Saturday, July 8, 1944

At 09.00 hrs on 8 July 1944, an air raid warning was sounded. This time the siren was sounded without recourse to the usual procedure of broadcasting it over BUDAPEST-1 radio. For three hours the inhabitants of the capital sat in the shelters. By noon, when the all-clear was sounded and the people emerged, the gendarmerie had been withdrawn from the capital. [Erez]

Baky and Endre are dismissed at Horthy’s request but the deportation of the Jews from the communities surrounding Budapest is completed.

On July 8, 1944, a young Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, a member of an influential Swedish family of bankers and industrialists, arrived in Budapest, having been appointed secretary to the Royal Swedish Legation (Embassy). In his work in Budapest, he also represented the American War Refugee Board (WRB), an organization established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944. [Jeszensky]

Saturday, July 15, 1944

Ignoring Governor Horthy's July 6 suspension of the deportations, Eichmann packed around 2,000 people onto wagons at Budapest's Keleti (Eastern) railway station; 1,500 prisoners from the Kistarcsa internment camp and 500 Jewish prisoners from the auxiliary deportation house on Rökk Szilárd Street, Budapest. The group was deported on July 19. [ysh]

Tuesday, July 25, 1944

The “Glass House” at 29 Vadász street is opened as an annex of the Swiss Legation

Close to 1,500 inmates from the Sárvár internment camp are deported to Auschwitz. [Braham]

What we didn’t know:

Friday April 7, 1944

Two Slovak Jewish prisoners escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau with detailed information on the processes of the extermination camp. It became known as the Vrba report or Auschwitz Protocols [Vrba].

Middle of June, 1944

The international community and the media obtained copies of the Vrba report about the middle of June. Their responses were strong and immediate. The worldwide press began a campaign to publicize the report. On June 25th, Pope Pius XII asked Governor Horthy in an open telegram to spare the lives of Hungarian Jews. The King of Sweden also protested. The US president Franklin D. Roosevelt warned Horthy in a message communicated via the Swiss representative demanding an immediate end to the deportations and a cessation of all anti-Jewish measures, threatening further armed reprisals. He gave Horthy a deadline of June 30th.

A copy of the Vrba report was given to Miklós Horthy, Jr. for transmission to his father, Admiral Miklós Horthy, the titular head of the Hungarian Government. Horthy, who until this point did not interfere in internal actions of Hungary, such as the deportation of Jews from the countryside, faced a convergence of events from both inside and outside the country. 

According to the testimony by Pinhas Freudiger, president of Budapest Jewish Community at that time, Horthy failed to reply to the ultimatum, … and American and British bombers bombed Budapest on July 2. The next day, Admiral Horthy told Jaeger he ordered that Jewish deportations from Hungary cease — but the Hungarian dictator’s order was countermanded by Eichmann… [ JTA ]

What we didn’t know:

Horthy tries to take back the reins of government. He “called for a Crown Council at which he was visibly upset and stated : " I shall not tolerate this any further ! I shall not permit the deportations to bring further shame on the Hungarians ! Let the Government take measures for the removal of Baky and Endre ! The deportation of the Jews of Budapest must cease ! The Government must take the necessary steps ! “ [ 3 ]

Such a strong declaration from the titular head of the Government is not sufficient to stop the deportations. There are questions as to his ability to enforce his orders. Not only that, but “it required a personal threat against Horthy to make him gird his loins and disperse the forces which, having deported the Jews in the provinces, had come from all over Hungary to finish the job with respect to the Jews of the capital.” [EREZ

What we didn’t know:

On the order of the director of the gendarmerie and Interior Ministry Secretary of State László Baky, significant gendarmerie forces, numbering almost 3,000 people, arrived in Budapest to carry out the deportation of the capital city's Jews. [YSH]

Early on 28 June1944, there was an attempt on the life of István Barczy, Secretary of State at the Prime Minister's office…. and then - so the report of the investigation said - armed men were to enter Admiral Horthy's apartments and force him to appoint Baky Prime Minister, or at least to change his mind about dismissing him [ 6 ].

On the same day, Horthy informed the head of his general staff of his fear of a coup led by pro-Nazi forces and asked him to bring military forces to the city. 

Thursday, June 29, 1944

In the afternoon, Marcika and I went to see the bomb damage in Józsefváros and downtown; the destroyed area is an eerie sight: rooms with their furniture hanging in the air, - and one must always think, what if tomorrow our apartment will also be in this state? Especially if people live on the third floor - because many more upstairs apartments are destroyed than those on the ground floor. Also the fires usually start on rooftops and upper floors. (WF)

Sunday, July 2, 1944

The air-raid siren sounded in the Hungarian capital at 8.30 a.m. The first wave of American bombers came about half an hour later. After four hours, when the people of Budapest, Magyars and Jews, emerged from the shelters, they could not see the sky. Dark clouds of smoke were billowing upwards from four or five infernos in the suburbs, as though refineries and giant storage tanks for fuel and other combustibles had been set ablaze all at once. Entire residential areas of both sides of Western Station had been subjected to saturation bombing. Thousands of civilians had been killed or maimed. … It was not until the late afternoon that the smoke dispersed, and even then thousands of leaflets were fluttering about. … The front page of the leaflet was very encouraging because, in addition to news of the situation on the various fronts, it contained an unequivocal warning to the Hungarian government. (Erez)

What we didn’t know:

In what appears to be an emphasis on the seriousness of the US President’s warning, the US Air Force delivered an unmistakably strong message:

On 2 July 1944 the Fifteenth Air Force put 509 heavy bombers and 1,200 tons of bombs over targets in or near Budapest . The raid , the largest single day’s concentration of heavy bombers over Hungary during the Second World War , underlined the Allies ’ ability to bomb any Hungarian target at any given time. … American B - 17s and B - 24s not only savaged their assigned targets , refineries , rail yards , and airfields , but they also struck the mind of the Hungarian Quisling regime. [ Davis ]

On the afternoon of the same day, Lazar [Deputy-Marshall] “telephoned his old acquaintance, Colonel Ferenc Koszorús, chief of staff of the First Magyar Armoured Division. Koszorús’ immediate superior was on the eastern front, and according to regulations, Koszorús, as divisional chief-of-staff, was entitled to issue orders in his absence.” [ Erez ]

What we didn’t know:

By July 3, almost 30,000 Jews were concentrated [ in Zone V ] … Their deportations took place between July 4 and 6. Ten trains transported 29,806 Jews, the majority of whom were destined for Auschwitz. (JSH)

Colonel Koszorús writes that on the following day, 3 July, he was ordered by the Regent to prepare for action. He had made a personal reconnaissance and had established that there were three battalions of the Gestapo in the environs of Budapest, and at least seven battalions of Baky's Hungarian Nazi party in the guise of gendarmerie. However, the latter were mostly raw recruits and had little heavy equipment. [ Erez ].

Wednesday, July 5, 1944

On the night of 5 July, Koszorús was summoned to appear before the Regent who, in the presence of Deputy-Marshall Lázár, informed him that they had information to the effect that Baky's men were planning to revolt on 6 July. The Regent commanded Koszorús to have his troops remove Baky's battalions from Budapest. [Erez ]

What we didn’t know:

At 7 a.m. on the morning of 6 July, Koszorús dispatched a strong patrol of officers to Baky, and its commander delivered the following message from the colonel: “In order to ensure implementation of the order which I have received from the highest level, I have taken up my station here on the outskirts of Budapest. Within 24 hours you are to remove your party formations in the guise of gendarmerie from Budapest, and I will supervise the withdrawal. And should you refuse, I will expell you by force, together with your followers, from the capital. [Erez ]

The deportations were suspended despite the fact that the gendarmes were still in Budapest.