A picture is often worth a thousand words – indeed. But this 1938 photo of Hitler and Horthy riding in an open automobile through Berlin is one of the exceptions. In all too many observers’ minds the image appears as a reflection of a cozy meeting transpiring between the Reich Chancellor and the Regent of Hungary.

But that is far from the truth, as this long story unfolds. In 1938 Hitler was already on the warpath about dismantling Czechoslovakia, but in May of 1938 the threat of military retaliation by France and Great Britain stopped the Fuehrer cold. Seldom at a loss for solution, at this stage Hitler brought Hungary onto the world stage for the sake of helping him out. Hungary was no friend of the new Czechoslovakia and she wanted Slovakia, the former Upper Hungary, returned “home.” This was a convenient opening for Hitler.

Horthy and his top officials were invited to a lavish state visit to Germany, with a naval parade held at Kiel for the former Austro-Hungarian admiral’s benefit. Here Hitler got down to business and proposed a Hungarian invasion of Czechoslovakia, i.e. Slovakia or Upper Hungary, rewarded by her reannexation of the multi-national province. Hitler’s ulterior motive was clever – in that case Germany could intervene to settle the turmoil by his own invasion and occupation of Bohemia-Moravia or “Czechia,” serving as a justification of “peacemaking intervention” toward the West. The Hungarian delegation first salivated then just about chocked in response. No way could Hungary risk a war in 1938 and deal with a Yugoslav military intervention, because “we could not be expected to commit suicide,” so her foreign minister explained.

Both Hitler and Horthy were badly frustrated at Kiel consequently. But the smooth operators they both were, the planned visit continued in Berlin, including an amiable looking open car ride in the morning, see photo above, and a gala opera performance in the evening. There was much more to follow in the two politicians interactions until 1945, but to his credit on this visit and ever after Horthy and his country refused the National Socialist raised-hand salute, because even though subordinated by the Third Reich imperial power, Horthy remained a conservative Hungarian nationalist.

In any case, the above is not the first or last photo to mess with our perception.


A MISLEADING PHOTO of Hitler and Horthy, 1938

Gen. Marcel Stomm, was the commander of the Third Corps in the ill-fated Hungarian Second Army serving on the Don front in 1942-1943. During a post-battle retreat, because of the heavily clogged roadways by German troops, Stomm concluded that small groups of men, rather than their large masses, might be more capable of making headway toward safety. On February 1st, 1943, therefore Stomm disbanded the Third Corps, permitting his men to split up into smaller retreating contingents, which then trudged successfully into safer territory. With a few of his officers, Stomm drove off toward the southwest, suffered debilitating frostbite, had to be thwarted from committing suicide, and was captured by the Soviets. Interrogations, an argument with ex-patriot and Soviet collaborator Communist Mátyás Rákosi, imprisonment in Moscow, the amputation of his blackened lower legs, a stint in a Soviet POW camp, and after barely escaping execution, finally years of postwar confinement in a Budapest Communist prison followed. All told, despite his unorthodox and controversial command decision, General Stomm had done his best under trying circumstances to carry on as an honorable soldier. 

Hungarian General  Marcel Stomm

After a fierce battle in the summer of 1942, the Hungarian army captured the Russian town of Stary Oskol, situated on the Oskol river. On the way to the east, and the Don river, the town was of great importance for both the Hungarian and German armies. The captured town housed two military hospitals, where many lives were saved during the war.
The Oskol river flows through Kursk and Belgorod Oblasts in Russia, and through the eastern part of Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine, where it joins the Seversky Donets river. 
There are several towns along the Oskol river, Stary Oskol is one of them.


Important town of Stary Oskol

Hungarian soldiers file across the newly constructed pontoon bridge over the Southern Bug river in the vicinity of the occupied town of Vinnitsa; Ukraine, 1941.

Across the Bug with dry feet

Hungarian Honvéd

Probably behind the lines on the Eastern front, German and Hungarian soldiers gather up for a group photograph

Hungarian-German Comradship

Hungarian General Karoly Beregfy (third from the left), August Zehender (behind Beregfy), Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch (on Beregfy's left) and Commando Leader Otto Skorzeny (on extreme right) among others, who took part in the wake for the fallen German members of Operation Panzerfaust held in Buda Castle; October 20, 1944.


Gathering in Buda Castle

Soldiers of a Hungarian patrol pass by several fallen German fighters on the Eastern Front.                        _

Hungarian patrol

Colonel General Vitéz Gusztáv Jány (on the right) is talking to Vitéz Horthy István, son of the Hungarian Regent, on the Eastern Front; 1942.
   Vitéz - is a title given to members of the Hungarian Knightly Order.

The Regent' son and the General...

Hungarian AA Artillery, Don Front. Anticipating an attack by Russian planes; 1942.

On the alert

Defense Minister General Károly Beregffy arrives at the front line for inspection of positions, November 1944.

Inspection of Front Line

A Hungarian troop train on a brief stop on the way to the Russian Front...

Troop train

After a light skirmish with Soviet forces in the Don-river bend Front, a Hungarian officer listens to his soldiers as they relate their experiences.

Discussion after a skirmish

Hungarian troops manhandle a PAK-38 50mm anti-tank gun in the summer of 1942. In the background is a Pz.Kpfw 38(t) tank.

Summer of '42

Their faces seem to be saying "Will we see you again?" Troops from Tata leaving Miskolc in 1942 for the Don front. For about one half, the answer will be a tragic "No."

Hungarian Departure to the Russian Front, 1942

Hungarian soldiers serve meals to employed or conscripted Russian laborers in a steppe village

Magyar soup served to Russian laborers

Hungarian medics provided first aid to a wounded Soviet soldier and gave him a meal as well

Soviet POW in Hungarian Military Care

Hungarian medics, doctors, and nurses did their best to save as many wounded men as possible in rear-area military hospitals

Wartime Military Hospital in Hungary

Built with Hungarian money and Russian cooperation, many tens of thousands of war dead, both soldiers and MUSZ laborers, rest at Rudkino cemetery on the banks of the Don River

Hungarian Cemetery in Russia today, Rudkino

Endless thousands of Hungarian POW's spent many years as forced laborers in the USSR after the war

Hungarian POW's in the Ukraine, 1947

Three naked man as partisan helpers forced to dig their own graves before their execution after a partisans attack result as killed a few hungarian soldiers in the forests of Polnikovo 21 07 1942


Grave Diggers

Jewish partisan hanging by hungarian military forces

Hanging

Soldiers of the 2nd Royal Hungarian Army leaves a village under flames in the hinterland of the eastern soviet frontline


Let it burn

2nd Royal Hungarian Army execution of soviet partisans in the hinterland of the frontline with SVT 40 rifles 

Execution

A Hungarian anti-aircraft battery with a Swedish Bofors 40mm gun, defending a bridge in the Carpathian mountains; 1941.


Hungarian Forces

Search Results