Tornai,+Amanda

__Resources__ [] @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_between_the_World_Wars

@http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/eceurope/hungarywwii.html @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1roly_Szab%C3%B3

@http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=3793 ( best resource containing much more information on the seige of budapest)

@http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/eceurope/hungarywwii.html @http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005507 __﻿__

__WW2 created Totalitarianism in the Kingdom of Hungary__ __by__ __Amanda Tornai__

Many people tend to think of Germany, Russia, and Italy for examples of Totalitarianism during WW2. Many more people are unaware of other Countries, during the time, having been in totalitarian rule, such as: Hungary. Because of the effects of WW2, betrayed allies, being a member of the Axis Power, Dictator Prime Minister Miklos Horthy, Hummanitarian Imprisonment, and the replacement of Prime Minister Horthy with Mátyás Rákosi; Hungary was in Totalitarian rule until the 1980’s.

In the 1930’s The Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Having been forced in 1938 to become apart of the **axis-power**, Hungary was forced to follow-suit in the Nazi pervade; however beliefs in Hungary were opposed to Germanys (Hitler’s) actions. Hungarian polatics and foreign policys became pro-Fascist Italy and pro-Nazi Germany. Although initially hoping to avoid direct involvement in the war, it soon became inevitable, and in 1941 Hungary participated in the German invasions of Yugoslavia and Russia. The beliefs of the Hungarian people, and their leaders, were one and the same; and so Prime Minister Miklos Horthy held secret peace negotiations, and alliances, with the United States and the United Kingdom. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish humanitarian who worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, he issued protective passports and housed Jews in buildings established as Swedish territory, saving tens of thousands of lives. When Soviet forces began threatening Hungary, an armistice (a truce) was signed between Hungary and Russia by Regent Miklós Horthy. Hitler feared that Hungary's surrender would expose his southern flank, where the Kingdom of Romania had just joined with the Soviets and cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkan peninsula. Horthy's son was then kidnapped, shortly after, by German commandos and Horthy was forced to revoke the armistice. When Hitler discovered the rescue of Jews and Hungarys betrayl he, in 1944, occupied Hungary with military operation known as **Operation Panzerfaust**,aka Unternehmen Eisenfaust in Germany. **The siege of Budapest**, Hungary, was fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on December 29th, 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. When Russian forces invaded Hungary Horthy declared armistice and was immediately imprisoned (in Germany) by the retreating Germans. The siege ended when the city unconditionally surrendered on February 13th, 1945. Although not learned in our curriculum, The Siege of Budapest was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of WWII. Between the appearance of the first Soviet tank and the final capture of Buda Castle, It took 102 days to pass.

After the war Horthy retired to Portugal and Hungary became a Communist dictatorship puppet of Russia. Our next Hunagarian leader begins his story in WW1, where he served the Hungarian army and became a captive of the Russia, spending most of the war in a prison camp in Russia. Mátyás Rákosi, was changed by his experience and joined the Hungarian Communist Party when he returned in 1918. He was commander of the red guard in the Soviet Republic. In 1919, Rakosi fled to Russia, for Horthy overthrew the Soviet Republic, and with the support of Joseph Stalin became secretary of Comintern. Rajkosi returned to Hungary in 1924 but the following year he was imprisoned by Horthy's government. On his release in 1940 Rajkosi moved to the Soviet Union and remained in Moscow for the rest of the Second World War. When the Red Army liberated Hungary from the German Army in 1945, Rajkosi returned and became general secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party. In elections held in November, 1945, the Hungarian Communist Party won only 20 per cent of the votes. However, the communist filled all the important posts with Rajkosi becoming the most important political figure in Hungary. ith Rajkosi as prime minister, the communists gradually gained control of the government. Rakosi now attempted to impose authoritarian rule. All who questioned or dissobey Rakosi's rule, were imprisonned or executed. An estimated 2,000 people were executed and over 100,000 were imprisoned. These policies were opposed by some members of the Hungarian Communist Party and around 200,000 were expelled by Rakosi from the organization. Rakosi had difficulty in economic control, thus the people of hungary witnessed living standards decline. Rakosi's government became increasingly unpopular and remained untill the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Totaltalitarian rule of Rakosi unfortunatly held many more years after his replacement as Prime Minister.

In 1941, Budapest was a city of about 1,165,000 inhabitants who began to flee, leaving less then 1 million civillians by the siege beginning (most lived in cellars at this time). of the population 825,000 had been identified as Jews by law in 1944, of these 453,000 were deported until the Summer. When the Siege was over with the war, in 1945 the population of Budapest had dwindled to 833,000 some 28% less than in 1941. Of this number almost 50% more women than men had survived the war. Only 25% of the buildings were intact, but at the same time less than 4% had been completely destroyed. In 2010, Budapest had 1,721,556 inhabitants, down from its 1980 peak of 2.06 million. The Budapest Commuter Area is home to 3,271,110 people. The city covers an area of 525 square kilometres.

Some of the most crucial Information I discovered during my research would be the ignorance of, what I believeto be crucial Historic facts, involving my Heritage. Our curriculum has many gaps, and I know there are many other Ignored or passed over Historic events of not only my heritage. Countries such as Hungary played a much greater part in WW2 then people give credit for. Due to the actions and historic figures of WW2, The Kingdom of Hungary was under complette totaltalitarian rule and should be regognised as such. Thank you for your time in reading this bit of history.

__YouVideo__: [] I appologise for lack of translations for Hungarian History tends to only be shared by Hungarians in their language. Even then this Video accuratly portrays the mood and struggle of the people in the Kingdom of Hungary during WW2.