arrested him, confiscated the van, and he was lucky to escape himself. The greater part of the forced-labour men under Portuguese protection perished . . .

The Nyilas gave as reason for the dissolution of the International Ghetto that the neutral powers did not acknowledge the Szálasi Regime, and that therefore they did not have to keep to the agreements entered into.

Early in the morning on January 5th, whilst Ratas were bombing Budapest, the inhabitants of the Swedish houses in Pozsonyi ut were lined up. That day some 5,000 men were transferred to the ghetto, which - at that time - was already inhabited by more than 60,000 people. Dr. Miklos Szego, past chairman of the Jewish community of Szekekfehervar and an active member of the Jewish Council, was arrested on the same day whilst returning to the ghetto. Since then there has been no news of him, but there can be little doubt as to his ultimate fate.

On January 6th the inhabitants of the other Portuguese and Vatican-protected houses were taken into the ghetto. Those living on the right side of Pozsonyi ut in Swedish-protected houses were also lined up, but, after standing about for some hours, were finally told that they might stay.

As a result of Wallenberg's intervention there were no more transports into the ghetto. A new agreement was made: Wallenberg offered food stocks to the Nyilas as the price for stopping the transports:

Erno Vajna, Esq.,

Special Delegate,

The Royal Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Dear M. Vajna,                                                Budapest.

I wish to confirm the agreements entered into between ourselves yesterday; at the same time I would like to take the opportunity of informing you that I have acquainted His Excellency, the Swedish Minister, with your very friendly remarks concerning Sweden. His Excellency has asked me to voice his deep gratitude and would like to assure you that the Swedish Legation will do everything in its power, during these difficult days as well as in the future, to help the needy and war-afflicted population of Hungary.

I confirm our agreement in the following terms:

a) The Swedish Hospital remains in the Foreigners' Ghetto. (410) 3,700 possessors of protective passports will continue to be allowed to remain there.

b) The Legation takes cognizance of the fact that a very large number of possessors of protective passports have been transferred to the Central Ghetto.

c) The Ministry will itself make an inventory of the food stocks of the remaining 3,700 persons, and will instruct house wardens to deliver to the police those stocks of food not required for consumption during the next few days.

d) Party Headquarters at St. Istvan-krt. will be instructed by you with regard to the liberty of movement of Jewish officials in the Foreigners' Ghetto, so that the food supply is not interrupted.

e) Party authorities are in future to accord greater respect to those buildings belonging to the Legation which contain offices and living quarters occupied by Jewish staff. Especially the subordinates of Party Headquarters at 60, Andrassy utca, are to be strictly warned against entering premises of this description.   

Allow me to emphasise especially this part of the agreement, as only yesterday a new breach of extraterritoriality occurred at 3, Klotild utca. The extraterritorial status of this house has been recognised by the Hungarian authorities, and notices to that effect have been prominently displayed by the Royal Swedish Legation. Nevertheless food stocks were taken away from here, when the house was forcibly entered by Niilas men from 60, Andrassy utca. Today the building was again entered by members of the Armed Forces, who requisitioned the remaining food stocks. As a result the staff of the Legation has been deprived of all food stocks, as they have already expended the greater part of their ration cards and it is practically impossible to obtain new ones these days. This is, you will appreciate, an untenable situation.

I have been instructed by His Excellency to try by all means to prevent the re-occurrence of such incidents. I therefore beg you most earnestly to do everything in your power to restrain hotheads among the party members and to prevent these inofficial side-actions of the party.

May I take the opportunity of expressing my best wishes for the besieged capital and for yourself.

              I remain,

                    with the highest esteem,

                                     sgd.: Wallenberg,

                Secretary of the Royal Swedish Legation.

Nyilas men were going from house to house with carts, collecting the furniture from the derelict protected flats. Obviously this was the reason of the new transport into the ghetto. On January 8th Nyilas murderers made a raid on 1, Jokai (411) Street, a house inhabited by officials of the Swedish Legation and members of their families.

Attempts on this house had already been made in the last days of December. They wanted to carry off Lajos Tury, the house warden, and Dr. Bela Forgacs, but the latter was not at home. The house warden was dragged away and killed the very same day.

On this occasion it became apparent that Marosi, the Nyilas care-taker, was the instigator; it was later proved that he continually acted as a Nyilas spy. During the first days of January the Legation had the protected houses guarded by gendarmerie, but this guard was withdrawn on January 7th. No. 1, Jokai Street was guarded by Cadet of Gendarmerie Szabo and 5 gendarmes, as well as a "house guard" consisting of two of the occupants and a policeman. On the instructions of the care-taker, the policeman opened the door of the house to let in the Nyilas men. Part of them raided the cellar and arrested the protected Jews whom they found there. They also shot dead a lame person living in the same house. The others, led by the care-taker, searched the flats and collected their occupants.

More than 300 protected Jews were driven to 14, Varoshaz Street, at that time serving as a Nyilas headquarters. Here Father Andras Kun and his accomplices "took them in hand" and tortured thein. Later on the greater part - nearly 160 men - were executed in the vicinity of the Danube.

(The method employed at these executions was as follows; the victims, always three and three tightly manacled, were taken to the banks of the Danube, where they were made to take up positions facing the river. After that the "executor" would step up behind them and fire his pistol at the back of the person standing in the middle. Slumping forward, this person would drag his two companions with him into the water, and the heads of these two, bobbing up and down in the icy cold water, were made the target of machine-gun fire, until they too vanished.

At the same time Lajos Stockler, the head of- the ghetto community, was dragged away by the Nyilas together with his family and 160 other inmates of the house he lived in, although this enjoyed Swedish extraterritoriality. First they were locked up in the cellar of the Maria Theresia Barracks, but were later transferred to the Nyilas headquarters at 1, Ferenc Boulevard. (The Germans had intended to take him on December 30th, but Stockier managed to escape.) On the intervention of Inspector of Police Locsey, who was rung up by Dr. Jozsef Nagy, the group was liberated by Pal Szalay, the Nyilas liaison officer at Police Headquarters.

For days streets and shelters throughout the town were raided. Male Jews were the chief quarry. All suspicious men were subjected to body searches. No mercy was shown to Jews, who were first tortured and then publicly shot or - to set a warning (412) example - hung on the nearest tree or lamp-post. On January 9th the patients of the Polyclinic Charite - even those seriously ill - were driven down to the Danube and shot. Only one of them, Zsuzsi Kollmann, escaped by jumping into the river before being fired at. Her mother, who was wounded, screamed for help not far from her, but was carried away by the current before Zsuzsi could come to her assistance.

Wallenberg again intervened and addressed following letter to the "Wehrmachts Standortkommandantur" in the Hotel Astoria:

To the German Town Major's Office,

                                                              Hotel Astoria,

                                                                   Greater Budapest.

The Royal Swedish Legation begs to refer to its recent protest and takes the liberty of confirming the Following points herewith.

As Mandatory and Protective Power, the Kingdom al Sweden represents German and Hungarian interests in many countries throughout the world. The Royal Swedish Legation in Budapest has been instructed by the Swedish Government to accord protection to several thousand inhabitants of Budapest, who have Family or business ties with Sweden, and to issue passports to these persons prior to their departure For Sweden. The stall al the Royal Swedish Legation is accomodated in extraterritorial offices and living quarters, the possessors of protective passports in separated houses enjoying the protection of the Legation.

The responsible Hungarian authorities, three days ago, again agreed to respect the status of the inhabitants of these houses. The responsibility For the Food supply and the general welfare al the inhabitants of these houses has been vested in the Royal Swedish Legation, which employs a special staff For this purpose.

The military situation in Budapest being what it is, the abovementioned agreement of the Hungarian authorities can only be effective, if the German military authorities concur.

The Royal Swedish Legation has had evidence on several occasions that the above-mentioned agreement has been interfered with by persons unacquainted with the Facts, and therefore takes the liberty of submitting Following request, pointing out that the Swedish Government can only carry out its obligations as Protective Power, if it is given the necessary support by the responsible German and Hungarian authorities:

the expulsion of Swedish-protected persons From the protected houses not to take place, or ii this should be necessary For strategic reasons, this to be carried out and supervised by the Legation, and that the offices and living quarters of the stall of the Legation retain their lull extraterritorial status in Future and are accorded lull protection in this respect.

Budapest, January 3, 1945;

                                                     sgd.: Wallenberg,

                                          Royal Swedish Legation.        (413)

On January 9th he addressed a note to Vajna, in which he accounted for the Swedish occupants of the International Ghetto:

Budapest, January 9th, 1945.

Dr. Erno Vajna, Esq.,

Commissioner of Defence for Budapest and

Delegate of the Nyilas "Hungarista" Action.

Budapest.

I have the honour of enclosing herewith a list of persons to whom Swedish protective passports have been issued:

a) a list of persons provided with yellow protective passports (Schutzpass);   

b) a list of persons whose passports were handed in to the legation for the purpose of procuring a German transit visa. These persons have been issued with light-blue passports receipts (Passquittungen), to which a photo is attached.

c) a list of persons whose protective passports are still at the Legation until some formalities are settled. These persons are issued with a white paper bearing their

These lists do not include the names of those holders of passports who have disappeared or have been enrolled in the forced labour companies and who, in the meantime, have returned unbeknown to the Legation. They are obviously entitled to the safety of the protected houses within the limit of the numbers agreed to. Children under age figure on the passports of their parents.

E n c l o s u r e s.

                                                       Wallenberg

                                      Secretary of the Royal Swedish Legation.

(From this list it is obvious that the Swedish Legation, to all outward appearances, took great care not to exceed the number agreed upon, but in actual fact considerably overstepped it by means of the white legitimations, which excluded the possibility of control. Over and above that, duplicates were put into circulation, which anybody could obtain on reporting that his original protective passport had been lost. Several persons were therefore using the same number and name, the only difference being the different photos. The final paragraph, of course, provided a number of loopholes, particularly for people in possession of forged protective passports.)

On January 13th Jews in possession of forged papers hiding at No. 30 Eotvos Street were executed. On the same day Jozsef Nagler, an official of the Swedish Legation, crawled back from the Danube Quay to the Pozsonyi Street Police Station bleeding from four shot wounds. He reported that he had been shot by Nyilas men after having been stripped of his clothing and footwear. Also on the same day Robert Deutsch, a Jew enjoying Swiss protection, was shot. He sustained an abdominal injury, (414) wounds in arm and head, his intestines were perforated no less than 17 times and one of his legs was lamed, Halfdead he was thrown into the Danube by the Nyilas, but swam ashore and managed to reach Wesselenyi Street hospital, where they saved his life, On the following day 20 men and women were found dead in Sziget Street, stripped to their underwear. (They were left lying there for about ten days before they could be buried on a nearby square. Their identification was impossible.)

Public security in the ghetto became worse as time went on. Thus, for instance, on January 5th the Germans killed and robbed Jews in Rumbach Street. During the following days Nyilas murders also occurred. On January 12th, finally, Stockler succeeded, under the influence of various threatening portents, in coming to an agreement with Pal, A guard consisting of 100 policemen, led by two police officers, together with a Nyilas guard of 15 was ordered into the ghetto. Szalay was an old Arrow-Cross man, but had left the party years ago for reasons of principle. Although entrusted by the party with the task of supervising the police, he was still no party-member, conscientiously did his duty and accepted the Council's proposals with understanding. This time he gave orders to shoot to kill, should anybody attempt to enter the ghetto without a permit.

Once the permanent guard was established, a stop was put to strangers entering the ghetto. The direct cause leading to the measures adopted by Szalay was the dreadful pogrom started on the night of January 11th by Nyilas and soldiers and resulting in the death of 43 inmates of the ghetto.

The text of the minutes taken by a mixed commission is as follows;

Budapest, January 12th, 1945.

R e p o r t.

This morning (January 12th, 1945) at about 9.30 a.m. I instituted an enquiry on behalf of the Jewish Council. A mixed Commission consisting of members of the Nyilas Party, the Royal Hungarian Police and myself established following facts regarding the events in the houses 27-29, Wesselenyi Street:   

At about 10.40 p.m. on Thursday, January 11th, 1945, a group of about 6-8 members of the Nyilas Party wearing armlets and other persons wearing Honved and other uniforms raided 27, Wesselenyi Street. They went straight into the air-raid shelters, abusing and illtreating the Jews and, under the pretext of searching lor arms, stole fountain pens, watches, lighters etc. They then fired alarm shots and killed the majority of the Jews they found there. In the protected house 27, Wesselenyi Street, 26 women, 15 men and one child were killed.   

In the same house a flat on the first floor was broken into and the couple sleeping in the kitchen were killed. (415) In a similar way looting and murder took place in the adjoining house, where one person fell victim to these excesses. It seems that here they were disturbed. According to the evidence submitted by the living and wounded (6 wounded were saved in Wesselenyi Street hospital) the terror group consisted of 15 persons and both houses were raided simultaneously.

The representatives of the police and the Nyilas delegates conducting the enquiry promised the most rigorous reprisals.

                                                     (Sgd.) Dr. Bela Berood,

                                                            Chief Rabbi,

                                          Member of the Jewish Council.

It was partly the merit of Pal Szalay that the devilish Nyilas plan to annihilate the Budapest ghetto was frustrated. Lajos Stockler and Miksa Domonkos called Szalay's attention to the fact that the Nyilas Party harboured intentions to this effect. Rumours were circulating, according to which the Germans were to bombard the ghetto in the course of an air-raid. That was one of the reasons why the Council requested a guard of policemen and Nyilas to be stationed in the ghetto, as these would have suffered as well as the Jews. Later on it was ascertained that this plan was rejected, as the Germans did not have a sufficiently large force of bombers at their disposal and the air-raid shelters offered reasonable safety against the comparatively light-weight German bombs.

The German General of Police Hitschler and his deputy, Major Gottstein - who was also head of the political department, - had their headquarters in the Fortress. They incited the leaders of the Nyilas party formations to "see that not one Jew escaped alive from encircled Budapest, this being the particular wish of Hitler and Himmler". Their plan was to move the protected ghetto into the central one and to annihilate them together.

On January 15 the a police officer of the guard reported to Szalay that the Germans had already appointed the groups responsible for the extermination of the ghetto: 500 German SS men equipped with tommy-guns and commanded by Capt. Mummi. Armed party members of the 7th District, led by Brother Vilmos Lucska and 200 policemen under the command of Lieut.-Col. of Police Kubisy were to join them. Szalay went to see Erno Vajna, who declared that he knew of the plan, was even taking an administrative part in it and had not the slightest intention of hampering it. This interview took place in the cellar of the Town Hall. Wallenberg, who by chance was also present, told Szalay what, as far as he knew, was about to happen. As a result of the interview, Szalay took it upon himself to remind General Schmidthuber, Commander of the SS Armoured Division "Feldherrenhalle", of Wallenberg's statement that he would have to answer for mass-murder, unless he prevented this villainy. (416)

Schmidthuber called Capt. Mummi and, after having heard him, Vajna, Lucska and Kubisy, informed them that, if necessary, he would put a stop to their action with the help of the forces under his command. This decisive bearing induced Capt. Mummi to withdraw, and therefore the Lucska-Kubisy group, deprived of German help, no longer considered itself strong enough to carry out the plan. That was the authentic story of the annihilation of the ghetto according to the enquiry conducted by the Political Police.

The Nyilas also planned plots on a larger scale against the International Ghetto. These, however, were frustrated, partly by the gendarmes installed by Wallenberg and partly through the presence, in Pozsonyi Street, of the Police Regiment from Debrecen. Nevertheless, any man daring to appear in the street did so at the immediate risk of his life: seldom was he able to escape from the clutches of the Nyilas murderers. The majority of the inhabitants of the ghetto spent their time in the shelters of the houses, living on pea and bean-soup, no bread being delivered by the Legation. In this manner they lived throughout the dreadful weeks, continuously trembling for their lives. Unfortunately there were also some, who had plenty of supplies, but showed never a sign of comradeship or brotherly help. Orgies of selfishness prevailed ... (417)

XVIII.

LIBERATION.

The Liberation of the Jews, who had been living under the dark shadow of sudden death for so long, was exclusively the merit of the Red Army and its offensive spirit. The armies of Tolbuchin and Malinovski occupied the capital in the nick of time. A delay of only a few days would have meant total annihilation for the Jews. Nobody could have stopped the rioting Nyilas horde, blood-thirsty and undisciplined as it was,

On January 16th, after fighting had taken place in the streets, the Russians liberated the area of the International Ghetto. The central ghetto was liberated in the course of the night of January 17th. Persuaded by Dr. Benedek, a physician of the nearby Jewish hospital, the crew of the Honved battery defending the ghetto entrance reported sick and went to the hospital, which enabled the Russians to occupy the ghetto quite easily from that side. The first Russian patrol entered the ghetto from Wesselenyi Street by crawling through an air-raid shelter. Through a telephone carried with them they gave directions which led to the silencing of the remaining resisting German battery. The Germans did not take kindly to the idea of surrendering in the cellars and often used the Jews as protecting shields; this caused quite a number of casualties. But after several hours of fighting the battle was over: the ghetto was liberated.

Thousands upon thousands stormed the accursed planks which separated them from their homes and had become the symbol of their captivity. Crowds wearing yellows stars streamed into all parts of the town. With or without bundles they were seeking members of their families and, mainly, food. The ghetto was a terrible sight; everywhere, in the flats, in the cellars, on the streets and squares, hundreds of corpses were strewn. Victims of the Nyilas and Germans, victims of the street fighting, victims of the bombs and mines lay about as they had fallen, their blood frozen to the ground. Over three thousand dead, clad in rags or naked, were counted in the ghetto and 246 decomposing bodies were lying in the court-yard of Wesselenyi Street hospital. The liberated prisoners of the ghetto passed them seemingly without feeling.

Unshaven and bearded men, flabby-faced women without makeup, half-dead creatures who just crawled out of the ghetto cellars after weeks of deadly fear - they all came out into the open, into the sunshine and the air. Crying, raving, praying and - running …, Away, away, from here, away from the ghetto, from the place that had brought them so much suffering and from (418) which only a few, in their belief in God, ever dared to hope to escape alive ...

Now they were taking up once more the threads of a normal life; looking for their relatives - parents seeking their children, grandparents their grandchildren, who might at that very moment be seeking them too. Others were looking for a place, where the hunted Jew could settle and at last find peace and rest for his tortured and care-worn body. Life started anew and with it many new disillusions.

On the day of the liberation of the central ghetto the murders in the Nyilas dens in Varoshaz Street were still continuing. The last victims were the inhabitants of the protected house No. 4, Semmelweiss Street. The last Nyilas groups escaped to Buda during the night of January 17th, blowing up the bridges behind them. For four more weeks Budapest suffered heavy air-raids accompanied by dog-fights and causing a considerable number of casualties also from among the Jews. German planes bombed Pest, Russian planes bombed Buda, from where new and still more sad stories of Nyilas terror were reported.

The Nyilas raided the two Jewish hospitals in Maros Street and Varosmajor Street and massacred the patients, the doctors and the nursing staff. The Maros Street Hospital, which had been maintained as such by the Holy Guild of the Buda Jewish Community for 15 years, stood under the protection of the International Red Cross. The massacre of its 92 patients, physicians and nurses was one of the blackest deeds of the Nyilas terrorists.

In the morning hours of January 11th - according to the minutes of the People's Court - men belonging to the Nyilas organisations of the 12th and 13th Districts surrounded the hospital, blocked the roads leading to the building and charged into the operating theatre and the X-ray ward. They smashed the valuable and almost irreplaceable equipment and apparatus, ruined the laboratory and then went for the patients. Persons who had just undergone serious operations, seriously wounded men and women and even children were dragged out of their beds, kicked and beaten. Finally all those not able to walk were shot. The whole day long the hospital was the scene of merciless bloodshed. Nobody was spared. The patients who could walk had to carry out the dead, dig graves in the garden and, after all corpses had been thrown into these, they were lined up on the edge, of the graves. Father Andras Kun then gave the order: "In the holy name of Jesus Christ, fire!" A volley rang out and the last victims joined their comrades. Only one nurse, Sister Joli, survived this mass-murder by a miracle. She was only slightly wounded, fainted and remained among the dead in the snow until she was thrown into an open grave together with others. The grave was only lightly covered with soil, and so she managed to escape after she had recovered from her faint (419) during the night. Her evidence before the People's Court brought the details of this ghastly affair to light. It was difficult to recover the bodies of the other victims, as a couple of days later a bomb-damaged house adjoining the site of the hospital collapsed and buried the graves.

On January 8th a Nyilas terrorist detachment broke into the Janos Sanatorium and took all patients of Jewish origin - manager Denes Rady had supplied them with a list of names - to the Orthodox Hospital in Varosmajor Street. Several persons were killed in the course of the transport.

On January 14th another Nyilas detachment raided the Orthodox Hospital in Varosmajor Street and massacred 150 patients, doctors and nurses in the same manner as employed in Maros Street. The detachment was led by a Nyilas sergeant and consisted of Arrow-Cross men, Honved and German SS. After the massacre they poured petrol over the furniture and beds and set fire to the hospital. The air-raid guard of the near-by Janos Sanatorium were threatened with death, should they attempt to put out the fire.

On January 19th a home of the Orthodox Holy Guild was raided. 90 of the occupants were dragged away to the Varosmajor Hospital, or what remained of it, and shot.

Apart from these activities, continual searches for hiding Jews were carried out in Buda. They could expect no mercy if caught. The Nyilas headquarters at 46, Kap.is Street and the Radetzky Barracks were the scene of the mass-murder of many Jews. The wife of the chairman of the Budapest Furriers' Guild, Mrs. Matyas Stern was twice executed. In the first instance she was shot, together with many others, in Zarda utca. She managed to drag herself to an ambulance station, where a kind-hearted Christian doctor bandaged her head, but, fearing searches, he sent her away later on. Again she fell into the hands of the Nyilas men, who took her back to Kap.is Street. On the following day she was once more to be executed in front of the Radetzky Barracks together with other companions. This time she fainted the very moment the volley was fired and thus escaped the bullets. Again she crawled to the same ambulance station, where the Nyilas arrested her for the third time. With the help of the doctor she succeeded in escaping and concealed herself in various cellars until finally rescued by the Russians. The story of the Nyilas headquarters in Kapis Street and the list of its victims were compiled on the evidence of Mrs. Stern. Here, among others, Geza Steinhardt, the well-known comedian, and Bela Elek, an official of the Swedish Legation, who - together with Wallenberg - brought hundreds of deported Jews back from Hegyeshalom on forged passports, were killed.

A large number of Jews died in the course of the house-to-house fighting, which took place in Buda. Percentually, more (420) Jews died in Buda than in Pest. Of the 25,000 Jews registered there in 1943 only 6,000 remained.

Fighting in Buda came to an end on February 13th. It passed on through the Hungarian country-side, and with that the remaining - several thousand - forced-labour men and trench diggers arrived at a new station of their calvary. Their death march continued . . . Nyilas men' and Germans took turns in murdering those capable of moving in an attempt to destroy all evidence and witnesses against themselves, before crossing over to German territory and evacuating Trans-Danubia.

On April 4th, 1945 there were no more Nazi or Nyilas gangs on Hungarian soil: Hungary had been liberated from Fascism! (421)

I.

LABOUR SERVICE.

Paragraph 230 of Lex II of 1939 ordains that every man liable to be called up for compulsory military service, but pronounced unfit by the medical authorities or otherwise excluded from military service, shall serve in the Labour Corps. This was the origin of a general labour service in Hungary, out of which developed - as will be seen in further parts of this book - the supplementary labour service for Jews. In 1940 Jewish officers were still acting as deputy commanders of these labour companies - a circumstance which generally proved to be of some relief to the labourers. Nevertheless, abuses were in many cases committed by the commanders. In 1941 and 1942 the situation gradually grew worse. All Jewish officers were deprived of their rank, Jewish members of the labour service were obliged to wear a yellow brassard, whereas the Christians wore a white one. They had to salute first even private soldiers and addressed their instructors as "master". Simultaneously the companies were sent to the Ukraine, where many of the Nyilas-sympathisers among the officers and the escorting guards tortured and killed Jews systematically. In the autumn of 1942 General William Nagy tried to interfere and to put a stop these abuses. In the Upper House he said:

"I have altered the system of the supplementary labour service. Military service must not be considered a punishment by anyone, and therefore I have put an end to everything that tended to make it regarded as such. In the interest of safeguarding national interests I have taken steps to ensure that everybody who through his special knowledge could prove valuable to our country should be classified in accordance with his gilts. I am absolutely convinced that by earring out these principles, national interests will be safeguarded. I therefore appeal to all citizens to do their duty and to endure patiently all troubles imposed upon us by the war. Let us be unselfish and let us make an example of all who are selfish!''

General William Nagy, at that time Minister of War, wanted to change everything for the best. His orders, however, were sabotaged by Nyilas-sympathising officers both in the Ministry and in the Ukraine. General Eugen Rhoder - by order of the minister - was in charge of all labour service camps, and was doing his best to improve the situation. Control Commissions were sent to the Ukraine, but even so it could not be avoided that more than 10,000 men were killed. In the winter of 1942-1943 40,000 Jews were working near the Don and in other parts of the Ukraine. The situation had already been very bad during the preceding summer. Officially 37,000 men were called up at that time, mostly Jews and Socialist or Communist-minded workers, some of which were posted to punitive companies. Their chief tasks were laying or clearing mines and digging tank-traps. Their clothes were torn and much of their food was stolen by the escorting guards. Scurvy and spotted fever made themselves felt; these were followed by an epidemic of dysentery. Early winter found them all in summer clothing - they had been robbed of their other clothing by military (425) policemen controlling the frontier - and most of them were covered with chilblains. Treatment was bad, punishments inflicted were more than severe. There was an increase of the  cases in which labourers were killed. Most of the companies were not allowed to write or to receive letters. News could only be obtained through round-about channels. At that time the "Committee of Warriors" began to function under the direction of Bela Fabian, Frederic Ripper and Desider Simon. Its object was to protect the labour service companies.

Their papers appeared soon after: "Hungarian Jews Paper" edited by Rudolph Rooz and "Illustrated Family News", edited by the author of this book. This paper soon became the protector of the labour service. It also tried to create an organisation with the aim of bringing together the families of the officers and escorting guards with those of the labourers, so that occasionally it would be possible to establish a connection with the relatives in the Ukraine, through which they could be supplied with news. Many of the hundreds of thousands of complaints that reached our editorial officers could be forwarded to General Vilmos [William] Nagy with the assistance of Andrew Stella and Paul Fodor, two newspaper- men. In most cases the General honestly tried to help. As a result many of those abusing the workers of the labour companies had to answer for their deeds to court martials. Alas, as a matter of fact, nothing much was changed by this. The General Staff instituted inquiries into the origin of these informations and in March, 1943, the Chief Editor of the "Illustrated Family News" was arrested, brought before a court martial and convicted. The paper was suspended, its staff and contributors suffered persecution. Later on two of its chief contributors, Paul Fodor and Bela Korodi, died a martyr's death.

The great break-through near the Don on January 13th, 1943, saved many of the labour service workers: they were taken prisoner by the Russians. At the time of writing this, many of them are returning home. (Their lives had been saved in the hospital of Davikovka. In a most unselfish manner Bela Illes, Zoltan Vas, Erno Gero and Mihaly Farkas put themselves at their disposal.)

In the course of the retreat from the Don many of the labour companies were driven back. A great percentage of the starved and badly clothed men died in the extreme cold. In Kiev an epidemic of spotted fever raged, so that finally hardly a few thousand men returned of the 40,000 who had set out in 1943. Naturally the survivors were no longer capable of working. In spite of this they were recalled after a couple of months' leave.

Some of them - about 6,600 - were taken to the copper mines at Bor in Jugoslavia, where they had to work 11 hours a day for 7 dinars, half a pound of bread and a little weak soup. Their life there may rightly be called a torture. When the time came for Jugoslavia to be evacuated, in September 1944, Lieut.-Col. Ede Maranyi - called the "hangman of Bor" - set fire to a barracks containing 307 workers, who were unable to escape. On the march home, a troop of German SS soldiers got hold of a large number of workers. Their commander, General Vogel, had the exhausted men locked up in a brick factory, 529 of them were killed by machine-gun fire on October 6th. (The victims were made to dig their own graves before being shot. The survivors then continued their march home; stragglers were killed immediately. By the time Baja (a small town in the south) was reached, 400 victims could be counted on the roads. (426)

No more than 1,500 of the above-mentioned group reached Hungarian soil safely. They were assembled at Szentkiralyszabadja, locked up in waggons for ten days and again driven away towards the West. According to eyewitnesses "many of them were half-naked, barefoot and unshaven, a large yellow star painted on their chests and backs, looking more like skeletons than human beings and being driven on by German SS soldiers." Having reached the western frontier, a part of the remaining workers of the labour companies of Bor were taken to Flossenbürg, and hardly a survivor came back from that hell. The remainder of the men were taken to Bergen-Belsen, that most horrible of "annihilation camps", where again only very few survived. (The second part of the labour service companies of Bor was more fortunate: after having marched some 60 kilometres, they were liberated by General Tito's partisans and succeeded in reaching their homes via Temesvar and Arad.)

A somewhat better fate was in store for those labour service workers, who were lucky enough to remain in Hungary during the war years. Of course there were many complaints about lodging, food and treatment, but in many cases it was possible to ease the situation and to secure for them the minimum standard of life by organising collections for them through the Warriors' Commission.

An order was in force at that time, according to which labour service workers were to be treated on a par with prisoners of war. Not even with a special permit were they allowed to walk about without an armed escort.

Unfortunately this last group too was taken across the Austrian frontier in the autumn of 1944, first working in the Burgenland, and later, as the Russians advanced, ending up in Germany.

A cruel crime was committed at Kiskunhalas. Labour Service Company 101/322, consisting of young men between the ages of 17 and 20, had been taken there from Ujvidek in order to work on the railway. On October 11th, 1944, for no apparent reason, they were forced by a group of SS soldiers, gendarmes and Nyilas sympathisers to undress , and to dig their own grave, after which they were shot or bludgeoned and buried - many of them alive. The company had a total strength of 208, of which only 12 survived. (The mass-grave containing the bodies of the 196 victims was opened in January 1945.)

Another tragedy worth mentioning was that of 701 Company, the so-called "protected company". On November 27th, 1944, this company, protected by the neutral legations, was given orders to report to Joszefsvaros Station in Budapest, where, on the morning of November 29th, they were locked into freight-trucks. Into each truck 65-70 men were crowded.

After passing through the frontier station of Hegyeshalom, some 50,000 men therefore fell into German hands. After having been deprived of all their possessions most of them were brought back via Gyor - Sopron -Ebenfurt to Balf, Fertorakos and the neighbourhood of Sopron, where they were employed on fortress work. One of the most horrible camps was Fertorakos, where 1,400 men had to stay in open barracks for three months, digging entrenchments in defence of Vienna from morning till night. Once a day they were issued with a meal of watery soup. Nearly all of them fell sick, whereupon room was made for newcomers by killing the weakest of them. As, in March 1945, the Russian armies advanced, the majority of them were shot, with the exception of those forced to march to Mauthausen, where 17,000 men were tortured for two weeks, (427) which during the terrible cold spell they had to spend in open tents. From here they were driven to Gunskirchen, where they died at the rate of 200 a day.

After the liberation of Trans-Danubia, a great number of mass-graves were found. Near Sopron one grave alone contained 790 corpses. All of them were victims of hunger, typhus and murder. Another grave contained 400 corpses. 814 corpses were found in Nagycenk, 350 in Soprono Banfalva and 176 in Balf. 220 labour service workers were killed and buried in bomb craters in the neighbourhood of Hegyeshalom. Official enquiries produced proof of the fact that many of the patients of the Jewish hospital of Koszeg had been killed with gas by German SS soldiers. It seems that the Germans had the intention of establishing their "annihilation camps" in Hungary too. About 10-12,000 men, mostly workers of labour camps, perished through gas, bullets and hunger. Near Reichenberg 275 members of the "Swiss" Labour Company 701 /303 were machine-gunned. (It was here that the poet Ladislas Fenyo met his end.)

Only 6 men were left of the labour company caught in Hatvan by Captain Martin Zoldi, the notorious murderer of Ujvidek, who was then an official of the German deportation staff at Wyslizen. They were crammed into freight trucks and deported. Six of them attempted to commit suicide by cutting their wrists and were shot by Zoldi. 14 of them jumped out of a window in the truck, but were caught by the gendarmes and taken back to Jaszberenyi. This transport of 650 men arrived in Birkenau in June and, to the greatest part, were gassed., Up to now only six of them have returned. SS soldiers also raided the railway station at Hatvan, where it transpired that the Medical Officer of No. 1 Labour Company, Dr. Sandor Brody, had granted leave of absence to some 400 men. Most of them were shot later on. Another group of 30 labour service workers was driven into a ghetto by Martin Zoldi, from where they were deported to Auschwitz.

Several documents of the People's Court throw light on the horrors of Dorosic labour camp, where a large number of men had been taken in July 1942. The majority came from the Ukraine and were admitted to the fever hospital, where they lay half dead from hunger, spotted fever and typhus, overrun by lice and suffering from the aftermath of the torture they had undergone. Every day hundreds of them died. Laszlo Gyarmathy, who was at that time commander of one of the labour companies, later made following report:

"I was ordered by my superiors to 'reduce' the hospital. One night I was awakened by an alarm: the hospital was burning. Everywhere soldiers were firing on the escaping patients. Not one of them survived, 400 were shot, the remainder perished inside the burning hospital. The lo/lowing year Military Hospital No. 105 burned down under similar circumstances. 764 men died that day, and the same procedure was repeated in the case of another hospital."

A camp-commander by name of Dezso Szentkatolnay-Reinitz informed the Ministry of War by wire that, through the carelessness of one of the inmates, the barracks of his camp had caught fire and that the total complement of the camp, numbering some 500 men, had perished.

It later became known that his wife had joined him in camp, a thing that was absolutely prohibited, and that Mrs. Szentkatolnay had been in a habit of watching the workers through a telescope. Every worker, whom she denounced as being lazy, was severely punished. The same punishment awaited those who did not salute her quite correctly. (428)

Many of the labour service workers have since denounced the cruel officers of the Labour Service Companies to the Hungarian Political Police. Some of them have been convicted in the meantime.

One of the best known cases was that of Lieut.-Col. Leopold Murai, the "hangman of Nagykata". For his misdeeds, which caused the death of thousands of men, he was hanged. Not only was he inhumanly cruel to his victims, but had also put out the order "not to bring anybody home alive" .  

Ferenc Hammer was hanged for the atrocities he committed. As commander of Labour Company 101/29 he had caused the death of 1,850 of his men by making them take unusually strenuous exercise at a temperature of minus 32 degrees. Here are just a few examples illustrating his method of running a company: 20 of his men were forced to climb trees, where they had to stay until he allowed them to get down again. Others were forced to dig holes and to lie down in them, after which they were covered with planks. In these holes they had to remain for two days. Workers who, in his opinion, had been slacking, were thrown into the icy water.

Lieut. Karoly Toronyi was also hanged for his crimes. He was responsible for the death of about 400 men. His cruelties had gained for him a certain notoriety. During bombardments he was in a habit of driving his men out of their shelters, this being, as he said, "another way of killing Jews".' Every night he would order some 15 to 20 men to parade in the open in the nude, whereupon he would pour cold water over them and let them stay there until the water froze in the intense cold. Those who reported sick were made to stand in the snow absolutely naked until they died of exposure. The graves were dug by other members of the company, who were then thrown in alive after their dead comrades and buried with them. In the end only 26 men of his company remained. He then gave orders to the escorting guards, saying that they would not be allowed to retire as long as one of the workers remained alive. (Bela Zsolt, the well-known journalist, was among the members of Toronyi's company. Only by direct order of the Ministry of War and under great difficulties was it possible to bring him home.)

Annihilation came to Labour Company 101 /28 under similar circumstances. Of 214 men only 24 survived. Attile Petschauer, who had represented Hungary at the Olympic Games, was killed here. At minus 50 degrees he had to sit naked in the open, whilst hot water was poured over him.

Imre Henrik Seik, 57 years of age, director of a bank and commander of a Labour Company, was also hanged. He had made a practice of having his men whipped daily, and finally, after having robbed them, handed them over to an SS detachment. Of this company only 22 persons survived.

Lieut. Rezso Sztinka inflicted so many tortures on his men that not one of them returned. He is reported to have said: "I brought my company home in my kit-bag!"

Lieut. Istvan Fiam was another Labour Company Commander who believed in torturing and killing his workers himself: of 205 he brought home no more than 15. Zoltan Farkasdi, a teacher, 55 years of age and commander of Labour Company 101/309 starved his men to death and ordered the guards to thrash them. (429)

At 40 degrees below zero Lieut. Eugen Dzubai ordered his men to chop wood. Those who made a fire to warm themselves had to lie on it until they were burned. Every day, as an evening's amusement, he would slay one or two of the workers. He was responsible for the death of scores of men.

Andrew Talas literally thrashed the life out of hundreds of men.

The Hungarian People's Court have tried all these cases of cruelty and sentences to fit the crimes have been pronounced. Nevertheless it will still take years until the whole of the tragedy of thousands of Jews has been uncovered. (430)

II.

PROTOCOLS AND REPORTS REGARDING THE ANNIHILATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY AFTER DEPORTATION.

1) Auschwitz (Oswiecim).

a) Official text of the Russian Protocol re/erring to Hungarian affairs.

In the months of February and March 1945 a mixed commission of legal and medical experts, appointed by order of an Extraordinary Soviet State Commission, investigated the crimes of the German Fascist criminals and their accomplices, particularly those committed in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Based on the evidence provided by the examination of 2,819 persons by the Red Army, the medical certificates relating to these persons and the German documents discovered in Auschwitz, as well as the remains of the crematorium, the corpses found within the precincts of the camp and the various articles and documents originating from nearly every country in Europe and discovered in the barracks and stores of Auschwitz, the following facts were ascertained:

1) By means of the firing squad, starving, poisoning and ill-treatment, the Germans killed some 4,000,000 Russians, Poles, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutchmen, Czechs, Jugoslavs, Rumanians, Hungarians and nationals of other countries.

2) German scientists and doctors conducted "scientific" experiments on living persons - men, women and children.

Gas chambers, crematoria, vivisectional departments and laboratories in Auschwitz served the purpose of discovering new painful methods of executing human beings. The Germans had a special name for the gas chambers: "Bader mit besonderer Bestimmung" - Baths for special purposes the gate leading into them was marked: "Disinfestation Chamber", another door: "Entry to the Baths this way." Persons selected for execution were - generally without knowing why - taken into the "Disinfestation Chamber", where they had to undress. After that they were driven into the "Baths for special purposes", in which they met their death by means of a poisonous chemical called "Cyklon". [Zyklon B]

Several hospitals, dissecting rooms, anatomical laboratoria and other institutions were run in the camp, but their destination was not to be of benefit to humanity, but rather the annihilation of human beings. Even absolutely healthy men, women and children were used for countless experiments by German scientists. They sterilized women, castrated men, and studied cancer, typhus and malaria by inoculating sound persons with infectious matter.

The camp of Auschwitz covered a somewhat extensive site, comprising a whole network of concentration camps: Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monovice, Holleschau, Jawischwitz, Neudochs, Blehamer and others. The main camps - Auschwitz and Birkenau - consisted of some 620 barracks and offices and generally had a complement of 180,000-250,000 prisoners. All camps were surrounded by deep ditches, which in turn were secured by means of electrically charged wire entanglements. (431)

The construction of the camp was started in 1939. In 1941 the first crematorium containing three furnaces was erected. The plan extending the existing lay-out to an extermination plant of giant proportions was then conceived and four gigantic crematoria and gas chambers, containing 12 furnaces und 46 retorts, were erected in Birkenau; each retort accomodated between three and five corpses, the cremation of which was accomplished in 20 to 30 minutes' time. Apart from the crematoria, the “Baths for special purposes" - gas chambers in which human beings were to be put to death by suffocation - were erected. Other “Baths" apart from these existed in the  camp; the corpses originating from these were burned on special pyres. The persons selected for annihilation were driven into the "baths" by force, the doors and airtight compartments locked and the poison gas was allowed to escape. Death resulted in three to five minutes. Some 20 or 30 minutes later the corpses were taken out of the chamber and transferred to the furnaces. Gold teeth were extracted from the mouths of the corpses by dentists before cremation.

The "production capacity" of the gas chambers was naturally considerably larger than that of the crematoria, and for that reason large pyres were additionally constructed by the Germans. For this purpose special ditches 25 to 30 metres in length, 4 to 6 metres in width and 2 metres deep were dug. Adjacent to these ditches, further deep holes were excavated. The corpses were brought alongside on carts, and placed on top of the petrol-soaked wood pyres, which had been erected in the ditches. After having set these alight, the ashes were collected in the deep holes beside in ditches or thrown into the rivers Sola or Vistula. Bones not reduced to ashes were pulverised for industrial purposes. Documents discovered in the camp archives show that the concern of Strehm received no less than 112,600 kilos of pulverised bones won from human corpses for the purpose of manufacturing superphosphates. Furthermore the Germans used the hair of their victims for industrial purposes.

Day after day the Germans killed an average of 10 to 12,000 human beings in Auschwitz and burned their bodies. 8 to 10,000 of these generally consisted of fresh arrivals, 2 to 3,000 of more permanent inhabitants of the camps.

Doctors among the former inhabitants of the camp. and liberated by the Russians, among them Dr. Anna Keppich - a Hungarian Jewish doctor from Klausenburg - and Judith Klein as well as her companions have made statements regarding the host of “medical experiments", of which Judith Klein was an eye-witness and a personal victim. These experiments were conducted by Fascist scientists.

In Auschwitz German doctors were given the opportunity of operating on the inhabitants of the camp at will in order to perfect their technique. Hernia operations were executed on people who were perfectly healthy. The slightest complaint regarding intestinal pains was invariably followed by an abdominal operation. Ten groups of barracks always contained 400 female prisoners. on which sterilisation experiments were being conducted. Cancer inoculations were executed. Pregnant women were given drugs with the intention of speeding up birth, skin diseases and yellow jaundice were produced artificially etc. Various methods of sterilisation were tried out on men. Other experiments concerned conjunctivitis, malaria, artificial insemination etc. or served the purpose of killing the prisoners concerned in as quick and painful a manner as possible. Some of (432) these experiments concerned themselves with poisons. Tens of thousands for instance were killed by means of phenol injections into the heart. In the event of spotted fever occurring, the inhabitants of whole groups of barracks were gassed.

A special method of selection provided the victims for the crematoria from among the inhabitants of the camp, a selection which covered the whole ground of the camp. Immediately a trainload of prisoners had arrived, they were paraded by Dr. Mengele - the Hungarian Chief Medical Officer, who was of Swabian origin -, who sorted out the elderly persons, the weak and the invalids, the children and the young mothers, sent them to the “baths" and then had them cremated. The commission ascertained that on the average 3 to 5 trains a day arrived in Auschwitz, each containing some 2,500 to 3,000 persons doomed to go to their death. The victims came from all parts of Europe. 2,819 prisoners saw the day of liberation, and among them there were 542 Hungarian Jews. Their reports state that the Germans were in the habit of selecting the 2 to 500 men capable of doing the work in the camp from every transport, whilst the remainder were gassed in Auschwitz and Birkenau.

George Kittmann, a Jew of Hungarian origin, reports:

"I was taken to Auschwitz in June 1944, together with my parents and some 3,000 other persons - men, women and children. On detraining, the old people and the mothers with babies were separated from those capable of working, and taken to the crematoria, where they were burned. My lather, 52 years of age, and my mother, who was 48, were among those killed. Hardly 350 of the 3,000 people who arrived in the camp with me actually gained access to the camp proper."

Dr. Anna Keppich, a former Auschwitz prisoner and a Hungarian subject from Klausenburg, made following statement:

"I arrived here in June 1944 together with 3,000 other Hungarian prisoners. 500 prisoners capable of working were selected from our transport and admitted to the camp, the remaining 2,500 were taken to the gas chambers, where they were killed."

Dr. Berthold Eppstein reports:

"In May, June and July of 1944 particularly large groups were killed, as the first transports from Hungary were arriving. At this time the crematoria were kept busy day and night - the flames visible through the chimneys of the furnaces proved this. Very often we could distinguish the smell ol burnt human flesh, bones and hair. Apart from the crematoria we observed two huge pyres, which lit up the night with their flames. Throughout the night we would hear the screams and moans of the victims and the barking of the police-dogs accompanying the SS men. These unfortunates - burned on the pyres, because the crematoria were overcrowded - were not aware of the dreadful late in store for them, until actually confronted with the flames. I had a premonition that also my kin would suffer this late and that I myself would not be able to escape it. Dr. Mengele, the camp doctor, held selection parades every fortnight. after which the victims were taken to the crematoria and killed. 500 children were burned on a single day. Terrible scenes occurred on their being collected prior to being taken to the gas chambers, as by this time everybody knew what their  fate would be. On this occasion the SS and their hangmen excelled in cruelty ... (433)

On arriving in Auschwitz, we were separated from our wives; I have never seen my wife since. Later I heard that she had never been admitted to the camp proper. I have no doubt that she was murdered in the usual way. Her sister and her two children, my cousin, who was 38 years of age, and my sister met the same end.''

The investigations showed that apart from those victims used for experimental purposes, some 200,000 prisoners were constantly employed on forced labour of the most strenuous type and ill-treated as cruelly as possible.

Jacob Konig, a Hungarian engineer; 60 years of age, was employed on earthworks in the swamps of Auschwitz and made following report:

"I was one of a group of 400 workers employed on draining the swamps. Our supervisors were German prisoners; they habitually beat the workers with shovels and cudgels until they collapsed. Men and women of all ages, many of them intellectuals and members of the professions, worked in our group.''

This terrible work was made more difficult still by the dreadful living conditions in the barracks: although constructed for the accomodation of 4 to 500 persons each barrack in actual fact had to serve some 1,500 prisoners. Famine, illness exhaustion, insanitary conditions, they all played their part in a carefully worked-out plan for the annihilation of a race. The medical experts of the commission diagnosed innumerable cases of fractured limbs and ribs, open boils and frost-bite. In addition the persons rescued were mostly suffering from serious psychological and nervous disorders. The dissection of corpses found in the camp area showed that in 88.3 per cent of all cases the cause of death had been ill-treatment.

Hundreds of thousands of children - from infants up to 16 years of age - were exterminated. Only a fraction of the best developed boys and girls were allowed to live in order to work in the camp. The investigation proved that the Germans had 8 to 16 year old children perform work of as strenuous a nature, as that expected from adults. Working beyond their strength, ill-treated and starved, the children's strength was soon exhausted, and they were then killed.

Akos Andras Lorenczi, a little Jewish boy from Klausenburg, made following statement:

“Whilst being driven into the camp, into barracks No. 22, we were already beaten. Principally it was the German women present, who used sticks on us. During my stay in the camp, Dr. Mengele made me let blood several times ... In November 1944 all children were trans/erred to camp "A'', the so-called Gypsies Camp. On being paraded, it was discovered that one of us was missing. The woman supervisor led us out into the open, where we had to spend the whole night and the next morning shivering in the cold.''

All children born in the camp were taken away from their mothers and killed. If new arrivals were found to be pregnant, they were immediately. isolated and taken to separate barracks, where they were given injections in an attempt to procure a premature birth. Women attempting to resist were sent to the chambers.

Of the 180 children rescued, 52 were below the age of 8, the remainder between the ages of 8 and 15. All of them had been admitted to the camp in the second half of 1944, therefore had spent no more than three to six months in the (434) camp. Nevertheless a medical examination showed that 72 of them were suffering from advanced tuberculosis of the lungs, that 49 were ill as a result of lack of food and overwork, and 31 children had serious frost-bite injuries, so that among them there - were hardly any, who could have been described as really fit. Of these children a good proportion had lived in Hungary before being taken to Auschwitz.

Hitler Germany - according to the official Russian report - showed its real face in Auschwitz, not only as vile murderer of defenceless people, but also as merciless plunderer of its victims. The millions of people brought here by the Nazis from a host of countries were systematically plundered as soon as they arrived. All their possessions, their trunks, their clothes, their bed-linen, even the shoes they wore on their feet, were taken from them and sent to Germany. The greater part of the men employed in the camp on forced labour were deprived of their own clothes and supplied with prison garbs.

After the occupation by the Red Army, 35 special store-houses were discovered in the camp area, which contained clothes and other articles. 29 of these had been set alight by the Germans, in the remaining six magazines hundreds of thousands of articles of wearing apparel for both sexes, shoes and blankets were found carefully stacked. Apart from these there were stacks of toothbrushes, shaving brushes, spectacles, false teeth and a particularly large selection of children's clothes, shoes and other articles which in many cases still bore the manufacturer's name in all European languages, also tens of thousands of Hungarian names. The trunks, too, still bore the hotel labels of practically all European cities and towns. Among the documents found in the camp, receipts were discovered for huge transports of clothes and other articles already dispatched to Germany.

In the tannery of Auschwitz 293 bales were discovered, containing the hair of females and weighing altogether seven thousand kilos. Experts established the fact that this hair must -have come from at least 140,000 women.

 The prisoners liberated by the Russians handed a memorandum in German, Hungarian and French to the Commission of the Soviet Government, which was entitled "Appeal to World Public Opinion" and began as follows:

"We, the undersigned, liberated from bloodthirsty Nazi oppression by the Red Army, accuse the German Government under the leadership of Adolf Hitler before the world public opinion of the greatest mass-murder in history, of brutal cruelty and of abduction into German slavery ... '' The appeal had following ending: "We appeal to world public opinion to ascertain the fate of several million people of different nationalities. Only by a miracle were we saved. In spite of the fact that the German retreat was in the nature of a panic, they succeeded in taking with them some 58,000 prisoners. These people, weakened by starvation, were made to walk, but had the strength to walk no more than a few miles ... We, the undersigned, appeal to world public opinion and request it in the name of humanity to do everything in its power to prevent a repetition of the cruelty and crimes of the Nazis, so that the blood of the millions of victims may not have been spilled in vain. We demand that the crimes and the almost unbelievable, brute cruelty of the Hitlerites do not remain unpunished.'' (435)

b) Ex-Auschwitz prisoner No. 70231 tells his story of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

This statement of Erno Toch, Jew, aged 33, was taken down in the department for displaced persons in Miscolc on April 21st, 1945, by the chief of this department, Jeno Koranyi, in the presence of Eva Bleicher, and Margit Bohm as well as the members of the People's Court Dr. Illes Kormos and Dr. Erno Sasdy. His identity was proven by his documents and the number 70231 tattooed on his arm in Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the following, there are some extracts from his statement.

Up to the middle of November, 1944, I was clerk in the prisoners' sick-bay of Auschwitz and occupied with the preparation of a register of all male occupants of the Auschwitz, Birkenau and associated camps. As a result I was informed of everything taking place in these camps. The register contained particulars regarding the death, execution, attempts at escape and re-arrests, transports and admission and discharge to and from the sick-bay. The events reported here are reproduced from my notes, from documents, from extracts from the registry or have been experienced by myself or my fellow-sufferers.

In June 1940 the construction of a concentration-camp by name of "Himmlerstadt" was begun in the neighbourhood of Auschwitz. On the average some 8,000 prisoners were employed on the various tasks connected with the completion of this monster scheme. The supervisors consisted exclusively of Germans, habitual burglars and other criminals. The first crematorium was erected in 1940; it was situated to the left of the gate and was used till 1942. During this period an average of 24 prisoners a day were executed. Jews never lived for more than eight days. (This figure comprises only those prisoners already registered, that is to say, tattooed.) Apart from this, mass-executions took place once or twice a week in barrack-group 11, which always claimed between 250 und 700 victims of different nationalities. Several transportable gallows were erected in the court-yard of this barrack-group; habitual criminals were the executioners. In the case of death by shooting, the executions were carried out by the SS. In 1941, gas chambers were constructed in a couple of farm houses near Birkenau. which were capable of dealing with 500 persons a day. In the course of that same year, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of SS, personally examined the crematorium and issued orders for others to be built, which were completed in the spring of 1942. The 2nd and 3rd crematorium each had eight furnaces, the 4th and 5th however 15 each. (At the same time - so we were told by the Germans - 55 furnaces were being used in Germany.) These crematoria were all equipped with gas chambers capable of killing 3 to 5,000 persons a day. The gas chambers of the second and third crematoria measured 2 by 3 yards; their purpose was to serve for single executions - mass executions did not take place here. On entering a gas chamber of this type, one had the impression of being in a bath-room. Showers were painted on the walls, so was another door. A number of pipes stretched from the floor to the ceiling, through which tins containing 500 grammes of B Cyclon gas were lowered into the chamber. This fluid evaporated at 27 degrees Celsius, a temperature sufficiently low to be produced by the bodies of the victims, who were as a rule chased into the chambers by ferocious blood-hounds. The execution itself was carried out by members of the SS "Disinfestation Squad." The walls of the chambers contained small peep-holes, through which the victims could be kept under observation. Alter five minutes the gas was allowed to escape and the corpses were loaded on 436 to little carts - 15 at a time - and taken to the crematoria. One group of prisoners had to extract the gold-teeth from the victims, others had to cut the hair from the heads of the female victims and to prepare palliasses out of it. An SS Supply Depot was located in Kattowitz. 400 cases containing spectacles were taken there in November, 1944. The ashes produced by the crematoria were used in the manufacture of fertilizer. Documents captured in the central railway offices show that 2,500,000 people were deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and 5,000,000 in 1943 and 1944. Based on the selection system only some 250,000 men and 130,000 women were registered, tattooed and admitted to the camp proper, so that 7,000,000 men and women did not even pass through the register, but were gassed as soon as they arrived. 0f the 380,000 people admitted to the camp in the course of four years, no more than 50,000 men and 30,000 women were alive in October 1944.

The report mentions the names of all Germans who had taken part in the executions and continues:

 After the German Fascists had occupied Hungary, Obersturmbannführer of SS Hoss was ordered to prepare a gigantic campaign of annihilation, being told that it concerned the liquidation of Hungarian Jewry. The camp administration had ditches several kilometres long dug, pyres were erected and the number of persons employed in the crematoria was raised from 250 to 600. Habitual criminals with a prison record of at least ten years were appointed supervisors. SS-men from the concentration camp of Mauthausen near Linz were transferred to Birkenau.

It was about the middle of April when the first Hungarian transports arrived. The gas chambers and crematoria worked at lull blast, the pyres burned day and night. Flames several metres high shot out of the chimneys. The smell of burnt flesh was noticeable for miles. It is beyond me to describe the scenes which occurred in the course of the executions. The prisoners employed on this gruesome work could only carry on alter having been given quantities of alcohol; even the members of the SS could only continue after having been made drunk. Some of them went raving mad and threatened their superiors with their guns; they had to be shot on the spot.

In April, May, June, July and August 24,000 prisoners a day were gassed. As the gas chambers did not suffice for all of them, women and children were thrown on the pyres alive. Hoss' task_ was ended in August. By then there had been executed: 690,000 Frenchmen, 100,000 of which were members of the resistance movement, whilst the remainder consisted of French and Belgian Jews; 600,000 Hungarian Jews including those living in Slovakia, Rumania (South Siebenburgen) and Jugoslavia; 70,000 Jews from Lodz, 50,000 Jews from Salonica; 30,000 Jews from Athens; 30,000 Jews from Theresienstadt and 25,000 Italian (Roman) Jews.

Comparatively few members of the various transports arriving were passed fit for work and sent partly to Poland and partly to Germany, where, under the somewhat better conditions prevailing in the labour camps, they stood a better chance of surviving. All other people passed fit for work were taken to an auxiliary camp near Birkenau and employed in mines, blast-furnaces and rubber and cement factories; two months later, however, they were sent back to the crematoria of Birkenau as so-called "Moslims." (437)   

Towards the end of August a Slovakian transport consisting for the biggest part of Hungarian Jews arrived in Auschwitz and was taken to crematorium No. 3. The prisoners working here discovered arms in the clothes discarded by them and attacked the SS men guarding them. They blew up the crematorium with explosives prepared by themselves, with the result that only a part of the gas chambers remained. The Capo (Supervisor) in charge of them-a habitual criminal, who had ill-treated them on many occasions-was thrown into the fire, whilst he was still alive. Several members of the SS were killed in the skirmish that followed and lasted several hours, but in the end every one of the 98 prisoners, which included five Russian prisoners-of-war, perished.

Executions by means of gas were abolished towards the end of October. The three crematoria still existing were scrapped and their components sent away . . Crematorium No. 5 was blown up on January 5th, 1945, whilst the SS were retiring before the Red Army.

On January 18th, 1945, 15,000 Auschwitz prisoners were despatched to Germany under the cover of a strong SS escort. 1,300 patients remained in the sick-bay together with 30 doctors and nurses. Some of the prisoners managed to hide within the area. On January 20th the larger part of the remaining prisoners started out, led by the Camp Commandant, Hessler. On January 25th 20 SS men, armed with tommy-guns, suddenly appeared and ordered the remaining prisoners to fall in in single file; obviously they intended to massacre them. Fortunately they were forced to beat a hasty retreat, as the Red Army was reported to be in the immediate vicinity. On January 27th this German factory of death was finally liberated ... "

The Polish painter Schonker settled in Biarritz after having absolved the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. Here he soon became the favourite portrait painter of the rich Americans visiting the South of France, In August 1939 he travelled to Auschwitz in order to pay his mother a visit. In spite of repeated warnings of the British and U.S.A. Consulates to leave Poland as soon as possible, he remained there and was taken prisoner by the Germans in September. After having spent several months in Polish camps, he was transferred to Auschwitz and was appointed "Eldest" of the Jewish Community of the small town of 15,000 inhabitants. His talent for draftsmanship and designing was utilized in entrusting the task of designing Auschwitz Camp to his capable hands. Thus it was actually Schonker, who was the creator of Auschwitz camp. (Statement of Mrs. Josef Biro.)

2) The other deportation camps.

The largest part of the deported Hungarian Jews perished in Auschwitz, but they were also sent to other German camps. For that reason we would like to bring some extracts of the reports published on these camps by the Commission for the Welfare of Deported Persons (DEGOB), which were compiled from summaries of evidence submitted by survivors. (438)

a) Mauthausen. Apart from 1,600 Hungarian Jews, a part of the Jews evacuated from Auschwitz on the approach of the Russians, the Jews deported from Budapest in January by the Nyilas and, in April, a group of workers belonging to the protected labour service company and captured by the Gestapo were taken to this camp. The fate of those in the sick-bay, 29 those employed in the quarries and those transferred to the auxiliary camp of Gusen was particularly desperate. After a 27-days march the first transport of Jews deported from Budapest by the Nyilas arrived on January 8th. Those incapable of continuing the march were shot en route by a group of Nyilas "Levies" (a pre-military organisation of the Arrow Cross party), between 16 and 17 years of age.

On the average, the 240 cots of the "sick-bay" in barrack-group 6 were occupied by 1,700 Hungarian Jews, five or six to each plank-bed, which was 87 centimetres wide. They were unclothed, covered with lice, Living sufferers lay among corpses and the dying … There were no medical stores or bandages. "Never have prisoners arrived in Mauthausen in a condition equaling that of the Hungarian Jews," old and experienced SS men maintained, who had seen much in their lives, (Statement of Chief Medical Officer of Barrack Group 6, Mauthausen, Dr. Zoltan Klar, before the People's Court.)

Their food consisted of a soup with a calorific value of 50 calories (!). The recipe: 11,700 litres of water, 125 kilos of peas or beans and 25 kilos of flour! Final balance of the sick-bay: of 17,000 patients 48 survived ... The greatest part of the Jews and labour service workers taken to Mauthausen fell victim to the dysentery epidemic combined with general debility as a result of starvation. Mauthausen, too, was an extermination camp: it boasted gas chambers and two crematoria with three furnaces, which, however, were not able to cope with the "work'', Tens of thousands were buried in mass-graves, (Among those killed in Mauthausen were: Simon Tolnai; Janos Garai, the Olympic fencing champion; Gluck, a brother-in-law of Mr. La Guardia, the Mayor of New York; Dr. Spiegel, Chief Rabbi of Esztergom.)

b) Buchenwald. The largest number of victims was claimed by the gas chambers and quarries of Buchenwald. 90,000 Hungarian Jews perished here. (Evidence submitted at the Nuremberg trial.)

c) Bergen-Belsen. The atrocities committed in the second large extermination camp, already "enjoying" world fame, are generally known. Among others, the "protected" Jews evicted from the Swiss houses and deported from Budapest in December 1944 were taken here. More than 2,500 Jewish men and women (70 to 80 persons to each freight-car}, beaten by gendarmes, started out on their journey of horror. In Bergen-Belsen two of them shared each plank-bed, which was 70 centimetres wide, whilst thousands of lice feasted -on their emaciated bodies. 60,000 deportees of all nations were crowded into an area of two square kilometres. Their food consisted exclusively of boiled turnips. A typhus epidemic occurred among the labour service workers brought here from Bor and an average of 100' persons a day died, so that the crematorium could not keep pace and mass-graves had to be dug. Famine played havoc with the "protected" Jews ... On liberating the camp, the British discovered 13,000 unburied corpses in the camp area. Another 13,000 prisoners died in spite of all the doctors could do for them and another 12,000 deportees had long spells in hospitals.

d) Gunskirchen. A barrack camp hidden in the woods. The labour service workers taken here were decimated by lice and spotted fever. Their food: 439 One fifth of a litre of turnip-soup, 50 grammes of bread, 10 grammes of margarine - result 4 to 5,000 dead per day. Atrocities committed by the SS guards increased this number.

e) Theresienstadt. 90,000 Jews were packed into the space calculated to accomodate 6,000 persons. Here the selection of the unfit and the elderly persons for Auschwitz took place. Only 6,000 Hungarian Jews were found to be alive when this camp was finally liberated.

f) Lichtenworth. In March 1945 the majority of the female Jewish victims were driven here on foot. They were given hardly anything to eat. Spotted fever occurred in the camp and 300 women died as a result. Many of the female inhabitants of the camp were driven mad;-all suffered from oedema.

g) Donnerskirchen. A camp in the vicinity of the Neusiedler Lake. The prisoners were partly decimated by typhus and partly murdered by SS and Nyilas. Hundreds of victims who had lost their lives in this manner were found in mass-graves.

h) Ravensbrück. This notorious concentration camp was situated in Northern Germany near Furstenberg in Mecklenburg, 80 kilometres from Berlin. It was used mainly for female prisoners. Those Hungarian Jewesses living in protected houses and taken prisoner on December 1st to 3rd, who had been working in the war industries, were taken to this camp. (On arrival they were deprived of their clothes.) On the average the strength of the camp was 50,000 prisoners. Five or six women had to share a palliasse, later on they lay on the bare floors. Food consisted exclusively of turnips. Spotted fever and SS murders claimed many victims among the women,

i) Dachau. The arrival of Hungarian transports was recorded as from July 24th, 1944. The Hungarians were taken to the auxiliary camp of Milchdorf-Ampfing, where 6,500 of the 7,500 male inmates were Hungarian Jews and 750 of the 800 female prisoners Hungarian Jewesses ...

The men were employed on building sites: they had to carry sacks of cement weighing 50 kilos over a bridge 8 metres high and consisting of 40 slippery steps. They wore wooden sandals and continued this job throughout the winter without being allowed to wear protective gloves. (It is a well-known fact that cement attracts fat, dries out the skin of the hands and is the cause of peculiar cement injuries.)

The food lacked all vitamins. The heavy manual labour called for a minimum of 4,500 calories - in actual fact they were allowed an average of no more than 1,420 calories. Their ration of potatoes was generally rotten, so that it could not be eaten. Of the working men 2,170 died in the camp. 830 were taken to Auschwitz on September 25th and October 25th - that is to say, after two, resp. three months of work - to be gassed. On April 4th, 1945, 1,050 typhus patients were sent to Kaufering for the same purpose.

With other words 50 per cent of the male deportees were killed within the period of a few months. Not being used to hard labour, the intellectuals suffered more than the others. Of 120 deported doctors only ten survived, of the engineers only six. The patients soon starved to death, as they were classed as "nonworkers" and put on half rations. (440)

(From the statements of the surviving Jewish deportees Dr. Josef Beneze, Dr. Vidor Kende, Dr. Imre Helky, Dr. Erno Glaser, Dr. Markus, Dr. Jose Schonfeld, doctors.)

Mass-graves were discovered one after another on Austrian and German territory: Persenbeug. In the early hours of May 3rd 233 Jews from Debrezin were shot with tommy-guns in the barn in which they had spent the night. Petrol was then poured over the barn and set alight.

In Gossling the corpses of 23 men, 43 women and 10 children were found. One salvo into a barracks had killed them, whereupon they had been drenched with petrol and burned.

In Seeau near Eisenerz two mass-graves were discovered containing a group of the 4,000 Hungarian Jews transported from Western Hungary to Mauthausen towards the end of March 1945.

On April 11th, 1945, 100 men, women and children were murdered in Randegg, 15 deportees were shot and buried in Scheibbs on April 19th, 1945. Austrian prison officials were responsible for the death of 102 men, one women and one child in Engerau; 16 persons were executed in Gersten. (Reports of the Austrian People's Court.)

The Czech People's Court states that a mass-grave was discovered in the Czech village of Ceske Velenice, According to experts it contained the bodies of 512 starved Hungarian Jews.

It would be possible to continue this terrible record with hundreds and hundreds of similar cases, Only the determined and speedy advance of the Russian and American armies saved the surviving deportees from complete annihilation. A number of reports prove that in most camps preparations for the extermination of the prisoners had been made.

Extracts from the reports of escaped Auschwitz deportees. (Taken from Bratislava to Budapest in June 1944.)

Excitement in the camp was great, when two Slovak Jews succeeded in escaping from Birkenau on April 7th, 1944. A large-scale investigation was at once instituted by the political department and all friends and superiors of the fugitives carefully examined, but to no avail.

As the fugitives were officials of a group, all Jewish officials were dismissed their jobs as measure of punishment or rather precaution. Quite rightly it was assumed that they had made good their escape through building plot No. 3, and the chain of sentries was adjusted accordingly.

On April 1st, 1944, a transport of Greek Jews had arrived, 200 of which were admitted to the camp proper, whilst the remainder, some 1,500, were gassed.

5,000 Arians, mainly Poles, arrived between April 10th and 15th. Together with 2 to 3,000 women they had been brought to Birkenau from the liquidated camp of Lublin-Maidaneck. They were allotted the numbers from 176,000-181,000. Some 300 Polish Jewish girls were among the women. For the greater part, the arrivals were sick and emaciated, According to information received, the healthy Arians from Lublin were transferred to German concentration camps. The Arians who arrived in Auschwitz gave us following account of the Lublin Jews:

On November 3rd, 1943, all Jews of Lublin camp, 11,000 men and 6,000 women, were executed. (441) the fourth is at present being repaired. As their working capacity proved to be too small, four ditches 50 metres long and 15 metres wide were dug in Birkenau and in these corpses were burned day and night. (This procedure had originally been adopted before the crematoria had been constructed.) With that there is no limit to the number of victims that can be disposed of daily. The surviving 10 per cent are not included in the normal strength of the camp. They are shorn in the same way as other prisoners and are given prison garb to wear, but are not tattooed. They are accomodated in Section “C" of the camp, and are dispersed from there to the different camps in the Reich, for instance Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Grossrosen, Gusen, Flossenbürg, Sachsenhausen etc. For the time being the women are taken to separate barracks in the Gipsies Section: they are to be transported to other camps later on. Jewish girls from Slovakia are in charge of the barrack-rooms.

The first transports to arrive had come from Munkacs, Nagyszollos, Nyiregyhaza, Uihorod, Huszt, Kosice, Beregszasz, Marmarossziget and Nagyberezna. Among the survivors we noticed:

The brothers Robert and Erwin Weizen from Kosice,

Stark, a travelling salesman from Kosice,

Ehrenreich Ubla, Nagyberezna,

Kath Chaim, Sznina.

The last mentioned two have already left Auschwitz again for another destination. The parents of the Weizen brothers have been gassed.

Hauptsturmbannfuhrer Hoss, a former commandant of the camp, is in charge of the Hungarian transports. At present he is continually travelling between Auschwitz and Budapest. Captain Kramer, a former adjutant of Boss's, is the present camp commander of Birkenau.

1,600 French Arians - all of them intellectuals, prominent Frenchmen, high ranking officers, members of the high finance, well-known journalists, politicians and, rumour has it, former ministers - arrived in Auschwitz, whereupon some of them staged a revolt. The SS behaved most brutally, shooting a number of Frenchmen on the spot. These persons acted most courageously and with self respect. They were kept strictly to themselves in Birkenau and were not allowed to establish contact with other prisoners. On orders from Berlin they were transferred to the concentration camp of Mauthausen after they had been at Auschwitz a couple of weeks. As from the middle of May, 1944, the Jews arriving in Auschwitz are no longer numbered in the same sequence as before, but are given a new series of numbers starting with No. 1. On being tattooed, the letter "A" is prefixed before the number. We do not know the reason for this new instruction. 4,000 Jews had been given these new numbers by the day we escaped, i. e. May 27th, 1944. They are some 1,000 Jews from Holland, France and Italy, who have since been brought into the camp and another 3,000 Jews, who arrived in Birkenau on May 23rd. They were treated in the same way as the first two transports from Theresienstadt. Without being shorn the whole group was taken to their country-fellows, who have been in Birkenau since December 20th, 1943, and whose quarantine expires on June 20th, 1944. They are accomodated in Section "II B".

A report submitted by a Jew employed on the Sonderkommando states that Himmler paid Birkenau a visit on May 15th or 16th, 1944. At about this time (443)

I myself saw a motor-car with five civilians driving in the direction of the crematorium. The above-mentioned Jew affirms that he and others identified one of the civilians as Heinrich Himmler, who inspected crematorium No. I and, together with his entourage, left the camp half an hour later. On the following day the daily papers of Silesia carried the story of Himmler's presence in Krau, which points to the veracity of the report.

Another remarkable incident reported to me by the Sonderkommando employee occurred on a day late in the summer of 1943. A commission of four distinguished looking Jewish gentlemen from Holland arrived in Auschwitz. No doubt the Camp Administration had already been informed of their arrival - the Dutch prisoners in Auschwitz were given better rations. The four gentlemen were received very politely. They were allowed to inspect the camp, which, with its buildings, its lawn and the prevailing cleanliness, no doubt made quite a good impression. The Dutchmen were paraded and the visitors were told that they constituted only a part of the Dutch Jews, as the others were held in similar camps. The four gentlemen expressed their satisfaction and signed a statement to that effect. Later on they expressed a desire to inspect the crematorium, of which they had already heard tell. Permission to visit Birkenau and the crematorium, in which the deceased were cremated was immediately granted. Camp leader Aumeyer accompanied them to Birkenau in the car, showed them round the crematorium - and had them shot by SS men, who crept up behind them. It is said that a telegram was sent to Holland later on, stating that the four gentlemen had been the victims of a motoring accident.

Auschwitz possessed a biological research station worked by SS, civilian and prisoner doctors. The experiments there were exclusively conducted on Jewish women and doctors. Up to now no Slovak girls have been selected for this purpose. Experiments are also conducted on men, but these are not separated.

Many have died as a result of these experiments. We know that artificial insemination, castration and similar operations are practised. Gipsies too are occasionally used for these experiments. Barrack-Group X, which is occupied by the guineapigs, is completely isolated. Nobody is allowed to enter and the blinds are permanently drawn.

The names of the various men, who have been commandants of Auschwitz up to present are: Aumeyer, Schwarzhuber, Weiss, Hartenstein, Hoss, Kramer.

Another Slovak and a Polish Jew managed to escape from Birkenau in a manner similar to that of the two Slovak Jews mentioned earlier on. Their reports agree with each other in every point. They are included in the above-said. (444)

Ill.

NYILAS (ARROW CROSS) TERROR ACTS.

(BASED ON THE RECORDS OF THE PEOPLE'S COURT).

Various terrorist detachments and groups were active during Szálasi’s reign of terror. Each district had its special "Vindication Board", which perpetrated acts of horror under the supervision of the district leader. Besides that each Nyilas militia man considered himself entitled to stop Jews in the street, to demand their documents, to blackmail and to arrest them. Thousands of murders were committed by the Nyilas escorts who took the Jews to the ghettos or brick-works and other concentration camps and robbed and killed them on the way.

The People's Court established the fact that the baker's assistant Denes Bokor was promoted by the Nyilas from the ranks to honved major for having supervised, between October 15th, 1944 and February 13th, 1945, the tortures and executions of persons taken to the party headquarters. At his trial it was proved that Bokor ordered 1,500 Jews to be tortured and executed. First of all he was head of the Jew-extermination squad in the Xllth District, but was later promoted to the command of the militia garrisoned in the Nyilas building at 37, Varosmajor utca. On January 5th he assumed command of the Nyilas Headquarters at 60, Andrassy utca. During his spell of command, which lasted for nearly a fortnight, Jews who had been previously stripped of all outer garments, who had been robbed and beaten until their blood spurted, were taken to the banks of the Danube in groups of 50 and 60 and executed. On the approach of the Soviet troops he continued his "functions" in the Nyilas Headquarters in Varoshaza utca until he returned to Varosmajor utca, where he carried on with his grim job until Budapest was liberated.

A Minorite monk, Father Andras Kun, worked in close co-operation with Denes Bokor. He was found guilty of 500 murders and was hanged. It was perhaps Father Kun, who in tormenting and torturing people outdid even the most sadistic Nyilas assassins.

Gyorgy Bukkos de Szeplak, district leader of Zuglo, played a leading part among the Nyilas hangmen. He murdered more than 500 persons in the party headquarters in Thokoly utca, on the banks of the Danube and in the Liget (Grove). The People's Court sentenced him to death and he was hanged. Nyilas militia man Janos Traun, leader of the district of Óbuda, confessed to 400 murders. Together with his accomplices he executed 120 people on the banks of the Danube in one single day.

The navy Jozsef Monos, aged 28, was one of the chief accomplices of Father Kun. On 12 different occasions he killed with his own hands 120 people on the banks of the Danube. Peter Pal Katona, a merchant, 33 years of age, was a member of an armed Nyilas group. In early November he and other militia men escorted 500 Jews from Budapest to Hegyeshalom. Many of them, weary and exhausted by the long journey, lagged behind and were executed (445) on his orders near Solymar. On another occasion he escorted Jews from the synagogue in Dohany utca. Five of these, among them a rabbi, he had shot. His next journey led him to Piliscsaba, where he was ordered to escort 1,100 Jews. 62 of these, unable to bear the hardships of the march, were shot by him. He was also inspector of entrenching in Kispest. Together with his accomplices he killed 100 Jews by firing a volley into a group of labour service men.

Soldier Endre Kovacs, dubbed the "terror of Dagaly utca", confessed to 400 murders.

Young street hooligans aged between 16 and 18 were brought before the People's Court almost every day. One of them was Laszlo Hortobagyi, aged 15, who confessed to the murders of "about" 18 to 20 Jews. Jozsef Hahn, aged 16, confessed to the murders of 40 Jews. On December 16th, he confessed, he together with others was ordered to escort 150 Jews from the Nyilas headquarters at 60, Andrassy utca, to the banks of the Danube and to execute them there. The unhappy victims were driven on to a barge that happened to lie idle, were made to undress and were executed by a volley. On the two following days another 150 and 200 Jews. were killed in exactly the same way. The loot obtained in this manner was shared by the murderers.

Gyorgy Pakozdi, aged 17, a member of the Hungarist Legion, confessed to having taken a hand in the slaughter of Jews on the banks of the Danube several times . Once he and his accomplices escorted 200 persons to the ghetto and executed every one of them on Liszt Ferenc Square.

Among the Nyilas murderers there were also several women. In their cruelty some of them even outdid the men. One of these was Mrs. Vilmos Salzer, nee Lujza Hay, who had enjoyed a good education and had won the higher commercial certificate. Wearing a grey riding dress, brown boots and carrying a tommy-gun she roamed about Budapest, treating her victims with utter ruthlessness: burning naked women with the flame of a candle was one of her milder tricks. She was sentenced to death and hanged.

In the night of October 15th, 1944, SS men and Nyilas led by Piroska Deli broke into No. 64 , Csengery utca, and murdered 19 persons: 11 men, 7 women and a child. She, too, was hanged.

Nurse Ilona Geosics, aged 32, was the scourge of the Szent Istvan Hospital. She was a member of the Nyilas Party, as was Nurse Anna Perkler. They denounced Jewish patients, who sought refuge in the hospital and handed them over to the Nyilas. On December 19th they accompanied Nyilas militia men armed with revolvers and tommy-guns from section to section and on this day handed over to the Nyilas no less than 89 patients. The militia men bound the hands of their victims together with rope and wire and drove them into Buda, where they were taken to the Nyilas Headquarters in Varosmajor utca. Here they were tortured during the night and, tied together in couples, were taken to the Pest bank of the Danube, where they were executed outside the Hotel Ritz by volleys fired from tommy-guns.

The Charwoman Etel Pap, 45 years of age, also took part in the "party work". She was in the habit of wearing a green blouse with the Nyilas armlet and of carrying a pistol. She helped to escort 600 Jews caught in the vicinity of Teleki Square into No. 27, Nagyatadi Szabo utca and was in charge of the "examination of papers", which consisted in the beating and kicking of the (446) persons caught, who were also deprived of all their belongings. Finally they were all interned in the Jewish temple. Etel Pap stayed behind at the house and discovered some Jews hidden away in the building. She immediately called in SS men, who killed the unfortunates.

Mrs. Janos Varga, the wife of the caretaker of 20, Kiralyi utca, not only grossly insulted the tenants who were of Jewish origin, but even beat them. She constantly carried a pistol and, together with her husband, molested Jewish tenants. Finally some of them died as a result of the merciless thrashing they had received at the hands of the malicious couple; Their belongings were immediately "aryanised" by Mrs. Varga.

Policemen too competed with the Nyilas militia men for the honour of having killed Jews. Among them Constable Jozsef Vida was the most notorious. He confessed to having dragged - on his own authority some 3,000 people from their homes in Budapest to the brick-works of Óbuda. He specialised in bullying women and killed many Jews.

The greatest part of the worst atrocities took place at the headquarters of different detachments. Of these the most infamous were those of Pal Pr6nay, a retired colonel of cavalry and notorious white terrorist of 1919/1920, whose battalion, led by Marton Homonnay, the once famous water-polo champion, was stationed at Radetzky barracks, and Vitéz Laszlo Vannay, another former terrorist, stationed in Toldi Ferenc utca School. Apart from that, so-called flying squads were at work in the various headquarters. They were the execution detachments guilty of many hundreds of murders.

The majority of the crimes were committed on the Pest side of the river in the court-yard of the "House of Fidelity" in Andrassy utca. This was the domain of Jozsef Megadja, one of the most dreadful hangmen of the Nyilas Regime. Especially in the days following Christmas the house was filled with persecuted persons already beaten half dead. In spite of the fact that from 50 to 100 persons per day were taken to the Danube and shot, their number was everlastingly increasing. (50 labour service workers, brought here from the Veterinarian High School, were executed here in the last days of the regime.) Father Kun and Denes Bokor often visited the party headquarters at 47, Andrassy utca, and on such occasions the prisoners were subjected to agonizing tortures. Prisoners in the clutches of the Nyilas were detained at 32, Andrassy utca. Among the other party headquarters of the capital's districts the one at No. 80, Tokoly utca, was the most infamous, because here it was the rule to burn out the eyes of the Jews with red-hot nails before executing them.

The party headquarters at No. 2, Szent Istvan korut, and 35, Pozsonyi utca, were also notorious, as the torturing and murder of masses of protected Jews took place here. Nyilas Party members, whose flight before the Red Army had taken them from Óbuda to Pozsonyi utca, gave ample proof of their hatred of the Jews by committing hundreds of murders.

The mass murders of 12-14, Varoshaz utca, will long be remembered, as the torturing and slaughter of the Jewish occupants of the Swedish-protected house 1, Jokai utca, is connected with the building. No. 11, Molnar utca, 32, Berkocsis utca, and 5, Teleky Square, are other ill-famed buildings. The deportation from Joszefvaros Station as well as the escorts to the ghetto were directed from the house last mentioned. (447)

The Nyilas Centre in Maria Theresia Square and the vaults of the Anglo-Hungarian Bank were other scenes of mass murder and slaughter. The Property Collecting Section of the Szálasi Party, of which Aladar Toth was the head, functioned at 49, Erzebet korut. The group consisted of 36 persons. By systematic plundering of Jewish property it collected gold, jewels, carpets, rugs and textiles valued at about 60 million pengos. 50 per cent of this constituted their commission, the remainder became party property.

Owing to the prolonged siege, even more terroristic actions were committed in certain party headquarters on the Buda side of the river. The majority of the murders were committed in following Nyilas buildings: 102, Becsi utca, 49, Kapas utca, 37, Varosmajor utca, 5, Nemetvolgyi utca, 8, Szasz Karolyi utca, and at the Nyilas headquarters in Csalogany utca.

The evidence produced before the People's Court gives a more and more sinister and horrible picture of the inhuman cruelty and the unbelievable sadism shown by these Fascists in committing their ghastly crimes.

A sad reminder of the deeds of horror committed by the Nyilas is contained in the log-book of the Jewish auxiliary hospital in 44, Wesselenyi utca. Hundreds of Nyilas crimes can be reconstructed on hand of the entries, which were made by the consulting surgeon, Dr. Gyorgy Frank. While his colleagues were away trench-digging, he unassistedly aided the severely injured. Later on Dr. Laszlo Tauber came to his assistance. We would like to review here a few of the tragic cases.

Mrs. Bela Lauffer, aged 73, housewife, was arrested by the Nyilas on October 17th. Unable to walk any further, she was shot through the neck.

On November 26th Roza Kohn, while being escorted into the ghetto, was wounded in the arm (amputation).

On October 16th the Jewish tenants of the house, in which Marianne Bozoky, a girl of 14, lived, were driven away. She tried to hide beneath the bed, but was noticed by a Nyilas guard, who fired a shot underneath the bed. (Shot in the knee, fracture of the knee-cap.)

Jutka Fischer, a girl of 18, was shot on the bank of the Danube. (Her lungs were injured and she died in hospital.)

Mrs. Karoly Bartha, aged 45, was shot on the bank of the Danube, (Bullet in the knee.)

Eva Breitner was wounded in the thigh at the Tattersall.

While being escorted into the ghetto Bruno Engel, unable to keep up with the column, was shot through the head. His wife threw herself over her husband in an attempt to protect him and was shot as well. Both died in hospital.

Ivan Kovacs, a boy of twelve, was shot through the chest at a flat in Erzsebet korut on October 17th.

Iren Schnell, a schoolgirl, aged 19, was wounded in the thigh while under escort in Nepszinhaz utca.

Hajnalka Weinstein was shot through the arm at the Tattersall. Jenny Pick, the widow of Peter Ujvari and Mrs. Fulop Lebermann were so severely beaten up at the Tattersall that they all suffered fractures of the femur. The same fate befell Mor Meissner, while Mrs. Lipot Schillinger and Mor Jelec were taken from the Tattersall to the hospital with shock. (448)

In the course of the attack made on the Swiss Legation building in Vadasz utca Henrik Brunner, Mr. Buchler, Gyorgy Kelemen, Imre Bardos, and Oedon Farkas were shot. They were taken to the hospital, where the last named person died. Three bullets were found in the skull of Gyorgy Kelemen, nevertheless he and the others recovered.

When retreating from Budapest, the Nazis handed over to the Nyilas Imre Kalman, aged 35, of 156, Thokoly utca, and nine members of his family, in spite of the fact that Kalman had been employed in the SS boot repair shop. The Nyilas crowd took them to the bank of a small stream, the Rakos, where they were killed. The body of Imer Kalman, showing bullet wounds in neck, shoulder and fingers was taken to the hospital by the ambulance.

Repeatedly badly injured people were taken to the hospital from the headquarters of the Nyilas Gestapo under the command of Peter Hain. These people had been mercilessly beaten in the course of the Nyilas cross-examinations. Instances are: Hermann Seidenfels (fractured arm), Sandor Weiss (fractured ankle).

Pal Klein, a clerk, aged 40, was arrested in his flat, which he shared with his Christian wife, taken to Zsigmond utca and shot together with a score of other Jews. They all perished with the exception of Klein, who was taken to the hospital shot through the lungs. Pal Altmann, aged 33, of 18, Pannonia utca, was picked up by the ambulance seriously injured and taken to the. hospital. He was to have been shot together with others outside the Hotel Ritz, but was able to escape under the cover of darkness although hit by one of the bullets fired after him by the Nyilas.

On January 12th Klara Hoffmann was taken to hospital shot through the lungs. She was one of the victims of a pogrom which took place in 27, Wesselenyi utca, one of the houses of the ghetto.

Robert Deutsch, aged 19, of 11, Dobrentai utca, was shot on the banks of the Danube on November 28th. In spite of his wounds-he was injured in the abdomen, head and scrotum and his peritoneum had been perforated twelve times-he recovered after various operations.

Laszlo Matyas, aged 34, of 89, Andrassy utca was shot together with other Jews assembled at Teleki Square on December 10th. The ambulance found him sitting in a chair and shot through the diaphragm.

On November 21st Miksa Kertesz was shot. The incident took place in the protected house No. 15, Pozsonyi utca.

Sandor Ipper, aged 53, a screw manufacturer, was arrested by the Nyilas in 23, Poszonyi utca. They burned cigarette papers between his toes, shot him and threw him into the Danube. He was rescued.

Mrs. Lipot Schneider, aged 54, whose husband had died the previous day, visited the Swiss Legation in Vadasz utca on December 31st. In the afternoon she was admitted to the hospital suffering from a bullet wound. She died and was buried together with her husband.

The hospital's log-book recites hundreds of similar cases. 449

V.

REPORTS REGARDING THE RESCUE ACTIONS OF JEWISH ORGANISATIONS ABROAD.

a) Reports of Professor Bela Sarossi (Geneva).

1.

According to reports received regarding the position of the Jews in Hungary, all Hungarian Jews have been isolated, badly treated in the ghettos and starved. Several hundreds of thousands have been either deported or killed. These reports caused no mean indignation and uneasiness among the international relief organisations working in Switzerland. According to reports circulating here, Hungarian officialdom is mainly responsible for the cruelties committed against the Jews. It is therefore to be feared that a strong anti-Hungarian feeling may become prevalent in neutral countries and among the international organisations there, which, in the end, it might not be possible to counter. Leading international Jewish circles would be prepared to guarantee that all Hungarian Jews could be transported from Hungary with the assistance of the United States in the shortest possible time, provided they are - for the time being - accommodated in Hungarian camps supervised by the International Red Cross. No doubt it would make an extraordinarily favourable impression, if the reports and rumours of the mass murders and deportations - which in the ears of the public have the same fundamental meaning - were to be denied, or if, on the other hand, it could be guaranteed for the future that we are concerned only with the removal, not, however, the extermination of the Jews."

Geneva, June 16th, 1944.

2.

After the treaty of Trianon had been signed, international observers ascribed the national aspirations prevalent in Hungary to the fact that the Hungarian minorities in the ceded territories had no means of defending themselves and that not even their human rights had been guaranteed by the successor states. At that time, however, Hungary as a country was not in a position to exert pressure of any kind whatsoever or to obtain an amelioration of the fate of their forcibly depatriated fellow-countrymen. Emphasizing its right, therefore, it appealed to the world, to the human beings, to the soul and lo the heart. On this basis Hungary found more understanding, to such a degree in fact, that the big powers tacitly acknowledged the partial revision of the treaty in favour of Hungary and at the expense of the successor states hitherto shown preferential treatment by the big powers. During the second world war Hungary, as a result of her geographical position, found herself isolated in no man's land between two opposing camps and ideologies, a position through which not only Hungary's territory was endangered, but also the Hungarian people. The observers of the various nations, who were (454) particularly active in neutral countries, were - until March 21st, 1944 - inclined to regard Hungary as a country capable of protecting its rights and its frontiers without outside assistance, whereas the Hungarians as such were known to be a proud race. To-day, however, it seems as if Hungary has lost her good name; the impression is rife, that not the protection of the foreign races within her frontiers, but lust of power and greed are the motivating ideals of present-day Hungary.

Since Hungary has been taking an active part in the war, the attention given her by these observers has been even more careful. This is particularly the case with regard to our internal affairs, and the question has been raised, whether Hungary would be able to protect everything within her frontiers? I And as - a result of Trianon! - the basis of our national aspirations has been an insistence on the right of nations, they now reverse the argument and expect the same attitude from a Hungary since enlarged and more powerful.

As a result of this they paid particular attention to the fate of those unfortunate people, who had fled to and sought refuge in Hungary. This was noticeable not only on the neutral wireless, but also in the press of the world, where it found a strong echo. The regrets occasioned by the events of March turned into general indignation and fuming hatred. Making use of various international organisations, special files were inaugurated; qualified persons were given special instructions and entrusted with the pursuance of Hungarian events.

The first point of accusation is the treatment accorded to Hungarian and refugee Jews, regarding which they were in possession of surprisingly accurate and substantiated facts. It is a proof of the particular significance accorded to the persecution of the Jews in Hungary as a racial and confessional conflict, that it has been given priority even over German anti-Semitism.

Point of view and actions of the international political and relief organisations,

The great confidence and the sympathy shown Hungary before the events of March 1944 turned into hate as a result of the attitude adopted towards the Jews, an attitude described as inhuman. Thus - just as previously Hungary has benefitted by an insistence on human rights - it has now become evident that these same human rights are being trodden underfoot. Not the individual is held responsible for this state of affairs, but the whole Magyar race is already marked down for boycotting. As a result of this we must notice an estrangement from even the closest of our Swiss friends, who, it seems, only desist from calling us robbers and murderers, because we were not present in person when these persecutions occurred.

The religious organisations active in Switzerland have also started to take steps. Needless to say, these organisations enjoy general respect. Furthermore, the members of the Commission Economique, which represents all civilised countries of the world and which not very long ago valiantly defended Magyardom in South Siebenburgen, have had to bow before public opinion and have condemned the persecution of the Jews taking place in Hungary in the most stringent of terms.

The attitude of the Churches is possibly the one which carries most weight, as it appeals to the individual and to his better nature. On the initiative of the reformed pastor Vogt, prayers for the Hungarian Jews were said in every church in Zurich. An informative pastoral letter disclosing details of the persecutions (455)

(3) The International Relief Organisation is in a position to evacuate the occupants of the separated territory on the first possible occasion at its own expense through a neutral country and with the and of the Red Cross.

The International Relief Organisation endeavours to save the lives of the persecuted persons and is prepared to open negotiations to this end through the intermediary of Switzerland.

It would mean a tremendous moral advantage for Hungary if mitigations in any form whatsoever could be introduced as an answer to the actions contemplated and information published regarding extermination and deportation. An initiative taken by Hungary would contribute greatly to a reduction in the amount of bad feeling directed against her. This bad feeling, which is increasing from day to day, might otherwise have the most dramatic consequences imaginable for the Hungarian nation.

Geneva, July 10th, 1944. (457)

Report of Dr. A. Kubowitzki delivered to the War Emergency Conference of the World Jewish Conference at Atlantic City on November 26, 1944.

The time has not yet come to draw up the balance sheet of the rescue efforts in which the World Jewish Congress has been engaged since the outbreak of this war for survival. Many years will pass before the history of the attempts to rescue the Jews of Europe can be written with some degree of objectivity. Much of what we tried and of what was possible ist still veiled in secrecy. An unknown number of Jews are still in German hands, and nobody can state with approximate accuracy the number of those who escaped annihilation. Only when the confidential records of these apocalyptic years will be accessible to the public, will it be possible to pass judgment on our efforts and on the results they yielded. However, we cannot, at this first gathering of Jews from so many countries, escape the compelling duty of trying to give an account of what we have endeavoured to achieve. This is no adventure into the history of rescue in general. The efforts in which other agencies have been engaged are outside the scope of this report. It is we who answer to-night the summons of history. We want to give evidence in all modesty and honesty.

I realise that to the minds of many, the very thought of a balance sheet still to be drawn up may appear a tragic paradox. To them, the balance sheet exists, indelibly written in the facts and figures of the extermination. Five and a half million Jews have died in continental Europe, in the Ukraine and in White Russia. Our failure has been crushing. Our inability to halt, even to slow down the most terrible catastrophe in our history, has been total and without excuse. However, we feel it is our duty toward our people, toward our children, not only to be unsparing to ourselves, without pity for our shortcomings, but also to try to explain and to understand. We may assume that the judgment, which history will pass on us, will depend on its answer to two questions:

To what extent was it actually possible to save Europe's Jews from Germany's determination to annihilate them? To what extent have we had a share in the rescue of those who survived?

Neither question can at the present moment be answered from a full knowledge of the case. However, even if it should appear that no human ingenuity could have wrested more victims from German fanaticism and lust for murder, even if we should admit that every Jew who survived in occupied Europe is a kind of itinerant miracle, the result of incredible endeavours and struggles, there are two facts which must weigh heavily against us in the scales: the immense discrepancy between the instruments of death and the instruments of salvation; and our inability to move the United Nations to take any serious chance in order to save the Jewish people from destruction. While the full might of a powerful nation and its satellites were drafted for the murder of powerless men, women and children; while factories and engines specially equipped for the action of killing were contrived in order to speed up the pace of death, our instruments of rescue remained of another age. The Jewish people had no agency for rescue; it had relief agencies. And years passed before the fundamental difference was (458) realised between relief and rescue, between instruments intended to distribute alms, food and clothing in normal times, and a machinery aiming at snatching away human lives from inexorable and powerfully armed killers.

What explanation is there for this immense discrepancy? Of course, at the root of the problem one finds the constant cause of so many of our misfortunes, our lack of organisation. Although, who could have foreseen that millions of men would have to organise themselves against the will of other men to wipe them out, themselves, their children and the children of their children? However, the explanation is more complex. It is to be found in the incredibility and incomprehensibility to the normal human mind of the German determination to exterminate our people.

The undertaking is so staggering that, until the revelations about the Majdanek camp, a majority of the people in this country, as well as in England, dismissed the fact of extermination as "atrocity stories." In July, 1942, our British Section broke the conspiracy of silence in regard to the terrible agony of Europe's Jews. But we did not succeed in breaking the crust of skepticism, the refusal to believe that human beings could be so inhuman. People could not be convinced that the Germans were really bent upon wiping out all the Jews, every one of them, and that they would find accomplices in every nation, that even in Western Europe they would find fellow hunters of little children for their delivery to death. Even we, who had followed the development of National Socialism since its early beginnings, who had warned against the crimes with which it was pregnant, had to be convinced that small food rations were part of a programme of death; that enlistment of forced labour in the end meant death; that deportation had but one final destination-death. Even the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto refused to believe the reports of their underground press, when the liquidation of the Jews of the General Government started about Passover, 1942, with the destruction of the Jews of the Lublin district in the gas chambers of Belzec. They knew that there were extermination centres in Belzec, Chelmno, Treblinka, and yet refused to believe that the Warsaw ghetto would be wiped out. At every moment the ineradicable optimism of our race used to take the upper hand. And if we reacted that way, why wonder at our friends in the Gentile world?

That incredibility of the massacres explains our latest shock, our distress in the case of Hungary. We had been warned. Our office in Geneva had foretold everything. And yet how thunderstruck were we when the Refugee Board representative in Geneva reported, on June 24th, that 335,000 Jews had already been deported-three months and a few days after the German army occupied Hungary, three months after President Roosevelt branded in the strongest words "one of the blackest crimes of all history-the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe." A few days before June 24th Laszlo Baky had delivered in Oradea Mare an address running over with enthusiasm and triumph: "Apart from Budapest, the country has been liberated from those people - ... We have done an honest bit of work. Who would have believed that there would not be a single Jew in Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, in Miskolc, Kolozsvar, Nagyvarad and Ungvar (Uzhorod) one month after the change of regime ...?'' Thus was shattered our naive confidence in the legend of Magyar chivalry. We knew already that France could have Darnands, but still we hoped against all hope that Hungary could have no Laszlo Baky. (459)

It should be conceded, as extenuating circumstances, that never in history did a State descend to such depths of bad faith, deceit and treachery as did the Germans and some of their satellites in their resolve of murder. In 1942 tens of thousands of Polish Jews volunteered for a cunningly simulated "resettlement" for agricultural work in the territories recently conquered by the Germans in the East, and thus engaged of their own accord on a road at the end of which destruction awaited them, because letters from deportees, which either had been forged or had been extorted, extolled the new "homes" in Bessarabia, Smolensk and Minsk. In the month of May, 1944, while the Hungarian gendarmerie was forcing Hungarian Jews into box cars without room to sit down or even move, nailing each car shut with 80 persons to a car, the Hungarian Minister of Industry, Laszlo Szasz was busily engaged in multiplying falsehoods and willful perjuries. He said in an address: "Nobody is aiming at the extermination or vexation of the Jews. None of the Government's regulations give any indication of such aims, which are unworthy of Hungarians, The Jewish problem cannot be solved by anti-Semitism based on hatred,"

The death struggle in which our people were engaged was not only incredible to the human mind; it was also incomprehensible. As late as July, 1941, a debate was raging in our own ranks as to whether it was permissible to send food to the Jews in ghettos, against whom the Germans were using planned starvation as a weapon of annihilation. For years, relief agencies in neutral countries refused every contact with refugees who had escaped from the Nazi hell by crossing the border illegally, while it was their duty to organise these illegal crossings themselves. As late as July, 1943, when the possibility offered itself of buying up a number of Jewish lives by means of ransom, some Jewish leaders were guided not by the primacy of saving from annihilation the remnants of Israel, but by so-called ethical considerations which might have been proper in less tragic circumstances. That is why years passed before it was plainly realised that what was needed to counteract the unparalleled persecution of the Jews was not an enterprise of relief, but an enterprise of rescue, and that a pattern of normal legality was utterly unable to achieve any success.

I have no satisfactory explanation to offer for our failure to move the democratic powers to incur any serious risks in order to save the remnants of our people. The explanation could perhaps be found in the fact that the Christian nations still think that the five and a half million Jews who have been killed are our loss only. It is not realised that it is humanity, Europe and the world, that have been fatally impoverished by our blood-letting. When Anthony Eden announced in the House of Commons the Declaration of the United Nations of December 17th, 1942, condemning "the bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination," the members of the House arose and stood in silence for two minutes. We were told that such a demonstration is unprecedented except on the occasion of the death of a British sovereign. We later realised that the demonstration was a supreme tribute, paid to a people that has been written off. A solution can perhaps also be found in the rigid determination of the United Nations not to permit any interference with the war effort, as if victory was something abstract, an aim in itself, as if a victory, which would come too late for "Hitler's first victims" would not be devoid of a great part of its significance. The methods which have led to the rescue of the surviving Jews of Europe, (460) setting aside the Allied victories, which were a prerequisite of survival, may be summed up as follows:

1. Evacuation, including smuggling out of Axis countries to safer regions.

2. Hiding.

3. Payment of ransom.

4. Political activity.

We have had our considerable share in each of these methods, but to-night, for reasons of discretion and brevity, I want to limit myself to our rescue efforts in the political field. Some information on our other activities will be found in the three papers submitted by the Rescue Department to the War Emergency Conference and will be given orally at the meeting of the Committee on Rescue. I will, however, be permitted to quote here from the interim report Jarblum and Rieger sent us on September 2nd, 1944, in a few modest lines: " ... the following has been done in respect to France. Since October, 1943, 1,350 children and young people up to 20 years of age, both with and without parents or relatives, have reached Switzerland; 70 children have reached Spain; while some 700 have been hidden in France. Further, some 700 young people have been evacuated through Spain, as well as 200 parents accompanying their children. Our people in France have helped to hide 4,000 to 5,000 adults." Then, follow a few terse sentences, revealing all the heroism implied in such an undertaking. "Such rescue work is necessarily linked with illegal activity of all sorts, especially the procuration of permits, baptismal and birth certificates. Considerable expenditure has been necessitated by appropriate equipment for armed convoys to the frontiers."

If we should try to appraise the relative importance of the four abovementioned methods, I would say in the little that has been achieved, the political activities were the most effective factor. We may attribute to political action the survival of the remaining Rumanian, Bulgarian and Danish Jews, and of those Hungarian Jews who will survive their present ordeal. Belonging also to the political sphere are the relations with the Jewish and non-Jewish resistance movements established by our Geneva and Lisbon offices, which proved invaluable for measures of protection, evacuation and hiding. We consider as quasi political action the psychological warfare, with its aims to counteract Nazi propaganda, representing America and Great Britain as the homes of growing anti-Semitism, to deter the non-German officials, with whose help the policy of extermination is being carried out, and to strengthen the hands of the Gentile population in its efforts to aid the Jews. to escape persecution.

If I may be permitted to sum up what the Congress has been able to do in this respect, I would say with due humility, but also in fairness to ourselves, that we have been instrumental in bringing home to Jews and non-Jews the authentic facts of the German programme to wipe out the Jews; in breaking the wall of silence which enveloped for nearly three years the non-Jewish world in regard to Hitler's war against the Jews; in preparing programs of concrete measures of relief and rescue on the basis of reliable information and knowledge of facts; in obtaining the relaxation of the financial blockade which enabled rescue and relief agencies to extend their operations to enemy and satellite countries, which means to those countries from which Jews had to be rescued; in obtaining the relaxation of the food blockade by getting the blockade authorities' to agree to the feeding of interned civilians, even if they were not recognised as assimilated (461) prisoners of war; in the interventions which led to the attenuation of the Rumanian anti-Jewish policy, to the prevention of the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews to Poland, to the rescue of the Jews from Denmark, and the survival of the Turkish Jews living in France; in helping to secure the Horthy offer of July 18th, which may still have resulted in the survival of some 300,000 Hungarian Jews.

The rescue task was a new one for the Congress. In the past its functioning had depended upon the existence of international standards of law and order which the nations were determined to uphold. The new rescue work was to be carried out in the midst of the wreckage of international law. Besides, communications were disrupted. As the Germans increased with tragic speed their occupation of Europe, relations with Jewish communities became increasingly difficult. Paris was no longer the centre of the Congress movement. Many branches of the Congress had disappeared. New outposts had to be built at a time when the Gestapo was vigilant everywhere and the censorship regulations of the friendly nations were rigidly enforced. The Congress had no diplomatic status, no intelligence service. And the enemy whom we faced was powerfully armed with all the resources of modern ingenuity.

We could not engage in rescue without knowing the facts. We had a listening post, under the able direction of Gerhard Riegner and Abraham Silberschein, in Geneva, Switzerland, an island of neutrality in the middle of Nazi Europe. Next came our Lisbon outpost in South-western Europe, with Isaac Weissman. Then came Stockholm, in Northern Europe, first with Hillel Storch, and with Chief Rabbi Ehrenpreis. Jews everywhere in Europe turned toward the Congress posts as the address of the Jewish People. From these outposts, from our European headquarters in London, from the Jewish Agency outpost in Istanbul, reports flowed into our headquarters. Our Institute of Jewish Affairs, under the direction of Dr. Jacob Robinson, sifted the news, verified it.

Thus, toward the end of August, 1942, our Geneva office was able to convey to New York and to London, though diplomatic channels, Hitler's plan for the complete annihilation of European Jews as the final German solution of the, Jewish problem in Europe. Our friends in the Allied Governments, the Soviet Ambassador in London excepted, refused to believe; they wanted the facts to be investigated. But their investigations could only confirm the accuracy of our reports, and, after a delay of almost three months, on November 25th, we were finally authorised to release the news to the world. At another crucial moment, too, our Geneva office proved better informed than celebrated governmental agencies. On April 4th, 1944, they warned us that provision had already been made for the destruction of 800,000 Hungarian Jews within six months. Eight hundred thousand in six months - impossible, was the reaction. Eleven weeks later, the WRB representative in Geneva reported that 335,000 Jews had already been deported.

We were able to break the conspiracy of silence which kept from the public the murder of our people. From September, 1939, until July 21st, the Jews were the forgotten men in the democratic world. They were not forgotten by the Germans. They were victims of savageries without parallel, but the non-Jews did not know. A wall of silence concealed the terrible tragedy. In January, 1942, eight governments-in-exile and the Free French National Committee met in London. They branded the regime of terror instituted by Germany in occupied countries, 462 the mass expulsions, the execution of hostages, the massacres. Not a word about the crimes against the Jews, not a reference. We were told that the silence was due to love for the Jews, that any reference might be equivalent to an implicit recognition of the racial theories, which we all reject."

We did not accept this expression of love. We wanted  the world to know. On June 29th, 1942, the British Section convened a press conference and revealed the facts. The world was seized with horror; the British Parliament resounded with indignant voices. The American Jewish Congress took the initiative in the July 21st demonstration. For the first time since September, 1939, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain spoke up. Churchill recognised that Jews, who had been Hitler's first victims, all over the world had "made their contribution to the United Nations' cause." President Roosevelt stated that the perpetrators of the crimes would be held "to strict accountability in a day of reckoning which will surely come." We know that the Germans were not deterred by these warnings; convinced that their march toward world domination could not be halted by any power on earth, they even accelerated the pace of the massacres. But many satellites listened; many non-Jews were strengthened in their resolve to assist their hunted fellow men. And those Jews who heard the words of the democratic leaders were heartened, and their endurance was prolonged. Besides, Roosevelt's and Churchill's statements established a firm basis for Jewish claims, not only on the day of reckoning with the enemy, but also on the day of building a just world order.

When it appeared definitely that, as far as Germany was concerned, warnings were of no avail, when Hitler, in his 1943 New Year's message, confirmed that world Jewry "will exterminate itself," when mounting evidence reached us that the annihilation was proceeding at a pace of desperate determination, we decided that the time had arrived for a public and forthright demand, addressed to the United Nations, for action to save the Jews in Europe. On March 1st 1943, a great demonstration in Madison Square Gardens initiated a series of mass manifestations throughout the country, urging the support of a 12-point programme, which our experts had prepared. The principal demands of the programme were bold and outright: negotiations with the Axis Powers through neutral countries for the removal to safe places of as many Jews as possible; arrangements to permit the feeding of Jews in ghettos; adjustment of the immigration regulations in the United States; opening of Palestine doors to Jewish refugees. On March 2nd, the State Department announced that a meeting of American and British statesman would deal with the problem. The meeting came to be known as the Bermuda Refugee Conference. Its beginnings were promising - its end more than disappointing. The terms of reference shifted the problem from that of rescuing the stricken Jews of Europe to the entirely different - and much less urgent - question: "The refugee problem ... not ... confined to persons of any particular race or creed." Admittance was denied to representative Jewish bodies, and we- had to be satisfied with submitting a programme. We stated in our covering memorandum that "No attempt had been made on an even partially adequate scale to deal with" the Jewish tragedy. We asked for action that would "be swift bold and on a scale commensurate with the gravity and urgency of the situation." The Bermuda Refugee Conference rejected the proposal to enter into negotiations with the Axis for the release of the Jews in Europe. It did not consider itself authorised (463) to recommend the shipping of food to the ghettos. The United States did not liberalize her immigration policy; Great Britain did not open the gates to Palestine. Jews all over the world realised that the leading democratic nations did not want to understand that the rescue of the remaining Jews was a race against time and that they lacked the will to go to any trouble on behalf of the Jews of Europe.

Since Bermuda has failed to establish an appropriate intergovernmental agency with full authority and power to implement a daring programme of rescue, we had to start a programme of day-by-day activities on all fronts, making the utmost use of all ordinary and extraordinary openings. But rescue of Jews everywhere in German-occupied Europe had fallen more and more within the sphere of underground activities, of commando and guerilla warfare, of contact with Gestapo officials who could be bribed. Jews could be smuggled out, Jews could be hidden, but only with the help of money to be spent in enemy countries.

On April 20th, 1943, our Geneva office advised us, through the State Department, that broad rescue activities were possible in France and Rumania, and, in particular, the children could be rescued from Transnistria, this ghastly charnel province in which tens of thousands of Jews had perished. We would have to spend 100,000,000 lei, enemy currency, in enemy territory. We applied to the Treasury; we asked for an initial license for a modest amount a precedent which would open the way for other larger actions along similar lines. Eight months were spent in continued negotiations and representations before the license was granted. The Treasury was sympathetic; Dr. Wise obtained the approval of the highest authorities; but the formalities of normal _times . and the cautions of war time loomed as insuperable obstacles. On December 18th, license W-2115 was finally cabled to Geneva. It authorised our representative to communicate with persons in France and Rumania in any manner he deemed necessary and expedient, and to take all appropriate action, including the payment of francs and lei in order to evacuate persons whose lives were in imminent danger, or to sustain them. It was the first license of that kind granted in war time. It paved the way for many operations which heretofore had been impossible. Had it been granted immediately upon request it would have spared the lives of many Jewish orphans in Transnistria.

We also succeeded in having the food blockade relaxed. Again very late, and - for hundreds of thousands - too late. Much time went by before the world realised that Germany was engaged in a totalitarian food war; that her scientists had carefully worked out a system of feeding and starving, which would result in a radical and permanent shift in the demographic balance of power. Much more time went by before it was realised that Germany had made starvation a frightful weapon for the destruction of the Jews. Jews in ghettos received no meat, no fats, no fruits, no vitamin-bearing nutriments. The result was decimation unparalleled in any other group. Spotted typhus and tuberculosis where rampant; the death-rate among our children in the Warsaw ghetto was 30 times as high as among the Polish children.

However, the blockade was considered the deadliest weapon in the British arsenal. It was a widespread belief that every scrap of food sent into Europe would postpone the day of Germany's downfall. The British Embassy asserted (464) that no form of relief could be devised which would not assist the enemy's war effort. The State Department was satisfied with stating that the responsibility to supply relief rested only with the occupying authorities. And again, why should we be surprised? Jewish opinion itself was deeply divided. Little was known of the true facts, but the sympathy for the sufferers was controlled lest it should help the hated enemy. In July, 1941, the offices of a Jewish organisation were picketed by another Jewish organisation, because the former refused to stop sending food packages to occupied Europe.

While the controversy was raging here our Abraham Silberschein in Geneva was not allowing himself to be deterred from doing what he considered his primary duty. With the assistance of our Lisbon office he was dispatching food to the ghettos at the rate of 1,500 parcels a week. Later, we induced the Czechoslovak Government to agree to a scheme for the feeding of the Theresienstadt inmates.

Since July, 1942, we have had innumerable conferences with the blockade authorities, the Board of Economic Warfare, the Treasury Department, the International and the American Red Cross. We endeavoured to convince them to agree to a programme of feeding the Jews in ghettos and camps, either as part of a general food scheme to feed certain oppressed peoples of Europe, or else as a special programme to feed the Jews against whom starving was being employed as an instrument of extermination. We wanted in particular the Jews in German captivity to be treated by the United Nations as assimilated prisoners of war, and wanted advantage to be taken of the DE FACTO situation tolerated in certain camps by Germans. In August 1944, the agreement of the blockade authorities was finally secured for a trial period of three months. A first shipment has been sent and perhaps distributed already.

We also asked for funds for the relief activities of the International Red Cross. The Red Cross was complaining that it did not command sufficient funds to send to the Transnistria deportees more than a limited quantity of food; that it was unable, because of lack of funds, to secure the pharmaceutical products needed for camps in Slovakia and Jugoslavia, etc. We suggested that the Governments of the United States and Great Britain grant the Red Cross adequate financial means to enable it to conduct its work. Dr. Goldmann began the conversations on September 16th, 1943, On August 4th, 1944, the International Red Cross was still complaining that for months past it had in vain asked the British and American Governments for supplies and funds for relief activities. On August 16th, we finally learned from the War Refugee Board that the Committee had been assured that no lack of funds would be allowed to hamper its work.

It has been given to us to intervene effectively to prevent the deportation of Jews from Bulgaria to Poland. We had been on the alert ever since on June 29th, 1942, the government had received carte blanche to solve the Jewish problem on a racial basis. When the Sofia government began, in March, 1943, to remove Jews from occupied Greek territory to Poland, we mobilised all contacts and enlisted the influence of every possible factor. Dr. Marcus Ehrenpreis, formerly Chief Rabbi in Sofia, and certain connections of our Bulgarian Representative Committee were particularly helpful. Our affiliated Sephardic Communities of the Latin American countries acted on their part. It was impossible to save Bulgarian Jews from expulsion from their residences and (465) from misery, but they were saved physically, as they were not transferred to Poland, but were dispersed in various towns and villages in the country itself. We have also been privileged to have our share in the rescue of the Danish Jews.

We have been in close consultation with the Danish Minister to the United States, and when, by the end of September 1943, the German resolve to deport the Danish Jews became clear, action was taken to strengthen the hand of Sweden in its public protest against Germany's cruelty and its offer to receive the Danish Jews who would reach her hospitable shores.

The Danish and Bulgarian Jews, the great majority of the Jews of Rumania proper (not, alas, the majority of the deportees to Transnistria), and the Turkish Jews residing in France were saved. With regard to the 300,000 Hungarian Jews, for whom the Horthy offer of July 18th granted a reprieve, we are still trembling for their fate. This offer the Congress helped to secure by its suggestions and demands.

The relaxation of Hungary's anti-Jewish policy was brought about at that time by four interventions; the note from this Government to the Hungarian Government; the Swedish King's appeal to Horthy; the representations of the Vatican; and the steps taken by the International Red Cross.

We urged the American demarche on May 31st. We requested a formal note asking for a statement of Hungary's intentions with regard to her Jewish population, since all the preparations in which she was engaged permitted the suspicion that she was scheming their annihilation. The War Refugee Board agreed and, by an unprecedented action, the note was delivered and answered. Hungary declared that she would permit the departure of all Jews who have entry permits to another territory, Palestine included, and that Germany would permit their transit. Regarding Sweden' s appeal to Horthy, it would appear that the King agreed to act at the request of Chief Rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis and Professor Hugo Valentin. We understand that the Vatican, in the appeal of His Holiness to the Regent, took into consideration the suggestions we conveyed to the War Refugee Board. Finally, the action of the CICR was also to some extent the result of our persistent representations and of decisive conferences of our spokesman in Geneva with Red Cross representatives. The Committee was informed of the distress' felt in certain Jewish circles because of the Committee's failure to speak up publicly on behalf of the Jews.

On July 18th, the Associated Press wired from Berne that the Regent had promised the International Red Cross that no more Jews would be "transported forcibly out of Hungary." It seems that large scale deportations were really halted.

Then a full month passed. Great Britain and the United States engaged in negotiations concerning the problems raised by the offer. On August 17th, the State Department finally announced that the two governments had accepted the offer for the release of the Jews and would make arrangements for the care of those who would leave Hungary. The acceptance arrived at a moment when the Gestapo again had the upper hand and seemed resolved to prevent any Jewish emigration. History will decide whether, had bold and im mediate action taken advantage of the Hungarian offer before the Gestapo could recover from its surprise, thousands could not have been saved.

And now a few sentences about the main problems on which we are concentrating at present: (466)

The rescue of the surviving Hungarian Jews, by mobilising on their behalf the protection, as effective as possible, of the neutral countries, the Vatican, and the International Red Cross; full investigation on the position and protection of the "Jewish manpower" which Hungary asserts she has placed "at the disposal of the Reich" under the same conditions as Hungarian workers of other religion or race; securing the status of civilian prisoner of war for the Jews confined in ghettos, labour and concentration camps, which status would entitle them to the care of the International Red Cross, and could mean their physical deliverance. We have repeatedly urged the Red Cross at least to make a public statement, proclaiming its own attitude in this respect. We know that everything is in readiness to wipe out the inmates of Oswiecim, Brzezinka and other camps, and to have all the buildings razed upon issuance of a final order. Since June we have been adding representation on representation to this matter. We have said to all whom it might concern: History will never understand that there have been death factories organised to kill human beings at a speedy pace, and that nothing, nothing was done to destroy these installations so as at least to slow down the tempo of these slaughters.

These are the general endeavours in which we have been engaged. A great number of smaller undertakings which required much study and much effort and have yielded some results may be found in some of the papers submitted to the Conference, unless they have been omitted for reasons of discretion and brevity.

We are not deceiving ourselves. We know how little we have been able to accomplish. We are unable to do justice to our own efforts; maybe we should have tried harder maybe we should have dared more, maybe we should not have hesitated, even when we were afraid lest certain steps would in the end prove more harmful than inaction. History will judge. This tribune is merely our witness-stand on which we give evidence in deep humility. However, we have to go on. We have no right to relax our vigilance. The rescue work is not yet a closed chapter. Despite the reduced number of surviving Jews in German-held Europe and the apparent exhaustion of openings for rescue, every day brings new problems, new suggestions, and new attempts. Through day-by-day representations, initiatives, requests, through the exertion of all our ingenuity we must try to achieve. We will know later to what extent we have been able to achieve, and we pray that our expectation will be rewarded.

Some time ago, a Greek refugee reported that he has been saved by Greek partisans who had been instructed by radio appeals to rescue the Jews. Who knows, these appeals may have originated from our action. On October 10th, 1943, our Cairo representative cabled that the deportation of the remaining Jewish population in Greece was imminent. He had asked the Greek Government and the British Ministry of Stat e to give to the Greek population radio or secret instructions to help their Jewish compatriots in order to prevent their deportation to Poland, and asked us to act in support of his suggestion. We alerted the Administration, the Greek Embassy, our London friends, the appropriate agencies. Radio appeals were broadcast, and somewhere in the mountains of Greece guerillas heard these exhortations and a number of Jews were saved.

We have no illusions. We know that if the Jews who remain in German-occupied Europe are to survive, we must rely mostly on the will of our people (467) to live on the resources of their ingenuity, on the human solidarity of their Gentile neighbours, on the heroism of our youth - the thousands of unknown soldiers - of which we have received so much heartening evidence in recent months. And we rely also on the men whom we have been fortunate enough to have at our outposts - our dear and brave Abraham Silberschein and Gerhard Riegner in Geneva, Marc Jarblum, now back in Paris, Isaac Weissman, of Lisbon, Marcus Ehrenpreis and Hillel Storch, in Northern Stockholm, of whom only Weissman is to-night with us, and who are all in our hearts. Also on that valiant and gallant team in London which, Lady Reading excepted, is to-night in our midst, as well as our friends on the councils of the governments in exile. And last, but not last, on our heroic allies and brethren of the Jewish Agency and the Histadruth in Istanbul.

Our duty is to go on. Our task will end with the last Jew to be saved from German barbarity. For those who are in German captivity we can only express the hope, in the words of Benjamin Ben Zarach of the German Pajtanim of the First Crusade, that their strength will be of stone and their bodies of copper to endure all the miseries without being destroyed. (468)

VI.

STATISTICS OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY.

AN EXPLANATION OF THE "STATISTICAL TABLE".

We are in possession of exact statistical data of Hungarian Jewry based on the results of the census of January 31st, 1941. This census included the newly acquired Hungarian territory, i.e. the Czech and Rumanian provinces ceded to Hungary by the Vienna Award, respectively those occupied by Hungarian troops. On May 31st, at the end of the campaign against Jugoslavia, the results of the census were altered in accordance with the figures appertaining to the conquered so-called Southern Provinces. This produced a sum total of 725,007 inhabitants of Israelite confession.

Through the census of 1941 it was furthermore possible to ascertain the number of persons subject to the stipulations of the Jewish Laws (Law IV of 1939) by reason of their descent. In addition to the above-mentioned persons there were 34,435 persons in this category, of which 22,122 were living in Budapest, 8,609 in the provinces as we know them to-day and 3,704 in the ceded territories.

Law XV of 1941, the Law for the Protection of the Race, increased the number of persons to be regarded as Jews still further. Although the census was not interested in the number of persons to whom the' stipulations of this law applied as at that time the law was still non-existent - it did enquire into the ancestry of individuals. Of the 23,885 persons affected by the Law for the Protection of the Race, 14,240 persons living in Budapest had three Jewish grandparents, as had 7,311 persons in the provinces and 2,334 in the ceded territories. According to the new law, these persons were to be regarded as Jews.

It is, however, obvious that "the number of those who concealed their Jewish origin for fear of the disadvantages attached thereto was not negligible, and that thereby the number of people with Jewish blood in their veins increased considerably." (Dr. Alajos Dolanyi's essay "The inhabitants of Jewish origin but Christian confession according to the census" - Hungarian Statistical Review No. 4-5, 1944, Page 96.) Although "many estimate the number of Christians of Jewish origin to be 300,000 or even 500,000" we are more inclined to accept the estimate of Dr. Alajos Dolanyi (Kovacs), who puts the figure "of the Christians of Jewish origin in Hungary at between 80 to 90,000", a figure which the territorial gain "increased to 100 to 110,000 at the utmost" ( taken from the afore-mentioned issue of the Hungarian Statistical Review and the June 25th, June 29th and Juli 1st, 1938, issues of "Uj Magyarsag".)

The number of the non-Israelite population nevertheless to be regarded as Jews was therefore fixed at 100,000 for Greater Hungary, and their distribution throughout the country was ascertained by means of the census of 1941 as follows: (469) Present day Lost Ceded Present day Greater Budapest provinces Hungary Total

Law IV/1939 22,122 8,609 3,704 12,313 30,731 34,435

Law XV/1941 14,240 7,311 2,334 9,645 21,551 23,885

Total 36,362 16,920 6,038 21,958 52,282 58,320

Per cent (62,35) (27,29) (10,36) (37,65) (89,64) (100,00)

In Proportion 62,350 27,290 10,360 37,650 89,640 100,000

Taking this as a basis, the sum total of Hungarian Jewry, i. e. Israelites and Christians regarded as Jews, in 1941 in the enlarged territory of Hungary was, according to the census:

825,007.

Naturally, certain fluctuations in this figure occurred between the day of census in 1941 and March 19th, 1944. We need not take into consideration the natural annual decrease, which in the case of the Hungarian Jews was not exactly trivial, as this was more than compensated by the influx of Polish and Slovak Jewish refugees.

Following decreases can be attributed to the persecution of the Jews: Members of the Labour Service missing after having been sent

to operational areas (Galicia, Ukraine, Bor) . . . . . . . . . . .42,000

Deported in July 1941 by the Hungarian authorities ....  (According to a list supplied by the Office for the protection of Hungarian Jews.). . . . 20,000

Murdered in Ujvidek in January 1942 . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,000

(According to accounts published of the trials before the People's Court)

Total …. 63,000

In a territorial sense these losses are split up as follows:

An equal number of Budapest and Provincial Jews among the members of the Labour Service lost their lives: the figure of 42,000 is therefore proportionally distributed over the whole of the Jewish population; contrary to this, the deportation of July 1941 mainly affected the Jews living in the ceded territories (Carpatho-Russia-about 75 per cent). 15 per cent of the total were taken from Budapest, whilst the present-day provinces supplied the remaining 10 per cent. Those murdered in Ujvidek-if we ignore the few persons there accidentally at that time-belong exclusively to the ceded territories.

In view of these considerations we have calculated the number of victims oi the persecution for each territory. In deducting these figures from the total of 1941 one can check the figures given for March 19th, 1944. At the time of the German entry into Hungary therefore

231,435 Jews were living in Budapest,

530,554 Jews were living in the provinces as they existed at that time and

762,007 Jews were living in the whole of Greater Hungary.

Against these figures we have those ascertained after the liberation of the country by the Red Army which gave the numbers of Jews found to have survived as follows: 470

In Budapest 69,000 Jews were liberated from the ghetto (according to the Jewish Council), 25,000 were found to be occupying the so-called protected houses and the legation buildings (according to the neutral legations), and the number of those who succeeded in hiding from the Nazis and Nyilas can be estimated to amount to another 25,000. In addition we have the 5,000 members of the Labour Service, which were liberated on Hungarian territory and whose deportation could therefore be avoided. At the moment of liberation, therefore, the total number of Jews living in Budapest amounted to 124,000, that is hardly 50,25 per cent of the population of 1941.

If we add to this figure the about 2,000 Jews who managed to escape from the country before the Germans occupied it and then deduct the sum total from the number of Jews living in Budapest on March 19th, 1944, we find that

105,453

Jewish persons were either deported or murdered or else died a natural death during the German occupation of Budapest.

This negative calculation is based on the following positive factors:

Simultaneously with the deportation of the Provincial Jews, which took place under the regime of Sztojay, 7,500 Budapest persons were also deported, partly on the initiative of the I. Gendarmery Detachment from the internment camps at Csepel, Horthyliget and other places in the vicinity of Budapest, partly as a result of special operations in the internment camps of Kistarcsa and Sarvar. (Statement, of the Office for the protection of Hungarian Jews.)

In the course of the deportation of Jews under Szálasi 76,209 Budapest Jews were handed over to the German authorities.  (According to the report of Lieut. Col. of Gendarmery Laszlo Ferenczy.)

The difference between the sum total of these two positive factors and the figure arrived at by the afore-mentioned negative calculation - 21,744 - is accounted for by those deported persons, who were handed over to the Germans after the termination of the Ferenczy action and, partly at least, by those unfortunate individuals, who were murdered during the siege (ghetto, banks of the Danube) or died as a result of privations.

The whole of the Provincial Jewry was deported. After the liberation only a few thousand Labour Service members were found, who had been liberated by the advancing Red Army and thus escaped deportation to the West. Their number for the whole of Greater Hungary is hardly 15,000 persons, i. e. 2,59 per cent of the total Jewish population of 1941.

If we add to these the perhaps 3,000 Provincial Jews, who managed to escape from the country, and deduct the sum total from the strength of Provincial Jewry as on March 19th, we find that

512,554

Provincial Jews were deported from Greater Hungary under German occupation. This negative calculation regarding the state of affairs in the provinces can be substantiated by following positive factors:

According to the reports rendered to the Ministry of the Interior by Lieut. Col. Laszlo Ferenczy there were deported: 31 471 From Gendarmery Districts II - V - VI - VII - VIII - IX - X .

i. e. from Gendarmery Districts I - X altogether 434,351 persons in 147 trainloads.

To this there has to be added the Southern deportation, which - independent from the deportation carried out by the gendarmery - was carried out during the second half of May 1944 by German and Hungarian military forces and are not included in Ferenczy's reports; the persons affected by this operation number 21,700,

On March 25th, July 19th and in the middle of August 1944 furthermore, the occupants of the internment camps of Kistarcsa and Sarvar were deported by exclusively German authorities and for that reason the resultant figures of 4,000 respectively 1,000 are not contained in the above calculation. If we deduct from the sum total of these figures (461,051) the aforementioned 7,500 Budapest Jews, we find that the number of Jews deported from the provinces under the Sztojay regime amounts to 453,551.

At the time, however, those men between the ages of 16 and 48, who had been called up for supplementary Labour Service, were able to avoid deportation. Secretary of State Laszlo Endre of the Ministry of the Interior in one of his reports expressed himself disapprovingly regarding the actions of the Ministry of Defence, which enabled 80,000 Jews (as he thought - in actual fact the figure was somewhat lower, between 74 and 75,000) to escape deportation. These Labour Service conscripts were finally deported after all under the Szálasi Regime, with the exception of the afore-mentioned 15,000 who were liberated in the country itself. Therefore we must add to the 453,551 Provincial Jews deported by the Sztojay Government 59.000 deported from the provinces during the Szálasi period. The sum total of these two figures is 512,551, agreeing nearly absolutely with the figure of 512,554 arrived at by the negative calculation.

Summed up the losses for Budapest - 105,453 - and the Provincial total - 512,554 - show the figure of 618,007.

That is the sum total of the losses suffered under German occupation.

Let us now examine the number of those who returned from deportation. According to the figures submitted by the Committee for the Registration and Welfare of Deportees, 20,000 deportees returned to Budapest by the end of 1945 and 45,000 to the present-day provinces, whilst the number of persons who returned to the ceded territories was - according to the countries concerned - 56,500. If we add this sum to the figure of the population at the time of liberation we arrive at the sum total of the Jewish population as on December 31st, 1945. On this day, therefore

144,000 Jewish persons were living in Budapest

and 51,000 Jewish persons were living in the present-day provinces.

For the whole of present-day Hungary this makes a total of 195,000 Jewish persons, i.e. no more than 39.75 per cent of the 1941 population. If we therefore (472) only take into consideration the Jews living within the existing frontiers of Hungary - which is the more favourable case - the losses suffered by Hungarian Jewry amount to 60 per cent, taking into account the deportees who came back. If we, however, take into consideration the whole of the area affected by the deportation, the result is even more tragic: the present-day population of 260,500 including those who have returned shows a loss of almost 70 per cent.

The picture becomes even more desolate, if we take into consideration only the number of persons of Israelite faith:

In Budapest the results of the official census of March 25th, 1945, give us an indication; according to this 86,910 Israelites were living in Budapest at that time. At the same time the number of Budapest Jews amounted to a total of 125 ,000, as the deportees had not then begun to return. Therefore the persons of Israelite faith constituted 70,08 per cent of the total Jewish population. We must how ever, remember that a) a large number of Provincial Jews was for the time being staying in Budapest, because they were not then able to return to their homes and b) that a considerable number of Budapest Jews had gone to the provinces, where it was easier for them to find food. Although these numbers equalise each other as such on the whole, confessionally the proportion to each other is rendered more favourable, if we consider that on the one hand there were fewer baptized Jews in the provinces than in the capital and that on the other hand the conversions of the summer of 1944 - which had swept Budapest like a fever - had hardly affected the provinces. In view of these circumstances we must take the proportional figure of the Budapest Israelites to be more unfavourable by several percent - of 144,000 only 96,500 (about 67 per cent). This is a loss of about 8 per cent occasioned by conversions in 1944, when 184,453 (74.74 per cent) of the 246,803 Jews still confessed to the Israelite faith.

With regard to the provinces, the figures compiled by the American Joint Distribution Committee serve as basis. These give the number of Israelites in the present-day provinces as 45,000 (to be more exact: 45,635), a figure comprising 88 .23 per cent of the above-mentioned 51,000. This corresponds with the proportion as in 1941: of 243,818 Jews 216 ,528 persons confessed to the Israelite faith, i. e. 88.91 per cent. This is understandable enough, as the conversion wave of the summer of 1944 had hardly touched the provinces, from where the deportations had been completed.

In present-day Hungary, therefore, the number of Jews of Israelite confession amounts to 141,480 as against 400,981 in 1941. That means that the number of Israelites living in the area fixed by the conditions of the armistice is no more than 35,28 per cent of the 1941 figure, and that they have decreased by nearly two thirds since 1941. (473)

Statistical Table of Hungarian Jewry and its Casualties

Hungary

present territory

disannexed territory

present territory total

increased territory total

COUNTRY

BUDAPEST

present territory

disannexed territory

increased territory

Israelites according to the 1941 census:

Non-Israelites, but regarded Jews .

   (Act IV/ 1939, and XV/1941):

184,453

62,350

216,528

27,290

324,026

10,360

540,554

37,650

400,981

89,640

725,007

100,000

FULL number of the Jews in 1941:

246,803

243,818

334,386

578.204

490,621

825,007

Return of forced labourers 1941-44, March 19: 12,350 12,500 17,150 29,650 24,850 42,000 Deportation in July 1941: 3,000 2,000 15,000 17,000 5,000 20,000 Massacre in Novy Sad: - - 1,000 1,000 - 1,000

Decreased number of the Jews in March 19, 1944: 231,453 229,318 I 301,236 I 530,554 I 460,771 I 762,007

Deported, murdered, died during the German occupation: 105,453 222,318 290,236 512,554 327,771 , 618,007

Escaped to foreign territory during the German occupation: 2,000 1,000 2,000 3,000 3,000 5,000

Liberated forced labourers: 5,000 6,000 9,000 15,000 11,000 20,000 Liberated in Budapest: 119,000 - - - 119,000 119,000

Number of Jews at the liberation of Hungary: 124,000 6,000 I 9,000 15,000 I 130,000 I 139,000

Percentage compared with the number of 1941: 50"25 2'46 2'69 259 26'51 16'84 Returned from deportation by the end of 1945: 20,000 45,000 56,500 101,500 65,000 121,500

Number of Jews in Dezember 31, 1945: 144,000 51,000 65,500 116,500 195,000 260,500 Percentage compared with the number of 1941: 58'35 20'92 1958 20•15 39•75 31'57

Of which Israelites: 96,480 45,000 141,480 Percentage: 6700 88"23 72,55

VII.

RETRIBUTION.

The first National Assembly, which met in Debrecen immediately after the armistice, decided to introduce a system of people's courts for the prosecution of war criminals. Law VII of 1945 legalised the decrees 81/1945 and 1440/45 regarding constitution and procedure of people's courts.

As a result these people's courts consisted of one professional judge assisted by six laymen -- one for each of the five political parties represented in the Government and one for the trade unions.

As far as their activities were concerned, proceedings had been instituted in 53,005 cases by March 31st, 27,075 persons had been actually indicted. 23,848 sentences had been passed by the afore-mentioned date, of which 6,149 were for less than a year's imprisonment, 4,699 for imprisonment from one to five years, 667 for imprisonment from five to ten years and 302 for imprisonment from ten to fifteen years. Apart from that 106 persons were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hard Labour was imposed in 1,685 cases: 174 cases of three years, 1,312 cases of five to fifteen years and 199 cases of hard labour for life. 1,500 persons were sentenced to loss of their property. The capital sentence was passed in 264 cases, 122 of which carried out either by hanging or by firing squads. There were 5,421 acquittals.

The first trials to be held were those against the main war criminals. It must be mentioned that it was possible to appeal to the County Senate of People's Courts against sentences passed by a people's court. The following sentences were passed and carried out against war criminals mentioned in this book: The former Prime Ministers Dr. Laszlo v. Bardossy, Dr. Bela Imrédy and Dome Sztojay to be shot. Following members of Sztojay's Cabinet suffered the same penalty: Andor Jaross, Lajos Remenyi-Schneller and Lajos Szasz. Death sentence was also passed against Antal Kunder, Istvan Antal and Jeno Raaz, but was commuted to hard labour for life. The two Secretaries of State Laszlo Baky and Laszlo Endre were both sentenced to be hanged. The same sentence was passed against the following members of the Szálasi Cabinet: Ferencz Szálasi, Laszlo Budinsky, Count Fidel Palffy, Sandor Csia, Joszef Gera, Baron Gabor Kemeny, Karoly Beregffy-Berger, Jeno Szolossi-Naszluhacz, Gabor v. Vajna and Emil Kovarcz; whereas Rajniss, Jeno Ruszkay-Ranczenberger, Ferenc Kassai-Schallmayer and the head of the Press Section, Michael Kolozsvary-Borcsa were sentenced to be shot. Andras Taldras, Talnady-Nagy and Valentin Homan received life sentences. Among others to be sentenced to death by hanging were Kalma n Hubay and the notorious murderers of labour service members Lipot Murai-Metzl, Ferencz Hammer and others.

The instigators of the blood-bath of Ujvidek, Fekete Halmy-Czeidner, Jozsef Grassy and Martin Zoldy were handed over to the Jugoslavs, who hanged them. Franz Basch, the leader of the German nationals in Hungary, was shot.

Furthermore the following blood-dripping exponents of the Nyilas were hanged: Father Andras Kun, Peter Hain, Laszlo Poltay, Norbert Orendy, Laszlo Ferenczy, Ivan Hindy and others.