A magyarországi Holokauszt előestéje
The Night before the Hungarian Holocaust

The Defection of Italy and the Attempts for Leaving the War of the Kállay Government in the Mirror of the Romanian Diplomatic Documents (1943–1944)

Summary/Abstract: Based on Romanian diplomatic documents, the study presents the image of how the Romanian Politics and Diplomacy perceived the defection of Italy from World War II and the eff orts made in this sense by the Kállay government in Hungary. By 1943 it was visible that the war will be lost by the Axis powers, that in the eyes of the Allies the Nazi Germany was the enemy to be crushed, and that they were likely to show a certain level of understanding toward Germany’ satellites. As a consequence, several allies of Germany tried to defect the war. Italy was the first country who succeeded. During the summer of 1943 Mussolini was removed from power and in September Italy asked for unconditioned truce. In the same time the Hungarian government, led by Prime Minister Miklós Kállay, also made a series of eff orts in the same sense, but without success, and the main consequence was the German occupation of Hungary. The study presents how the faith of Italy and Hungary is reflected in Romanian diplomatic documents, how are appreciated their eff orts, and what were the Romanian hopes and fears related to these. The majority of the sources used are from the Archives of the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, but bibliography of specialty is also used.

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