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JiSX, 9{ungaricm Studies Review Vol. XXffl, Nos. 1-2 (Spring-Fall, 1996) Special Volume: Regent Miklos Horthy, Istvan Horthy and the Second World War Edited by N.F. Dreisziger In this special volume Rita Pentek writes about the circumstances and consequences of the election of Istvan Horthy as Hungary's Vice-Regent in 1942; Pal Pritz analyses the relationship of Miklos Horthy and Hitler's special representative in Hungary, Edmund Veesenmayer, immediately after the Nazi occupation of Hungary in March of 1944; N. F. Dreisziger provides commentary on Veesenmayer's testi- mony to American military intelligence officials in 1945; Thomas Sakmyster com- ments on two letters that the exiled Miklos Horthy had written to Allied leaders after the war; and Mario Fenyo reviews Thomas Sakmyster's recent biography of Miklos Horthy. This section of this special volume is introduced by Dreisziger in a historiographies essay on Miklds and Istvan Horthy. Part 2 of the volume contains unrelated papers and reviews by Jutka Devenyi, Sandor Agocs and others. Hungarian Studies Review The Hungarian Studies Review is a semi-annual inter- disciplinary journal devoted to the publication of articles and book reviews relating to Hungary and Hungarians. EDITORS Since its launching in 1974, the Review has been committed to the policy of providing a forum for the scholarly George Bisztray discussion and analysis of issues in Hungarian history, University of Toronto politics and cultural affairs. It is co-published by the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada and the National N.F. Dreisziger Sz£ch£nyi Library (Budapest, Hungary). Royal Military College of Canada Institutional subscriptions to the HSR are $12.00 per annum. Individual subscriptions are $12.00 for one year and $20.00 for two years. Membership fees in the Hungarian Studies EDITORIAL ADVISERS Association of Canada include a subscription to the journal. For more information, visit our web-page: Oliver A.I. Botar http://www.ccsp.sfu.ca/calj/hsr/ University of Manitoba Correspondence regarding the publication of manuscripts, Geza Jeszenszky book reviews, etc., as well as subscriptions, should be Budapest University of addressed to: Economics Ilona Kovics The Editors, National Szechenyi Library Hungarian Studies Review, University of Toronto, Maria H. Krisztinkovich 21 Sussex Ave., Vancouver, British Columbia Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 1A1 Barnabas A. Racz Statements and opinions expressed in the HSR are those of Eastern Michigan U. the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the journal's editors. Thomas Sakmyster University of Cincinnati Articles appearing in the HSR are indexed in: HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS and, Thomas Spira AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. U. of Prince Edward Island S.B. Vardy Copyright © (1996) by the Hungarian Studies Review Duquesne University All rights reserved. Jozsef Vekerdi Budapest ISSN 0713-8083 (replacing 0317-204X) SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Typesetting by N.F. Dreisziger. Printed and distributed by the National Szechenyi Library Eva Tomory Toronto of Hungary. Recently published Dictionary of Book and Paper Conservation in Five Languages. Edited by Ildiko Beothy-Kozocsa and Beatrix Kastaly. Compiled by ten Hungarian conservators. Published by the National Szechenyi Library. Budapest. 1997. 375 p. This volume which has been long-needed in Hungary contains the terms most frequently used to refer to basic techniques, materials, tools and equipment applied in book and paper conservation, bookbinding and cer- tain techniques of print and drawing. Entries are arranged alphabetically in each of the five languages. The five languages are: Hungarian, German, English, French and Italian. The aim of the dictionary is to help experts to read, understand and translate technical texts. It is designed primarily for book and paper con- servators, but can be equally useful for bookbinders, librarians, archivists and museum curators. It can be ordered from: Ms Andrea Lados National Szechenyi Library Budapest 1827 Hungary Price: 50 DM or 30 USD+cost of postage; payable through bank transfer or by cheque, upon receiving the invoice from the library. Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (Spring, 1996) Part 1 (Spring, 1996) Special Issue: Regent Miklos Horthy, Istvan Horthy and the Second World War Introduced and edited by N. F. Dreisziger ESSAYS BY: RITA PENTEK PAL PRITZ THOMAS SAKMYSTER N.F. DREISZIGER and a review by MARIO FENYO The publication of this volume would not have been possible without the cooperation of the National Szechenyi Library of Hungary and the financial support of a few individu- als and organizations, in particular the Rakoczi Foundation of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. OUR CONTRIBUTORS: (continued from p. 2) RITA PENTEK is a doctoral candidate at Eotvos Lorand Tudomanyegyetem in Budapest, Hungary. Her book on Istvan Horthy is to appear in the near future. Historian PAL PRITZ heads the Social Sciences division of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of many books and papers, including an article in last year's volume of our journal. Most of Dr. Pritz's works deal with the political and diplomatic history of interwar and wartime Hungary. THOMAS SAKMYSTER is Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati and is presently Vice-President of the American Association for the Study of Hungarian History. He is the author of the biography of Miklos Horthy re- viewed in this volume, and of the book: Hungary, the Great Powers, and the Danubian Crisis, 1936-1939 (U. of Georgia Press, 1980). (Part 2; fall, 1996 issue) SANDOR AGOCS is a Professor Emeritus at Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan). He last published in our journal in 1992. He has also published in the Journal of Rural Studies, East European Quarterly, East European Politics and Society, University of Dayton Review, Society, and in the Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies. Professor Agocs presently lives and writes in Budapest. JUTKA DEVENYI teaches theatre history at the Actors Studio MFA program at New School for Social Research in New York City. She has written articles in various fields of theatre studies and has directed plays in Santa Barbara, CA and at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Her major publication is Metonymy and Drama: Essays on Language and Dramatic Strategy. Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXIII (1996) CONTENTS Part 1 (Spring 1996) Special Issue: Regent Miklos Horthy, Istvan Horthy and the Second World War Mikl6s Horthy and World War II: Some Historiographical Perspectives An introduction by N.F. DREISZIGER 5 Istvan Horthy's Election as Vice-Regent in 1942 RITA PENTEK 17 Miklos Horthy and Edmund Veesenmayer: Hungarian-German relations after March 1944 PAL PRITZ 29 Edmund Veesenmayer on Horthy and Hungary: An American Intelligence Report N.F. DREISZIGER 43 Miklos Horthy and the Allies, 1945-1946: Two Documents THOMAS SAKMYSTER '. 67 The Admiral on Horseback: A New Biography of Miklos Horthy A review article by MARIO FENYO 81 (continued) Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXIII (1996) (Contents, cont'd.) Part 2 (Fall, 1996) Papers and Book Reviews The Theatrical Grotesque: An Aesthetic Tool for Interpreting History on the Hungarian Stages in the 1960's and 1970's JUTKA DEVENY1 85 The Social Opposition: Labour in Post-Communist Hungary SANDOR AGOCS 93 Mutual Images and Stereotypes: The United States and Hungary N.F. DREISZIGER 109 Book Reviews 117 In Place of an Obituary 123 OUR CONTRIBUTORS: (Part 1, Special issue) MARIO D. FENYO is the author of Hitler, Horthy and Hungary (Yale Univer- sity Press, 1972) and numerous articles and papers on modern Hungarian history. Before assuming his present post at Bowie State University, he had taught at post-secondary institutions in the Caribbean and Africa. N.F. DREISZIGER is Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada. He writes on Hungarian and Canadian subjects. He is currently Presi- dent of the American Association for the Study of Hungarian History. (continued on p. 4) Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (Spring, 1996) Introduction: Miklos Horthy and the Second World War: Some Historiographical Perspectives N.F. Dreisziger Admiral Miklos Horthy, Hungary's head of state from 1919 to 1944, is probably the most controversial statesmen in modern Hungarian history. His name has been linked to the White Terror of 1919, an outburst of anti-Communism and anti-Semitism that overtook Hungary in the wake of the left-wing revolutions of 1918-1919. He is also widely reputed to have been the main architect of the "semi-feudal" system of aristocratic privilege and authoritarianism that was introduced, some would say restored, in Hungary in 1919-1920. But it is Horthy's actions or omissions in the Second World War that have made him, and to a lesser extent also his family, forever a subject of controversy. In the eyes of his detractors, Horthy's greatest crime was Hungary's wartime involvement on the side of the Axis which resulted in great suffering and enormous losses for the Hungarian nation by the autumn of 1944, when Horthy's rule came to an end as he was removed by the Germans and incarcer- ated in the Third Reich. In the half-century since the end of World War II Horthy's responsibility for Hungary's fate has been assessed in very different ways. Hungary's wartime leadership!, and, above all, Horthy himself, were almost invariably condemned by commentators in the lands of the Allies. We need not dwell on these opinions, and it should suffice to cite, by way of example, British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who during the war denounced Horthy and his entourage as being the "principal promoters of German imperialism" in East Central Europe.' Assessments of Horthy's wartime policies remained negative after the war as well. This was so especially in Hungary where by the late 1940s the country's communist transformation was well on its way.