A few weeks ago I received a newly published book entitled Kötéltánc (Rope walking) by Sándor Krassó, a Holocaust survivor from Pécs. It is not a work of a professional historian but of an eyewitness, not a comprehensive history of the fate of the Pécs Jewish community but snippets from the year 1944. I managed to identify a few people who appear in the book, among them a high school classmate of my father and the woman who had an elegant children’s clothing store with whom I had quite a dispute over the winter coat I was supposed to get.
Perhaps the most moving part of the book was the list of official announcements that appeared in the local paper, Dunántúl, between March 23 and July 6, 1944, the day the Jewish inhabitants of the city and some smaller towns nearby, about 6,000 people in all, were led to the main railroad station to be sent to Auschwitz. The Pécs Jewish community had been gathered into the ghetto on May 6, which was sealed on May 21. I don’t think I have to add anything to these terse announcements. They speak for themselves. They also happen to be relevant to our discussion about the nature of the Horthy regime’s final days.
March 31: “Jewish households cannot employ Christian servants. … Jewish engineers, actors, lawyers must be removed from the professional associations … From April 5 on all Jews over the age of six must wear on the left side of their coats a canary-yellow six-pointed star.”
April 1: “László Endre, administrative undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, told the reporters of Esti Újság that the government decrees are only the beginning of the final solution of the Jewish question. In the opinion of the Hungarian nation the Jewry is an undesirable element from moral, intellectual, and physical points of view. We must seek a solution that would exclude the Jewry from the life of the Hungarian nation.”
April 6: “On Wednesday the cabinet made the decision to limit the free movement of Jews within the country.”
April 9: “Jews by April 10 must report the details of their radios by registered mail.”
April 15: “A Jew must declare all his assets on official forms. His assets cannot be sold, given to someone else, or pawned. He must separately declare real estate. A Jew cannot own stocks and cannot have more than 3,000 pengős in cash. Failure to follow this order may mean six months of incarceration.”
April 18: “All Jewish white-collar employees must be dismissed.”
April 19: “Ten people were charged for failure to wear the yellow star… one of them was interned.”
April 21: “All Jewish merchants must shut down their stores.”
April 23: “Jews can receive 300 grams of oil and 100 grams of beef or horse meat per month.”
April 25: “Dismissed Jewish clerks cannot be employed by the same firm even as laborers.”
April 27: “Jews cannot purchase lard.”
April 30: “All Jews must turn in their bicycles to the Pécs police station within twenty-four hours.”
May 4: “Within three days Jews must turn in their musical instruments and pieces of art.. .. For example, pianos, violins, records, paintings, statues, ceramics.”
May 6: [The authorities designated a certain part of town as the ghetto.] “Each room housed five people…. Out of the twenty Jewish doctors in town, five moved into the ghetto.”
Source: http://www.vasutallamasok.hu / The Pécs Railroad Station
May 10: “Jews cannot take any valuables into the ghetto… They are allowed to take 50 kg total including bedding … Pécs Jews turned in 38 tons of lard, two tons of goose fat, and 60 kg of smoked meat. … Their radios must be turned in on May 11 and 12.”
May 12: “The government commissioner in charge of the press ordered all forbidden Jewish books to be collected for 5 pengős per ton.” [including works by such authors as Heinrich Heine, Martin Buber, Stephan Zweig, and, among Hungarians, Ferenc Molnár, Frigyes Karinthy, and Sándor Bródy]
May 18: “The City of Pécs offers for sale Angora rabbits turned in by the Jews.” [On the same day there were four suicides by Jewish men and women.]
May 20: “The Pécs police authorities suspect that Jews are giving their jewelry and gold to Christians for safekeeping. All valuables of Jews belong to the state. Christians who harbor such goods will be severely punished. They can be interned.”
May 21: “No Jew’s book can be published…. Tens of thousands of Jewish books will be reduced to pulp…. We are making a reality of what Ottokár Prohászka and Lajos Méhely demanded.”
June 11: “1,200 claims were received for Jewish houses and apartments.”
July 2: “The Jewish ghetto will be closed. The Christian families can move back to their old apartments shortly.”
July 6: [the day Pécs Jews boarded the box cars] “The ghetto is empty.”
Hungarian Spectrum 
This terrible summary of events looks like the highly condensed version of how the German nazis did it over twelve years. All compressed into less than four months. It is unbelievable. But we know that it is true and we should never forget.
1941 census [1930 census]. There were 3,486 [4,030] people with “Israelite” religion in Pécs. In Baranya county, outside Pécs, there were an additional 2,498 [2,560] people.
The Jews of Southern Baranya were deported to Auschwitz via Sopron on May 27.
There were two trains to Auschwitz from Pécs. The first train, with 3,100 Jewish people from Pécs itself left on July 4, 1944. Two days later, the second train carried 2,500 Jewish people who had lived in the countryside. It took two days for each train to arrive at the border town of Kassa [Kosice].
Not totally OT:
There just surfaced an incredible story from Munich. An old man seems to have in his possession many famous pictures (Picasso etc …) which originally belonged to German Jewish collectors and were taken away from them by the Nazis. His father somehow managed to keep their existence unknown. Now the German government is pondering what to do – the first families/former owners have come out asking for a return …
O, I forgot:
The value of the collection is estimated at around one billion €, yes one thousand million €!!!!!
Less OT: Relatives of my girlfriend who lived in the Hungarian countryside were also deported and killed during those four months in 1944. The day after they disappeared their little shop was plundered and their house occupied by “true” Magyars, their neighbours.
So sad.
“All Jews must turn in their bicycles to the Pécs police station within twenty-four hours.”
……………
Somehow it struck me as one of the lowest.
How can anybody, who supposed to be a Human Being came to such idea at all?
And there are people who willing to resurrect these “old glorious times”, claim to belong to the Human race too, even Hungarians of all that.
We will never learn, obviously.
My father, along with his family, have first took on Hungarian surnames and about 20 years later left their Jewish faith and became Calvinists. This was a full 25 years before 1944. Therefore nobody in his factory knew that he was born Jewish. Until somebody reported to the authorities this fact, after which he was interned. Later he was taken to Sopronkohida and then to Mauthausen. From there he was taken further West to Gunskirchen where the Americans freed him. He arrived home half dead and only lived another 12 years or so. I still have his yellow star he had to wear. I saw in the photos of the 5-600 protestors at the inauguration of the Horthy statue today that many of them were wearing the Jewish star. Good on them. I was out of town all day, so I couldn’t join them, but it gave me a good feeling that at least there are some people who do not let these appalling events go unchallenged.
Ma, Vasárnap, Horthy szobrot avattak Budapesten!
Horthy Miklós levele gróf Teleki Pálhoz, 1940. október 14-én:
“Ami a zsidókérdést illeti, én egész életemben antiszemita voltam, zsidókkal sohasem érintkeztem. Tűrhetetlennek tartottam, hogy itt Magyarországon minden-minden gyár, bank, vagyon, üzlet, színház, újság, kereskedelem stb. zsidókezekben legyen, és hogy a magyar tükörképe – kivált külföldön – a zsidó. Azonban, minthogy a kormányzat egyik legfontosabb feladatának az életstandard emelését tartom, tehát gazdagodnunk kell, lehetetlen a zsidókat, kiknek minden a kezükben volt, egy-két év leforgása alatt kikapcsolni, és hozzá nem értő, leginkább értéktelen, nagyszájú elemekkel helyettesíteni, mert tönkre megyünk. Ehhez legalább egy emberöltő kell. Én hirdettem talán először hangosan az antiszemitizmust, azonban nem nézhetek nyugodtan embertelenségeket, szadista, oktalan megaláztatásokat, mikor még szükségünk van rájuk.”
We are on the “küszöb” (threshhold) of a NEW age. Some people are delighted, others are sad.
Some people feel sick to the stomach.
Its creepier than ever.
For Hungarian speakers:
The legend of the “lady with a holdall” from Pecs.
http://www.urbanlegends.hu/2012/02/a-pecsi-szatyros-holgy-legendaja/
“She survived 1944 in a pit dug in the ground.”
They sure know how to celebrate Haloween over here !!!
Andy: Yes, this perfectly describes Horthy’s antisemitism. Yes, he wasn’t a Nazi, he certainly didn’t want to exterminate the Jews and he is rightly not deemed a war criminal (or at least about 44-45, 19-20 is much less obvious). On the other hand he was an antisemite in this “weak sense” nevertheless and there is nothing to praise about him or erect statues for.
Even if one makes peace with the person, I think his name stands for an entire period and and political system which made a pact with the devil and eventually lead the country into a catastrophe. That is certainly not something to declare continuity with.
OT: an article about the rural public work program.
http://nol.hu/belfold/20131102-kozmunkaban_nyugdijig
The local sources tell the journalist that among rural people Orbán is actually getting more popular.
Those who do not participate in the program (they like Orbán because the prgram brought order and assuaged perceived injustice, that is the former receipt of welfare payment without work) and also those who participate in it (they got to like it, it’s an OK money after all and people can stay in their communities) like Orbán better and better. Also these locals are afraid that after a change in government the program would be cancelled (so people would get money without work and participants would not be able to so anyhting).
I add that rural people are often also socially conservative and uneducated to have more political information beyond Fidesz-controlled state media.
Of course, the program is enormously expensive — all the services performed by the workers could be done 1/3 of the costs, but after all it’s a welfare program for the rural region (intended foremost to purchase votes for the money and it worked).
Again, the Left has nothing to say (Bajnai opposed it as being inefficient, which it is, though query as to whether this is the most important issue) and have no vision whatsoever as regards the rural parts of Hungary (small villages of which there are about 3,000 in Hungary and almost all of them are hopeless economically, except for some around Lake-Balaton or which function as suburbs of more successful towns).
“Weak” Anti-Semitism?
Letter of Miklos Horthy to Count Pal Teleki, 1940, 14 October [3 months after the annhilation of the Pecs Jewish population]:
A long interview from 2011 with Professor Braham about Hungary and its Holocaust:
http://magyarnarancs.hu/belpol/egy-dicso-nemzetkep-erdekeben-77380
One shouldn’t forget either that blatant or ‘salon’ antisemitism has been largely present in Europe for centuries. Even in part of my grandmother’s generation. All of this I can’t understand. At least they just only wanted not to have anything to do with Jews socially, but they would never have wanted to kill them. Is was basically a (stupid) societal thing which I still don’t totally understand – because they made exceptions…
But two facts remain:
– It was Hungary that – in modern times – first introduced antisemitic laws.
– It was Nazi-Germany that thought of and organised the holocaust in an almost bureaucratic manner- and found more than 100 000 willing – no: exceedingly keen – helpers in Hungary, too. They found helpers in many other countries. But the keenest and most efficient were, in fact, Hungarians. This is disturbing.
The Fidesz reaction to the Horthy bust was characteristic yesterday.
Rogan, the Jewish “expert” of the party reprimanded Jobbik
for giving opportunity to the foreign press to ‘shout about antisemitism in Hungary’.
But he did not have any bad word about Horthy or his policies.
Is the image of Horthy on public property or on Church property?
If it is erected on public property, Rogan, as mayor of district 5 is responsible for not removing the sculpture built without permit.
If it is on Church property, the current leadership of the Calvinist Church just gave another proof of its pro-Horthy and pro-Jobbik policies.
@Stevan: “1940, 14 October [3 months after the annhilation of the Pecs Jewish population]” are you sure you didn’t mix up the dates?
Btw, here’s another (in)famous letter by Horthy from June 6 1944 where he’s almost whining and imploring Hitler (in German however):
Click to access 19440606-1.pdf
PS:
Does anyone know of an English translation for this?
Economic news.
The building of new apartments/houses in Hungary has reached a historical low.
1987 – 58,000
1993 – 20,000 local minimum
2004 – 43,000 local maximum
2010 – 20,000
2012 – 10,000
2013 – 4,000 (3/4 year) historical minimum
“A collection of 1,500 artworks confiscated by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s has been found in the German city of Munich […] the artworks were found by chance in early 2011, when the tax authorities investigated Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of an art dealer in Munich.”
Csatary, the police chief of the 1944 Kassa ghetto lived in Canada until 199? as an “arts dealer”. May I ask about the origin of his collection and its location now? (could be in Canada OR in Hungary).
Public employees have to take an exam about “national consciousness” – recommends vice premier Semjen.
In other words, the Orban government will make another selection after the 2014 election, firing the politically not reliable teachers, doctors and other public employees.
http://nol.hu/belfold/a_kozigazgatasban_dolgozoknak_vizsgat_kell_tenniuk_nemzettudatbol
Fidesz instructed Parliament to approve the further restriction on freedom of speech with “exceptionally urgent” speed.
Journalist can go to jail, if they disclose evidence that is deemed not true.
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20131104_Bajai_video_kiveteles_surgos_eljarasban_t
Yes. Apologies for my haste and carelessness!
Fidesz permitted only a few hours of debate today about the stifling of investigative journalism.
They will amend the Penal Code tomorrow.
@Tappanch re the building of new houses:
Actually imho it would be better for Hungarians to renovate their old houses, anyway there are so many empty houses which could be used – of course some of them are beyond repair. Also it would be a good idea for the government to help people renovate and modernise heating systems, putting in better insulating windows etc by offering them cheap loans – instead of just forcing the suppliers to reduce heating costs.
While people were protected from home eviction only from December 1 to February 28 last winter, this year Fidesz freezes evictions from October 15 to April 30.
This is a further proof that the election will be in April and not held together with the May EU election to save money.
Stevan Harnad: Yes it is definitely weaker than Hitler’s or Szálasi’s antisemitism, but, if you read on my comment, it is nevertheless de facto antisemitism and therefore inexcusable and unforgivable. He wanted the Jews out of their economic and cultural positions and he thought that he could just acheive that “peacefully”. When he lost control of the situation and realized what level of barbarianism he opened up the door to, he tried to act, but it was way too little and way too late. He deserves no statue, no praise and no high regard whatsoever.
He is a very controversial (and therefore historically intriguing) character and in my opinion the overall picture is very negative, but it’s unscientific and inappropriate to portray him as an equal to Hitler or the Germans. Disliking people to any extent for their race/gender/etc. is a pretty disgusting personality trait – and I take every opportunity to fight against such people – but it is not a crime in a legal sense.
*read: Hitler or the other Hungarian or German Nazi leaders
Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945
http://www.lootedart.com/
By and large I agree with Jano’s earlier note on Horthy. I think that if he forbade the expulsion of Hungarian Jews after March 19, as he did later in July, he could have been a hero. He could have explained the earlier anti-Jewish laws as forced upon Hungary by Germany and could have argued with some justification that they were still better than extermination. But his acquiescence in his government’s decision to participate in the deportations especially when he most likely knew what was waiting for the deportees is unforgivable. He certainly doesn’t deserve any statue. Only condemnation.
A few years ago I met a very distant relative of mine, who lives in Chicago. His family lived in a small town in Somogy. He was 1944 18 years old and a pupil at a Pécs grammar school. A few weeks after the German occupation he received a cable from his family informing him that his mother is very ill and he should come at once back. So he took the first train and when he arrived at the railwaystation the gendarmes who sent the cable, because he was the only Jew missing from the list of those to be deported beat him up and later took him to the cattle car. He was sent to Auschwitz, his family was killed, he was sent to southern Germany to work as a forced laborer in a weapons factory.
He was liberated by the US Army and decided never to go back to Hungary.
It was reported on pol.hu that some Fidesz guy spilled the beans:
It’s been already decided that the parliament elections will be on Sunday April 6
Re: the dedication of Horthy’s bust on Calvinist Church property.
In the past, Protestant churches avoided graven images as idolatry.
Am I behind the curve?
You may even thank to God for that – whichever you prefer – that you’d let behind in this kind of “development”, believe me!
What a shameful charade..!
Eva, I am sorry, but this does not compute!
Please provide one or more sources that you base this accusation on, because I do not believe it to be true.
At the risk of being ostracized like Tomi for questioning the “general opinion” on this blog, I would like to dig deeper for more nuanced information about Horthy. Wikipedia is referencing a letter that Horthy sent to Sztójay objecting to the deportations and – based on what I have learned about Horthy – it would be out of character for him to support the deportations. More importantly, he was not acquitted for participation in the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials, because he was never charged! Instead, he was called up as a witness by those who would definitely have charged him if they had had any indications that he had actively supported the deportations – even by looking the other way and not stopping them if he could have. Those guys had access to witneses with fresh memories and primary evidence … and there had not been decades to cover up and obfuscate the truth.
Do you have any reliable sources to back your accusations up? Do you know something everybody else do not?
I do not believe that Horthy was in a position to stop the deportations earlier than he did, but I am open to change my mind if there is reliable evidence that I might be wrong.
By 1944 the Nazis had already deported and killed so many people, not only Jews but also Roma, gays, severely handicapped people of all ages and everybody in a political position must have known about this – and this happened all over occupied Europe.
So Horthy must have known what would happen to the people that were deported – and what did he do?
Absolutely nothing at first afaik – until pressure from diplomats and the Catholic Church was applied.
My parents and their families were among those deported from Pecs and these facts accord with their stories.Has Hungary learnt anything? I doubt it. However, some people do want the new generation to remember and they are to be commended. In Pecs, they will commemorate the 70th anniversay of dates of the deportations next July 2014. Included will be an exhibition with photograhs provided by a few of the survivors who are still alive or by their children – including of my family.
Answer to T-D. Unfortunately it was reliably documented by László Karsai,back in 2000 in an article published in Magyarország a (nagyhatalmak erőterében. Tanulmányok Ormos Mária 70, születésnapjára (Pécs, University Press, pp. 343-366.) The author republished some of his findings in Beszélő (March, 2007, pp. 72-91)
http://beszelo.c3.hu/cikkek/horthy-miklos-1868%E2%80%931957
According to unpublished documents of the Ministry of Interior reports reached the ministry about the extermination of German Jewry by October 1942. This information was sent to the prime minister and to Horthy.
But there is direct evidence from Horthty himself in a letter of his to Hitler (May 7, 1943) after his trip to Klessheim. In the original version he said the following: “Your excellency reproached me for the Hungarian government’s actions in the extermination of the Jews were not as thorough as in Germany or as it seems desirable in other countries.” In the original: “Excellenciád további szemrehányása volt, hogy a kormány a zsidók kiirtásának keresztülvitelében nem járt el ugyanolyan mélyrehatóan, mint az Németországban történt, és ahogyan az a többi országban is kívánatosnak látszik.” This sentence was left out in the final text sent to Hitler and published in The Confidential Papers if Admiral Horthy.
To Vera, I just received information about some of the research that has been done on the Pécs Jewish community. I’m sure you will be interested. The man, János Háber has set up a website http://pecsizsidosag.wordpress.com/ which contains very valuable information on the history of the community. It also has a list of books on the subject. Perhaps our parents or grandparents knew each other.
To Wolfi. You asked about English-language version of Horthy’s letters to Hitler. Yes, they are available: The Confidential papers of Admiral Horthy, ed. by Miklós Szinai and László Szűcs, Budapest, Corvina Press, 1965.
@Eva
There were several accounts from escapees from concentration camps as far back as 1939 or 1940, but many of the stories were so incredible that most people failed to believe the truth (the propaganda principle behind The Big Lie). As horrible as it sounds, a lot of Jews did not even know what was in store for them when they entered through the door saying “Brausebad”.
I cannot say what Horthy did or did not know, but I believe he knew that most deportees would meet their death. However, it is a bit beside the point, because your reference to the Horthy letter to Hitler actually justifies with more than reasonable doubt that Horthy did not approve of the deportations and that he was “reproached” for not doing enough. I did not know of this document, so thank you for the reference.
The reference supports that the Germans invaded Hungary because Horthy did not “follow orders” and they finally figured out that he had no intention of cooperating with the deportations. I therefore continue to believe that Horthy did what he could to stop or prevent large-scale deportations and that it is not proof of him being complicit that he did not manage to halt the deportations until mid 1944.
I also believe that a lot of people find it way too easy to call Horthy a Nazi supporter, because of remnants from the Socialist past and not based on facts.
Think about it for a second. For 45 years it was Party Line for the Russians and their Hungarian collaborators to group Horthy with Sztójay, Szálasi, and the other main characters behind the deportations, but why? Who would have what to gain?
I think it is because when somebody asks “Why would Horthy fight against the righteous liberators from Russia and prevent them from bringing freedom to the Hungarian land?” then the simple answer would become “Because he was a Nazi supporter”. A much more convenient answer than opening up for a discussion about the truth – and asking questions about the heinous crimes committed by Stalin and the USSR both in the decades leading up to WWII as well as during their occupation of Central Europe.
Because of this, any questioning and curiosity about what Horthy stood for is still being deflected as something only right-wingers would do. And I think that is very wrong.
@T-D:
” cannot say what Horthy did or did not know, but I believe he knew that most deportees would meet their death. However, it is a bit beside the point, because your reference to the Horthy letter to Hitler actually justifies with more than reasonable doubt that Horthy did not approve of the deportations and that he was “reproached” for not doing enough. I did not know of this document, so thank you for the reference.”
Without arguing about the question, I ask you to think about what you just wrote here.
T-D: Horthy did not want the extermination, Everybody with a hint of history knowledge knows that. No serious people call him Nazi. He got his reward for his attempts when he wasn’t tried for war crimes and was released after testifying against Veesenmayer. But this is the end of the story as far as his “achievements” are concerned.
Obviously, during the communist era, he was demonized beyond recognition, but that doesn’t change the fact that he made crucial mistakes that proved to be fatal for lots of people, waited too long and then eventually broke under his own personal tragedies (for which I blame him the least of all). He was a bad leader in a very tough position and he failed. Also, once again don’t forget that even though extermination wasn’t among his plans, he did nevertheless have strong feelings about the economic and cultural dominance of the pre-war Hungarian Jewry (most of whom being patriotic Hungarians, some never even had thought about being a Jew before they were told at gunpoint). So no, no statue. Sorry.
If you wanna think highly of somebody in that family, try his son István Horthy. His death is still a mistery (he died on the front but not in battle) and it’s not entirely ruled out that the Germans sabotaged his plane for his “radically different views” on the Jewish question.
That went a bit fast. Speculation on whether he knew that they would be killed or worked to death is not for me to say, as I do not know how much of the truth he knew, but I am sure that he knew that it was nothing good.
I do not know if enough to challenge it, so I cannot agree or disagree, but it is something I will look for more information on.
@T-D. To even doubt that Horthy was a nazi follower is quite gross. With his antisemitic laws he was even also a forerunner. Your argumentation alluding to Stalin’s atrocities would fit into the “school” of relativisionist historians – not an honourable place to be in, to my mind.
Jano is correct.
@Eva
Even if Jano is right, that still does not prove that you are right in claiming that Horthy was backing Prime Minister Sztójay’s decision to give in to German pressure and deport the Jewish population of Hungary or that Horthy was in a position where he would have been able to halt the deportations earlier, but delayed intentionally.
@Jano
Everybody makes mistakes and the higher you are positioned the greater the consequences. But, despite his clear faults, I still do not agree that Horthy was a bad leader and I still believe that Hungary and Hungarian Jews would have been worse off without him. I hope that I will get my hands on Horthy’s memoirs at some point, because I find his political dance with Germany very interesting, even if I should end up finding him to be a worse “least bad alternative” than I think at this point.
I believe that nationalism, no matter if ethnical or political, is the greatest danger to the world and that is the lesson I have taken from WWII. Horthy saw the dangers of the nationalism of both the Hungarian Communists and the Arrow Cross/Hungarian Nazis as a great danger to Hungary, so I don’t think a guy like that can be all bad.
Horthy cooperated with the Nazis, but that does not make him a Nazi follower.
I do not know what you are taling about relativisionist historians, but it sounds fancy.
Almost everything is relative, but murder is not. A murder in the name of nationalism is a murder no matter if the victim is Ukranian, Jewish, Serbian, Roma, kulak, homosexual, Croatian, is handicapped or has any other feature, religious conviction, political belief, or ethnic background that is deemed unfit. A murder in the name of nationalism is a murder no matter if the nationalist is called Hitler, Stalin, Karadžić, Kambanda, Pol Pot or whatever silly sounding name that kind of scum can have.
1.
Horthy was not completely impotent in March 1944. Hitler wanted Horthy to appoint Imredy as premier. It was Horthy who brought up Sztojay’s name in his first talk with Veesenmayer on March 20.
2.
Horthy was racist.
Horthy’s words to the new mayor of Budapest as reported by Veesenmayer on May 22.
“After the war every people from alien races should leave Hungary – Jews, Romanians, Serbs and Germans. The mixing of the Hungarian race with Jews, Romanians and Serbs was always bad, but the German-Hungarian hybrid is good.
3.
About Horthy’s decision to suspend the deportation of Jews on July 6.
Sztojay gave 5 reasons to Veesenmayer why this happened.
1. Romania did not deport the Jews and Germany tolerated this.
2. There are still thousands of Jews under Tiso’s protection in Slovakia.
3. The SS permitted Hungarian Jewish millionaires to leave Hungary for Lisbon.
4. Pressure from the king of Sweden, the Papal nuncio, Turkish and Swiss governments and leading Spanish politicians.
5. The Hungarian embassy in Bern managed to decrypt the reports of the American and British embassies there. In the reports they detailed the extermination of Jews and recommended the bombing of the railroads and the buildings of the Hungarian and German agencies dealing with the deportation of Jews in Budapest, with exact addresses. The reports also named 70 Hungarian and German people who were the main culprits. Sztojay added he did not care about the list, but other people in the government became agitated.