1 Introduction

1Introduction In 2003 Iheld apubliclecture in Budapest on the history of the Arrow Cross women’smovement.Atthe end of the lecture an elderlygrey-haired man ap- proached me with aquestion: “Have youheard about PiroskaDely?”“Of course – Ianswered self-assuredly –,the literatureonthe people’stribunals mention her name. She was the bloodthirsty Arrow Cross woman who was executed after her people’stribunal trial.” My colleagues in Hungary never exhibited much enthusiasm when Itold them about my research on women in the Arrow Cross Party.¹ Still, everyone knew Dely’sname, because every volume on post-Second World Warjusticelisted the namesofthosefemalewar crimi- nals, among them Piroska Dely, who weresentenced to death and executed.² The elderlyman with impeccable silverhair nodded and said: “Imet her.” This is how Imet agroup of the Csengery Street massacre’ssurvivors who for decades fought for adignified remembrance of the bloodyevents. János Kun’s sentencegaveanentirelynew dimension to my research, which led to my Hun- garian AcademyofSciences doctoral dissertation and to the writing of this book. Ithank them for helping in my researchand Idedicate this book to them. During the Second World WarHungary was Germany’sloyal foreign ally. From 1938 four Anti-Jewish Laws were put in effect,that is laws that limited the employment,marriage, and property rights of JewishHungarian citizens. On April 11, 1941Hungary’sarmed forces participated in the German invasion of Yugoslavia with the aim of returning territories lost at the end of the First World War. Forthese territorial gains Hungary paid ahugeprice: the Hungarian economywas sacrificed to Germany’swar goals. In the meantime, Hungarian propaganda machinery emphasized the Hungarian government’sindependence and its nationalcommitment,but the country’sterritorial demands and geopol- itical realities tied Hungary to Nazi Germany,while Germanyincreasinglyexpect- ed commitment and support from its allies. In popularmemory it seems as though Hungaryonlyentered the Second World Warin1944.Newspapers and newsreels werefull of military propaganda and, due to effective censorship, the military success of Germanyand of course Hungary.The strategy of the Hungarian political elite was framed by the devas- tating experience of the First World Warwhen Hungarywas expectedtosign a peace treatywithout afunctioningarmy. That explains the reluctanceofHungary Andrea Pető, Invisible Women in the Arrow CrossParty (London: PalgraveMacmillan, 2020). Ákos Major, Népbíráskodás,forradalmi törvényesség [People’sTribunals,revolutionary justice] (Budapest: Minerva, 1988), 123. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110687552-003 2 1Introduction as an allyofNazi Germanytosend troops to Yugoslavia in 1941and to the Soviet Union. The fact that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were on the front did not have an impact on the ‘business as usual’ attitude of civilian life back in Hun- gary.Somehow that was also the case with Jewishcitizens of the country,as the fact that the increasing deprivation of theirrights by Anti-Jewish legislation, with Jewishmen drafted in to do labour,was considered the ‘new normal’ by the gentile population. In oral history interviews,however,the starting point of the Second World Warisusuallyonly1944,when the war moved inside the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. Aware of Hungary’sfaltering loyalty,Germanyoccupied Hungary on March 19,1944.This date marked the beginning of the Second World Warfor Hungarian Jewry because soon after,and without direct Germanorders,Hungary commenced the massdeportation of Hungarian Jews basedonthe April 4, 1944 6136/1944 No. VII decree of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Between April 28 and July 8, 1944 more than 435,000 Jewish Hungarian citizens weredeported to Ger- man concentration and annihiliation camps with the Hungarian administration’s active participation. Fornon-Jewish Hungarians onlythe threat of the approach- ing Red Armyand the Allied bombingsmarked the beginning of the war.OnOc- tober 15,1944 the Hungarian far-right seized power and thus began the shortbut bloodyand chaotic rule of the Arrow Cross Party. After the mass deportations of Jewishpeople from the Hungarian country- side the fate of the largest Hungarian Jewishcommunity,the Budapest Jewry was increasinglyunpredictable. On June 16,1944 amayoral decree was issued for the forcible relocation of the Jewish citizens of Budapest into approximately 2,600 designated yellow Star of David houses. The deadline for the movewas midnight June 24,1944.About 12,000 Christians remained in the yellow star houses, among them the Strucky-Szamocseta familyofthe janitors of Csengery Street 64,the siteofthe events central to this book.³ October 15,1944 was anice sunnyday.People listened to Regent Horthy’s radio speech in which he proclaimed thatGermanyhad lost the war and Hun- gary was readytosign an armistice with the Allied Powers. In Budapest’sCsen- gery Street,64yellow star-wearingpeople gathered on the courtyard to listen to Horthy’shistoric declaration. This radioearlier belonged to one of the Jewish tenants of the house,but as the Anti-Jewish Laws came in effect,which prohibited Jews from owningaradio, it came into the possessionofthe onlyChristian fam- Dezső Laky, “Aháztulajdon alakulása Budapesten” [StateofHousehold Ownership in Buda- pest]. Statisztikai Közlemények 66.1 (1932): 89–99. 1Introduction 3 ilythat remained in the house, the janitors.⁴ The janitor put it on the windowsill so the Jewishtenants could also listentothe news while standing in the courtyard. Horthy’sradio proclamation had avery different effect on the tenants and the janitors.The Jews thought that the warwas indeedoverand they took the yellow star off the gate.⁵ At the same time the janitors felt rather sorry at losing their lucrative position: since June 1944 they had had full authority over the building’sJewish tenants includingthe building’sformer owner,which helped them secure considerable financial gains.The janitors requested money for all their otherwise freeservices,thus the yellow star houseswereturned into “pri- vateprisons” wherethe tenants livedaccordingtorules set by the Christian janitors. Afew hours laterthe radio announced that the Arrow Cross Party had come to power.The janitors celebratedtheir regaining of authority,while the elderly men and youngboys who gathered on the courtyard decided to keep guard at the gateway. The night that followed the coup by Ferenc Szálasi, leader of the Arrow Corss Party,marked the livesofseveral dozen families in Csengery 64. This book is about them and about thatnight. During that night of October 15,1944 armed people intruded into the yellow star house and after abloodymassacreleft 19 dead behind. Whythis house?Per- haps they were there to break down alleged Jewishresistance, or maybethey weretheretorob the jeweler living on the first floor; there is no waytoknow. The final restingplace of the tenants is alsounknown. It is certain though that the intruders, with the active collaboration of the Christian janitor family, robbed the tenants,murdered probably18of them although the numbers, as Iwill argueinthe book, are uncertain. The armed intruders also forciblytook away all the other Jews hoping thatthey would never return from deportation and so their crime would remainunnoticed. However,most of the tenants returned duringthe next few days because the deportationsweretemporarilyhalt- ed. There was another wave of deportationsinNovember this time organized by the Arrow Cross Party,but some tenants returned after liberation, and with that the battle for justiceand the dignified remembrance of the Csengery 64 victims began. PiroskaDely’scase wasamong the first trials of the newlyestablished people’stribunals in Budapest.The massacrewas also covered extensively by a Formoreonthe janitors,see Ádám Pál István, Budapest Building Managers and the Holocaust in Hungary (London: Palgrave,2017). On yellow star houses,see Randolph L. Braham, AMagyar Holocaust (Budapest: Gondolat, 1988), 124–129. 4 1Introduction press hungry for new stories of the first atrocity committed by the Arrow Cross after the takeover.Inthe dailypress,PiroskaDelywas portrayedasthe “Beast” of the Arrow Cross,awoman responsible for the gravest wartime massacre of civilians in Budapest.The people’stribunalexposed the imageofHun- garian women, alleged members of the Arrow Cross Party,who had used vio- lence while looting.This was the first time femaleperpetrators were portrayed in public, and explains why, even today, the name PiroskaDelyisassociated with the “Women of the Arrow Cross”–even though, as Ishow below,she was never amember of the Arrow Cross Party. The survivors’ testimonies werecentral to the trial process duringthe Dely case in 1945aswellasduringthe people’stribunaltrial of the Strucky–Szamo- cseta janitor family in 1947. On March 23,1946 PiroskaDelywas executed, although as this book shows the people’stribunaltrial could not quite confirm whether she participated or that she was at all present at the massacre.Still she became “the” PiroskaDely, the embodiment of the bloodthirsty Arrow Cross woman. Based on the story of the armed robbery in Csengery 64,Iwill examine the so far neglected intersection of perpetrator research,political radicalism, mem- ory politics and gender studies to reveal whysome female perpetrators of the Hungarian Holocaust became overlyvisible while others remained invisible. Acertain version of PiroskaDely‘sstory has become the part of the historical canon about the Holocaust

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