Extracts from a party journal on anti-Jewish actions in Hungary, including removal to Germany and occupied territory and labor battalions, and local opposition to the deportation of Jews from Budapest

Extracts from an article in "DIE LAGE" of the 23rd August 1944 entitled The Jewish Problem in Hungary * , * * * * * *
It was a matter of course that the German offices in Hungary did everything possible after March 19th to eliminate the Jewish element as rapidly and as completely as was at all possible. In view of the proximity of the Russian front, they commenced with the cleaning up of the northeastern area (North Transylvania and the Carpathian province) where the Jewish element was the strongest numerically. Then the Jews were collected in the remaining Hungarian provinces and transported to Germany or German controlled territories. 100,000 Jews remained in the hands of the Hungarians to be employed in labor battalions. By the appointed day, the 9th July, the Hungarian provinces were without any Jews. Here remarkable consistency and severity were used in the shortest possible time. An important prerequisite for the success of this action was the fact that the measures against the Jews met with the full consent of a majority of the Hungarian people. It must, it is true, be stated in limitation that numerous Jews were not affected by the measures because of the
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Hungarian Jewish laws being used as the basis for the qualification of "Jew." Thus, for example, all Jews are exempted who are married to non-Jewesses or who received high decorations during the Great War. Up to the 9th July, approximately 430,000 Jews from the Hungarian provinces had been handed over to the German authorities. The handing over takes place on the Hungarian national frontier, up to which the carrying out of the measures against the Jews, and with it also the responsibility for it, is a matter for the Hungarians.
Difficulties over the Deportation of Jews from Budapest
As the last stage of the measures against the Jews, the Jews from Budapest were to be deported. It is a question of approximately 260,000. But in the meantime pressure from enemy and neutral countries (Hull, the King of Sweden, Switzerland, the Pope) had become so strong that those circles in Hungary that are friendly to the Jews attempted to influence the Hungarian government to prevent any further measures against the Jews and particularly their being handed over to German authorities. The Hungarian gendarmes who had been ordered to Budapest for the purpose of deporting the Jews were withdrawn again. * * * .