The Office of War Information today received a report from Switzerland stating that an “acute crisis” has developed within the pro-Nazi Hungarian Government as result of the Jewish deportations and specifically, the protests made against them.
The report quotes the Swiss newspaper Basler Nachrichten as stating that a “deep impression” was made on Nicholas Horthy, regent of Hungary, and “even on members of the Sztojay government,” the article said, by the appeals of the King of Sweden, the papal nuncio, and the International Red Cross to stop the deportations. Sztojay, the article continued, “apparently hopes the responsibility for the deportations will fall upon the occupation authorities alone, not touching him as a collaborator” and that the cessation of the deportations will be credited to him. He is, therefore, willing to disassociate himself from the “extremist” members of his government, namely Andor Jaross, Minister of the Interior, and his two assistants, Lazlo Endre, Commissioner for Jewish Affairs and Laszlo Baky.
According to the article, Baky and Endre are supported by the Gestapo, but Edmund Veesenmayer, Nazi minister to Hungary, is willing to support a “more moderate” solution in order to avoid internal unrest. Veesenmayer is believed to be willing to see Baky and Endre ousted and Bela Imredy, former premier and now Minister of Economics without Portfolio, given more power.
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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.
