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has been captured by the Gestapo on 7 October 1944, and also sent to a concentration camp.

On 13 October 1944 the Regent sent a representative to Szeged (the largest city in Southern Hungary, then under Russian occupation) to commence official talks with General Malinowsky on the matter of the Hungarian troops laying down their arms.

On 15 October 1944 the Regent informed the German Envoy End Plenipotentiary that he had asked for an armistice, and the Regent's proclamation has been broadcast at 12:30 noon by the Budapest Radio, and has been repeated several times later on. The proclamation spoke sharply about the Germans' behavior, as well is about the shameful attitude of the German Administration and Army towards Hungary. He declared among other things, that n the minds of all thinking persons Germany lost the war a long ime ago.

This proclamation caused great relief and satisfaction among he masses in the country. But that much greater was the shock nd excitement when in the course of the following hours and days he Hungarian "Quisling", Ferenc Szalasi, seized control of the ountry's affairs, set into this position by the Germans. At the ame time the Regent and his family have been arrested, and aken to Germany, not as guests (as the press wanted it to be elieved) but as prisoners, under guard of 100 SS men and twelve estapo Agents.

COPY OF STATEMENT XV

WHY HUNGARY WENT TO WAR AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION [BY NICHOLAS HORTHY, JR.]

1.

*

this letter

May 3, 1946

explains why Hungary went nto the war against the Soviet Union. At the time of the declaraion of war against Russia, I was Hungarian Minister in Brazil ut upon my return in 1942 I was able to reconstruct the reasons which led us to declare war.

I

2. Practically the only reason for declaring war was that the ermans needed our participation in it. This they attained with ilitary and economic pressure, propaganda, and baseness. want to answer now the question itself as to why they needed our articipation in the war, especially since we had nearly no army ecause of the peace treaty at Trianon.

3. The Germans would have liked Hungary's participation in he war earlier, but when they attacked the Soviet Union, the

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Rumanians followed suit and Germany could not allow a neutral country between her and Rumania for the following reasons:

a. The Soviet troops could have attacked Germany from this side through a neutral Hungary.

b. They must send their troops and armaments to the south Soviet front through Hungary and Rumania.

c. They could import the Rumanian agricultural and industrial articles, and most important, the oil, only through Hungary on the Danube River or by rail.

d. Their route to the Balkans was through Hungary.

4. At this time the German leaders exerted pressure for our participation in the war through military sources and especially through General Werth, Chief of the General Staff, who was a great admirer of the German Army and who also influenced the pro-Nazi Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Bardossy.

5. Even though the pressure of German leaders and the proNazi members of the Hungarian Government was great, my father, Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, tried to resist and avoid war. It was not easy because the Hungarian people did not forget the atrocities and terrors during the communistic revolution in 1919 under the leadership of Bela Kuhn.

6. Many Hungarians were killed when the Soviets bombed the towns of Kassa and Munkacs, and after that it was impossible to avoid war.

7. Hungary made an understanding that only a small part of the little army sent to Russia would be used on the battlefront and the largest part would be used for occupation. (The Russians never complained about behavior of the Hungarian occupation forces as they did of the German occupation forces.) With regard to the above and other military or non-military agreements, the Germans hardly ever held to a promise; they lied, cheated, and with their propaganda put us in the worse light before the Allies. As much as I can follow the Nurnberg trial, I see that the Nazi leaders are still following their habit of making false statements about Hungary and my father.

8. My father did not know until 1944 (after the Germans occupied Hungary) that Molotov asked our Minister in Moscow to see him after the bombardment of the two Hungarian towns mentioned above. Molotov expressed his hopes that the friendly re lations between the two countries would remain unchanged. Our Minister to Russia relayed this message immediately to the Prime Minister, Bardossy, who did not reveal it to my father because he realized that my father would never agree under such circum

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stances to declaring war against Russia. After this it is clear that it was the Germans who bombarded the two Hungarian towns with Russian planes in order to achieve their idea that Hungary should get into the war.

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