Figure 1.--These Hungarian brothers have just gotten off the deportatation trains and are standing on the ramp at Aushchwitz-Birkenau. Notice the look on their faces from what they are seeing. They are on the women and children's side meaning that they will be selected for immediate death in the gas chambers. The caps they are wearing may be Scout caps. The younger boy may not have a Star becaue of his age. Click on the image for more information about the boys.

The Hungarian Jews were the last large national group destroyd by the Germans. To prepare for the murder of several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews, former Camp Commandant Rudolf Höss was ordersd back to Auschwitz. As SS Camp Senior he began preparing for the task. And the opertiin became known as 'Aktion Höss'. SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann after overseeing the concentration of Hungarian Jews, personally organized and oversaw the deportations. He was ready to begin (May 1944). Until this point Horthy had resisted NAZI pressure to hand over Hungrian Jews. The deportations to Auschwitz began with th Jews concntrated in provincial cities. Hungarian authorities and the German Security Police began the deportations (mid-1944). The Hungarian police were responsible for roundingup the Jews and bringing them to the train stations where they were forced on to the transport trains. In less than 2 months, about 440,000 Jews were deported in 145 trains. Most of the transports went directy to the death camp at Auschwitz. In just 8 weeks, some 437,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is tetimony to how efficent the Germans had become with the killing process and what would have occured in executing Generalplan Ost had the Germans won the War. Families including children and the eldely were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Healthy individuals mostly males were sent west to the border with Austria to be employed as force labor in the construction of trenches which were to defend Vienna. In the entire history of the Holocaust the NAZIs never succeded in deporting so many people so quickly. This is especially remarkable as the Hungarian Jews in the provinces were widely dispersed. Horthy at last dismissed Sztojay and appointed General Lakatos as Prime Minister (August 29). He immediately assured Samuel Stern, President of the Budapest Jewish Council that there would be no deportations from Budapest and no further assignments to labor brigades. His motivations are unknown, but are widely believed to be concern over war crime trials after the War. Since the German invasion, the German military situation had steadily deteriorated. Presumably the Allied landings in Normandy and the steady advance of the Red Army in the East motivated him. By this stage of the War it was clear that the Germans had clearly lost the War. Allied air raid may have been another factor. Eichmann was reportedly furious, but in the deteriorating military situation and without Hungarian support he could not continue the deportations. A large number of Jews still existed in Budapest that had not been touched by the deportations carried out mostly in the provinces.

Created: 5:21 PM 6/21/2014
Last updated: 5:21 PM 6/21/2014