Hungary con't

Hungary has a tragic modern history. Though miraculously unoccupied by German forces until March 19, 1944, it took the Nazis little time to absolutely decimate Hungary's Jewish population.

"In April 1944, Hungarian authorities ordered Hungarian Jews living outside Budapest (roughly 500,000) to concentrate in certain cities, usually regional government seats. Hungarian gendarmes were sent into the rural regions to round up the Jews and dispatch them to the cities. The urban areas in which the Jews were forced to concentrate were enclosed and referred to as ghettos. Sometimes the ghettos encompassed the area of a former Jewish neighborhood. In other cases the ghetto was merely a single building, such as a factory.

"In some Hungarian cities, Jews were compelled to live outdoors, without shelter or sanitary facilities. Food and water supplies were dangerously inadequate; medical care was virtually non-existent. Hungarian authorities forbade the Jews from leaving the ghettos and police guarded the perimeters of the enclosures. Individual gendarmes often tortured Jews and extorted personal valuables from them. None of these ghettos existed for more than a few weeks and many were liquidated within days.

"In mid-May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, in coordination with the German Security Police, began to systematically deport the Hungarian Jews. SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann was chief of the team of "deportation experts" that worked with the Hungarian authorities. The Hungarian police carried out the roundups and forced the Jews onto the deportation trains. In less than two months, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary in more than 145 trains. Most were deported to Auschwitz, but thousands were also sent to the border with Austria to be deployed at digging fortification trenches. By the end of July 1944, the only Jewish community left in Hungary was that of Budapest, the capital.

"Of approximately 825,000 Jews living in Hungary in 1941, about 63,000 died or were killed prior to the German occupation of March 1944. Under German occupation, just over 500,000 died from maltreatment or were murdered. Some 255,000 Jews, less than one-third of those who had resided within enlarged Hungary in March 1944, survived the Holocaust. About 190,000 of these were residents of Hungary in its 1920 borders." (From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.)

By early April 1945, the Nazis were cast out of Hungary by Soviet forces. Here's a timeline from the BBC regarding Soviet rule:

1945 - Soviet forces drive the Germans out of Hungary by early April. Large parts of Budapest are reduced to rubble by the fighting. New Hungarian government introduces land reform bill, redistributing land from large estate owners to peasants.

1947-48 - Communists consolidate power. Hungary aligns itself more and more with the Soviet Union.

1949 - A new constitution makes Hungary a workers' and peasants' state. Industry is nationalised, agriculture collectivised and a wave of police terror launched.

1956 uprising

1956 - National uprising. Protesters demand the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Imre Nagy becomes prime minister. Nagy announces plans for Hungary to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and become a neutral power. Soviet forces crush the rebels, thousands are killed. Nagy takes refuge in the Yugoslav embassy, from where he is abducted by Soviet agents. Janos Kadar becomes head of government.

1958 - Announcement is made that Imre Nagy has been executed for high treason.

1960s - Kadar gradually introduces limited liberalising reforms. Political prisoners and church leaders are freed, farmers and industrial workers given increased rights.

1968 - New Economic Mechanism brings elements of the market to Hungarian socialism.

Spearheading change

1988 - Kadar is replaced by Karoly Grosz. Opposition groups form the Hungarian Democratic Forum.


1989 - May - Border with Austria is opened, the 'Iron Curtain' is breached. Thousands of East Germans escape to the West. Communist state in Hungary is dismantled and a transition to a multi-party democracy starts.

1990 - Stock exchange opens in Budapest. A centre-right coalition wins elections.

1990 June - Hungary withdraws from any participation in Warsaw Pact military exercises.

1991 - Soviet forces withdraw from Hungary. The Warsaw Pact is dissolved. 

The House of Terror Museum was chilling, but essential in understanding Hungary's history in the modern age. We spent more than two hours wandering around looking at exhibits. (There are English translation handouts available in each room, as well as subtitled interviews throughout the building.) If you ever have an opportunity to visit Budapest, it's a must see.