Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky
Encyclopedia
Endre Kálmán Bajcsy-Zsilinszky (Szarvas
Szarvas
----Szarvas is a town in Békés county in southeastern Hungary. The Hungarian placename Szarvas means 'deer' in English.- History :...

, June 6, 1886 – Sopronköhida
Sopronkőhida
Sopronkőhida is a village in North Western Hungary, 4 km north of the city Sopron and 5 km south of the border with Austria.-Significance:...

, December 24, 1944), was an influential Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 politician and an important voice in the struggle against German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 expansion and military policy.

Family history

The Zsilinszky name first appeared in 1720, in the registry of the Evangelical church (Lutheran Church) of Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba is a city in Southeast Hungary, the capital of the county Békés.- Geography :According to the 2001 census, the city has a total area of .- Name :...

, where his great grandfather, Mihály Zsilinszky, a well off peasant farmer and an elected judge of Slovak
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...

 origin, lived.

Endre's grandfather (born in 1838), and his father Dr. Endre Zsilinszky, were also born in Békéscsaba. In 1883, his father married Mária Bajcsy, the stepdaughter of János Vilim, a lawyer related to the Zsilinszky family. The young couple initially resided in Szarvas
Szarvas
----Szarvas is a town in Békés county in southeastern Hungary. The Hungarian placename Szarvas means 'deer' in English.- History :...

 and the marriage produced four children; Endre, Gábor, Margit and Erzsébet and on June 6, 1886 he was christened Endre Kálmán in the local Lutheran Church.

Youth and Education

Endre was a year old when his family moved from Szarvas to Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba is a city in Southeast Hungary, the capital of the county Békés.- Geography :According to the 2001 census, the city has a total area of .- Name :...

, and he studied at the Gyula Andrássy High School, where, by academic excellence he rose above his peers. He regularly participated in the school's activities and chaired its self improvement club. His prize winning compositions drew attention, and revealed his grasp of the social issues of the day. He excelled in each subject (Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

, Latin, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

), and graduated with honours. This gained him a scholarship grant from the Lutheran Church diocese of Bánya
Reformed Church in Hungary
The Reformed Church in Hungary is a key representative of Christianity in Hungary, being numerically the second-largest denomination in Hungary after the Roman Catholic Church, and the biggest denomination among ethnic Hungarians in Romania...

.

After high school graduation in 1904, he continued his university education at the Franz Josef University of Kolozsvár law school in Kolozsvár
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

 (Romanian: Cluj).

His multifaceted abilities exhibited themselves in his first year of university. He read a lot of Széchenyi's works, and in addition to his law studies, he also signed up to study history of philosophy. His second year in school brought him a lot of exciting experiences and intellectual enrichment. He ended up spending two semesters at the universities of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

. During his sojourn in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, his interests increasingly focused on the world of politics. The developing political situation in Germany increased his incentive to study with greater diligence. And yet, in spite of his commitment to his studies, there was time for self improvement. During his stay in Heidelberg, he developed numerous friendships and social contacts, which required him to extensively socialize.

On April 24, 1908 he completed his political science studies, and on December 5, he received his doctorate in law. In the autumn of 1909 he enlisted in the 1st Imperial and Royal Hussars
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...

 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 as a volunteer, and in September 1910, he received his reserve officer's commission.

At this time, through a conflict by his Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba
Békéscsaba is a city in Southeast Hungary, the capital of the county Békés.- Geography :According to the 2001 census, the city has a total area of .- Name :...

 family, András L. Áchim, one of the founders of the Hungarian Peasants party
Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party
The Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party is a political party in Hungary...

, was shot to death by Endre's brother, Gábor Zsilinszky.

Career

Following these events, from October 1910 on, he worked as a junior law clerk, established friendships, and improved his social life. He lectured in political citizens' circles and contributed articles to the Women's circle. In February 1912, he entered public life and found employment as the apprentice steward of Alsókubin in the comitatus
Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
A county is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day....

 (county) of Árva
Arva
Arva may refer to:* Arva, Ontario, a community located in Middlesex Centre, Ontario, Canada* Arva, a village in Valea Călugărească Commune, Prahova County, Romania* Arva, a village in Broşteni Commune, Vrancea County, Romania...

. At first, he worked without remuneration, then received a minimal annual salary of between and kronen
Austro-Hungarian krone
The Krone or korona was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918...

.

World War I

Immediately after the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky volunteered for front-line duty and his unit, part of the II. Mounted (Hussar) Division, was deployed to the Serbia
Serbian Campaign (World War I)
The Serbian Campaign was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia at the outset of the First World War, until late 1915, when the Macedonian Front was formed...

n front.

Afterwards he was deployed to the Italian
Italy in World War I
This article is about Italian military operations in World War I.Italy, though nominally allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary, refused to join them when the war started. Instead Italy entered the war on the Allied side in May 1915....

 front, and at the beginning of June 1916, as part of the 2nd Imperial and Royal Mounted Hussars' Marksmen Division, he was deployed on the Eastern
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...

 front.

In September of the same year he was wounded, and spent a slow and lingering period of recuperation at the military hospital. At the beginning of 1917, he requested and was granted permission to return to the front.

In 1918, he participated in the founding of the Hungarian National Defense Association (Magyar Országos Véderő Egylet)
Hungarian National Defence Association
The Hungarian National Defence Association was an early fascist movement active in Hungary. The structure of the group was largely paramilitary and as such separate from its leader's later political initiatives....

 (MOVE), for which, later, he was forced to emigrate to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

Between World Wars

After his return to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, he settled in Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....

. His support was welcomed by the nationalists, and the populist political party of Gyula Gömbös. Under his editorial guidance, among others, the Voice (Szózat), a newspaper with nationalist and racist themes, was published.

Elected to the Parliament as a representative of the Unity Party in 1922. In 1923 he defected, with Gyula Gömbös, to form the Hungarian National Independence Party (Magyar Nemzeti Függetlenségi Párt), better known as The Guardians of Race Party (Fajvédő Párt). Voice (Szózat) became the party's official organ. In 1925 he was honoured with the commission of Valiant knight (Vitéz)
Vitéz
Vitéz, or Order of Vitéz was a Hungarian order of merit which was founded in 1678. It was awarded as a state honour during two periods of Hungarian history...

. In 1926, he became the editor-in-chief of the Hungarians (Magyarság), and in 1928 he became the editor-in-chief of the Forward guard (Elöörs) newspaper, which also marked the gradual distancing from the political camp of Gyula Gömbös.

In 1930, he founded the National Radical Party (Nemzeti Radikális Párt)
Liberalism and radicalism in Hungary
This article gives an overview of liberalism and radicalism in Hungary. It is limited to liberal and radical parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme...

 and in 1932, he became the editor-in-chief of the anti-Nazi daily Freedom (Szabadság)
Szabadság
Szabadság is a Hungarian-language local daily newspaper published in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Its average circulation is about 7,000-8,000 copies a day, with a readership up to 40,000 readers.- Overview :...

. His political stature grew in 1935 when his party and political allies were elected to the Hungarian Parliament (Parlament). In the same year, he resigned his Vitéz commission.

World War II

After the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he became the editor-in-chief of the weekly paper Independent Hungary (Független Magyarország) in which he espoused the necessity of blocking German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 expansion (Living space (Lebensraum)
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...

), through the united efforts of the small states bordering along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

.

From 1941, he was the editor of the anti-Nazi paper The Free Word (Szabad Szó)
Szabad szó
Szabad szó was a Hungarian newspaper, and was the central organ of the National Peasants Party. It was published daily from April 19, 1945 to June 4, 1950, and weekly from June 1950 to February 1952. The last issue was published on February 3, 1952...

, and in the same year, he was one of the major organizers of the March 15 anti-Nazi protests.

On March 19, 1944, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky, at his residence, fought with a weapon to prevent arrest by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

. He was wounded in the brief gun battle, arrested, and hauled away.

On October 11 of the same year, his release was demanded and obtained by the Hungarian government. But, in November, he was again arrested and incarcerated in the Sopronköhida
Sopronkőhida
Sopronkőhida is a village in North Western Hungary, 4 km north of the city Sopron and 5 km south of the border with Austria.-Significance:...

 prison, where he was executed by hanging on December 23. On May 27, 1945, he was reburied in Tarpa
Tarpa
Tarpa is a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.-Geography:It covers an area of and has a population of 2278 people ....

 with honours.

In Memoriam

Due to his anti National Socialist stance, he was honoured by the postwar Communist regime of Hungary, and his nationalist and ant-Nazi theories still have adherents.

Streets named after him in Baja
Baja, Hungary
Baja is a city in , southern Hungary. It is the second largest city in the county, after the county seat at Kecskemét, and is home to around 37,000 people....

, Balassagyarmat
Balassagyarmat
Balassagyarmat is a town in northern Hungary. It was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus.- History :The town's coat-of-arms bears the Latin inscription "Civitas Fortissima" , because in January 1919 Czechoslovak troops crossed the demarcation line delineated in December 1918 in preparation for the...

, Balatonalmádi
Balatonalmádi
Balatonalmádi, a town of 8,500 inhabitants, is a popular resort town near the northeast corner of Lake Balaton, in Hungary.- History :The town developed from four, previously separated villages, which were united by combining Balatonalmádi and Káptalanfüred in 1952, and Balatonalmádi and...

, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Debrecen
Debrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...

, Gyor
Gyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...

, Eger
Eger
Eger is the second largest city in Northern Hungary, the county seat of Heves, east of the Mátra Mountains. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, historic buildings , and red and white wines.- Name :...

, Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....

, Kaposvár, Kecskemét
Kecskemét
Kecskemét is a city in the central part of Hungary. It is the 8th largest city of the country, and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun.Kecskemét lies halfway between the capital Budapest and the country's third-largest city, Szeged, 86 kilometres from both of them and almost equal distance from the two...

, Kiskunfélegyháza
Kiskunfélegyháza
Kiskunfélegyháza is a town in the Bács-Kiskun county in southern Hungary, 130 kilometres southeast of Budapest by rail.Among the principal buildings are a fine Art Nouveau town hall, a Roman Catholic high school and a modern large parish church. The surrounding country is covered with vineyards,...

, Kiskőrös
Kiskorös
Kiskőrös is a town in Bács-Kiskun, Hungary. It is located at around . Sándor Petőfi was born here.- Geography :Kiskõrös is the sixth biggest city in Bács-Kiskun county by population. It is located in the center of the county, 22 km east from the river Danube and 110 km south of Budapest...

, Környe
Környe
-External links:*...

, Koszeg
Koszeg
----Kőszeg is a town in Vas county, Hungary. The town is famous for its historical character.- History :The origins of the only free royal town in the historical garrison county of Vas go back to the third quarter of the 13th century...

, Miskolc
Miskolc
Miskolc is a city in northeastern Hungary, mainly with heavy industrial background. With a population close to 170,000 Miskolc is the fourth largest city of Hungary It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern Hungary.- Geography :Miskolc is located...

, Pécs
Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county...

, Szentes
Szentes
-External links:* * http://www.szentes.hu/index1-eng.htm*...

, Tokaj
Tokaj
Tokaj , is a historical town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 54 kilometers from county capital Miskolc. It is the centre of the famous Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district where the world famous Tokaji wine is produced.- History :...

 and in the inner city of Tatabánya
Tatabánya
Tatabánya is a city of 69,988 inhabitants in north-western Hungary, in the Central Transdanubian region. It is the capital of Komárom-Esztergom County.- Location :...

. Also, the city of Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....

 (Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

) named a street after him in gratitude for raising his voice in Hungarian parliament against the mass killing of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...

 Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, and Roma by Hungarian soldiers and gendarmes in 1942.

Works

  • A Singular Path: The Hungarian peasant farmer (Egyetlen út: A Magyar Paraszt)
  • National Rebirth and the Press (Nemzeti újjászületés és sajtó)
  • New Year's Open Letter to the Electorate of the Derecske Electoral District (Újévi nyílt levele a derecskei választókerület polgáraihoz)
  • National Radicalism (Nemzeti radikálizmus)
  • German World in Hungary (Német világ Magyarországon)
  • King Matthias (Mátyás király)
  • Our Place and Fate in Europe (Helyünk és sorsunk Európában)
  • Transylvania: Past and Future (Erdély, a Mult és a Jövö)

Sources

  • Károly Vigh: Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky (1886–1944)- A Man With A Mission. Published by (Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1992) ISBN 963-15-4397-8. (Vigh Károly: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Endre (1886–1944) / A küldetéses ember (Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1992) ISBN 963-15-4397-8)
  • Halász, Iván : Tzv. lojálni Slováci v dualistickom Uhorsku ("dobrí Slováci", "úradní Tóthi", uhorskí vlastenci, maďaróni a tí druhí....) In: Regionálna a národná identita v maďarskej a slovenskej histórii 18. - 20. storočia = Regionális és nemzeti identitásformák a 18 - 20. századi magyar és a szlovák történelemben. [Eds.]: Šutaj, Štefan - Szarka, László. Prešov, Universum 2007, s. 91-102. Rés. maď. s. 102-103 Az ún. lojális szlovákok a dualizmuskori Magyarországon ("jó szlovákok", "hivatalos tórok", magyarországi hazafiak, maďarónok és a többiek...); angl. s. 103 So-called loyal Slovak in Hungary during the Dual Monarchy ("Good Slovaks", "Official Tots", Hungarian patriots, "Magyarized Slovaks", and others...) ISBN 978-80-89046-43-0

External references

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