HUNGARY IN THE MIRROR OF THE WESTERN WORLD

CHAPTER III

JOHN FLOURNOY MONTGOMERY

HUNGARY THE UNWILLING SATELLITE
(The Devin Adair Co., New York, 1947)
A Book Review

John F. Montgomery was appointed as a Special Envoy to Hungary by President Roosevelt in 1933 and remained in his post in Budapest until 1941. During this period he met many Hungarians of every class and political beliefs. He knew the country and its people very well, and learned to genuinely like Hungary and the Hungarians. He felt during the war that the Allies and especially the United States treated Hungary unjustly. He believed that the reason for that was the malicious and hateful propaganda against Hungary, which the socalled "Little Entente" countries spread everywhere under the protection and encouragement of France. Montgomery wrote his book and published it in 1947 with the purpose of having this distorted view corrected and the true situation presented before the world forum.

The timing of the book's publication (1947) was quite important for Hungary. At that time Hungary was purported to be the last of Germany's satellites and, as such, just as guilty as Germany. Hungary stood alone in the world and the only voice raised in Hungary's interest was that of John F. Montgomery, who was a respected authority and known to be unbiased.

The following pages are a review of Montgomery's work.

I. What Price Independence?

Part One of the book presents the prewar lineup in Central Europe; talks about Hungary's socalled "feudalism;" explains Admiral Horthy's position as Regent of the country, and writes about the significance of revisionism in Hungary. All this material presents the readers in the West with facts which were previously unknown or misrepresented.

According to Montgomery, World War I was completely a European affair. France lined up with Russia against the Hapsburg Empire to crush Germany, which naturally sided with Austria. Great Britain, as faithful ally, stood with France, while the United States, in its own best interests, wanted to help Great Britain to victory.

After the first World War ended with the Allies' victory, the United States, leaving behind some moralistic guidelines for the upcoming peace treaties, left the fate of Europe completely in the hands of France. The rearrangement of Europe resulted in Germany's losing all its colonies and the Austro-Hungarian Empire being mercilessly cut up into many pieces It replaced the Monarchy, which had united many small nations under its rule, with several small countries. These small countries ruled over just as many different nationalities in their territories as had been true under the Hapsburgs. The Slavs, who fought in the Monarchy's army against the Western Allies, were declared victors in the peace treaties and rewarded with enormous territories, mostly from Hungary. Romania (considered to be a Latin country), although it entered the war at the very end, was rewarded with large areas, mostly from Hungary.

The peace treaty with Hungary was signed at the Trianon Palace in Versailles. This was dictated by France, contrary to the Americans' advice and recommendation. The French were not so much acting out of animosity toward Hungary, but rather believing that they needed new allies east of Germany to secure the earlier balance of power represented by the old Czarist regime. In the interest of following this policy, Hungary's national interests were sacrificed by distributing two-thirds of its territory amongst the three neighboring countries which, following French encouragement, formed the "Little Entente" in order to have them as allies against Germany, as well as to keep a rein on Hungary.

The rearrangement of the Hungarian territories was done without any consideration of geographical, political or humanitarian facts or realities. It is true that several different nationalities lived in Hungary for centuries; however, with the new treaty of Trianon, one-third of Hungary's Hungarian nationals became minorities in the three Little Entente countries: Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The new borders cut into railroads, village plots, family lots, public roads, making them unusable on both sides of the border. Hungary lost its king, its access to the sea, and the last head of the Austrian-Hungarian Navy, Admiral Horthy, became its new ruler, as its Regent. The Regent was assigned the task of lifting up the country from the shortlived Communist terror; taking care of several millions of refugees from the reassigned territories, who were forced to leave their centuries-old homeland. They all sought refuge in the remaining one-third of old Hungary.

Regent Horthy came from an old Calvinist noble family, whose forefathers fought the Hapsburgs for centuries. In spite of this family background, he became a favorite of the old Emperor and Horthy himself was very fond of the old ruler and remained in faithful service to the end. Although Horthy cannot be considered a brilliant statesman, his military courage and bravery as well as his Naval officer trustworthiness, enabled him to try to rebuild his nation toward a better future.

Montgomery, before assuming his post in July 1933 as the United States Minister to Hungary, had spent a month attending a State Department Seminar in preparatory studies for his new post. At the seminar he was told that although Hungary was a "puppet" of Italy, it was still an important "listening post." Montgomery, after having spent some weeks in Hungary, discovered that the State Department had been gravely misinformed concerning the prewar lineup in Central Europe, which, of course, included Hungary.

The same misinformation was applicable to the American view of Hungary's so-called feudalism. The existence of large landholdings in Hungary evoked and justified a mostly unfounded hatemongering propaganda against Hungary after the first World War, especially among the politicians of the Little Entente.

Actually, the truth is that large landholdings (over 575 hectares, roughly equivalent to 1440 acres) constituted only about 15% of the arable land.

According to Montgomery, the misconception about feudalism is that the large landowners exerted an undue amount of political and economic power. This was not the case. Concerning their political power, in legislature and government, they were in the minority. As for their economic influence, it was not nearly as powerful as that of the wealth of leaders of industry and commerce.

In the next section of the book, Montgomery explains Admiral Horthy's position as Regent of Hungary. Although the Regent was the constitutional head of the country, Horthy did not have the absolute rights of the earlier rulers; he had no right to interfere in foreign politics. Horthy had a habit when facing decisions, to ask himself what the old Emperor, Franz Josef, would do in his place. Of course, he did not have the same power as Franz Josef. However, Horthy, during his reign, never stepped over his lawful boundaries, no matter how much he was coaxed and encouraged to do so.

Montgomery discusses the significance of revisionism in Hungary. He observed, as everybody else did who arrived in Hungary between the two world wars, that the words, "nem, nem, soha," meaning, "no, no, never," appeared everywhere in every possible form and setting: on buildings, flowerbeds, postcards and, most significantly, in the hearts of people. It had influence on the whole of Hungarian life, including foreign policies. "NEM, NEM, SOHA" was the slogan/symbol of Hungary's revisionism. These words symbolized the Hungarians' determination never to accept the terms of the Trianon peace treaty that deprived them after 1920 of two-thirds of the country's territory.

Actually, the possibility of the revision of the terms of the peace treaties was incorporated into the treaties themselves. However, the League of Nations never felt the necessity to implement it. Even if the French would have let them do so, which was unthinkable, it would have been against the interest of the Little Entente countries.

The revision, as envisioned by the Hungarians, would have meant a correction of the borders to insure that all Hungarians could live within their own country, Hungary. There were several different versions of this vision: they ranged from the reinstatement of the borders as existed in 1914, to the return of the territories with Hungarian majority inhabitants. Unfortunately, these different versions, instead of facilitating the official Hungarian foreign policy efforts, actually hindered them.

Italy was the only country that was willing to offer assistance toward revisionism in Hungary. Italy, herself, was in territorial disputes with Yugoslavia. Mussolini envisioned the recreation of the old Roman Empire and he wanted to begin it with the conquest of Abyssinia. Mussolini's policy turned the world against Italy, which then found an ally in Hungary.

At the end of the 1930s, Central Europe was at the threshold of important changes. Earlier in the decade, Austria's political parties and its Heimwehr often fought each other with weapons to win political power. Encouraged by France, the Czechs favored the Social Democrats in Austria, while Hitler stood by the Heimwehr and the Catholic Party was supported by Italy. Thus, everybody was fighting everybody, to the point where the situation in Austria endangered the political balance of Europe.

In 1934 Chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated. This freed the Heimwehr to advocate a revolution which would ease the way to unification with Germany. However, for the time being, this was prevented by the election of the new Chancellor, Schuschnigg. Eventually, in 1936, Germany and Italy formed the "Rome-Berlin Axis." Hitler and Mussolini were hopeful that the European political forces would be revolving around their "axis." Austria, thus abandoned by her allies, was unable to resist the attraction of Germany and in 1938 it was annexed into Germany. By this "Anschluss" Hungary had direct borders with Hitler's Germany. This new dangerous situation prompted Hungary to get closer to Italy to gain an ally in their power play with Germany. At the same time, Hungary tried to get in contact with the Western Allies; unfortunately, without much success.

Hitler practically encircled Czechoslovakia. The barely 20-year old country faced the possibility that a big portion of its territory would secede to its inhabitant minorities, Sudeten Germans, Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenians and, in the South, Hungarians. There, the Hungarian Government wished to settle the issue by plebiscite; however, the Czechs elected to submit themselves to the verdict of the first "Vienna Decision" in 1938. Thus, Hungary received, peacefully, a portion of its pre-1920 territory which had been given to the new Czechoslovakia. Hitler in 1939 occupied the remaining territory of Czechoslovakia and Hungary also took a part of Eastern Slovakia, thereby forming a mutual border with Poland. This was advantageous to both countries, enabling them to be alerted against any attacks by Germany.

After the partition of Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany, more than 100,000 Polish soldiers fled to Hungary through these borders. These soldiers later fought on the Western front alongside the Allies. The Polish refugees received unprecedented kindness and assistance from Hungarians, officials and people alike.

II. An Oasis in Hitler's Desert

Hitler considered the Jews to be his biggest enemies. The explanation for this was not clear, since the Jews would have easily and enthusiastically participated in Hitler's National Socialism, just as they played important roles earlier in the capitalist system and also in Communism. However, Hitler declared that every country that would not take care of its Jewish problem, sooner or later would find itself being considered an enemy of Germany.

The new strong Germany allied itself with Italy, and together they began to occupy large parts of Europe. In Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Western Europe the Germans instituted anti-Jewish laws, restricting the free movement of the Jews, controlling their wealth, and later their lives. Up to March 1944, Hungary was the only European country where the Jews of the occupied territories could find refuge. In addition to Hungary's own Jewish population, close to one million, these refugee Jews from Western Europe (approx. 70,000) found safe haven and protection in Hungary.

The West considered Hungary to be an antisemitic, fascist country. This was based on the fact that Hungary enacted anti-Jewish laws. These laws until March 19, 1944, did not restrict the movement of Jews. Until that date the Hungarians resisted the German demands to hand the Jews over to be judged by the Germans. At the same time, the situation of the Jews in other parts of Europe became more and more restrictive. Switzerland tried everything possible to oust the Jews who fled to their country. The pro-Nazi Vichy government in France found itself in serious conflict with the Catholic church for its anti-Semitic policies and laws. The Czechs and Slovaks applied the Nuremberg laws to solve their Jewish problems. In Romania there were anti-Jewish laws in effect as early as 1937.

Romania at this time struggled with its own particular problems. Germany needed the oil of Romania for its war machine, and for this reason it desired to establish closer ties with Romania. The Soviet Union claimed part of Bukovina and Bessarabia; and the Hungarians wanted the return of Transylvania. The Romanians gave in to the Soviets and were willing to accept the partition of Transylvania according to the Ciano-Ribbentrop decision (Second Vienna Award). This caused a strife between the pro-Nazi Premier Antonescu and the Iron Guard on one hand, and the Monarch, King Carol, on the other. The pro-Nazi faction won and Romania soon joined Germany as an ally. In order to secure the Romanian uninterrupted and continuous flow of oil production, Germany intended to send its troops to the oil fields of Romania. At first, Hungary refused to give free access to German troops in Hungarian territory, but eventually was forced to accept a compromise: to permit the Germans to go through Hungarian territory, but only by train and only traveling on rail routes outside of Budapest. The German troops were needed not only to guard the oil in Romania, but also in the planned occupation of Bulgaria. This was needed to get closer to Greece where the Italians suffered a grave defeat.

After the suicide of Premier Pal Teleki in 1941, Hitler attacked Yugoslavia, marching through Hungary. Hungary took possession of Bacska, with its Hungarian majority population, that had been taken from Hungary in the 1920 Trianon Treaty. Croatia also cooperated with the Germans, as an independent German ally in the occupation and conquest of the remainder of Yugoslavia.

Romania and Slovakia joined the German Army in the fight against the Soviet Union in the East.

The entry of Hungary in the German-Soviet war was the result of the new Premier's maneuvering. Bardossy, the successor of Pal Teleki, without the knowledge and acceptance of the Regent or the Parliament, after the so-stated Soviet bombing of Kassa, entered Hungary in the war on the side of Germany. The actual reason for the entry was Germany's threat that Hungary would lose Transylvania, if Hungary failed to join Germany in the war.

III. An Island in the Soviet Sea

In March 1942 Miklos Kallay was appointed Prime Minister of Hungary. His policy was twofold: he wanted to reduce Hungary's participation in the war, but, at the same time, attempted to find contact with the Western Allies in Istanbul. The first contact with the Americans ended unsuccessfully. The second contact made with the British Ambassador brought some results, but the planned surrender of Hungary was never carried out. The Teheran Conference in December 1943 cancelled the planned Allied invasion of the Balkans, thereby making it impossible for the Hungarian Army to develop military contact with the Allies. However, in one respect Hungary was still able to collaborate with the Allies: allied airplanes were free to fly over the western part of Hungary to attack German troops in Austria, the Soviet planes were allowed to fly over Budapest on the way to Tito in Yugoslavia.

From January 1943 and thereafter Hungary stopped sending troops or supplies to fight the Soviet Union. In February 1943 the Hungarian Chief of Staff requested the German Chief of Staff to immediately return all Hungarian troops to Hungary and that the Carpathian borders be defended solely by Hungarians; further, no German forces should be allowed to enter Hungarian territory.

Hitler finally lost his patience with Hungary and on March 19, 1944 occupied the country. Even then, Elmer Davis, Director of the United States Office of War Information, wrote the following in the Washington Post concerning Hungary's willingness and cooperation with the Allies: "Hungary was the only country in southeastern Europe which permitted many of its newspapers to publish news from neutral and Allied sources."

In the occupation of Hungary Hitler was aided by a socalled "Fifth Column." This help, however, did not come from the ethnic Germans living in Hungary. In Hungary, and also in Romania, most of the German minority consisted of hardworking, law-abiding citizens. They wanted to stay out of trouble. Hitler tried to terrorize them into compliance with him. The Prime Ministers of Hungary, with the exception of pro-German, Bela Imredy, fought against Naziism with surprising energy.

Keresztes-Fischer, the Minister of Interior, as early as 1933 declared unlawful the use of Hitler's swastika on flags or badges, or in any form. Then Zoltan Mesko, at that time the leader of the Hungarian National Socialists, introduced the green shirts with arrow cross emblems, as their new uniform. After the Anschluss, Hungary's National Socialists became emboldened and under the leadership of Major Ferenc Szalasi of the Hungarist Party, instigated terrorist activities. For this, Szalasi was arrested and his party dissolved. He was freed by amnesty in 1940, after the Second Vienna Award.

We cannot forget that all this happened while all Europe suffered from Hitler's acts. Of course, there were people in Hungary who advocated a policy of appeasement with Hitler. Among them was Foreign minister Istvan Csaky. Premier Teleki did not trust him; therefore, Teleki maintained his own foreign office. Csaky might have leaned toward the Western Allies; however, he could not resist the lure of the special attention the German leaders had shown toward him. After his death in 1941, the Hungarians tried to undo the consequences of his acts. Nevertheless, Csaky was successful in one respect; he notified the Poles that the German-Soviet pact had a secret agreement which concerned the partition of Poland. The Soviet Union had wanted to keep this agreement a secret, since after the war it could have proved their complicity with the Germans in beginning the Second World War. By signing the pact with the Soviets, Hitler wanted to obtain assurance that the Soviets would not become a part of an alliance with the Western Powers against Germany.

After the appointment of Premier Kallay, Hungary increasingly resisted the Germans. Kallay proposed to Mussolini that an antiGerman bloc be formed, with Romania, Turkey, Greece and even Finland, included. Mussolini's promised answer to this plan never arrived.

Horthy visited Hitler with the Hungarian Chief of Staff in early 1943. Together they published a communiquJ which expressed their mutual determination to continue the war against Bolshevism and its British and American Allies. After his return to Hungary, Horthy issued his own communique which, however, omitted the words "its British and American allies" from the mutual text, thereby giving the impression that such words were entered into the mutual communique without Horthy's consent.

Hungary continually exasperated the Germans. The Government refused to send any more troops to the war in Russia. They declined the Germans' offer to participate in Hungary's industrial efforts. They refused to increase the cattle export to Germany. They diverted a large part of Hungary's foreign trade from Germany to neutral countries of Europe, such as Turkey, Switzerland and Sweden. Hungary sent trainloads of food to starving children of Belgium, Holland and France, and to the Greek people. The Hungarians treated several thousands of escaped French war prisoners on its territory as guests of the country. The British and American prisoners of war in Hungary enjoyed the most humane treatment, in compliance with the Geneva Convention.

The democratic and leftist parties of Hungary, including the Social-Democratic Party, still enjoyed freedom of the press that was denied in other German-occupied countries, with the sole exception of Finland. The only other social democratic parties existed in neutral Switzerland and Sweden.

In July 1943 Kallay nominated a wellknown anti-German diplomat as Foreign Minister of Hungary, in the person of Jeno Ghyczy. In turn, Ghyczy sent another wellknown antiGerman diplomat, Ullein Reviczky, who had an English-born wife, as envoy to Sweden. All these defiant Hungarian acts prompted Germany to threaten withdrawal of further military and economic support and sever diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Adolph Hitler was a great legalist in all his dealings and maneuverings, even in his own country, while struggling to achieve the chancellorship But he was even more a legalist when dealing with the conquered and occupied countries of Europe. He followed the same method when he decided to occupy Hungary. He invited Horthy to Klessheim. Horthy arrived with his Ministers of War and Foreign Affairs, and his Chief of Staff. Horthy, before embarking on his trip, had instructed all Hungarian diplomats abroad not to endorse any new Hungarian Government that came into office after a feared German occupation.

Horthy and his entourage left Budapest on March 17, 1944. At Hitler's headquarters everything was prepared for a surprise occupation of Hungary Hitler presented Horthy with an ultimatum. Hungary must set up a new government and enforce its maximum effort to participate in the war with the Soviet Union; Hungary must accept the takeover of its industry, waterways and railways to fully serve Germany's war efforts; Hungary must apply the German anti-Jewish laws against all the Jews in Hungary; Hungary must extradite all deserters, refugees and foreign soldiers; Hungarian workers must be transported to Germany to help in the war effort; and lastly, Hitler told Horthy that German troops would enter Hungary to assure its security.

Horthy rejected all the points of the ultimatum. Since Hitler expected this, everything was put into motion to occupy Hungary in the absence of the Regent. At midnight on March 19, 1944, eleven German Divisons crossed the Austrian-Hungarian border, and arrived in Budapest at four o'clock in the morning. The Hungarian military forces were lined up at the eastern and southeastern borders, where Romanian forces assisted the Germans in preventing the Hungarians to contact Budapest. Thus, the Germans completed their control over all the country, with hardly any resistance from the completely surprised population.

The Regent's homebound train was held up at the border until about midday, when the German takeover was largely completed. By that time the Gestapo was already rounding up priests, trade union leaders, pro-Allies, anti-Germans, journalists, Jews, and even the Minister of Interior, Keresztes-Fischer. At the same time the new German envoy, SS Member Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer, who had special authority to enforce the points of the ultimatum to Horthy, arrived in Budapest.

The Regent summoned Kallay and requested him to continue the Government affairs, even though the Germans demanded Kallay's removal. However, Kallay refused to serve the Germans, saying that by the German occupation Hungary had lost its sovereignty, thereby every ongoing Government action would be illegal and unconstitutional. He advised Horthy to resign as Regent. Kallay fled his home and accepted the Turkish Legation's offer to take refuge in their building.

In the meantime, Horthy was forced by the Germans to stay at his post; however, he resisted naming a new government. He realized that Hitler needed him to keep up at least a resemblance of legality and Horthy used this relative security to influence the almost inevitable happenings. Also, Hitler assured him that Hungary's sovereignty would be restored upon the nomination of a pro-German government.

Horthy nominated Dome Sztojay as new Premier of Hungary. Sztojay, a former Hungarian envoy to Germany, was accepted by the Germans. He also refused to comply with the German demand to cut Hungary's diplomatic ties with Turkey. In August Horthy dissolved all parties in Hungary. After a conspiracy by two highranking dissidents, Horthy dismissed the Sztojay government and nominated a new government, headed by General Geza Lakatos.

All this time the Germans were forced to retreat into their "inner fortress," of which Hungary was a part. Bulgaria succeeded in its peace negotiations with the United States and Great Britain. In August 1944 Romania deserted Germany and joined the Allies. In those countries there were no significant German forces, so it was easy for Hitler to give them up, but he continued to cling to Hungary.

On October 15, 1944 Regent Horthy showed great courage in defying Germany when he permitted the broadcast of his proclamation. He told his people he could see no other way out of Hungary's tragic situation but to request an armistice from the former enemies.

Subsequently, Horthy and his family were all deported to Germany and eventually to a concentration camp where the American Army found them. Horthy was held at Nuremberg as a possible witness.

Montgomery expressed his respect and admiration towards Horthy in the following quote, "This world would be a better, more decent place if the leaders of the Englishs-peaking nations developed a tiny part of the courage shown at that time by Admiral Horthy."

After the turn of events on October 15, 1944, Major Ferenc Szalasi took over the government, backed by the Germans. However, five months later he was forced to flee to Austria.

Montgomery states that many people in the United States, especially the leftist, liberal intellectuals, greatly admired the Soviet Union. They admit that the Russians behaved horribly in Eastern Europe, but their actions can be justified, their admirers would say, since they bore the largest share of the war and they paid the highest sacrifice. They also point out that it was the Red Army who defeated the Germans in the East. However, the truth is different. The Germans left Southern East Europe because the Western Allies were threatening them in France, Italy and Greece, thereby forcing the Germans to shorten their supply routes. The Red Army occupied Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia without a single gunshot. They faced the only real resistance in Hungary, since it was part of Germany's inner fortress.

After the war Romania was given the entire territory of Transylvania, not because the Hungarians were Germany's last satellite, but because the Communists lost the elections in Hungary in 1945.

Romania quickly and easily adjusted itself to being a part of the Soviet empire. Czechoslovakia did even better. It not only adjusted itself to the new situation, but it became a reliable supporter of Soviet aspirations. Masaryk said, on December 31, 1944:

"We want a strong and democratic Poland, but only a Poland which will collaborate with the Soviet Union. We have neither time nor inclination for a different solution of the Polish question. We want a decent and democratic Hungary which will let us live in peace, but again only a Hungary which will collaborate with the Soviet Union. The same is true for Yugoslavia, Austria and Romania."

Montgomery ends his book with the following thoughts (speaking of America):

"Our greatest difficulty is that our foreign policy is subjected to internal politics."... After Roosevelt's death, ... "weak leadership and internal leftist opposition within the Democratic Party deprived this country of its freedom of action, stalemated its efforts to bring about a measure of international justice and transformed our military victory into the biggest political disaster we ever suffered."

"Stalin's will became supreme, for he alone knew what he wanted and could pursue his policy of imperialism and oppression with determination..."

"The world has not been, since the Dark Ages, in such a chaotic and distressed condition. A moral force is needed, and what country other than the United States could supply it?"... "Only we have some practical, surplus strength left. The manner in which we use it will decide whether we shall reap humanity's curse or humanity's blessing. The responsibility to a large degree is ours because we are the one nation that could bring order out of chaos. Upon whether, when, and how we meet that responsibility the future of the world depends."

HUNGARY IN THE MIRROR OF THE WESTERN WORLD