Abstract
Although Hungary remained an ally of the Third Reich to the end of the Second World War, some Hungarian politicians and diplomats began to pursue a different alliance as early as 1941. The Foreign Ministry in Budapest was a centre of opposition to German orientation and most Hungarian diplomats preferred a pro-British policy. Months before Hungary joined the war against Russia in 1941, Prime Minister Paul Teleki, with the agreement of Governor Nicholas Horthy, sent Tibor Eckhardt, the president of the Smallholders’ Party, to the USA to form a government-in-exile in case the government at Budapest should be overthrown by Berlin.1 Efforts for a separate peace began in 1942. Negotiations took place in Istanbul, New York and several other locations, with the participation of professional diplomats, spies, opposition politicians and political émigrés.
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Notes
N. F. Dreisziger, ‘Mission Impossible: Secret Plans for a Hungarian Government-in-Exile in Canada during World War II’, Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue Canadienne des Slavistes (June 1988) pp. 245–62.
György Barcza, ‘Diplomaciai emlekeim’, Uj Latohatar (Munich) no. 34 (August 1983) pp. 171–3.
Gyula Juhász, Magyarország Külpolitikája 1919–1945 (Budapest, 1988) 3rd edn, p. 350.
Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon ed. Ánes Kenyeres (Budapest, 1982) vol. 3, p. 982; Országos Levéltár, Hungarian National Archives, HNA, Budapest, Hungary (cited hereafter as HNA), K 59 1626/89; Budapest City Archives, Velics, Certification Commission.
Pal Pritz, ‘Emlékirat és történeti valóság Hory András visszaem-lékezéseinek fényében’, Századok 121 (1987) pp. 258–60.
András Hory suggested to Foreign Minister Kánya the appointment of Velics because of his lengthy diplomatic service and outstanding abilities. Hory suspected that an additional reason for the appointment might have been the fact that Velics’s father and Kánya were once ambassadors and colleagues in the diplomatic corps of Austria-Hungary (András Hory, Bukaresttöl Varsóig (Budapest, 1987) p. 405).
Rudolf Andorka, Andorka Rudolf Naplója; A Madridi Követségtöl Mauthausenig (Budapest, 1978) p. 276. Velics married Blanka Ferenczy on 25 March 1944, following the death of his first wife.
Ujpetery quotes Barcza concerning the meeting of the Hungarian ambassadors including Velics (Elemer Ujpétery, Végallomás Lisszabon; Hét Év a Magyar Királyi Külügy Szolgálatában. Tények és Tanuk series (Budapest: Magvetö, 1987) p. 350.
Gabor Tolnai, Szóbeli Jegyzék; Roma 1949–1950. Tenyek es Tanuk series (Budapest: Magvetö, 1987) pp. 29–32. Rajk was soon hanged and Szekeres was imprisoned for six years by the new communist government which they had served faithfully.
HNA, K 63 Kül.Pol./111. csomó/1940–1942/13 pol.1942, Velics to Bárdossy, 12 October 1941; Ivan T. Berend and Miklós Szuhay, A Tökés Gazdaság Története Magyarországon 1848–1944 (Budapest, 1978);
Iván T. Berend and György Ránki, A Magyar Gazdaság Száz Éve (Budapest, 1972).
HNA, K 63 Kül.Pol./111. csomó/ 1940–1942/34 pol.1941, Velics to Bárdossy, Athens, 2 December 1941; Peter Hoffmann, ‘Roncalli in the Second World War: Peace Initiatives, the Greek Famine and the Persecution of the Jews,’ The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 40, no. 1 (January 1989) pp. 74–99.
Randolph L. Braham, The Politics of Genocide; The Holocaust in Hungary (New York, 1981) p. 267.
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© 1992 International Council for Soviet and East European Studies, and John Morison
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Hidas, P.I. (1992). A View from the Embassy: László Velics and Occupied Greece 1941–4. In: Morison, J. (eds) Eastern Europe and the West. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22299-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22299-5_7
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