HUNGARIAN HISTORY
Between the two wars, Europe was busily re-organising itself. Hungary was a Kingdom without a King, run by Admiral Nicholas Horthy. The fact that Hungary had neither a Navy nor a sea, and that its non-existing Navy could sport a solitary Admiral only, was typical of a country, which in its over 1000 years of history, invented and tried a variety of political ideas. Thus Hungary had communism almost before the Russians, fascism almost before Mussolini, and they certainly had anti-jewish legislation before Germany or any other country.
To be fair to the only Admiral landlocked Hungary ever had: until 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had access to the Mediterranean Sea, had a viable Navy and that Navy was commanded by neither a Prince nor an Archduke, but Admiral Horthy a Hungarian nobleman without even a title. Whatever his other mistakes, we must accept that he must have been quite outstanding to become the first and last Hungarian Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the latter part of the war.
While the Great War of 1914-18 was fought, Hungary was the junior partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were allied to Germany and Turkey against the might of England, France, Russia and the United States. They lost the war and the Allies commenced to dismantle the power and territory of their enemies, whom they regarded as the guilty party in the whole affair.
Germany had to forgo the right to have an army and Kaiser William went into exile. Heavy repatriations were crippling the German economy and soon inflation on a previously unheard scale finished off ruining Germany. At the time Germany had a democratic Government, but being made completely bankrupt, was readied for the extremes of Teutonic and Nazi ideology. Dictatorships usually arise on the economic ruins of the country and Germany was not to be an exception.
The Versailles Peace Treaty was supposed to bring peace with Germany, while the Treaty of Trianon dealt with Hungary. It was certainly intended to deal a death blow to Hungary. In fact these Allied dictated treaties caused most, if not all of the problems in Europe, which in 1939 resulted in the next war.
Austria and Hungary had to give up territories to newly founded countries. Most of Poland and Romania, all of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (with the exception of Serbia) used to belong to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now they became independent and hostile to the truncated Hungary, which they encircled. Austria became a small landlocked country as did Hungary. There were no harbours left for them to ship produce from, nor to have a navy.
Hungary was treated in a particularly harsh manner losing well over 50 percent of its prewar territory. The leaders of the Allies and especially President Wilson had no interest in finding out about Hungary and how that small country bled in the interest of the West over the centuries guarding Europe against the Moslem Empire or how Hungary itself was subjugated by the Austrians. The allies were more interested in creating new allies for themselves by rewarding the newly established countries that encircled Hungary in anticipation of providing "peace for ever" in Europe.
The Hungarians were not only hard done by, but felt betrayed. No wonder that almost immediately after the war, an "irredentist" movement swept Hungary, which was later used to unify the country under Horthy's rule.
Austria became a Republic, while Hungary remained a Kingdom, with the ex-Emperor of Austria as its King. However, even before the Habsburg King Charles could take up residence in Hungary a Bolshevik revolution led by Béla Kun brought communist rule for Hungary. The Communist Peoples Republic of Hungary was short lived and the leaders of the revolution fled to Lenin's Russia.
The communists were in a minority and could not consolidate their rule, before it was opposed from both outside and within the country. It was the Allied powers who were not too enthusiastic about Bolshevism in Hungary and therefore they allowed and encouraged the Rumanians to occupy Hungary. Finally it was Admiral Nicholas von Horthy de Nagybánya, who came to power in 1919, when with the help of the French and English and the Rumanians, he arranged communism in Hungary to come to a bloody end.
People disappeared at the time, many were summarily executed, other were simply murdered. Horthy's regime was called the "White Terror" which took over from the "Red Terror" of the Communists. Because some of the Reds and Béla Kun were Jewish socialists, when Horthy took over, thousands of the victims of the White Terror were Jewish, whether they were Communists or not.
Even after the wide spread pogroms in which hundreds of Jews lost their lives, have ceased, the Horthy Government had an official anti-Jewish policy, whereby anti-semitism was tolerated and encouraged. No Jew was allowed to hold a position in the public service or be an elected politician and Hungary's Parliament enacted the first anti-Jewish legislation in Europe, according to which University entrances were restricted to Jewish students on the basis of their own and parent's religion.
Horthy's rule was not unwelcome. The Communists made a mess of running the country, they tried to change too many things too fast. Horthy seemed to bring a stability to Hungary which was most welcome after the Great War and the subsequent troubled times. He organised elections and although these were neither secret (in the country areas) nor free (only certain parties were allowed), the resulting Government of Count Stephen Bethlen was attempting to be conciliatory and has been instrumental in re-building the countries economy.
The Red Terror of the Communist rule was followed by the White Terror during which many more became killed as before. Yet Horthy became a king-like father-figure, who appeared to be the arbitrator, who was benevolently overseeing the country's re-emergence as an important nation in Middle Europe. In actual fact he was always in control and his will was carried out by his friends and colleagues in the ministries.
He established a new order, based on medieval knights and called an order of the "vitéz". Any person who fought in the war and received certain standards of decorations could apply to become a member of the "vitéz" and if accepted, he could use the "vitéz" prior to and as part of his name. Before a person was accepted, he was investigated by police and the army as to the racial purity of his forebears and his political past and present and only if absolutely non-Jewish and 100% reliable to the Government, was he allowed to take a solemn oath pledging his loyalty to the person of Admiral Horthy.
The orphan or the eldest son of the "vitéz" on attaining the age of 21 could apply to become a member of the order in his own right, and if he could show the same political reliability as his father before him, he would also join the elite. Officially, there was no material advantage in becoming "vitéz" but in actual fact introducing one self with the prefix of "vitéz" ensured an advantage, since belonging to the order demonstrated to everybody that the person enjoys the patronage of Horthy and vica versa. In this way, Horthy was getting a large number of loyal followers, who have all pledged themselves to support him and his regime.
In later years, the White Terror gave way to a more peaceful situation, where even if democracy wasn't actually practiced, there was an opportunity to live without fear. It was still not possible to speak without fear, but at least internment camps (invented by the British in South Africa, used by the Hungarians, but eventually improved by the Germans, whose camps like Dachau were to become infamous later) were kept going only for the so-called enemies of the Nation and also some unemployed gypsies, whose music was the favourite and official music of Hungary. However, chief amongst those interned were the Communists, who could be kept there for 10 - 15 years without trial, in 'protective' custody.
While there was a quota system in Universities to restrict Jews from becoming students, nevertheless Jews were allowed and encouraged to work, make money, give employment opportunities, export their produce and talents, and pay taxes, bribes and offer contributions to the Government parties. They were referred to as Hungarians if they were famous musicians, industrialists, painters or film makers. If they were not, they were tolerated, but if they were poor, they were referred to as bloody Jids.
As Admiral Horthy said to my Father in my presence in 1943: "We should be proud of our Hungarian Jews. (He actually said: Hungarian Jids, i.e. "magyar zsidajaink".) Do you realise that they built the film industry throughout the World?"
My Father respectfully agreed with the great man, who omitted to mention that only the previous week he signed a regulation that made any Jewish man who has or continued to have sexual relationship with a gentile female liable to life imprisonment or that he ordered the decimation i.e. the execution of every tenth sailor on a ship he commanded in 1917.
Hitler came into power in 1933, some years after Mussolini. The first foreign visitor he had was Colonel Gyula Gömbös, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who started to talk about an Axis between Berlin and Rome. This was eventually established and Hungary became an important ally of the two Fascist powers, who arranged the return of some of the territories which were taken from Hungary after the 1914/18 war. In exchange Hungary gave the Germans and Italians their un-diminishing loyalty, which included more and more anti-Jewish legislation from May 1938 onwards.
The first of these limited employment of Jews in businesses to 20%. Further anti-Jewish laws included defining the status of Jews, forbidding them leading positions in the media, prohibiting the issuing of new trade licenses or the renewal of old ones. Further admission of Jews to the professions was forbidden, as was their right to acquire citizenship by naturalisation, marriage or even if born in Hungary of non-Hungarian parents. Voting rights of non-native Jews was cancelled and to be able to prove that you were a Hungarian Jew you had to show that all your forebears, if Jewish, were permanently resident before 1868, i.e. for the previous 70 years!
To find your forebears, and where they lived and died, became quite a business, in more ways than one. In our case, Father engaged a "genealogical investigator" who found that all of our forebears had the decency of having been born in the right place. It was all very satisfactory except for one rather shameful forebear, whose gravestone was found to be outside the cemetery walls and with an inscription disclosing that under that stone rests the ex-Roman Catholic vicar and his wife, with an obviously Jewish maiden name. It appears that our forebear was a priest who fell in love with a Jewess, married her and must have been excommunicated for having broken his vows of celibacy. Little did he know what problems he caused to us five or six generations later!
It became pretty obvious to anybody but the blind, that being a Jew would be more and more a hazard to enjoying a normal life, although no one could dream of the holocaust that was to follow. Nevertheless, every Jew was trying to find ways and means to ensure that whatever may happen, he and his family would get by with the minimum of trouble from the authorities.
Some decided that assimilation was the answer and became Christians. It was thought at the time that all you needed to do was to register as a member of a non-Israelite religion and all would be well. My Father was of this opinion, and we became members of the Roman Catholic religion sometime in 1937.
It is easy to say so many years later that this was a cowards' way to deal with the situation and nothing, but nothing could be further from the truth. For a Jew to become a Christian, in the hope that he and his family may survive with less persecution, was a greater sacrifice, than to do nothing. No one but a Jew can understand the anguish of the Jew who gives up the religion, which while he may not practice it or he may not even believe in, was the faith of his forebears.
Only someone who experienced it can understand the anguish of my Mother who had to get the signature of her Rabbi and his permission to 'desert' her faith by becoming a Catholic. He did not make it easy for her when he asked her how, after her betrayal of her ancestors, will her conscience allow her to visit her parents' grave.
We became members of the Roman Catholic Church but it did not give us any benefit in the years to come. Nor did the conversion of my parents make any difference to them, - my Mother continued to read her Miriam, her prayer book, light candles on Friday night and to visit her Synagogue, while my Father continued to send money to the Jewish congregation, which was his way of keeping up religion. At the same time he insisted that he believed in God but not in religion.
I was the only member of the family, who really became and acted as a Roman Catholic, by going to a Catholic School, attending Mass and becoming an Altar Boy. For a short while I was a believer, but this stage of my life was brief and I reacted with a life long suspicion of religion of any kind, yet I always believed that if only the teachings of all the churches could be followed, without the trappings of religion and without some of its practices, the world would be a better place.