Page 49 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Hungary

THE HIST OR Y OF HUNGAR Y  47

once Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria,
and King Ferenc József of Hungary. Half
a century of progress followed, crowned
when Budapest hosted the Millennium
Exhibition in 1896.

War, Regency and Holocaust
In World War I, hundreds of thousands
of Hungarians died fighting with the
Germans and Austrians. After defeat in Deportation of Hungarian Jews in World War II
1918, a revolution broke out in Budapest
in October. A republic was proclaimed, Horthy committed forces to the invasion of
headed by Count Mihály Károlyi. He was first Yugoslavia, then the Soviet Union. Many
overthrown by Bolsheviks, led by Béla Hungarians were killed on the Eastern Front.
Kun, in March 1919. Kun proclaimed When Horthy tried to negotiate a separate
the Communist Hungarian Republic of peace with the Allies, Hitler replaced him
Councils, and killed all those who opposed with the Hungarian Nazi Arrow Cross party.
its policies. Only the intervention of The first Hungarian Jews had been
Romanian troops, led by Hungarian Admiral deported in June 1941, on the orders of
Miklós Horthy, ended the “Red Terror”. prime minister László Bárdossy de Bárdos,
In the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, vast areas who believed that this act would keep
of Hun gary were awarded to Romania, the German troops out of Hungary. In the
new state of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. summer of 1942, however, Horthy replaced
Horthy became regent. His two decades Bárdossy with the less viciously anti-Semitic
in power were marked by economic and Miklós Kállay. Kállay did not repeal any of
social stagnation, as well as fierce anti- Bárdossy’s legislation, but he prevented
Semitism. When war broke out in 1939, any further large-scale deportations of
Hitler offered Hungary half of Transylvania as Jews. After the German invasion of March
reward for siding with Germany, and in 1941 1944, Kállay was himself sent to Dachau
concentration camp in one of the last
deportations of Jews, Gypsies and political
criminals. SS chief Adolf Eichmann oversaw
the deportations in Hungary. By August
1944, when Horthy put a stop to them,
440,000 Jews had gone, mainly to
Auschwitz, despite the efforts of Raoul
Wallen berg and others (see p79). Indeed,
a third of all those killed at Auschwitz
Signing of the Treaty of Trianon at Versailles, 1920 throughout the war were Hungarian Jews.

1920 Hungary signs the Treaty of 1941 Hungary joins the war on the side
1896 Continental Europe’s first Trianon, and is at a stroke stripped of the Axis Powers, ostensibly to recover
underground railway opens in of more than half its territory. territory lost in 1920.
Budapest. The city hosts a massive
exhibition to celebrate the 1916 Charles IV is crowned King 1939 Hungary declares neutrality at
Hungarian Millennium. of Hungary. the outbreak of World War II.
1850 1875 1900 1925
1873 Buda, Óbuda 1919 Brief Bolshevik 1944 Germany invades Hungary,
and Pest merge to rule under Béla Kun is Horthy is replaced by Ferenc Szálasi,
form a single city: ended by Admiral the leader of the Arrow Cross, a
Budapest. Béla Kun, Miklós Horthy. Hungarian Nazi organization. The
politician and subsequent Holocaust costs nearly half
revolutionary of all Jews their lives.

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