Miklós Horthy

Tens of thousands of Jewish men were assigned to forced-labour battalions, often near the Eastern Front, under brutal conditions. Historical estimates indicate between 25 000 and 42 000 deaths before the German occupation of March 1944.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Hungarian soldiers and gendarmes murdered several thousand civilians, mainly Serbs and Jews, in Novi Sad and the surrounding area. Horthy's regime subsequently investigated the massacre and brought senior officers to trial in 1943–1944.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Indirectly implicated

Horthy and the Kállay government refused German demands to hand over all Hungarian Jews to Germany. This refusal helped keep several hundred thousand people alive until 1944.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

After the German occupation, Horthy remained regent and appointed the Sztójay government. Hungarian administrative authorities, police and gendarmerie collaborated with Eichmann's team to concentrate and deport approximately 437 000 Jews, almost all to Auschwitz.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Under international, military and domestic pressure, Horthy ordered deportations to stop. They effectively ceased two days later, leaving approximately 200 000 Jews in Budapest outside the mass transports to Auschwitz.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

Horthy announced a ceasefire with the Soviets. The Germans thwarted the attempt, abducted his son and forced him to transfer power to Ferenc Szálasi and the Arrow Cross.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

The Hungarian government adopted three major anti-Jewish laws: economic quotas in 1938, racial definitions and electoral restrictions in 1939, then bans on marriages and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews in 1941.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Hungary regained or annexed territories from Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia with Axis support. In these multi-ethnic territories, Hungarian authorities carried out expulsions, discrimination and violence against certain non-Hungarian populations.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

Hungary participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then entered the war against the Soviet Union, engaging militarily alongside the Axis.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Political responsibility

Hungarian authorities expelled thousands of Jews considered foreigners to occupied Soviet territories. German forces and local collaborators subsequently murdered many of them in the Kamenets-Podolsk massacre.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

The regime led by Horthy remained a monarchy without a king, conservative and authoritarian, with democratic restrictions and a nationalist, anti-communist and antisemitic political culture.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Following the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, counter-revolutionary units associated with the National Army under Horthy's command committed summary executions, torture and pogroms targeting communists and Jews in particular.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Under Horthy's regency, Parliament adopted a numerus clausus severely restricting Jewish students' access to university, establishing enduring legal discrimination.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility