<Holocaust Period.
[Numbers and Hungarian
occupations 1938-1941]
The history of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry
encompasses [[contains]] the Jewish population of the
enlarged state of Hungary. In 1930, 444,567 Jews had lived
in Hungary within the boundaries fixed in 1920. An
additional 78,000 Jews came under Hungarian rule when
southern Slovakia (Felvidék) was annexed by Hungary (Nov. 2,
1938). the 72,000 Jews who lived in the Czechoslovak
province of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia came under Hungarian
jurisdiction when Hungary moved in on March15-16, 1939. The
Jewish population of the formerly Rumanian [[Romanian]]
northern Transylvania (awarded to Hungary on Aug. 30, 1940)
numbered 149,000. According to the Jan. 31, 1941, census out
of a total population of 14,683,323 the Jews numbered
725,007 (184,453 of them in Budapest).
In April 1941 there were about 20,000 Jews in the former
Yugoslav territory (Bácska), occupied in the course of joint
German-Hungarian military operations.
[Third Jewish Law of 1941:
half Jews, quarter Jews - dismissals and discriminations -
anti-Semitic parties]
In conformity with the "Third Jewish Law" (1941), which
(col. 1096)
defined the term "Jew" on more radical racial principles,
58,320 persons not belonging to the Jewish faith were
considered Jewish. Thus the total number of persons
officially registered as Jews in mid-1941 was over 803,000.
According to a generally accepted estimate, the actual
number of Christians of Jewish origin exceeded by far the
officially recorded 58,320 [[half Jews, quarter Jews etc.]].
Consequently, the total number of persons liable to racial
discrimination in mid-1941 may be put at a minimum of
850,000.
The Third Jewish Law, based on the *Nuremberg laws,
prohibited intermarriage. By mid-1941 the anti-Jewish
measures had placed Hungarian Jewry in a most
disadvantageous position in every sphere of political,
economic, cultural, and social life. The government party,
Magyar Élet Pártja (M.E.P., "Party of Hungarian Life"),
pursued a pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic policy, while various
national-socialist groupings and the *Arrow-Cross Party
exerted increasing pressure upon the government to stiffen
radically its anti-Jewish policy.
[[It seems strange that there is no emigration or flight
movement mentioned]].
The decimation of the Jewish population began in the fall of
1940, shortly after the incorporation of northern
Transylvania, from where thousands of Jews whose citizenship
was in question were forcibly expelled, mainly to *Rumania
[[Romania]]. The first large-scale loss of life among
Hungarian Jewry occurred in July 1941, when the Office for
Aliens' Control expelled to German-held Galicia about 20,000
Jews, whose Hungarian citizenship was in doubt (mostly
inhabitants of the areas annexed from *Czechoslovakia), as
well as refugees from neighboring countries. They were
mostly concentrated in Kamenets-Podolski and murdered in the
autumn of 1941 by *S.S. men, assisted by Hungarian troops.
The second great loss occurred in January 1942, when 1,000
Jews were massacred by gendarmes and soldiers in Bácska,
mainly in Novi-Sad. In May 1940, special forced labor units
had already been set up for enlisting Jews, who were
excluded from army service.
[Labor units with the
troops against Russia in June 1941 - anti-Jewish laws in
Hungary]
When Hungary joined the war against the Soviet Union, the
labor units were sent with the troops. At that time there
were 10 to 12 labor battalions comprising about 14,000 men,
but later the number of Jews (col. 1097)
on the eastern front reached 50,000. (col. 1098) [[...]]
The position of the labor units which remained in Hungary
was much better, especially when on March 10, 1942, the
extreme anti-Semitic prime minister László Bárdossy was
succeeded by the moderate, conservative Miklós Kállay.
Nevertheless, that month Kállay announced the draft law
[[law of deprivation]] for expropriation of Jewish property
and envisaged clearing the countryside of Jews. He
successively announced measures to be taken to eliminate
Jews from economic and cultural life, for compulsory wearing
of the yellow *
badge,
and finally, their evacuation to the east [[and their coming
back to the tunnel and bunker systems with high death
rates]].
Similar interventions went on early in 1943. The Kállay
government rejected the German requests for deportation
mainly on economic grounds, arguing that deportation would
ruin Hungary's economy and would harm Germany as well. (col.
1098) [[...]]
[Hungarian mass death on
the Don river]
After the great breakthrough of the advancing Soviet army
near the River Don (January 1943) the Second Hungarian Army
disintegrated and fled in panic. It is estimated that of the
50,000 Jews, 40,000-43,000 died during the retreat [[or they
were caught by the Russians and deported to Siberia]]. (col.
1098) [[...]]
[Further discriminations -
no deportations in 1943 - secret talks with the Western
Allies in 1943-1944]
In April 1943 Hitler conferred with Horthy and condemned
Hungary's handling of the "Jewish question" as irresolute
and ineffective. Again the Hungarians rejected the German
demands for the deportations, pointing out the necessity of
waiting for favorable circumstances. By 1943 the Kállay
government completed the program of eliminating the Jews
from public and cultural life, while a numerous clausus was
applied in economic life to restrict the position of the
Jews according to their percentage in the total population
(about 6%). The Jewish agricultural holdings were almost
entirely liquidated, while the "race-protective" legislation
segregated Jews from Hungarian society.
However, in the course of 1943 and beginning of 1944 the
Kállay government secretly conferred with the Western Allies
in preparation for Hungary's extrication from the war. Under
these circumstances the Nazi-style handling of the "Jewish
question" hardly suited the country's interests.
In December 1943, military court procedure was initiated
against the criminals involved in the anti-Serbian and
anti-Jewish massacres in Bácska (January 1942). The Germans
regarded the prosecution of the murderers of Jews as an
attempt to gain footing with the Jews and the Allies, and
the incident contributed to aggravate the tension between
Berlin and Budapest.
GERMAN OCCUPATION.
[Formation of the Special Task Command - German occupation
and Nazi government in Hungary in March 1944 - mass
arrests in concentration camps]
By the beginning of March 1944 the occupation of Hungary was
decided upon in Berlin. One of the German arguments for this
step was the alleged sabotage committed by the Hungarian
government against the "final solution of the Jewish
question". Kállay's rejection of the German demands for
deportation was considered as evidence of Hungary's
determination to join forces with the Western Allies.
Operation Margaret, that is, the occupation of Hungary, took
place on March 19, 1944. By the time of the German
occupation, close to 63,000 Jews (8% of the Jewish
population) had already fallen victim to the persecution.
Prior to the occupation, on March 12, 1944, Adolf *Eichmann,
at the head of S.S. officers of the *R.S.H.A. (Reich
Security Main Office) began preparations (col. 1098)
in Mauthausen, Austria, for setting up the
Sondereinsatzkkommando (Special Task Force) [[Special Task
Command]] destined to direct the liquidation of Hungarian
Jewry. Most of the Sonderkommando members, among them
Hermann Krumey and Dieter *Wisliceny, arrived in Budapest on
the day of the occupation, while Eichmann arrived on March
21. On the German side special responsibility for Jewish
affairs was assigned to Edmund Veesenmayer, the newly
appointed minister and Reich plenipotentiary, and to Otto
Winkelmann, higher S.S. and police leader and Himmler's
representative in Hungary.
On March 22 a new government was set up under the
premiership of the former Hungarian minister in Berlin, Döme
Sztójay. The government consisted of extreme pro-Nazi
elements, willing collaborators with Germany in the
accomplishment of the "Final Solution".
[[This "Final Solution" first was the term for the
deportation of the Jews to eastern Europe, and then the Jews
were deported to the tunnel and bunker systems with high
death rates]].
The new regime's minister of the interior Andor Jaross was
in charge of Jewish affairs; however, actual execution of
the anti-Jewish measures was directed by László *Endre and
László *Baky, state secretaries of the Ministry of the
Interior. Immediately after the entry of German troops into
Hungary, hundreds of prominent Jews were arrested in
Budapest and several other cities. Over 3,000 were detained
by the end of March, increasing to 8,000 by mid-April. A
great number of provincial Jews were rounded up, mainly at
the Budapest railway stations, on the very evening of the
occupation. They were interned at Kistarcsa and other
concentration camps.
[Jewish organizations
dissolved - Jewish council since 20 March 1944 -
Eichmann's alleged manipulation of the Jewish council]
The Jewish organizations were dissolved throughout the
country, and on March 20 a Jewish council (Zsidó Tanács)
with eight members was set up in Budapest upon orders from
the Germans, to act as the head of the Jewish communities.
The Germans aimed at manipulating this authorized Jewish
body to execute their measures without resistance and avoid
an atmosphere of panic. By the end of March, similar Jewish
councils were constituted in several larger provincial
towns. However, unlike the Budapest Jewish Council, their
activity was minimal and their existence short-lived.
From the first days of the occupation, Eichmann and his
collaborators endeavored to persuade the members of the
central Jewish council that deportations were not intended
and that Hungarian Jewry would not undergo brutal treatment.
They assured them that no harm would befall the Jews, on
condition that they obediently carry out the directives
regarding their segregation and their new economic status.
(col. 1099) [[...]]
[[There is no indication about the Jewish professions under
NS rule. Probably there were many Jews in the military
industry working for the Wehrmacht and the production was
working fine]].
[More anti-Jewish orders -
German deportations orders]
On March 31, 1944, Jews were ordered to wear the yellow
badge. Actually, in a few places (e.g., Munkacs), the local
authorities issued this order earlier. On April 7, the (col.
1099)
decision was taken to concentrate the Jews in ghettos and
afterwards to deport them. The ghettoization process was
entrusted to the Hungarian gendarmerie in collaboration with
the local administration. By mid-April an agreement was
reached between the Hungarian government and the Germans
stipulating [[come to an agreement of]] the delivery of
100,000 able-bodied Jews to German factories in the course
of April and May. By the end of April the Germans modified
this plan by dismissing any criteria on ability to work and
demanded the deportation of the entire Jewish population to
concentration camps in the eastern territories. however, at
the end of April, several groups of able-bodied Jews were
transported from the outskirts of Budapest to Germany (1,800
persons on April 28, and a smaller group from the Topolya
concentration camp on April 30). (col. 1100)
[[The deported Jews were deported to the tunnel and bunker
systems with high death rates. Survivors often stayed in
West Germany to evade Communism after 1945 or emigrated]].
[Ghettos - communities
dissolved - deprivations - more anti-Jewish laws]
The "Provisional Executive Committee of the Jewish
Federation of Hungary", appointed by the Hungarian
government on May 6, likewise aimed at ensuring complete
observance of the anti-Jewish directives. By the time this
body was set up, the Jews of the provinces had already been
concentrated in ghettos, and Jewish community life had
ceased to exist, so that the "Executive Committee" was a
mere fiction, devised with the additional aim of lending a
semblance of legality to the government's measures.
Another task imposed on the Jewish bodies established after
the occupation was to assure the complete and unhindered
transfer of Jewish assets and valuables.
Simultaneously with the German actions, the Sztójay
government enacted intensive anti-Jewish legislation.
Numerous anti-Jewish decrees aimed at the total exclusion of
Jews from economic, cultural, and public life. Jews were
dismissed from all public services and excluded from the
professions; their businesses were closed down and any
assets over 3,000 pengö (about $300) confiscated, as well as
their cars, bicycles, radios, and telephones. (col. 1099)
[[...]]
GHETTOIZATION AND DEPORTATION.
[Ghettoization]
The ghettoization was started in the provinces. The Jews of
Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia were evacuated to ghettos on April
16-19; up to April 23, about 150,000 Jews were concentrated
on the northeastern areas of Hungary, pending their
deportation to *Auschwitz, which started on May 15, with
daily transports of 2,000-3,000. [[From Auschwitz the Jews
were distributed to the tunnel and bunker systems, e.g., in
Silesia]].
At the same time as the Carpatho-Ruthenian action, some
ghettos were set up sporadically in different parts of the
country, arbitrarily initiated by local authorities (e.g.,
the Nagykanizsa Jews were forced into a ghetto on April 19;
a number of the Jews of the Veszprem county were crammed
into improvised concentration camps as early as the last
days of March). North Transylvanian Jewry was evacuated to
ghettos in the first days of May, when the process of
ghettoization had already been concluded in northeastern
Hungary.
The ghettoization in the rest of the country, except for the
capital, was completed simultaneously. The Jews were driven
out of (col. 1100)
their hoes in the night, allowed to pack only a minimal
supply of food and some strictly necessary personal
belongings, and then assembled at temporary collection
points. The provisional ghettos were set up in school
buildings, synagogues, or factories outside the towns. In
the large Jewish population centers, ghettos were
established in the vicinity of the towns, mainly in
brickyards, barracks, or out in the open.
[Aryanization of Jewish
properties]
Ghettoization was immediately followed by an inventory of
the movable property and the sealing of the houses that had
belonged to Jews. The Jews were permitted to add a few items
of food and clothing to their scanty baggage during the
inventory, which in most cases was accompanied by gendarme
brutality [[the collaborators]] and looting by the civilian
auxiliary personnel [[collaboration was also looting the
Jews]].
[[Where the aryanized Jewish property have gone is not
indicated. Also "neutral" friends were given former Jewish
enterprises, could be e.g., Swiss Nazi friends of Swiss Nazi
government]].
[From the little ghetto to
the central ghetto - harsh living conditions and
exhaustion]
In this first phase of the ghettoization, the Jews in the
villages were evacuated to temporary ghettos (collection
points) set up exclusively in, or outside towns (from two to
four collection ghettos per county). The second phase
consisted of the evacuation from the collection ghettos to
the larger, central ghettos. The concentratio of Jews in the
central ghettos is given in the table.
[Table. Persons in
the Ghettos in Hungary]
[[Probably there are counted Jews and gypsies
together because the indication is "persons" and
not "Jews". In Hungary there was a big gypsy
community]].
|
Area
|
No.
of ghettos
|
No.
of persons
|
Northeastern
Hungary
|
17xxxxxxx
|
144,000xxxxx |
Transdanubia
|
7xxxxxxx |
36,000xxxxx |
Tisza Region
|
4xxxxxxx |
65,000xxxxx |
Northern District
|
5xxxxxxx |
69,000xxxxx |
Transylvania
(excepting Maramaros and Szatmar counties)
|
7xxxxxxx |
97,000xxxxx |
|
|
|
Total
|
40xxxxxxx |
411,000xxxxx |
from: Hungary; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica
1971, vol. 8, col. 1101
|
About 8,000 detainees were interned in a number of
concentration camps (e.g., Kistarcsa, Sarvar). The inmates
were partly political prisoners and partly Jews from the
provinces rounded up in Budapest. They also faced
deportation along with the Jews of the ghettos. The living
conditions of over 400,000 Jews forced into makeshift
ghettos were characterized by overcrowding and lack of
elementary hygienic facilities. Some of the inmates had no
roof over their heads, and some ghettos were erected
entirely outdoors. During the short period that ghettos
existed in the provinces, inhuman conditions and torture
claimed a number of victims and there were also numerous
cases of suicide. When the next phase of the deportation
began, the majority of the Jewish population was already in
a state of physical and mental exhaustion [[as also were the
gypsies. It seems strange that the gypsies are never
mentioned]].
[Deportations]
The deportations, which started on May 14, were jointly
organized by the Hungarian and the German authorities;but
the Hungarian government was solely in charge of the Jews'
transportation up to the northern border. Between May 14-15
and June 7, about 290,000 persons [[Jews probably with
gypsies]] were evacuated from Zone I (Sub-Carpathian
Ruthenia) and Zone II (northern Transylvania). More than
50,000 Jews of northwestern Hungary and those north of
Budapest constituting Zone III were deported by June 30
[[There is no indication of "persons" or gypsies]]. Zone IV
(southern Hungary, east of the Danube), with about 41,000
persons, was also evacuated by the end of June [[probably
Jews with gypsies]].
The last phase was concluded by July 9 with the deportation
of more that 55,000 Jews from Zone V, comprising
Transdanubia and the outskirts of Budapest. According to
Veesenmayer's reports, a total of 437,402 Jews were deported
from the five zones. (There appears a slight difference,
within a few thousand, between Veesenmayer's figures and
other sources).
[[The whole thing is not very precise because the percentage
of gypsies was very high in Hungarian camps. Auschwitz had a
special gypsy camp at the end of the war]].
The bulk of the transports reached Auschwitz via central
Slovakia by freight train. Each freight car was to carry
about 45 persons, but actually in most cases 80-100 persons
were crammed in under hardly bearable conditions. (col.
1101)
Thousands of sick, elderly people, and babies died in the
trains during the three to five days of the journey, due to
lack of water and ventilation.
[[A basket was the toilet, there was no light, there was
almost no air, the deportations had the last priority on the
railway net and sometimes had to wait some days on a spot
etc.]].
[Hungarian public opinion
accepts the deportations - protests and dismissal - flight
movement and hideouts]
The ghettoization and deportation were not condemned by
Hungarian public opinion; instances of overt sympathy and
willingness to help and rescue were an exception to the
rule. Noteworthy among the few protests was the outspoken
plea of Áron Márton, the Catholic bishop of Alba-Iulia.
Hungarian authorities expelled him from Kolozsvár (now Cluj)
in May 1944 for preaching in defense of the Jews.
Attempts were made throughout the country to evade
deportation, but only in northern Transylvania were most of
them successful, due to its common border with Rumania
[[Romania]]. The number of Jews who managed to cross the
south Transylvanian border and escape to Rumania [[Romania]]
in April-June may be put at about 2,000-2,500. IN addition,
a few hundred Jews went into hiding in the countryside,
especially in northern Transylvania. Likewise some hundreds
of Jews were spared deportation, when exempted by the
authorities on grounds of military or other merit.
A few thousand provincial Jews managed to evade deportation
by either hiding in Budapest, or living in the Budapest
ghettos alongside the bulk of the capital's Jewish
population.
[The Auschwitz deportations
and the camps after Auschwitz - mass murder - flight]
About 95% of the deportees were directed to Auschwitz, where
under camp commander Rudolf *Hoess, large-scale preparations
had been made for their mass murder. The able-bodied were
dispersed to 386 camps throughout the German-held Eastern
territories and in the Reich [[to tunnel and bunker systems
with high death rates, and for underground weapon
construction like tanks, rockets and air fighters. The sick
and elder persons were normally shot, the children were
distributed in agriculture. Cyclon B granulate does not pass
the little holes of the shower heads]].
[Kasztner deportations to
Austria without selection - the "Blood for Goods" program]
A small percentage of provincial Jewry managed to evade
deportation to Auschwitz. In the framework of a deal made by
Reszö *Kasztner with Eichmann (see below), some transports
totaling several thousand (mostly from Debrecen, Szeged, and
Szolnok) were directed to Austria. This group was spared
selections, families remained united, and the majority
survived.
In January 1943 a [[racist]] Zionist relief and rescue
committee was formed in Budapest to help Jews in the
neighboring countries. Otto *Komoly was president of the
committee, Kasztner its vice-president, and Joel *Brand was
responsible for the underground rescue from Poland. Shortly
after the German occupation, Kasztner and Brand established
contact with Eichmann. Their names, especially that of
Kasztner, became linked with the transaction known as
Blut fuer Ware ("Blood
for Goods"). Brand was sent to Istanbul to mediate between
the Allies and the Germans for war materials, particularly
trucks, in exchange for Hungarian Jewish lives, a mission
doomed to failure. Kasztner went to Switzerland several
times to meet with representatives of the *American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee, *Jewish Agency, and *War
Refugee Board in order to work out a rescue plan and arrange
its financing by Jewish organizations. Kasztner succeeded in
concluding a deal with Eichmann, which resulted in the
transport on June 30, 1944, of 1,658 Jews from Hungary to
Switzerland at the fixed price of $1,000 per head and two
further transports on August 18 and December 6, consisting
of 318 and 1,368 Jews respectively, most of whom were of
Hungarian and Transylvanian origin. The first group was
first detained at *Bergen-Belsen, but, as a result of
*Himmler's intervention, finally reached Switzerland by the
end of December.
[[Swiss government was not
"neutral"
The anti-Semitic Swiss government of Switzerland played a
cruel game with the world serving the Nazi administration up
to the end giving credits and with help for any transaction
and working force for the Wehrmacht up to the end of the
war, stamping passports with a "J" and rejecting Jews at the
frontiers etc. The pro-Jewish actions were a welcome mean
for the later history propaganda after 1945, and the Nazi
line of the Swiss government was hidden up to the 1990s...]]
After deportations from the provinces were completed,
preparations went under way for the deportation of Budapest
Jews. The timing of the Budapest deportation to follow the
completion of the "Entjudung" ("ridding of Jews") of the
provinces, was set for technical, economic, and tactical
reasons.
[Ghetto in Budapest -
interventions - stop of the deportations on 8 July 1944]
On June 15, 1944, the Ministry of the Interior ordered the
concentration of the Budapest Jews in some 2,000 houses
marked with a yellow star and designated to enclose about
220,000 Jews. On June 25 a (col. 1102)
curfew was ordered for the capital's Jews, who from this
date led the life of prisoners in utter destitution. The
series of foreign interventions in May increased in June,
taking on a more organized form and exerting a favorable
influence upon the fate of Budapest Jewry.
In June the Swiss press, and subsequently the press in other
neutral states and in the Allied countries, published
details about the fate of Hungarian Jewry. The press
campaign and the activity of Jewish leaders in Switzerland
brought about a series of interventions with Horthy. Among
others, the king of Sweden, the *Vatican, and the
International Red Cross intervened. Among the Hungarian
personalities who interceded with Horthy for the cessation
of the deportations were Protestant bishops and
Prince-Primate Justinianus Serédi. These interventions,
along with the concealed intention of the Hungarian
government to create favorable conditions in case of a
separate armistice treaty with the Allies, brought a halt to
further deportations on July 8.
At the same time Baky and Endre, the chief Hungarian
organizers of the "Entjudung", were dismissed. At the end of
July, Himmler also gave his approval to the suspension of
the deportations. Meanwhile, as many Jews as possible were
successfully placed under the protection of some neutral
states (e.g., Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal).
[Lakatos government since
August 1944 - war against Romania since 4 Sept. 1944 -
massacres in Transylvania]
In August a turning point was reached when Horthy and his
supporters dismissed the Sztójay government. A new
government less servile to the Germans was formed under
General Géza Lakatos, with the aim of preparing the
armistice with the Allies. Throughout July and August the
situation of the Budapest Jews and of the labor conscripts
appeared more hopeful. However, on September 4, the Lakatos
government declared war against Rumania [[Romania]], which
had joined the Allies (August 23). Hungarian units crossed
the south Transylvanian border and perpetrated acts of
savagery against the Jewish residents in the strip occupied
up to the beginning of October. They massacred the whole
Jewish population of Sărmaş and Sărmăşel (126 persons),
committed murders at Ludus and Arad, and made preparations
for the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in the
temporarily occupied territories.
[Anti-Semitic Szálasi
government 15 October 1944-1945 with the Arrow-Cross Party
- new Eichmann plans]
On October 15, the fate of the Budapest Jews took a dramatic
turn for the worse. After Horthy's unsuccessful attempt to
extricate [[exclude]] Hungary from the war, the Germans
activated the Arrow-Cross Party of Ferenc *Szálasi, which
immediately initiated an unprecedented reign of anti-Jewish
terror. Eichmann, who had been obliged to leave Hungary on
August 24 (after succeeding in deporting the inmates of the
Kistarcsa and Sarvar camps, against Horthy's orders),
returned to Budapest on October 17 and resumed his activity
for deporting the capital's Jews.
After October 15, the Budapest Jews were divided into two
groups: the (col. 1103)
majority were enclosed in a central ghetto, while the
smaller segment lived in the blocks and quarters "protected"
by various neutral states (e.g., by Switzerland and Sweden).
As a preliminary [[introduction]] step in the deportations,
the Jewish male population aged 16 to 60 was ordered out to
work in fortifications. In accordance with the deportation
plans, two transports of about 50,000 each were to leave in
November for Austria and the Reich.
[[This number of 50,000 seems to be much too high. 25,000
persons per train in 100 wagons would mean 250 persons per
wagon which was not at all possible. And 50 freight wagons
per train is already very much]].
However, these plans were thwarted [[made impossible]] by
the military situation on the Eastern front.
[Soviet troops before
Budapest - death marches to western Hungary]
On November 2, Soviet troops reached the outskirts of
Budapest. Under these circumstances the labor battalions
were driven toward western Hungary, and on November 8, a
group of about 25,000 Budapest Jews were directed on foot
toward Hegyeshalom at the Austrian border. They were later
followed by other contingents of up to 60,000. A high
percentage of persons on this "death march" perished on the
way. From the Arrow-Cross seizure of power until the Soviet
occupation of Budapest (Jan. 18, 1945), about 98,000 of the
capital's Jews lost their lives in further marches and in
train transports, as well as through Arrow-Cross
extermination squads, starvation, disease, and cases of
suicide. Some of the victims were shot and thrown into the
Danube.
RESISTANCE AND RESCUE.
Organized resistance among Budapest Jews made itself felt
only in the autumn months, but it failed to develop on a
large scale. A few small, armed groups were active in
Budapest, attacking Arrow-Cross men and performing rescue
operations. In several cases, armed Jewish youths, disguised
as Arrow-Cross men or as soldiers, prevented executions and
killed Szálasi's men.
One form of resistance was the [[racist]] Zionist
halutz (ḥalutz)
movement rescue activities, which consisted in forging
identity cards, supplying money, food, and clothing, and
facilitating escape or hiding. An attempt by the *Haganah to
activate the rescue work by sending Hungarian-born Jews from
Palestine failed in the summer of 1944. A few members of the
Haganah (see *Parachutists) were parachuted by the British
into Yugoslav territory, from where they crossed into
Hungary,but were captures. Two of them were executed (Perez
Goldstein and Hannah *Szenes).
The rescue operation by some neutral states proved to be
efficient. Up to the end of October 1944, more than 1,600
Jews in Budapest were provided with San Salvador documents.
By the end of the year, the number of Jews enjoying the
protection of neutral states and of the International Red
Cross in the "protected houses" rose to 33,000. The
Arrow-Cross authorities recognized, among others, 7,800
Swiss and 4,500 Swedish safe-conduct passes. Prominent
figures in this rescue work were Charles Lutz, a Swiss
diplomat, and Raoul *Wallenberg, secretary of the Swedish
Legation in Budapest.
[[The Swiss Nazi government condemned the aid action in
favor to the Jews because the action had been "illegal".
Rehabilitation was given only many years after the war when
the old Nazis in the Swiss justice system had gone]].
[Soviet occupation of
Hungary and new borderlines since 1944]
[[The Soviet occupation of Hungary was a big fault of the
western diplomacy. The western allies had landed at the
French coast and were waiting 3 months for the murder of
Hitler which had been promised by the German resistance
groups. But Hitler survived the attack and the western
allies had to fight all the way and were late. So, Stalin
got whole Berlin and whole eastern Europe, also Hungary
which felt betrayed by the allies]].
By September-October 1944, northern Transylvania was
occupied by the Soviet armies, followed by Hungary's
eastern, southern and northeastern strip. The Soviet forces
occupied Budapest on Jan. 18, 1945, and by early April all
"Trianon" Hungary. The Soviet occupation of Hungary brought
freedom to the Budapest ghettos and to those labor
conscripts who were within the borders.
[[A few days later the "freedom" ended, the men were draft
into the Soviet army and had to fight and had to die at the
front. Add to this all people who had "contacts" to the
enemy were deported. But the Gulag system is never mentioned
in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. Hungary was given the
borderlines of 1919 again and by this lots of Hungarians
again had to live under foreign rule]].
DEMOGRAPHIC TOTAL.
[Jews surviving the ghettos
- migrations in 1945]
Statistical data on the destruction of Hungarian Jewry show
that about 69,000 Jews were saved in Budapest's Central
Ghetto and 25,000 in the "Protected Ghetto". In addition to
these two categories, which also include persons safeguarded
in the buildings of some neutral diplomatic mission, about
25,000 Jews came out of hiding in Budapest. A few thousand
survived in Red Cross children's homes. An exact assessment
of the number of Jews who returned to Hungary is rendered
difficult by the fact that northern Transylvania,
Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Felvidék, and Bácska were once
again detached from it. (col. 1104)
Throughout the first postwar months there was a large-scale
fluctuation of population between "Trianon" Hungary and the
so-called "succession states". The number of Jewish forced
laborers who returned to Hungary or were liberated there,
including those who later returned from Soviet captivity,
may be estimated at 20,000. By the end of 1945 some 70,000
deportees had returned. The number of Jews saved in all
these categories in postwar Hungary totaled 200,000. The
losses of Hungarian Jewry from the Trianon territories was
300,000. A relatively high proportion of the survivors were
non-Jews, considered Jews according to the racial laws.
[[The mass death in the tunnel and bunker systems is not
mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. According to the
latest research there also were murdered a mass of Jews in
the tunnel systems by blasting the tunnel systems. So the
Jews were buried alive and it was hindered that the Jews
fell into Communist hands of the enemy...]]
A total number of about 25,000-40,000 Jews who were saved
returned to northern Transylvania; some 15,000 to
Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia and about 10,000 to Feldivék,
reattached to Czechoslovakia. The number of Jews who
returned to Bácska is estimated at a few thousand.
The relatively small number of survivors outside Hungary,
who failed to return in 1945 to their former homes, cannot
be assessed.
[[Hungarians who reached western Germany or Austria stayed
there after the war evading Communism. The direct emigration
to Palestine is not mentioned. Probably the number was not
so low as indicated]].
Of the 825,000 persons considered Jews in the 1941-45 period
in greater Hungary, about 565,000 perished [[in camps, on
deportations, on the fronts by fighting, on death marches,
etc.]], and about 260,000 survived the Holocaust.
See also *Holocaust.
[B.V.]> (col. 1105)
[[Jews changing name or changing religion who were not
counted any more as Jews after the war are not mentioned]].
