A Fatal Compromise? The Debate Over Collaboration and Resistance in Hungary
A Fatal Compromise? The Debate Over Collaboration and Resistance in Hungary
Author(s): István DeákSubject(s): Civil Society, Political history, Government/Political systems, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of Communism, Fascism, Nazism and WW II
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: Hungary; collaboration; resistance; the Second World War; anti-Nazi movement; Communists;
Summary/Abstract: On 27 July 1944, in a well-known pastry shop lodged in the Buda foothills, plainclothesmen of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie attempted to arrest Endre Sagvari, leader of the Young Communists. Before he was killed, Sagvari managed to wound three of the agents with his revolver. An intellectual with a doctoral degree in law, he was thirty-one years of age and belonged to a well-to-do Jewish family. Far from making him a rarity, Sagvliri's origins and education typified the membership of the country's minuscule underground Communist party (400 members in 1936 and around 20 at liberty in 1942). Not even his courage was extraordinary, for within Hungary's anti-Nazi movement, the Communists (and some small Zionist groups) were known to be the bravest and the most likely to fight it out with the Germans and the Hungarian authorities. [...]
Journal: East European Politics and Societies
- Issue Year: 09/1995
- Issue No: 02
- Page Range: 209-233
- Page Count: 25
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF