Hungarian Conservative

Many examples of resistance to the Nazis were cited by the national committees after the Soviet occupation, in the people’s prosecutors cases and the people’s tribunal cases as well. These materials still need to be explored by Hungarian historians.

The public discourse of the time, spearheaded by the left-wing press, was bloodthirstily demanding the holding accountable of those responsible for the horrors of WWII, forming an opinion first and only asking questions afterwards.

It is important to point out that the anti-Semitic authorities were just as cruel to Jewish policemen as they were to any other Jew.

It must have been clear to everyone that a decision had to be made about whether they wanted to be on the side of the government, collaborating with the German invaders, or whether they would resign or perhaps join the resistance.

The ghettoisation of Jews and the establishment of Jewish police units took place in rural Hungary after the German occupation of 19 March 1944. The police was set up with the aim of maintaining the internal order of the ghettos and internment camps, as well as controlling entry and exit. In contemporary records, the police was variably referred to as ghetto police, auxiliary police, house police, internal police, but the most common name was Jewish police.

In this article, we attempt to present the contradictory situation the Hungarian royal police found itself in after the German occupation of 1944.

The question was posed as follows: was Hungary truly occupied, or did enough of Hungarian sovereignty remain to label the country “independent”?

Greta Thunberg has voiced the opinion that the Western media ‘brainwashes’ people about Israel, and recently wore a Palestinian scarf to a climate protest in Amsterdam. As a result, Fridays for Future Germany has repeatedly distanced itself from their Swedish comrade, saying that they do not compromise on antisemitism and that protecting Jewish lives is important to them. ‘She does not represent Fridays for Future Deutschland’, they tweeted.

In recent years, the number of German citizens moving to Hungary permanently, not only for holiday, study or work, has been increasing. The motives behind this phenomenon are often personal, but they also stem from certain realities of German society.

In March 1945, the chief notary of the Simontornya district in Tolna County reported that 60 per cent of the female population of the village of Nagyszékely was infected with venereal disease, and that girls aged 12–13 were among the victims of rape.

The Germans had demanded the deportation of the Hungarian Jewry long before the German occupation. A note in October 1942, in which German Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Luther summarised his negotiations with Sztójay, the Hungarian ambassador in Berlin at the time, openly mentions the German demand and the fact that it had come directly from Adolf Hitler. According to the text, the ‘handling’ of Jews in Hungary is ‘urgent’.

Since the regime change, we have had eight heads of government, of whom only Viktor Orbán has had more than one term. With his current term running until spring 2026, he has every chance of becoming a historical record holder after 16 years in power.

In her address marking Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, Fidesz MEP Livia Járóka said: ‘Almost 80 years later, it is still clear that what happened at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was genocide and a series of crimes against humanity in which innocent European citizens were exterminated on the basis of an exclusionary ideology whose only purpose was organised destruction.’

‘Szekfű described “capitalism” as “having grown in size over time, becoming a more and more fearsome monster, creating factories and cramming hundreds of thousands and millions of people into the unhealthy, immoral air of smoky cities. And the longer the unrestricted freedom proclaimed by liberalism lasts, the more freely the capitalist big business devours the little ones, the more freely it exploits the economic weaklings, especially the workers.” Szekfű’s book Three Generations, in which he also called for extensive worker protection and the regulation of industrialists by law, bears a striking resemblance to the basic tenets of socialism.’

The book’s greatest value can undoubtedly be found in its historiographical sections, which present the historical assessment of the Soviet Republic and the Horthy system. It is in these that the author utilises the largest literary material and provides the widest overview.

Nagy was a highly controversial figure in Hungarian history, whose assessment is still a source of intense debates…He did stand up for the Hungarian Revolution in 1956—for debatable reasons—; but to portray him as a convinced democrat, or a hero of Hungarian popular representation and individual freedom would be a serious distortion. His legacy must be treated in its proper place: his merits must not be denied, but his sins must not be forgotten.

Bartha highlights that it is a painful phenomenon that the non-Communist Hungarian resisters ‘have been relegated to the no-man’s land in terms of memory politics in the 21st century.’ Hopefully, in the future, more attention will be devoted to the anti-Nazism not only of Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky or Lieutenant General János Kiss, but also that of István Lendvai, István Zadravecz or even Gyula Kornis.

‘Through the gaps in the door, I saw Arrow Cross members leading people to the Danube bank to be shot to death. I also witnessed that those who could no longer walk were shot dead then and there, on the street.’

The research conducted by the Danube Institute contradicts the image of an anti-Semitic Hungary painted by many Western mainstream media outlets. Thanks to the government’s zero tolerance policy, public anti-Semitic expressions are no longer tolerated and Jewish people can freely walk in the streets and worship in synagogues without having to rely on heavy security presence.

Tibor Baranski saved the lives of no less than three thousand Hungarian Jews according to Yad Vashem in Israel, but the actual number could be as many as twelve to fifteen thousand.

The past will not be annulled by short-sighted and counterproductive acts like the removal of the turul statue. What those acts do, however, is demonstrate to Hungarians that despite all the good will, aid, and political support bestowed on their neighbours, there is not much good to expect from Ukraine when it comes to its ethnic minorities and friendly neighbourly relations.

The best side is the neutral side, that is staying out of the killing. ‘Anyone who disputes this and spouts moral arguments has never seen war,’ Demkó warned.

‘I myself believe that extreme politics, whether right-wing or left-wing, is equally half-hearted, harmful and dangerous.’

Perhaps few in Hungary know why a Hungarian Jew who helped Jews in Budapest during the Holocaust and was later executed by the British is so revered in Israel today.

Sometimes post-war transformative justice did catch real war criminals, but sometimes completely innocent men like Antl were caught in its machine.

Few know that he spent his final years not battling Jews, but the Nazis, and most likely ended his life as an anti-Nazi resistance fighter, like his well-known friend, Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky.

This article will help you understand why this position was so coveted by those seeking to control the country – among them the Nazi occupiers of 1944 and the Communists. 

Find out more about the story that highlighted the unreliable nature of People’s Court documents and the necessity of judging each case according to the peculiarities of the story in question. 

According to Douglas Murray, the rise of identity politics and wokism in the West shows that Europe has forgotten about what ‘communism’ means – so those who had lived under oppressive totalitarian regimes should gently remind the West of the dangers of communist sentiments.

‘Anyone who visits Hungary can witness a blooming, flourishing Jewish life, with rich festivals, lively cultural events, active social participation.’