Raoul Wallenberg: Part III

Nazi Takeover of Hungary

While Nazi expansion came quickly in the early years and often with little resistance, momentum significantly shifted by 1944. Hitler's strategic incompetence in military affairs became evident as his aggressive campaigns overstretched the German Army, leaving it vulnerable on multiple fronts. Mounting losses compounded Germany's difficulties, including America's entry into the war, and the Soviet Union, now fully mobilized after being attacked, advancing relentlessly westward. For Hungarian leader Regent Horthy, these shifts signaled a need to reconsider his alliance with Germany, which alarmed Hitler. Fearing that Hungary would defect like Italy did in 1943, Hitler decided to act.

On the morning of March 19, German forces entered Hungary. Facing minimal organized resistance, they took over the country, establishing an occupation by the end of the day. The Nazis proceeded to set up a government in which Miklós remained in his role as Regent but mainly as a figurehead in place to maintain a sense of legitimacy and continuity for Hungarian society. Under him, the Nazis installed a puppet government that collaborated with them.

As part of the change, Adolf Eichmann, one of the key architects of the Holocaust, was sent to Hungary to oversee the deportation of Jews. He implemented a horrifyingly swift and systematic operation. Between May and July 1944, over 430,000 Hungarian Jews were deported, with the vast majority sent to Auschwitz, where most were murdered upon arrival.

As one survivor recalled:

"The authorities told us that they are taking us to Debrecen, which is a large Hungarian city, not too far away, and that we would work there. So my mother baked a lot of dry cookies and put them all in a large flour sack. At the train station, the SS packed us all into cattle cars. I have no idea how many of us were in one car. All I know is that we were standing in there like packed sardines. Then the train started to move and we travelled and travelled; no toilet or any sanitary facilities for our needs. Conditions were so bad that one of my sister's school friends died on the way. I was in a daze. We must have travelled 3-4 days, I think. Some bread and something else was thrown to us once to eat but basically we were traveling without food and water supplies; no sitting down; no sleeping. We finally arrived somewhere, but we didn't know where. We had arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. My mother was holding her brother's two-year-old child to help her pregnant sister-in-law. The Polish prisoner, whose job was to get us out of the cattle car, asked my mother whose baby that was. When my mother answered that the child was her sister-in-law's, he ordered her to give back the child to his pregnant mother. Then they took away my grandfather's walking cane and he began to cry to my grandmother about that.

My mother, sister and I were sent to the right. They took us all into a very large hall where, immediately, some men and women shaved off our hair. They then ordered us to undress; take off everything. So, there we were, completely naked in front of all those SS soldiers and were ordered to take a quick shower. After that we received a long, gray, rag to wear. They then marched us off to camp 'C', and assigned us to a barrack but I cannot recall the number on it.

By this time all the others; the old people like my grandparents, or the pregnant women like my aunt, or my cousins who were too young; were sent to the left. The Nazis didn't need them. We never saw them again. None of them came back. Not one."

It was against this backdrop of desperation and urgency that Raoul arrived in Hungary.