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László Bárdossy
 
 
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László Bárdossy de Bárdos (December 10, 1890 - January 10, 1946) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1941 to 1942.

Born in Szombathely
Szombathely

Szombathely, is a city in Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria....
 to a bourgeois family, Bárdossy began his career in the Hungarian government as a young man when he found employ in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Bárdossy transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1920, and served as head of its press department from 1924 to 1931.






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László Bárdossy de Bárdos (December 10, 1890 - January 10, 1946) was Prime Minister of Hungary from 1941 to 1942.

Born in Szombathely
Szombathely

Szombathely, is a city in Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria....
 to a bourgeois family, Bárdossy began his career in the Hungarian government as a young man when he found employ in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Bárdossy transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1920, and served as head of its press department from 1924 to 1931. Bárdossy quickly rose through the foreign ministry, serving as a member of the Hungarian legation
Legation

A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. The distinction between a legation and embassy was dropped following the World War II, as all diplomatic representative offices were now designated as embassies, or high commissions....
 to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 from 1931 to 1934. In 1934, he was appointed to the important position of Ambassador
Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents their country. They are usually accredited to a Sovereignty or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of their country....
 to Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
. In February 1941, Bárdossy was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in Prime Minister Pál Teleki
Pál Teleki

P?l Count Teleki de Sz?k was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July, 1920 to 14 April, 1921 and from 16 February, 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Magyar Cserk?szsz?vets?g....
’s cabinet. When Teleki committed suicide on April 3, 1941, Bárdossy was immediately appointed prime minister
Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of Cabinet in the Executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician....
 by Regent
Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present or debilitated....
 Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy

Mikl?s Horthy de Baia Mare was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the Hungary between the two world wars and throughout most of World War II, serving from March 1, 1920, to October 15, 1944....
. As prime minister, Bárdossy (who also retained the portfolio of foreign minister) pursued a strong pro-German foreign policy, reasoning that an alliance with the Nazis would allow Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
 to retrieve land that had been taken from it as a result of the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon

The Treaty of Trianon is the peace treaty concluded at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other....
. Shortly after Bárdossy became prime minister, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 invaded Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia

File:LocationYugoslavia2.pngYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century....
. Bárdossy and Horthy sent the Hungarian Army to assist the Germans, and in return Hungarian troops were allowed to occupy territory in Yugoslavia that had formerly belonged to Hungary. Hungary was eventually allowed to annex pieces of Vojvodina
Vojvodina

The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an Subdivisions of Serbia in Serbia, containing about 27% of its total population according to the 2002 Census....
, Croatia
Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
, and Slovenia
Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
 as well.

On matters of domestic policy, Bárdossy proved to be an advocate of radical right wing politics. An Anti-Communist, Bárdossy enacted the Third Jewish Law in August 1941, which severely limited Jewish economic and employment opportunities and prohibited Jews from marrying or having sexual intercourse with non-Jews. Bárdossy also approved the policy of deporting non-Hungarians from the territory seized from Yugoslavia, and authorized the slaughter of thousands of Jews in Novi Sad
Novi Sad

Novi Sad is the capital city of the northern Subdivisions of Serbia of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Backa District.According to the 2002 Census, Novi Sad is Serbia's second city, after Belgrade, with around 300,000 inhabitants....
. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Bárdossy was restrained by Horthy from declaring war on the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. On June 26, however, the Hungarian city of Kassa
Kassa

Kassa can either mean:* Kassa www.kassa.it* Ko?ice a town in Slovakia*Kassa, Mali* Kassa A Dutch consumer protection TV program* Kassa an African ruler...
 was bombed and the Hungarian government claimed that the Soviets were the attackers. (The identity of the attackers has never been satisfactorily resolved, but it is one of two leading theories that Soviet planes on a mission to bomb the city of Eperjes, at the time under German rule, mistakenly bombed Kassa instead.) After learning of the attack and meeting with his cabinet and Horthy, Bárdossy declared war on the Soviet Union. In so doing, he violated Hungary’s constitution, which required the prime minister to receive the consent of Parliament
Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom....
 before declaring war (Bárdossy declared war without Parliament’s permission). After the Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu, Hawaii. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base....
 on December 7, 1941, Bárdossy was reluctant to declare war on the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. He eventually relented to pressure from Germany (which reminded him of Hungary’s signing of the Tripartite Pact
Tripartite Pact

The Tripartite Treaty also refers to a 1906 treaty concerning the Nile river The Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940 by Saburo Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, and Gale...
), however, and declared war on the United States on December 13, 1941 (once again not gaining permission from Parliament before declaring war).

On March 7, 1942, Bárdossy was forced to resign as prime minister by Regent Horthy. Exactly why Horthy decided to remove Bárdossy is unclear, but some possible reasons include Bárdossy’s unwillingness to stand up to Germany, his compliancy to Hungary’s Far-right, increasing Hungarian troop levels and casualties in the Soviet Union. Perhaps the primary reason that Horthy dismissed Bárdossy, however, was that Bárdossy successfully opposed a plan by Horthy that would have elevated his son, Nicholas Horthy, to the regency after Miklós Horthy’s death. After resigning as prime minister, Bárdossy became chairman of the Fascist United Christian National League in 1943. After the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, Bárdossy and his followers collaborated with Prime Minister Döme Sztójay
Döme Sztójay

D?me Szt?jay born Demeter Sztojakovich was a Hungary soldier and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Hungary during World War II.Born in Vr?ac in a Serb family, Szt?jay joined the Austro-Hungarian Army as a young man and served as a colonel during World War I....
 and Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi

Ferenc Sz?lasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party - Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , and the Prime Minister of Hungary of the Hungarian State for the final three months of Hungary during World War II in World War II....
’s Arrow Cross Party
Arrow Cross Party

The Arrow Cross Party was a pro-German anti-Semitic national socialism party led by Ferenc Sz?lasi which ruled Hungarian State from October 15, 1944 to January 1945....
. After World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 ended, Bárdossy was arrested and tried by a People’s Court in November 1945. He was found guilty of war crimes and collaboration with the Nazis, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in Budapest
Budapest

Budapest is the Capitals of Hungary of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commerce, Industry, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe....
 in 1946.

In English

  • Clementis-Záhony Botond: Bárdossy Reconsiderd: Hungary's Entrance into World War II. In: Triumph in Adversity. New York, 1988.
  • Nandor F. Dreisziger: "A Dove? A Hawk? Perhaps a Sparrow: Bárdossy Defends his Wartime Record before the Americans, July 1945," in Hungary Fifty Years Ago, N.F. Dreisziger ed. (Toronto and Budapest: special issue of the Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXII, Nos. 1-2, 1995), pp. 71-90.
  • Nandor F. Dreisziger: "Prime Minister László Bárdossy was Executed 50 Years Age as a 'War Criminal'," in Tárogató: the Journal of the Hungarian Cultural Society of Vancouver, Vol. XXIII, no. 11 (November 1996), pp. 56-57.
  • Nandor F. Dreisziger: Was László Bárdossy a War Criminal? Further Reflections, In: Hungary in the Age of Total War 1938-1948 (Bradenton: East European Monographs, distr. through Columbia University Press, 1998) pp. 311-320.

In Hungarian

  • Bárdossy László: Magyar politika a mohácsi vész után. Budapest, 1943.
  • A Bárdossy-per / a Magyar Országos Tudósitó és a Magyar Távirati Iroda hivatalos kiadásaiból szerk. Ábrahám Ferenc, Kussinszky Endre, Budapest, 1945.
  • Bárdossy László a Népbíróság elõtt, [szerk: Pritz Pál] Bp. : Maecenas, 1991. (dokumentumok)
  • Bûnös volt-e Bárdossy László [ed.Jaszovszky László] Budapest, Püski, 1996. (az elsofokú tárgyalás jegyzokönyve)
  • Czettler Antal: A mi kis élethalál kérdéseink. A magyar külpolitika a hadbalépéstol a német megszállásig. Bp., 2000, Magveto.
  • PERJÉS Géza: Bárdossy László és pere. Hadtörténelmi közlemények. 113. 2000. 4. 771-840.
  • Pritz Pál: A Bárdossy-per, Bp. : Kossuth, [2001].
  • JASZOVSZKY László: Észrevételek Perjés Géza "Bárdossy László és pere" címu tanulmányához. Hadtörténelmi közlemények. 114. 2001. 4. 711-725.
  • CLEMENTIS-ZÁHONY Botond: Hozzászólás Perjés Géza Bárdossy-tanulmányához. = Hadtörténelmi közlemények. 114. 2001. 4. 726-734.
  • PRITZ Pál: Válasz Perjés Gézának. Hadtörténelmi közlemények. 114. 2001. 4.
  • PERJÉS Géza: Viszontválasz Pritz Pálnak. Hadtörténelmi közlemények. 114. 2001. 4.
  • Bokor Imre: Gróf Teleki Pálról és Bárdossy Lászlóról, Budapest, Szenci M. Társ., 2002.
  • Szerencsés Károly: "Az ítélet: halál" magyar miniszterelnökök a bíróság elõtt : Batthyány Lajos, Bárdossy László, Imrédy Béla, Szálasi Ferenc, Sztójay Döme, Nagy Imre, Bp. : Kairosz, [2002]


See also

  • History of Hungary
    History of Hungary

    Hungary is a state in central Europe, its history under this name dating to the early Middle Ages, when the region previously known as Pannonia was colonized by the Magyar nomad people from what is now central-northern Russia....