Reports of a recent stormy session of the Hungarian Parliament during which Socialist and other deputies strongly protested the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the Russian front for forced labor, appear in the London press today.
Asserting that a large number of the deported Jews are dying at the front, the Socialist deputies distributed leaflets and photographs depicting the appalling conditions under which the Jewish conscripts are forced to live and work. The Socialist protest was supported by members of the Small Farmers party and even by some pro-Fascist deputies.
One deputy, named Payer, told the house that God’s punishment is sure to fall on Hungary for the terrible suffering the government has inflicted upon the Jews. Following the protest, Premier von Kallay immediately adjourned the session, declaring that the debate was “highly inconvenient” at the present time. Reports from Russia, in recent months, based on captured Hungarian documents and prisoners, indicated that about a quarter of a million Jews have been conscripted for labor service at the front.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
