Funeral services will be held here Friday for Dr. Bela Fabian, the Hungarian exile leader and former head of the opposition in the Hungarian Parliament to the pro-Nazi regime of Admiral Nicholas Horthy, who died this week while on vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was an active leader in Jewish communal affairs.
Born in Talya, Hungary, Dr. Fabian earned a law degree at the University of Budapest, served as a judge in the criminal court of Budapest in 1919 to 1921 and later as a member of Parliament until the late 1930’s. As leader of the opposition to the Horthy regime and as a founder of the Hungarian Liberty Party, Dr. Fabian spoke out against anti-Jewish riots and restrictions on Jews. He was seriously injured in a fight with an anti-Semitic deputy.
After the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Dr. Fabian was deported to a concentration camp, but escaped to France and emigrated to the United States in 1948. In the years since he arrived in this country, Dr. Fabian led many anti-Communist demonstrations near the Soviet and Hungarian legations.
Dr. Fabian wrote a book on the life of Cardinal Mindszenty in which he described how the Cardinal had aided Jews and of the Cardinal’s opposition to anti-Semitism in Hungary.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
