Hungary
The
Hungarian experience is one of the primary subjects of the Visual History Archive. If we take Hungary in terms of its pre- and postwar borders
(Trianon Hungary), then there are nearly 8,000 testimonies with content for the periods
before, during, and after the war. If we take wartime Hungary to include the areas of
Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia that Hungary annexed during the war, then the
number of interviews with "Hungarian survivors" is around is around 9,300. The Shoah Foundation conducted 814 interviews in Hungary and 1,349 in the Hungarian language.
The expansion of the country's
borders between 1938 and 1941 was an attempt to rectify the perceived injustices of the
Versailles Treaty, by which significant portions of traditional Hungary had been given
to its neighbors after World War I. Hungary's association with Nazi Germany assisted the
process.
As Czechoslovakia was dismembered
by Germany, Hungary acquired territory. In November 1938, in accordance with the First
Vienna Award, Hungary gained a strip of southern Slovakia and western Subcarpathia referred
to as Felvidék. In March 1939, the Hungarians annexed the remaining part of Subcarpathia,
known as Kárpátalja. Under the Second Vienna Award, Hungary acquired large sections of prewar
Romania too, annexing Northern Transylvania in August 1940.
In the wake of the German invasion
of Yugoslavia of April 1941, Hungary was able to annex parts of that country. Collectively
known as Delvidék, these were sections of the Baranja, Backa, and Banat (today part of
northern Serbia), as well as small portions of Medjumurje (northern Croatia) and Prekomurje
(north eastern Slovenia). Some testimonies from these areas refer to the Novi Sad Massacre
(January 21-23, 1942).
The expansion of Hungary's borders
brought with it an increase in the number of non-Hungarian citizens, something that concerned
the Külföldieket Ellenőrző Országos Központi Hatóság (National Center Alien Control Office).
Many internment camps were established in Hungary. After the Axis invasion of the Soviet
Union in summer 1941, Hungarian forces briefly administered some towns in south-western
Ukraine (prewar Poland), including Skala and Kolomyja. Hungarian authorities deported a
large number of Jews without Hungarian citizenship to this area. In August, over 23,000 of
these "alien" Jews were massacred by German and Ukrainian forces in Kamenets-Podol'skii.
Within the borders of the expanded
Hungary, anti-Jewish laws were enacted. From 1939 on, men of draft age were conscripted
into the forced labor service (Munkaszolgálat), part of the Hungarian army not given weapons
and that performed menial and dangerous tasks on the front lines (at least 1,700 interviews
relate to this experience). Conscripts to the forced labor battalions often avoided
deportation to Auschwitz and were generally marched to camps in Germany and Austria only
in late 1944-early 1945. Others were shot, for example in the Pusztavám Massacre
(October 16, 1944).
To head off Hungary's negotiations
with the Allies, the Germans invaded on March 19, 1944. Immediately, they set about enacting
the Final Solution at unprecedented speed, assisted by the Hungarian authorities and
gendarmerie. Ghettos were established across Hungary and its annexed territories as early
as April 1944 (the archive contains information on 172 ghettos in wartime Hungary).
Shortly afterwards Jews were being deported en masse to Auschwitz. By that summer, the
countryside—everywhere except for Budapest—was Judenrein.
Attempts were made to rescue Hungarian
Jewry. Around 170 testimonies discuss the Kasztner transport, a trainload of Jews from
Cluj/Koloszvar who were saved from deportation to Auschwitz by Rezsö Kazstner's negotiations
with Adolf Eichmann. Others were also diverted from Auschwitz, e.g. the "Strasshof transports".
In the capital Budapest,
there was initially no ghetto. Instead in summer 1944, Jews were required to move to
"Yellow Star houses" (discussed in at least 630 testimonies). Others were sheltered in
the so-called "international ghetto"—Swedish, Swiss, and Spanish protected houses
(over 640 interviews). The actions of consular officials of those nations and of the
Vatican contributed to the rescue of thousands. Many Jews in Budapest went into hiding
or assumed false identities (1,294 in the archive). There are around 200 interviews
with survivors who hid in Budapest and who were involved in the underground. Various
Zionist organizations were active in the underground in the city, including the Va'adat
Ezra ve'Hatzalah.
In numerous testimonies, the
role of the Arrow Cross (Hungarian fascist party) is discussed, especially after its
leader Ferenc Szálasi came to power in a coup in October 1944.
In November 1944, the Budapest
ghetto was established (over 750 interviews). Deportations from the ghetto soon became
impossible as the Soviets surrounded the city; executions took place in a nearby racetrack.
The archive contains at least 330 survivors who were liberated in the Budapest ghetto in
January 1945.
With the end of the war, Budapest
became a city through which people traveled searching for relatives, and en route to former
homes. Many opted to leave, some immediately, some after the Communist takeover. Over 300
testimonies discuss the 1956 Revolution, around the time of which many more interviewees
fled Hungary. A small number of those who remained were involved in the Communist
administration.
