Krisztian Szoboszlai

Was Hungary forced into World

War 2 or it entered based of its
political interests?

Krisztian Szoboszlai
Historical Investigation 2016
Word count: 1,510 (content)

Krisztian Szoboszlai

Table of Contents
Section 1: Identification and evaluation of
sources ...................2
Section 2:
investigation.............................................................
.4
Section 3:
Reflection..................................................................
.7
Works
Cited.........................................................................
........9

Krisztian Szoboszlai

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of sources

The following question will be discussed in this paper: Was Hungary forced into
World War 2 or it entered based of its political interests? The 1930s and the 1940s will
be the time frame for the investigation. This period will provide the actions based on we
can judge why the Hungarian government decided to enter the war as an Axis ally.
The source first used for the support that implies that Hungary entered the war
for its own interests is going to be Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron.
The book was published in 2011 January. Its a scholarly source because it was written
by Deborah S. Cornelius a historian of East Central Europe. Her concentration is the
lands of the former Hungarian Kingdom, with a focus on Hungary from the end of the
Great War in 1918 to the collapse of the communist regimes in the late 1980s. The
publication date is 2011 which means that her data covers a wide range of information
and she was able to use various data records and primary sources combined thus she
was able to provide a book filled with detailed information. However many of the date
that was recently released that she used for her book might have been subjected to
alteration during its storage which in many case was longer than 40 years also as she
was not a sociologist.
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The objective of Cornelius book is to reveal the story of Hungary in World War 2
and to understand why people involved in the wars turmoil acted as they did under the
pressure of unprecedented developments(Cornelius 4). The book also reflects and
evaluates the actions of Hungary based on its actions in WW1 and right before the start
of the war.
The second source will be a scholarly journal by Karl P. Benziger The Trial of
Laszlo Bardossy. The Second World War and Factional Politics in Contemporary
Hungary. The book was published in Jul 2005. Its a reliable scholarly source because
it was published by Sage Publications, which is an academic and professional publisher.
The strengths of the text is that it focuses on the actions and politics during World War 2
some drawbacks however come from that the journal doesnt do reflections on the
nations history and situation as does the first source.
The journals purpose is to describe how the nations internal interests might
have led to entering the war and the actions that were done by the country towards
other nations and towards its people. It states the situation the country was in but it also
implies that the things done by Hungary were mainly free-willed decisions rather then
forced upon.

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Section 2: Investigation
The actions of which Hungary taken during the World War 2 are clear however
the reasons behind it arent. One side argues that Hungary was just a puppet to
Germany as the British ambassador told before the war there was no sense in helping
Hungary for it was bound to fall into German hands (Cornelius 100). The other side
however argues that Hungarys minister had led Hungary into the war for it was the
nations interest to fight on the Germans side and which is why Hungary didnt hesitate
to attack Yugoslavia even though there was an eternal friendship agreement between
the two nations (Benziger 466).
Hungarys internal crisis to join accept German demands and join forces had
divided the politicians. Imredy had been forcefully resigned and Count Pal Teleki was
appointed as prime minister. Horthy wanted someone he could trust to maintain
Hungarys independence (Cornelius 101). There were concerns about Germanys
military power compared to the Western powers Germany didnt seem to be in an
overwhelmingly stronger position so Horthy with his military background was convinced
that the western democracies would triumph over Germany in any military conflict
(Cornelius 101). Considering the circumstances Teleki acted accordingly to maintain
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Hungary independent and influence free. Thus in his speech on February 22 1939 tried
to convince the people to stay independent he asked the nation to remain true to
Hungarys thousand-year-old customs and refrain from chasing after foreign examples
of reforms (Istvn Dek 295). Unfortunately the soon the circumstances changed as
Hitler made an agreement with Italy which halted Hungarys occupation of the subCarpathian area Hitler wanted to just crush Czechoslovakia and gain strategic territory.
Soon after Germany took control of the country Teleki knew that the next target would
be Poland. As the progress of relocations of borders for the Axis nation began Teleki
slowly went into despair because with the negotiations between the countries Hungary
became more and more dependent on Germany, also the diplomatic relations with
Romania and Yugoslavia declined. After Telekis suicide Hungary entered the war as
Germanys ally.
However reflecting on Hungarys actions it is clear that there were interests in
joining Hitlers war campaign. Hungary wanted its territories back which it had lost
during World War 1 which was a significant deciding factor when Horthy led Hungary
into an alliance with the fascist powers in the 1930s in return for lands that had been
taken from Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon (Benziger 467). Horthys single minded
foreign policy which was based on territorial revision and anti-Bolshevism had also
collapsed as the War had started to favor the Western forces. The strong dependence
on Germanys power had also brought a devastating consequence, as it led to
Hungarys occupation by the Germans in March 1944 and the extermination of
approximately 550,000 Hungarian Jews (Benziger 467). Though the obvious want to

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regain the territories werent as much of the pushing power to enter the war like the
pressure from Germany.
Therefore its conclusive to say that Hungary was dragged into the war from the
various pressures from Germany as a military power and the refutation of help from the
Western powers all which left Hungary in the position to side with the Axis powers and
take on all that I could have come with it and what it actually brought upon the nation at
the end of the war. Although it was hard to determine the level of pressure at the early
stages of the war because Hungarys economy flourished for a few years but looking
back on the circumstances there wasnt other options which that country could have
taken because as it happened Hungary still was occupied even though she committed
to Germany, thus Hungary would have been occupied sooner or later.

Krisztian Szoboszlai

Section 3: Reflection
During this investigation is was able to obtain a better insight into how the history
is evaluated by professionals. It was indeed challenging to face the process of carrying
out a historical investigation. Im positive that my newly obtained skills to analyze data
and determine the value of a source as well as to find new perspectives will help me in
future cases where the task is to evaluate an event from different point of view and draw
a legitimate conclusion that aligns with the presented justifications through my paper
and help the reader understand the discussed case and determined its worth as text
which was based on methods that historians use.
The evidences I had to compare based around my Investigation question
were at first hard to pick because there were in many of them ideas about both pros and
cons regarding the situation of Hungary thus picking a source which had to support one
main idea was difficult, both Cornelius World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical
Dimension: Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron and Benzigers The Trial
of Laszlo Bardossy. The Second World War and Factional Politics in Contemporary

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Hungary agreed upon several subjects thus making it harder to draw a clear line
between the two points of views.
Creating the conclusion wasnt hard however keeping my state on the
subject and clarifying my point of views was a challenge as I tried to embed it in my
paper because as said the subject didnt have two completely opposite source which I
could base my answer upon. Also as I have been writing my paper it gave hardships to
stay with one side of the argument because in most cases when evaluating history there
isnt one correct answer, every action is justifiable with the circumstance which is a
person or a country is in or the values which someone lives by. However by reflecting in
the actions in history there can be drawn a conclusion that is the most correct version,
though the sources and their creditability significantly influence the process of
conclusion making. However I believe that the limitations of sources didnt have too
much draw back on my paper there was a little bit of hardship because the not all the
sources focused on my time frame but with using multiple sources I was able to
complete the paper with a sufficient amount of evidence and solid conclusion.

Krisztian Szoboszlai

Works Cited

SZAMUELY, L.. HUNGARY'S PLACE IN THE WORLD. Acta Oeconomica 45.3/4

(1993): 421430. Web...
Erika Lszl et al.. Hungary's Environment. Ambio 13.2 (1984): 92108. Web...
Benziger, Karl P.. The Trial of Lszl Brdossy. The Second World War and Factional
Politics in Contemporary Hungary.Journal of Contemporary History 40.3 (2005): 465
481. Web...
Bomberger, William A., and Gail E. Makinen. The Hungarian Hyperinflation and
Stabilization of 1945-1946. Journal of Political Economy 91.5 (1983): 801824. Web...
Cornelius, Deborah S.. Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron. Fordham
University, 2011. Web...
Karady, Victor. Educated Elites in Pre-socialist Hungary 1867-1948. Issues,
Approaches, Sources and Some Preliminary Results of an Overall Survey. Historical
Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung 33.2 (124) (2008): 154173. Web...
Dek, Istvn, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt, eds.. The Politics of Retribution in Europe:
World War II and Its Aftermath. Ed. Istvn Dek, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt. Princeton
University Press, 2000. Web...