Copyright © 2000 Andrew L. Simon Admiral Nicholas Horthy: MEMOIRS Original manuscript copyright © 1957, Ilona Bowden Annotated by Andrew L. Library of Congress Card Number: 00-101186 Simon Copyright under International Copyright Union All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including in- formation storage and retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN 0-9665734-9 Printed by Lightning Print, Inc. La Vergne, TN 37086 Published by Simon Publications, P.O. Box 321, Safety Harbor, FL 34695 1 2 Publication record of Horthy’s memoirs: • First Hungarian Edition: Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1953. • German Edition: Munich, Germany, 1953. • Spanish Edition: AHR - Barcelona, Spain, 1955. • Finnish Edition: Otava, Helsinki, Finland, 1955. • Italian Edition, Corso, Rome, Italy, 1956. • U. S. Edition: Robert Speller & Sons, Publishers, New York, NY, 1957. • British Edition: Hutchinson, London, 1957. • Second Hungarian Edition: Toronto, Canada: Vörösváry Publ., 1974. • Third Hungarian Edition: Budapest, Hungary:Europa Historia, 1993. Admiral Horthy at age 75. 3 4 12. THE ROAD TO FREEDOM .....................................................189 Table of Contents 13. THE ROME PROTOCOLS AND THE ROME-BERLIN AXIS ...........................................................................................201 ADMIRAL NICHOLAS HORTHY: MEMOIRS ..............................1 14. TRAVELS AND VISITORS ......................................................212 TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................5 15. FRICTION WITH HITLER......................................................232 FOREWORD.........................................................................................8 16. THE SECOND WORLD WAR; HUNGARY’S NON- BELLIGERENCE.....................................................................251 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................12 17. HUNGARY ENTERS THE SECOND WORLD WAR...........275 PREFACE............................................................................................17 18. APPOINTMENT OF A DEPUTY REGENT ...........................289 1. OUT INTO THE WORLD .............................................................20 19. THE SEARCH FOR THE WAYOUT.......................................297 2. NEW APPOINTMENTS ................................................................46 21. APPEALING FOR ARMISTICE. MY IMPRISONMENT....338 3. AIDE-DE-CAMP TO EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH I AT THE COURT OF VIENNA 1909-1914......................................66 22. THE ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICANS .................................362 4. ARCHDUKE FRANCIS FERDINAND........................................89 23. A LAST GLANCE IN.................................................................378 5. NAVAL WARFARE IN THE ADRIATIC. THE APPENDICES ...................................................................................384 CORONATION OF KING CHARLES IV .............................101 1.. HORTHY’S PROCLAMATION BROADCASTED BY THE 6. THE NAVAL BATTLE OF OTRANTO ....................................116 HUNGARIAN RADIO ON OCTOBER 15, 1944.............................384 2. RECOLLECTIONS BY MRS. ILONA BOWDEN, WIDOW OF 7. APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER OF THE FLEET. STEPHENHORTHY, DEPUTY-REGENT OF HUNGARY, THE END ...................................................................................125 CASCAIS, PORTUGAL, 1993 .....................................................387 MRS BOWDEN’S ANSWERS TO THE EDITORS QUESTION ABOUT THE 8. REVOLUTION IN HUNGARY: FROM MICHAEL DEPORTATION OF JEWS: ...........................................................391 KÁROLYI TO BÉLA KUN .....................................................135 3.. ‘LETTERS TO THE EDITOR’ ON HORTHY’S RE-BURIAL IN HUNGARY ................................................................................392 10. REGENT OF HUNGARY..........................................................157 4. NEW DATA ON JULIUS GÖMBÖS, FORMER PRIME-MINISTER OF HUNGARY ................................................................................400 11. ATTEMPTS AT THE RESTORATION OF KING 5. ON HORTHY AND THE HUNGARIAN JEWS ....................................403 CHARLES IN 1921 ...................................................................171 5. On Horthy and the Hungarian Jews: To The Editor, The New York Times April 26, 1994.......................................................... 405 5 6 6. THE FORGOTTEN RESCUE: THE ROYAL HUNGARIAN ARMY AND THE RESCUE OF THE BUDAPEST JEWS...............................412 FOREWORD INDEX................................................................................................418 by Andrew L. Simon, Professor Emeritus, The University of Akron It is a sure sign of respectability if one is routinely vilified for 80 years by the Communists and for 60 years by the Nazis. Without the opportunity for rebuttal, a fiction repeated often enough, will become ‘self evident truth’. Goebbels knew this, so did Beneš, two of the 20th century’s master propagandists. When Admiral Nicholas Horthy, Regent of Hungary for a quarter of a century, was re-buried in his family’s cript in September of 1993, there was an international uproar in the media. The Economist wrote about ‘Hungary’s shameful past’. The New York Times served up a dire warning about the return of Fascism, the Frankfurter All- gemeine ‘would rather forget it’, the Brazilian Veja commented that ‘Hungary honors a Nazi’. There is no end to the list. One sane opinion appeared in The Financial Times: ‘western histori- ography was interested exclusively in his alliance with Hitler, and the Communists characterized the anti-Bolshevik as a monster’. Admiral Horthy, privy to the domestic policies of the Habsburg empire at the highest level, naval hero, last commandant of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Regent of a destroyed country that he led into relative prosperity against great odds, an anti-Bolshevik, a prisoner of the Nazis, was indisputably a statesman. Under his rule, to quote Columbia University history professor István Deák, “Hungary … was an island in the heart of Europe where a sem- blance of the rule of law and a pluralistic society had been pre- served in a sea of barbarism”. Having traveled the world while in the navy, speaking six languages (Hungarian, Croat, Italian, Ger- man, French, English), serving as aide-de-camp of Emperor Fran- cis Joseph, he had a solid background for his position. Horthy was not a narrow-minded Nationalist but a patriot who greatly preferred the multi-ethic, multi-religious, multi-lingual diversity 7 8 of the Monarchy in which he grew up and had an admirable ca- Czernowitz to Sarajevo.” A survey article in The Economist (No- reer, even as a Hungarian Protestant in a Austrian Catholic “re- vember 18, 1995) David Lawday wrote: “The countries of Cen- gime.” Above all, he was a gentleman in the old, true sense of the tral Europe, unavoidably detained for a while, are clamoring to word. His intimate knowledge of the politics of Central Europe join the European Union. When they do, it will be a homecom- during a time that led from the heights of the cultured, law- ing.” Hungary’s joining NATO in 1999 was the first step toward abiding, modernizing, developing age of the Monarchy to the her reintegration to the European community of nations. Horthy depths of the Communist reigns of terror throughout the region would be pleased. makes his Memoirs an interesting, informative reading. For this edition, the text was compared to the Hungarian original The death of Communism, (if not the Communists) revived the and its English version was edited accordingly. About 600 foot- old ethnic and religious conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe, notes were added to clarify names and some issues the reader may not only in Bosnia but throughout the Danubian basin. To address not be familiar with. The sources of these footnotes range from these problems western statesmen, and indeed, the general public, the private letters of Wallenberg to the records of the interroga- must understand them. Alas, this understanding will not come tions of Eichmann by the Israeli police, from long hidden mem- from western history books. As a 1993 survey of standard Ameri- oirs of Hungarian generals and politicians, and a wide variety of can college history textbooks indicated, these are saturated with books, articles and private recollections, mainly dealing with some eighty years worth of propaganda. First, this propaganda Hungary during World War II, the German occupation of Hun- was directed toward the dissolution of the Habsburg empire. Then gary in the Spring of 1944, Horthy’s attempts at saving his coun- it was a reaction of Hungary’s demand of the peaceful return to try, getting out of the war and his eventual imprisonment by the her historic borders. Hungary lost two thirds of her territory at the Nazis. The primary aim of this book is not to present Horthy’s end of the first world war; one out of every three Magyars be- memoirs but to describe the history of Hungary during the ‘Hor- came “ethnic minorities” in their own land of birth. Hungary thy Era’ through a rich mosaic of views and comments of a mul- wanted ‘everything back’, the Successor States were not prepared titude of participants. The Memoirs, originally published in sev- to give an inch. The end of the second world war, and the Com- eral languages