German occupation of Hungary

German occupation of Hungary. The German occupation of Hungary, codenamed Operation Margarethe, began on 19 March 1944 when Wehrmacht forces invaded the Kingdom of Hungary to prevent its defection from the Axis powers. The occupation led to the direct control of the country by Nazi Germany, the installation of a puppet government under Döme Sztójay, and the rapid implementation of the Final Solution against Hungarian Jews. It ended with the complete defeat of German and Hungarian forces by the advancing Red Army in April 1945, leaving a legacy of profound destruction and shaping post-war Hungary.

Background and causes

By early 1944, Adolf Hitler and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht had grown deeply distrustful of Hungary's leader, Regent Miklós Horthy. Hungary had been a reluctant ally since the Second Vienna Award and its participation in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, but suffered catastrophic losses at the Battle of Stalingrad and on the Eastern Front. Secret peace negotiations between Horthy's emissaries and the Western Allies, facilitated by contacts in Lisbon and Istanbul, were detected by German intelligence. Fearing a repeat of Italy's surrender after the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Armistice of Cassibile, Hitler resolved to secure the strategic Hungarian oil fields and maintain the Axis frontline. The political maneuvering of figures like Edmund Veesenmayer, the German plenipotentiary, and the pro-German faction within the Hungarian government, including Prime Minister Miklós Kállay, created the pretext for intervention.

Operation Margarethe and the occupation

Operation Margarethe was launched at dawn on 19 March 1944 without a formal declaration of war. Elements of the 2nd Panzer Army and other Wehrmacht units swiftly crossed the border from the Reich and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, meeting no military resistance on orders from Horthy, who was summoned to a meeting at Schloss Klessheim with Hitler. The occupation was politically seamless; a new government was formed under the pro-German ambassador Döme Sztójay, with key ministries controlled by figures like László Baky and László Endre. The Hungarian army was effectively sidelined, and the country was placed under the de facto control of SS-Brigadeführer Otto Winkelmann and the Gestapo. The Sonderkommando under Adolf Eichmann arrived immediately to organize the deportation of Jews.

The Holocaust in Hungary

The occupation enabled the immediate and devastating implementation of the Holocaust in Hungary, which had previously retained a large Jewish population. Eichmann's team, operating from the Hotel Majestic in Budapest, worked with the Hungarian Gendarmerie under Baky and Endre. Within weeks, oppressive racial laws were enforced, and from May 1944, under the supervision of SS-Hauptsturmführer Dieter Wisliceny, mass deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau began. Orchestrated by Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, over 430,000 Jews from the provinces were deported in just eight weeks, primarily to their deaths. The actions of diplomats like Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden and Carl Lutz of Switzerland in Budapest provided some protection, but the genocide, later described in the Auschwitz Report, was one of the most concentrated of the war.

The Szálasi regime and the Arrow Cross

As the military situation deteriorated, Horthy attempted to extricate Hungary from the war, announcing an armistice on 15 October 1944. In response, the SS and Gestapo, under orders from Ernst Kaltenbrunner, initiated Operation Panzerfaust, kidnapping Horthy's son Miklós Horthy Jr. and forcing the Regent's abdication. The fascist Arrow Cross Party, led by Ferenc Szálasi, was installed in power. Szálasi declared the Government of National Unity and the establishment of the Hungarist state, aligning completely with Nazi ideology. His regime, supported by Waffen-SS units, unleashed a reign of terror in Budapest, murdering thousands of Jews and political opponents along the Danube riverbank and accelerating forced marches towards the Reich. The period was marked by extreme violence and chaos until the regime's collapse.

Military situation and Soviet advance

The occupation occurred as the Red Army, following victories at the Battle of the Dnieper and the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket, was advancing toward the Carpathian Mountains. The 2nd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and the 3rd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin launched the Budapest Offensive in late 1944. Fierce fighting ensued, including the Siege of Budapest, where German and Hungarian forces, such as the IX SS Mountain Corps, were encircled. Despite a failed relief attempt during Operation Konrad launched from the area of Lake Balaton, the city fell on 13 February 1945. Final combat operations, including the Lake Balaton Offensive, failed, and the last German troops were expelled by 4 April 1945.

Aftermath and legacy

The occupation's end left Hungary in ruins, its economy shattered, and its population traumatized. The post-war People's Republic of Hungary was established under Soviet influence, with key political figures like Mátyás Rákosi rising to power. The events were central to the indictments at the Nuremberg trials and the subsequent People's Tribunals in Budapest, which tried collaborators like Sztójay, Baky, and Endre. The memory of the Holocaust, particularly the role of the Hungarian authorities, remains a profound and contentious part of national history. The period is memorialized at sites like the Shoes on the Danube Bank and is extensively documented in works such as Randolph L. Braham's *The Politics of Genocide*. Category:World War II Category:History of Hungary Category:Military occupations