Holocaust in Hungary and Sovietization

As I researched for my MA thesis, I discovered an important and under-discussed area of the Holocaust - the Holocaust in Hungary. Hungarian policy towards Nazi Germany can be summed up as the distant, and only semi-supportive ally. Hungary financially supported Nazi Germany, exported tons of good to Germany, especially oil, and even helped with the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Arrow Cross government imposed some Nazi-style laws in order to shield themselves from a Nazi occupation. Jews in Hungary lived a fabulous lifestyle when compared to those Jewish populations in Poland. Hungarian Jews had their basic human rights violated. For example, they could not vote, hold office, attend school with other Hungarians, and other violations. Though several thousand Hungarian Jews died during this time, most were able to continue on semi-comfortably. By 1944, many Hungarian Jews thought  they could survive to see the end of the war and the end of Nazi German and intolerance. But, by the summer of 1944, German troops entered Hungary. German authorities hoped they could prevent Soviet troops from entering Germany at the expanse of Hungarians. Within the course of a few months, most of the Hungarian Jewish population was destroyed. In relation to Poland, where the destruction of the Jewish population developed and occurred over several years, the murder of Hungarian Jews is overwhelmingly startling. A single priest was allowed to evacuate a group of Hungarian Jews, ultimately saving their lives. Few Hungarian Jews returned to Hungary from concentration camps after the close of the war.

As the war slowly closed and the Soviet army advanced west, Soviet troops occupied Hungary. Starting with the point of occupation, the Sovietization of Hungary began. The first glimpse of this Sovietization began with the German expulsion form Hungary. The Czech President in exile during the war, President Benes, pushed for the expulsion of Germans from the liberated Czechoslovakia and from the rest of eastern Europe. According to Benes and other governments in exile and nationalists, expulsion was a punishment Germans deserved. Hungary was included in this category but Hungarian authorities did not wish to expel all the Germans from within Hungary; they only wished to punish those Germans responsible for war crimes such as the Holocaust. Unfortunately, such wishes by the Hungarian authorities did not happen. The Red army remained in Hungary after the official German surrender. Soviet officials forced the expulsion of all Germans onto Hungary. The weak Hungarian government could not say no to Soviet officials and prevent the expulsions. Therefore, Sovietization began in Hungary. Soviet authorities remained ever present in Hungary and created a communist government. The Holocaust, ironically, was a taboo topic and not allowed to be discussed. The war was then blamed on the West and their democratic ways.

For more information, check out these authors or works:
Stephen D. Kertesz, a former Hungarian diplomat during the war, has several publications both books and journal articles.

Braham, Randolph and Scott Miller, editors. The Nazis' Last Victims: The Holocaust in Hungary. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.

Browning, Christopher. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.

Fenyo, M.D. Hitler, Horthy, and Hungary: German-Hungarian Relations 1941-1944. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972.

Paikert, G.C. The Danube Swabians: German Populations in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia and Hitler's Impact on their Patterns. Netherlands: The Hague Martinus Nijhoff, 1967.