When a far-right wing political party decides to put up statues and name streets after Admiral Miklos Horthy who ruled Hungary between 1920 and 1944 and was an ally of Nazi Germany, you would expect Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his conservative Fidesz government to object.
Not a bit of it.
“It’s solely the local government that decides on establishing a monument,” Orban told the Austrian daily Die Presse.
Orban was speaking after the mayor of Csokako, a small village west of the capital Budapest, unveiled a bust of Horthy by the Hungarian Guard and the Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement. These are far-right groups affiliated with members of Jobbik, the parliamentary far-right wing party.
Csokako is not an isolated case.
The Reform College of Debrecen in eastern Hungary, where Horthy studied, recently unveiled a plaque to their former student.
The town square in Gyomro, just outside Budapest, has been renamed after Horthy.
A statute was also unveiled in the village of Kereki, near Lake Balaton.
In the interview with Die Presse, Orban acknowledged that the debate over Horthy has been “long and difficult” and he wanted it to continue. “Hungary is a democracy. If people want to discuss something, they have to discuss it.” It was not his role as prime minister to make the final verdict.
I disagree. Strongly. Horthy was one of the worst political figures Hungary ever produced. He was a dictator, an aggressive nationalist, and an ally of Hitler, leading his country into a disastrous war.
Horthy’s unswerving support for a “big Hungary” still resonates among some Fidesz supporters. They know it is unrealistic to believe that Hungary’s borders could be re-drawn. But Orban has put great store in reaching out to Hungarian minorities abroad, ensuring that they have the right to Hungarian citizenship. His strident nationalist rhetoric has upset Slovakia and Romania, home to sizeable Hungarian minorities.
But the worst part of this gradual rehabilitation of Horthy is that it seems to condone Horthy’s treatment of the Jews.
Hungary once had a thriving Jewish community. Horthy introduced anti-Jewish laws, placing Jews into ghettos, expropriating their assets, and barring them from universities and top jobs. Many thousands died in forced labor camps.
Horthy, however, did not deport the Jews to the concentration camps. He refused Hitler’s requests to do so.
The deportations only began when the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944. By then, Horthy had been ousted by the Nazi Arrow Cross movement.
During the following summer, an estimated 437,000 Hungarian Jews were sent to Auschwitz, with little need of help by German guards.
While Fidesz has been passive with regard to the ‘rehabilitation’ of Horthy, it has been active in the case of the writer Jozsef Nyiro, (1889-1953) who publicly railed against Jews.
Nyiro was a staunch supporter of Ferenc Szalasi, leader of Hungary’s fascist and fiercely anti-semitic Arrow Cross party. After World War Two, Nyiro was not included in the school curriculum.
Until now, that is.
The inclusion in the curriculum was “clearly about his literary work,” according to the government spokesman, Andras Giro-Szasa in an e-mailed response to questions by Bloomberg.
This past May, Laszlo Kövér a leading Fidesz member and Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, tried to organize a reburial service for the writer who was born in Jimbor (Szekelyzsombor in Hungarian) in Transylvania, Romania, which had been part of Hungary before 1918.
Romania banned the ceremony.
“Romania does not accept commemorations and anniversaries for people who were known for anti-Romanian, anti-Semitic and pro-fascist behavior,” said Victor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister.
Orban said the reburial of Nyrio was a “funerary matter”—whatever that means.
Jewish leaders in Hungary and elsewhere are angry and worried about Orban’s rehabilitation of Nyiro and the way he has turned a blind eye to the Horthy memorials.
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor vented his anger in a letter to Kövér. He accused the government of glossing over the country's dark past.
"I found it outrageous that the Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly could participate in a ceremony honoring a Hungarian fascist ideologue,” Wiesel wrote. He returned the Great Cross, a Hungarian government award that he had received in 2004.
So why is Fidesz allowing this adulation of Horthy and Nyiro?
Hungary’s economic crisis and indeed the criticism by the EU of Orban’s management of the economy has fuelled nationalist sentiments.
Support for Fidesz, which was elected in 2010 with a two-thirds majority in parliament, has plummeted.
Beyond this bit of electoral populism, it is clear that Orban deeply believes in the idea of the Hungarian nation and is nostalgic of its former glories.
By condoning the Horthy and Nyiro commemorations, Orban has gone a step further than right-wing parties in Western Europe, vile as they may be.
The Netherlands, France, and the UK have all produced populist, xenophobic parties whose policies are sometimes condoned by the more mainstream rightwing parties.
But none of them have gone quite so far as Orban in allowing these parties to rewrite the nasty bits of their countries’ past.
Hungary, this time, has really crossed a red line.
Comments(10)
You write, "Horthy, however, did not deport the Jews to the concentration camps. He refused Hitler’s requests to do so...The deportations only began when the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944. By then, Horthy had been ousted by the Nazi Arrow Cross movement." Horthy wasn't ousted in March 1944 by the Arrow Cross movement. It happened only in October. At his Klessheim meeting with Hitler on March 18, 1944, Miklós Horthy, the head of the sovereign state of Hungary, consented to the transfer of 300,000 Jewish “workers” to Germany. The Sztójay government, whose members were all constitutionally appointed by Horthy, faithfully carried out this agreement by deporting approximately 440,000 Jews to Auschwitz irrespective of age or sex. Most of these were murdered shortly after their arrival in the death camp. It was only after the provinces of Hungary were cleared of Jews that Horthy decided to halt the deportations, thereby saving most of the Jews of Budapest.
Before the usual bunch of government activists and pro-Nazi hecklers arrive, I would like to correct some of Ms. Dempsey's factual errors: The institution in Debrecen is called Reformed College, as in the Hungarian Reformed Church. Horthy was not a dictator. Even his critics acknowledge his status as a legitimate head of state (regent in absence of a king) in line with Hungary's historical constitution. Hungary wasn't a liberal democracy but rule of law still did prevail, and Horthy was bound by law, so he didn't interfere with daily politics more than any constitutional monarch. Nyirő was an all-out anti-semite and an admirer of Nazi Germany (anti-semitism was mainstream) but he wasn't a "staunch supporter" of Szálasi, just an MP for the Transylvanian Party, who didn't resign when Szálasi took over. His works weren't included in the school curriculum before 1945 either. The name of the government spokesman is Giró-Szász. Horthy did introduce anti-Jewish laws but the act which barred Jews from universities (or more exactly, set up a quota) was promulgated in 1920, while there were no ghettos until the German occupation of 1944. Hitler didn't request the deportation of Hungarian Jews until the occupation, so Horthy didn't refuse either. Horthy wasn't ousted by the Arrow Cross movement "by then" but remained in office all through the deportation of the majority of Hungarian Jews (outside Budapest). He stopped the deportation process only under pressure from the Vatican, the United States and neutral governments.The Arrow Crossers ousted him only in October 1944 after a bungled-up attempt at armistice with the Russians, who were already on Hungarian territory by then. It wasn't Kövér who organized Nyirő's reburial but a personal favorite of his, Jenő Szász, former mayor of a Transylvanian city, who tapped on Nyírő's local popularity to get reelected. It wasn't just Jewish leaders who got angry about Nytrő's rehabilitation and introduction to the literary canon but everyone, Jewish or non-Jewish, who were worried about political intervention in cultural affairs and whitewashing Nazi sympathizers.
Let me correct the following: "The deportations only began when the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944. By then, Horthy had been ousted by the Nazi Arrow Cross movement." German Nazis occupied Hungary on March 19, leaving Horthy in place. He chose not to lift a finger until 450,000 Jews from the countryside had been deported and gassed. The Arrow Cross took power on October 15, 1944. This was the day Horthy resigned.
You write: "Horthy, however, did not deport the Jews to the concentration camps. He refused Hitler’s requests to do so." Yes, he did not do it personally, but he did not refused it. He was the leader of Hungary in June 1944, when my grandfather was killed by a Hungarian gendarme and my mother was forced to get on the wagon to Auschwitz by Hungarian gendarmes. Horthy had a responsibility for that.
On Horthy you write: "He was a dictator" No, he was not. He was the regent of Hungary (head of state) and was elected by the Hungarian National Assembly. Hungary was governed by a parliamentary system and the prime minister was the head of the government. There were six parliamentary elections between 1920 and 1944. "Horthy introduced anti-Jewish laws" Horthy had a constitutional role, he wrote no laws. "After World War Two, Nyiro was not included in the school curriculum. Until now, that is." Nyiro, as an MP recognized the Szalasi regime and made some anti-semitic remarks but was not a Nazi. After WW2, Hungary was occupied by the Soviet Red Army and became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union. You could quote anti-Semitic remarks from great Hungarian writers (for example: D. Kosztolanyi, Zsigmond Moricz) who were included in the school curriculum under the communist era. However, many writers were left out of the curriculum who were considered as anti-communist. Nyiro was one of them. Moreover, Richard Wagner was also part of the Hungarian school curriculum after WW2. I think Wagner is in the school curriculum in most of the European countries. Wagner was a racist with wild anti-semitic sentiment but a great composer. In spite of his extreme views, Richard Wagner was included due to his art. The same goes for Nyiro. "reburial of Nyrio was a 'funerary matter'—whatever that means" Maybe reading Sophocles' Antigone could help to understand what it means.
I fundamentally agree with the evaluation of Horthy given in this article, but, for the sake of historical truth, I would like to rectify a factual mistake. Regent Horthy, in spite of his deeply rooted anti-semitism and the anti-jewish legislation of his regime, had indeed, initially, refused to settle the "Jewish Question” following the Nazi pattern. But, when Hitler invaded Hungary (which, due to its secret efforts to approach the Western Allies and seek a way out of the war, had become an "unreliable ally”) he chose, after some hesitation, to remain in his place, thus legitimating the occupation. He even appointed a pro-Nazi government, committed to "settle the Jewish Question”. So deportations started in May 1944, under Horthy’s regime and continued till mid-July of that year. It is true that Horthy himself did not personally agree with the German policy of mass extermination, but remained passive, simply asking the government not to submit to him for approval any law or decree concerning the Jews, thus essentially abandoning hundreds of thousands of Hungarian citizens to their fate. He only stepped in after much pressure from the Western Allies, neutral countries, and even the Pope, managing to halt the deportation of Budapest Jews in July. By then 437,000 Jews from the countryside had been sent to Auschwitz. The deportations were carried out entirely by Hungarian authorities with some logistic support by the tiny German "task force” of Eichmann. On October 15, 1944, Horthy made an abortive attempt to leave his German allies: he made a proclamation announcing "the cession of hostilities against former enemies”. But the same day he was overthrown and arrested by the Gestapo. It was then that the Nazi Arrow Cross Movement took power continuing the war on the side of Germany and massacaring tens of thousands of the remaining Jews.
Honestly, I don't understand this hysteria about Admiral Horthy. He was no saint and yes, his army fought against one of history's most cruel and murderous dicator: Stalin. Horthy was an unwillingy technical ally of Hitler, whilst FD Roosevelt was an ally of Stalin and his muderous regime. Today both have statues in Hungary. Long live pluralism!
Dealing with the past and memory are probably two of the most difficult aspects of any society in transition. They either show the strength or weakness of a country's identity. The way Orban has allowed the gradual rehabilitation of Horthy and supported the attempt to rebury Nyiro show an extraordinary reluctance to deal with the past and by implication Hungarian identity in an open and honest way. During the 19th century and the interwar years, Hungary's large and vibrant Jewish community was part of that identity. The way in which Horthy and Nyiro are now treated seems to suggest that the Jews were not part of that identity. Is that the kind of past and memory Orban now wants to construct as part of his new Hungarian narrative?
The fact that all of these comments are about Horthy is quite telling. The politics of history is immensely important in transformation societies that must come to grips with despotic pasts and weak identities. Historical figures like Horthy become totemic issues, i.e. they gain a political relevance that far exceeds their real value. It’s because they are the crystallizing points for varying narratives about what is “us”. And what is “us” determines who gets what, including power. As long as figures such as Horthy have this elevated value, society has not found common ground on how to assign power and assets. That’s exactly what Orban’s “revolution” is all about. Fascinating stuff. Historic wounds take a lot of time to heal. And history never ends. Certainly not in Europe.
Judy Dempsey's knowledge of Hungary and its history lacks depth to say the least...Reading her article makes one thing quite plain: she reads or has studied with anti-Hungarian propagandists, her language seems to come from a communist textbook. On Horthy, she couldn't be more wrong, because governor Horthy was not the "worst political figure Hungary ever produced" -this is beyond outrageous-, also proving her malicious one-sidedness. Hungary indeed "produced" some unbelievable politicians, Mihály Károlyi may lead among them. But there was Béla Khun, who Dempsey avoids even to mention! Horthy was not a dictator, Horthy indeed saved Hungary from annihilation. After the 1919 Commune terror, WWI., the destruction of the Hungarian realm and millions of refugees flooding in, the nation's economy in tatters, he restored the state, and even compared to the present conditions, produced an economic miracle. He "was" an ally to Hitler -between the Antant and the Soviets who wasn't? -yeah, so Hungary avoided straight out occupation! And he didn't lead Hungary into a disastrous war... he didn't start it! Dempsey should look for dictators and warmongers back where she is.
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