Századok – 2015
2015 / 1. szám - A MAGYARORSZÁGI HOLOKAUSZT HETVEN ÉV TÁVLATÁBÓL - Ungváry Krisztián: Mesterterv? A deportálások döntési mechanizmusa
32 UNGVÁRY KRISZTIÁN MASTERPLAN? THE DECISION MECHANISM OF DEPORTATIONS by Ungváry Krisztián (Summary) In both publicistics and scholarly literature the German and Hungarian decisions which constituted the basis for the deportation of 437.000 Hungarian Jews are still open to debate, as is the reason why this action could be carried out with such speed and then halted abruptly. Nor it is entirely clear why those groups were eventually spared deportation whose workforce would have counted most from the Germans’ point of view. In order to reconstruct the main lines of the decision-making process, I present the concepts of the German leaders-in-charge between February and April 1944, what they required from the Hungarian side, and what room the Hungarian government had for manoeuvring. I also examine the extent to which and the means whereby the practical execution of deportation was coordinated between the German and Hungarian authorities. Attention is also paid to the question of what the primary goals of the deportation were from the German perspective, and what knowledge the Hungarian government may have had about them. And finally, I address the problem of why the Hungarian deportations came to an abupt end in July 1944. My chief argument is that there existed no „master plan”, and events should rather be accounted for by applying Hans Mommsen’s thesis of „cumulative radicalization”, a process in which the attitude of the Hungarian side was decisive.
