Eleven leaders of the former pro-Nazi government of Hungary and of the anti-Semitic Arrow-Cross party will be flown by American military authorities from Salzburg to Budapest tomorrow to be tried there as war criminals.
One of the principal charges against them will be the deporting of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary to extermination camps in Poland. The trial is expected to open on Monday. The decision to send them to Budapest for trial, instead of trying them before an international tribunal, was made by Justice Robert Jackson, American war crimes prosecutor.
The eleven include Ferenc Szalasi, Hungary’s last “fuehrer,” Laszlo Bardossy, pro-Nazi Prime Minister under whose regime Hungarian Jews were driven to the frontier in a “March of Death” and there handed over to the Germans to be murdered; Endor Jeross, Interior Minister who ordered the Jews’ deportation; Laszlo Endre, sadistic Under-Secretary of the Interior in charge of Jewish persecution; and Bela Imredy, Prime Minister who first introduced anti-Jewish laws in 1938.
The Hungarian war criminals, who were rounded-up by American troops in whirlwind raids directed by Martin Himmler, a Hungarian-born agent of the Office of Strategic Service, had much loct stolen from Jews, including jewels, in their possession at the time of their arrest.
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.
