CLEAR THE LINE Hungary’s Struggle to Leave the Axis During the Second World War by LAURA-LOUISE VERESS edited by DALMA TAKACS Ph.D. Prospero Publications Cleveland, Ohio Copyright © 1995 Laura-Louise Veress, London and Dalma Takács, USA All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except in the case of reviews, without the express written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 95-72033 ISBN Number 1-57087-207-4 Production design by Robin Ober Cover design by Judy Takács Professional Press Chapel Hill, NC 27515-4371 Manufactured in the United States of America 9998979695 10987654321 “Most Immediate — Clear The Line” (Directions on telegram from Winston Churchill concerning Hungary’s offer of surrender, September, 1943) “The position of the Magyars in Hungary has been maintained over many centuries and many misfortunes and must ever be regarded as a precious European entity. Its submergence in the Russian flood could not fail to be either the source of future conflicts or the scene of a national obliteration horrifying to every generous heart.” (Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Volume VI) Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Maps xvi Chronology xix Prologue 1 I The Wounds Of War 21 II Hitler, The Menacing Mentor 29 III Swept Into War 47 IV Dangerous Ally, Reluctant Enemies 59 V Prying Loose From Hitler: Kállay’s Two-Step Dance 71 VI Veress In Istanbul: Surrender To A Distant Enemy 89 VII Hungary And Her Neighbours: The British View 107 VIII The Italian Campaign: Hopes Kindled And Snuffed Out 119 IX Second Mission To Istanbul: Churchill Clears The Line . 127 X Living Up To Istanbul 153 XI Sudden Silence 173 XII German Invasion 187 XIII Hitler Has Won — For Now 209 XIV Odyssey To Bari 235 XV 1944: Summer Of Discontent, Autumn Of Despair 255 XVI October, 1944: Last-Minute Nazi Coup 283 XVII The Siege of Budapest; the Conquerors and the Conquered 297 XVIII The Peace That Started The Cold War 315 XIX Escape From Workers’ Paradise 333 XX Epilogue 353 Notes 367 Documents Cited 371 Bibliography 391 Index 399 Acknowledgments Many people helped to make this book a reality, and I amdeeply grateful for the assistance and encouragementthey provided to Leslie Veress and me. In the first place I must thank Mr. Sterndale- Bennett, Councillor of the British Legation in Istanbul. who responded to Leslie’s request by arranging his meeting with the British Ambassador, Sir Hugh Knatchbull Hugessen to discuss Hungary’s offer of surrender. My heartfelt thanks go also to the brave SOE officers Bill Morgan and Harris Burland who made it possible for the Hungarian messages to be heard by the Allies. Among those who helped me as I was preparing the manuscript, I must first thank Professor M.R.D. Foot, whose expertise and advice have been invaluable. It was he who helped us re-establish contact with many of our SOE friends at a party given by Mrs. Joan Astley (Bright). One of these was Sir Henry (Col.) Threlfall. wartime Head of the SOE East European and Hungarian Section. whose knowledge of the Hungarian situation had done much to keep official interest alive despite many setbacks. Both he and Sir Frank Roberts, wartime Head of the Central Department of the Foreign Office, helped us enormously after the war with information about people and events. Our thanks are also due to Brigadier Mockler-Ferryman (EECB, CBE) for his information about Hungary during the Second World War. Sir John Martin. Sir Winston Churchill’s private secretary, and Lady Rosalind Martin also gave us much valuable information relevant to our topic. Among the many who cheered and helped me along the way, I must make special mention of the late Elisabeth Barker, historian x and BBC scriptwriter, whose encouragement made me dare to undertake this formidable task. Other friends whose advice and help proved invaluable are the late Professor Sir Hugh Seton-Watson, Jean Howard, and David Mure. I am also grateful to former Hungarian diplomat Andor Gellért, historian Gyula Juhász, the late Leslie Csürös, and the former heads of the BBC Hungarian Section, Bush House, László Jotischky and István Siklós. My son-in-law, Lajos F. Takács, who had lived through these critical years in Hungary, read and made useful comments on the text. In compiling the supporting documents, I am indebted to many. In particular I must mention Alexander Hollan, a Hungarian diplomat at the Paris Embassy after the war, who gave Leslie the minutes of the Bárdossy Cabinet meetings, Gervase Cowell. SOE Adviser, and Valerie Collins, PA. to the SOE Adviser. The Keeper of H.M. Records at the Public Record Office permitted my husband to peruse and copy the majority of the documents cited here. The library staff of the Bush house Library also helped me locate important resources for my research. I would also like to thank Dr. John Coates for sharing with me the details of his parachute mission to Hungary, as well as for his thorough scrutiny of the manuscript Finally, I wish to express my deep gratitude to David R. Martin for his faithful support and help in establishing contacts with people interested in my book. Preface me of the best ways to start a conversation with a person over sixty is to ask, “Where were you during World War II?” Over the years the subject has not dulled; on the contrary, it has gained in lustre. It seems that on the subject of the Second World War the jury is still out; in fact, the trial has not even been concluded. People are still listening to testimony, trying to find out from those who were there not only how things happened, but also why they happened, and how the dire consequences could have been avoided. This book is a testimony from an unexpected witness: I was a Hungarian woman who spent the war years in Budapest, Hungary. In some ways my life was an ordinary one. My husband, Louis Pálóczi Horváth, worked in the monitoring service of the Hungarian Radio. We lived with our young daughter, Dalma, in a comfortable apartment in the hills of Buda. The war touched our lives as it touched the lives of millions of others like us. But I also had another life. My comfortable marriage was a marriage in name only—an amicable arrangement with my estranged husband to protect the happiness of our child. My story is also a story of heartbreak and a story of love which led me into danger and opened for me the door of the murky diplomatic engine of the war machine. Two years after my estrangement from my husband, I met a young diplomat named Leslie Veress, who was to be the emissary of the Hungarian Government to conduct secret negotiations with the British through SOE in Istanbul concerning Hungary’s proposed withdrawal from the Axis and surrender to the Allies. For several months he ran a secret radio operation from an apartment in the xii hills of Buda, exchanging coded messages through SOE between the Hungarian and British governments. What made Veress’ operation different from the run-of-the- mill resistance story was that he acted with the approvak, albeit sometimes reluctant, of the highest-ranking members of the Hungarian Government This is how Leslie characterised the operation: It was the Prime Minister, Miklós Kállay, who personally dictated some of the messages transmitted. It was the Minister of the Interior, Ferenc KeresztesFischer, who provided the radio operators for the secret transmitter. Both were to suffer for their actions in the Nazi concentration camps. It was the Undersecretary of State in the Foreign Ministry, later to perish in Dachau, who, in response to the radioed request by SOE, personally pinpointed on the map of Hungary the selected spot where a secret mission could be dropped. It was A. Szegedy-Maszák, the Head of the Political Department in the Foreign Ministry, who directed the diplomatic moves designed to withdraw Hungary from Hitler’s war, and lead the country into a new Europe which, so the Allies promised, would be free and democratic for all. He too was to know the horrors of Dachau.*** In the end Veress’ mission failed. The Allies were interested, but not interested enough to abandon their plans for an invasion through Normandy in favour of an invasion through the Balkans so as to be on hand to take advantage of Hungary’s surrender. Had they done so — and Churchill himself did not consider the plan totally ---------------------------------- *** Leslie was too modest to mention that he himself composed many of the telegrams with the Prime Minister’s approval. xiii unpractical — they might have spared East and Central Europe four decades of agony and economic devastation. The surrender attempt failed: in 1944 Hungary was invaded by Germany, and in 1945, by the Soviet Union. In the history of Modem Europe Leslie Veress’ efforts on behalf of Hungary and the Allies take up only a few pages, but his actions and the feelings which motivated them symbolize the tragic struggle of Hungary to resist both German and Soviet power, and her constant desire to reach out to England and America. Over the past 40 years the significance of his effort has increased a hundredfold. The Communist edifice in Europe had been built on the backs of small nations who were enslaved by the brute force of the Soviet Union and the consent, albeit reluctant, of the Western Allies.