Germans have learned to accept the territorial losses of the First and Second World Wars.  Isn’t it time for Hungarians to do the same and wholeheartedly embrace the European Union?  After all, don’t Hungarians stand to benefit from a Europe where there is freedom of movement and respect for the rights of national minorities?

While true that the former Hungarian territories of Romania and Serbia have not been granted full territorial autonomy, Koszorus’ claim that “Hungarian historical communities living in the Successor States are . . . forced to live in a stifling status quo that threatens their cultural existence, if not their very survival” is a gross exaggeration, if not an outright lie.

Dear editor,

I am writing in response to Frank Koszorus Jr.’s somewhat confused op-ed piece entitled “Setting the record straight on Hungary’s history” appearing in the January 4th, 2016 online edition of “Hungary Today”.

I find it ironic that an essay purporting to “set the record straight” should be so selective in its choice of facts (citing Goebbels on Hungary but not Eichmann, for example), although I cannot say that I am surprised, Hungary Today being the product of the same nationalist conservative government that has founded no fewer than five institutes devoted to rewriting Hungary’s history since coming to power in 2010.

One such institute, the so-called “Veritas Institute for Historical Research” led by revisionist historian Sándor Szakály, played a central role in last year’s rehabilitation of convicted war criminal Bálint Hóman by a Budapest court.

A respected medievalist and general secretary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hóman served as Minister of Religion and Education under the ultra-nationalist governments of Gyula Gömbös, Kálman Darányi, Béla Imrédy, Pál Teleki, and László Bárdossy.  He continued to serve as a member of parliament even after Horthy was forced to resign and appoint Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi Népvezér (the Hungarian equivalent of der Führer). 

Regardless of whether Hóman was personally guilty of crimes against humanity or not, it is a historical fact Hóman played a hand in drafting scores of anti-Jewish laws and, along with other members of parliament, called for the deportation of Hungary’s Jews.  His rehabilitation last year nearly resulted in a statue being erected to him in December (in the western Hungarian town of Székesfehervár, the birth place of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán).  Only a deafening chorus of international disapproval prevented so outrageous an insult to the victims of the Hungarian Holocaust from taking place.

Whatever Joseph Goebbels confided to his diary, Adolph Eichmann had little difficulty persuading Hungarian authorities to deport Hungary’s Jewish population, even remarking at the speed and efficiency with which some 437,000 Hungarian Jews, mostly women, children and elderly (able-bodied male Jews having been conscripted into forced labor battalions attached to the Hungarian army) were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz (where the vast majority were gassed upon arrival).

Although Horthy was not opposed to the deportation of “Galician” Jews living in the countryside, Hungary’s regent staunchly opposed the deportation of the Budapest Jews, at one point actually sending Hungarian troops to prevent this from happening.  Horthy’s successor, Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi, harbored no such reservations, and his Arrow Cross followers made a sport out of murdering Jews in cold blood.

The above is well documented and no amount of government whitewashing is going to change the historical record.  And the sooner the Hungarian people confront this tragic chapter of their own history, the better.

The tragedy of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon was a great historical injustice for Hungary.  Some believe the dismemberment of Hungary might have been averted had Hungarians not been so hard on their own national minorities.  Others believe it was an inevitable outcome of the rise of nationalism and the emergence of the nation state–the same political unit Viktor Orbán is so keen to preserve.

At the Paris Peace conference different committees made up of various experts were assigned the task of drawing Hungary’s new borders with Romania and the new states of Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia along national and ethnic lines, a difficult if not impossible task given the multi-national nature of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Koszorus’ statement that Hungary was “an unwilling partner to the Central Powers” is ahistorical.  Although Hungarian prime minister Count István was reluctant to authorize the use of Imperial and Royal troops against Serbia, Hungary eventually gave its consent.  Ironically, had Tisza not hesitated, Russia would not have had time to respond (by ordering a general mobilization against both the Austrian-Hungarian and German borers), and a limited conflict between the Austria-Hungarian Empire and Serbia might never have conflated into the First World War.

Tragically, subsequent initiatives to modify the proposed borders to Hungary’s advantage were thwarted on news that the liberal government of Mihály Károly had resigned and been replaced by the Bolshevik government of Béla Kun.  Ironically, it was news of Hungary’s pending dismemberment that induced Mihály Károly to resign.  The Bolsheviks succeeded in coming to power in part because they were the only party openly calling for the defense of Hungary’s historical borders–a proposition which appealed to a large segment of the Hungarian population.

Romanian forces sent to occupy Budapest in response to Hungary’s refusal to cooperate met little resistance from troops under the command of Admiral Miklós Horthy.  After being named regent, Horthy was content to bide his time until the moment was ripe for Hungary to recover territories lost at Trianon.  That opportunity came in 1938 in the form of Adolf Hitler.  Sympathetic to Hungarian demands for territorial revisionism, Hitler arranged for the predominately Hungarian parts of Serbia, Czechoslovakia, and Romania to be returned to Hungary at the First and Second Vienna Awards in 1938 and 1940, respectively.  In return, Hitler expected Horthy’s cooperation on the Jewish question.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The past is the past

Hungary was not the only country to lose territory or population over the course of the 20th century.  Germany suffered the loss of one third its pre-war territory.   The eastern third of Poland was transferred to Belorussia and Ukraine, resulting in the displacement of 1.5 million Poles.  Even Czechoslovakia suffered the loss of Sub-Carpathian Rus after the Second World War (although arguably this was Hungary’s loss as well).

Germans have learned to accept the territorial losses of the First and Second World Wars.  Isn’t it time for Hungarians to do the same and wholeheartedly embrace the European Union?  After all, don’t Hungarians stand to benefit from a Europe where there is freedom of movement and respect for the rights of national minorities?

While true that the former Hungarian territories of Romania and Serbia have not been granted full territorial autonomy, Koszorus’ claim that “Hungarian historical communities living in the Successor States are . . . forced to live in a stifling status quo that threatens their cultural existence, if not their very survival” is a gross exaggeration, if not an outright lie.

Sincerely yours,

Richard Field