![]() Judenräte were established throughout Hungary, with a central Judenrat called the Zsido Tanacs established in Budapest under Samu Stern. The Nazis isolated the Jewish population from the outside world by restricting their movement and confiscating their telephones and radios. Additional anti-Jewish decrees were passed in great haste. Jews accompanied by Hungarian gendarmes before boarding the transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Soltvadkert, Hungary, June 1944Īccompanying the German occupation forces was a Sonderkommando unit headed by Adolf Eichmann, whose job was to begin implementing the “Final Solution” within Hungary. Hitler immediately set up a new government that he thought would be faithful, with Dome Sztojay, Hungary's former ambassador to Germany, as Prime Minister. In March, 1944, German troops invaded Hungary, in order to keep the country loyal by force. This, of course, was not acceptable to Hitler. However, after Germany's defeat at Stalingrad and other battles in which Hungary lost tens of thousands of its soldiers, the Regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, began trying to back out of the alliance with Germany. Finally, in December 1941, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in declaring war against the United States, completely cutting itself off from any relationship with the West. In June 1941, Hungary decided to join Germany in its war against the Soviet Union. In early 1942, another 1,000 Jews in the section of Hungary newly acquired from Yugoslavia were murdered by Hungarian soldiers and police in their "pursuit of Partisans.”Īs the war progressed, the Hungarian authorities became more and more entrenched in their alliance with Germany. ![]() Some 18,000 Jews randomly designated by the Hungarian authorities as "Jewish foreign nationals" were kicked out of their homes and deported to Kamenets-Podolsk in the Ukraine, where most were murdered. Despite this relative safety, however, tragedy struck in the summer of 1941. ![]() ![]() Soltvadkert, Hungary, Jewish deportees before boarding the deportation train, June 1944Īlthough these anti-Jewish laws caused many hardships, most of the Jews of Hungary lived in relative safety for much of the war. By that time, with all its new territories, the Jewish population in Greater Hungary had reached 725,007, not including about 100,000 Jews who had converted to Christianity but were still racially considered to be “Jews.” Approximately half of Hungary's Jewish population lived in Budapest, where they were very acculturated and a part of the middle class. Hungary was awarded more land in March 1941 when, despite its alliance with the Yugoslav government, Hungary joined its new ally, Germany, in invading and splitting up Yugoslavia. In October 1940, Hungary joined Germany, Italy, and Japan in the Axis alliance. In August 1940, Germany gave Hungary possession of northern Transylvania. In November, Germany carved a piece of Czechoslovakia - territory that had formerly belonged to Hungary - and handed it back to Hungary in order to cement the relations between the two nations. The Munich Conference of September 1938 allowed Germany to annex the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. German soldiers supervising the deportation of Jews, Hungary, 1944
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