Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz: an Undiplomatic Diary
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Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz: An Undiplomatic Diary With an Introduction on Hungary and WWI by Fritz-Konrad Krüger Edited by Andrew L. Simon Copy of the original book courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library Reference Department Copyright © Andrew L. Simon, 2000 ISBN 0-9665734-6-3 Library of Congress Card Number: 00-102297 Published by Simon Publications, P.O. Box 321, Safety Harbor, FL 34695 Printed by Lightning Print, Inc. La Vergne , TN 37086 Con tents Introduction 1 Hungary and World War I. 5 Preliminaries to Bandholtz’s Arrival in Hungary 19 An Undiplomatic Diary 23 August, 1919 23 September, 1919 57 October, 1919 103 November, 1919 147 December, 1919 185 January, 1920 231 February, 1920 257 The Rattigan Correspondence 263 Chronology of Events 271 Newspaper Articles on Bandholtz 275 Principal Persons Mentioned in the Diary 279 Appendices CZECHS, SLOVAKS, AND FATHER HLINKA 283 HOW PEACE WAS MADE AFTER THE GREAT WAR 294 Introduction by Andrew L. Simon Major General Harry Hill Bandholtz was America’s representative to the Inter-Allied Supreme Command’s Military Mission in Hungary at the end of World War I. Before the first world war, Bandholtz was Chief of the American Constabulary in the Philippines from 1907 until 1913. During WWI Bandholtz was the Provost Marshal General in General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Forces in France. His organization, 463 officers and 15,912 men, was the world’s largest military police command at the time. Directing it was a huge responsibility. Despite his qualifications and experience, his six-month assignment to Budapest was apparently the most frustrating encounter in General Bandholtz’s distinguished military career. He, and his French, British and Italian colleagues and their staffs were supposed to supervise the Romanian occupation of Hungary after the end of the heinous but fortunately brief Bolshevist regime in 1919. Reading Bandholtz’s Diary—notes by an unbiased, high-ranking American Military Police officer having full access to information about the conditions in Hungary—one learns the truth about that turbulent period. First of all, the reader realizes that the popular allegations concerning a “White Terror” in Hungary are without foundation. On September 29, 1919 Bandholtz wrote: “Colonel [Nathan] Horowitz, who is a member of the Committee on Army Organization and who had visited western Hungary, turned in a report on the general conditions there, and in particular concerning the Jewish persecutions. He stated that in his opinion Admiral Horthy’s army had done everything within reason to prevent any such persecutions, and that he considered that no more atrocities had been committed than would ordinarily happen under the stress of such circumstances”. On November 18, Bandholtz continues: “As a matter fact, the arrests that were made were practically insignificant, and none were made that were not perfectly justifiable.” As the absolutely incorrect historical memory has it, five thousand people were executed and 70 thousand were imprisoned by Admiral Horthy’s Nationalist Army. At least one finds these precise numbers in several history books on 1 Hungary published in the 1990’s. They symbolize a gross falsification of history, comparable to the denial of the Holocaust. These lies are obviously the products of well organized and uninterrupted Bolshevik and Little Entente propaganda that went on for some 80 years. Bandholtz writes far more about atrocities by the “Allied” Romanian Army, about the occasional rumors of impending communist uprisings, or terrorist attacks against the new government. For instance, he reports, on December 17, communist infiltrators attempt to blow up the headquarters Horthy and the Inter-Allied Military Mission. Anti-Hungarian propaganda started early. Bandholtz heard about Hungarian army’s pogroms and bloody suppression of communist uprisings in the provinces. Upon finding them untrue, he wrote on January 20, 1920: “these persistent rumors of Bolshevist uprisings and killings in Hungary are due to unfriendly propaganda, but it is hard to tell just who starts it.” Today, of course, we know the sources. About the alleged anti-Semitism in Hungary at the end of the war Bandholtz wrote: “...although all Bolshevists were not Jews nor were all Jews Bolshevists, nevertheless Béla Kun , the Hungarian Bolshevist leader, practically all his lieutenants, and most of his followers, were Jews, and as a result the people of Hungary were simply furious and determined to rid themselves of the Semitic influence” (September 15, 1919) General Bandholtz’s daily contact with the Romanian military and diplomatic personnel for these six months gave him a unique learning experience. He made no secret about his conclusions. On November 11, 1919, he wrote in his Diary: “It is simply impossible to conceive such national depravity as those miserable “Latins” of Southeast Europe are displaying”. Having spent six months in Hungary, General Bandholtz was impressed by the Hungarians. Before his departure he concluded in his Diary: “Personally I came here rather inclined to condone or extenuate much of the Roumanian procedure, but their outrageous conduct in violation of all international law, decency, and humane considerations, has made me become an advocate of the Hungarian cause. Turning over portions of Hungary with its civilized and refined population will be like turning over Texas and California to the Mexicans. The great Powers of the Allies should hang their heads in shame for what they allowed to take place in this country after an armistice.” 2 It is fortunate that General Bandholtz’s personal diary was saved by his widow. Long after the war, she was persuaded by a history professor of Ohio’s Wittenberg College, Fritz-Konrad Kruger , to agree to its publication. Kruger wrote an excellent introduction to Bandholtz’s work describing in detail Hungary’s involvement in World War I, the process that led to Romania’s attack on Hungary. He also included copious footnotes into the diary. Together, Kruger’s Introduction and Bandholtz’s Diary describes a historical panorama of this sorrowful period in Central Europe, the memory of which reverberates even today. Professor Krüger was a self-effacing person. Aside from stating his professional affiliation with Ohio’s Wittenberg College, he didn’t make a single reference to himself in the book. His introduction and footnotes are crucial: He explained the diplomatic history of Hungary’s participation in W.W.I, from the events that lead to the war through its course, ending with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Relying on an excellent collection of references, Krüger described the efforts of the Hungarian government in 1914 to prevent the war, the events that led to Hungary’s Bolshevik regime in 1919 and the Romanian invasion. According to a contemporary copy of Who is Who in America , Frederick Konrad Krüger was born in Kottbus , Germany, on June 27, 1887. His parents were Fritz-Johann Krüger and Elizabeth Zippel . He studied at the University of Berlin, then immigrated to the United States in 1907. Graduated at the University of Nebraska in the same year. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Tübingen in 1909. He attended graduate school at Columbia University in 1911. In 1913 he married Gertrude M. Jaeggi , they had two children. He became a naturalized citizen of the U. S. in 1930. He was a fellow and lecturer at the University of California in 1912 -14, professor of political science at Midland College, Fremont, Nebraska; University of Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 - 23; Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, from 1923. Guest professor at the University of Göttingen, 1927-28; University of Berlin, 1934 -35. He wrote The Government and Politics of the German Empire, and contributed articles on the German government to the Encyclopedia Americana . While a professor of Wittenberg College, he wrote this book in 1932, It was published originally by Columbia University Press under the title: General Harry Hill Bandholtz , U. S. Army: An Undiplomatic Diary . The current text is based on this earlier publication but was thoroughly reedited. Some material that came to light later was added, for example the story of the clandestine Slovak Peace Delegation that visited General Bandholtz in Budapest. 3 The grateful Hungarian nation placed a statue of General Bandholtz right in front of the American Embassy in Budapest. It was removed during the years of communism following WW2. After the collapse of Communism, the statue was reinstalled. Bandholtz’s Undiplomatic Diary was out of print for over 60 years. The true story of the rape of Hungary in 1919, described by the American general was all but forgotten, replaced by fables concocted by Hungary’s enemies. Republishing this work was long overdue. Andrew L. Simon Professor Emeritus The University of Akron 4 Hun gary and World War I. by Fritz-Konrad Krüger A integral part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Hungary participated in the World War on the side of the Central European Powers. It is now a well-established fact that her Prime Minister, Count Stephen Tisza , was the only leading statesman of the Dual Empire who opposed the fateful ultimatum to Serbia, the rejection of which led to the outbreak of the World War. 1 1 Proof of this State ment is, above all, found in the col lec tion of of fi cial Austro-Hun gar ian dip lo matic doc u ments, Östreich-Ungarns Aussen- politik von der Bosnischen Krise , 1908, bis zum Kriegsausbruch , 1914; Diplomatische Aktenstücke des Österreich-Ungarischen Ministeriums des Äusseren ; Ausgewählt von Lud wig Bittner , Al fred Fran cis Pribram , Hein rich Srbik und Hans Uebersberger , Wien und Leip zig, 1930, Vol. VIII. Of spe cial im por tance is the re port of Tisza to Kai ser Franz Jo seph on July 8, 1914 (pp. 371-73). In ad di tion, see state ments on pages 343-51 and 448.