1921-1939 Transition
1944-1948









Hungary in World War II, 1939-1945



Prime Minister Pal Teleki's policy of maintaining political neutrality worked until Germany in April 1941 offered stretches of Yugoslav territory in the Vojvodina in case Hungary joined in the attack on Yugoslavia. President Horthy overrode his prime minister and accepted the German offer; Prime Minister Teleki committed suicide. Hungary, which had gained northern Transylvania in June 1940 (Romania's protector France had surrendered to the Germans; Romania had no option but to comply with German, Russian, Hungarian and Bulgarian demands), now gained the Vojvodina west of the Tisza.

Hungary now clearly was a junior partner of Germany. It had to send several divisions which joined in Germany's invasion of Russia. Hungary was not prepared for the war, and Admiral Horthy contemplated to follow the Italian model and sign a separate peace treaty with the Allies. However he was too cautious, and in August 1944 the Red Army reached Hungary's frontiers.
Hungary had been one of the last countries where the SS organized the deportation of the country's Jewish population. Here, Swedish diplomat, acting as an agent of the World Jewish Council, saved an estimated 100,000 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz by handing out blank Swedish pasports and placing them under Swedish protection.
In March 1944, German forces occupied Hungary; now it was too late for a negotiated peace. In December 1944, an anti-Fascist provisional government was formed which declared war on Germany. Hungary had to cede all it's territorial gains made since 1938.





EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Trianon Hungary, from C.A. Macartney, Hungary - A Short History, 1962
The Red and the White, from Istvan Lazar, Hungary - A Brief History, 1989/1993
DOCUMENTS Hungarian Statesmen, from World Statesmen (B. Cahoon)
Historical Population Statistics : Hungary, from Population Statistics (J. Lahmeyer)
Flag of 1918-1945, from FOTW
Hungarian banknotes 1930ff, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money
Armistice with Hungary Jan. 20th 1945, from Avalon Project
Hungarian Propaganda Posters, from : Miscellaneous Propaganda Posters, posted by Earth Station #1
Wartime American Plans for a Postwar Hungary, 1942-1944, posted by Magyar Elektronik Konyvtar, downloadable
REFERENCE Peter F. Sugar (ed.), A History of Hungary, Indiana Univ. Press 1990, 432 pp.
John Flournoy Montgomery, Hungary, the Unwilling Satellite, from Historical Text Archive, Online Book
Annotated Memoirs of General Miklos Horthy, from Historical Text Archive, Online Book
United States Holocaust Museum, Historical Atlas of the Holocaust, NY : MacMillan 1996 [G], pp.168-190 on Hungary
Article : Hungary, in : Americana Annual 1940 pp.371-373, 1943 pp.351-352, 1944 pp.327-328 [G]
Article : Hungary, in : New International Year Book, Events of 1940 pp.339-343, 1941 pp.265-267, 1942 pp.309-312, 1943 pp.269-271, 1944 pp.278-281 [G]
Article : Hungary, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1940 pp.293-295, 1941 pp.244-245, 1942 pp.218-220, 1943 pp.221-222, 1944 pp.145-147 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on March 15th 2007

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