Allied propaganda agencies, simultaneously with the opening to the Axis satellite states to get out of the war, are vigorously combatting campaign by the Nazi-controlled Horthy regime to make the Hungarian people believe at the 800, 000 Jews in Hungary are responsible for the Allied bombing of Hungarian Military objectives.
After the recent warning by Voice of America shortwave transmitters that the Hungarian people’s treatment of Jews would be one of the factors in the Allied judgment on Hungary, the London transmitters last night assailed the Budapest regime’s new trick of confining Jews to ghettos in the immediate vicinity of Allied targets. The broadcast specifically referred to the factory areas of Ujpest, Kispest and Pestzenterzebet.
Anyone spreading the report that the presence of Jews in those areas would keep the Allied air forces away is a criminal and anyone believing such a report is insane, the broadcast declared. It accused the Hungarian regime of trying, by linking the air raids with the Jewish question, to divert the people’s attention from the treachery which played Hungary into the hands of Hitler,” which necessarily sought the Allied bombings.
The London commentator, speaking in Hungarian, stressed that the authorities know that the moving of Jews into area where factories and railway yards are located won’t save the life of one single Hungarian. This new ruling is simply murder of the moral and criminal law sense of the word. All those participating in the persecution of these terrible, cowardly methods must know that they cannot escape punishment.”
The broadcast concluded by warning the Hungarians that if they tolerate these unprecedented methods “they’ll have to suffer the censure and moral judgment of the three nations that Hungary has shut herself off from the community of Christian nations, and after the catastrophe she’ll have to start the long, hard way of penitence friendless and isolated.”
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.