Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)

Room 19. From the Successes of Revision to German and Russian Occupation (1938-1945). István Ihász

rom the aspect of Hungary's future it proved fatal on the one hand to put trust in a Balkan landg or a speedy, successful Italian offensive, while on the other to fear the Soviet Union and its preparations for becoming a great power. o have turned prematurely against the Germans would have resulted in immediate occupation, terror and deportation, and so despite advice from the West could not have been undertaken. While being the only free island and sanctuary in occupied Europe, it forfeited the goodwill of the later victorious great powers through a declared and active friendship with Germany. At the same time, the government of Miklós Kállay set great store in its secret soundings out for peace with representatives of the Allies; alongside slogans of German friendship, it attempted to loosen the inherited tight attachment through careful manoeuvres. the discussions carried out in an atmosphere of mutual distrust in Europe's neutral capitals (Istanbul, Bern, Lisbon), which were swarming with agents of the German Secret Service, the ceasefire agreement "accepted" in principle on October 10,1943 could have assisted the country if the western allies had preceded the Soviets in reaching Hungarian territory as a result of a accelerated North Italian offensive or possibly a landing in the Balkans. As it was, the well.formed German Supreme Command had anyhow worked out an operational plan against Hungary (Margarethe I.). With the approach of the eastern front, on March 19,1944 the German Reich, fearing Hungary's exit from the war, occupied the country. At this point the Hungarian conservative democracy that had followed European parliamentary traditions collapsed, and with it disintegrated Hungarian civilian society as the middle classes who maintained the nation fell into disarray. With the loss of Hungary's sovereignty real power was in the hands of Hitler's all-powerful representative, the German Ambassador Edmund Veesenmayer, helped out by the puppet government of the Nazi sympathiser Döme Sztójay and backed up by the German secret police (Gestapo). Miklós Horthy retained his position in the hope that later on he would be able to influence events. This however produced the impression to outsiders that the country was still independent. The Gestapo immediately set out to arrest governmental politicians faithful to Horthy, Anglophile aristocrats and personalities who led the country's economic and cultural life, as well as those belonging to antifascist circles. They set out to persecute Polish and other citizens who hitherto had enjoyed Hungary's protection, dissolved opposition parties and mobilised the country's reserve forces for German military purposes.