Hungarian minority leader in Czechoslovakia who, as interior minister in Sztójay’s cabinet in 1944, organised the deportation of Jews
Born in Komáromcsehi, Komárom County (now Čechy, Slovakia), he entered the politics of the Hungarian minority in Upper Hungary, cut off by Trianon, in the early 1920s. He became chairman of the Hungarian National Party in 1933 and a deputy in Prague in 1935, and was general secretary of the United Hungarian Party. From 1938 to 1940 he was Hungary’s minister without portfolio for Upper Hungary, and in 1940 he co-founded the far-right Party of Hungarian Renewal with Béla Imrédy. As interior minister in Sztójay’s cabinet after the German occupation of 1944, he organised the deportation of the Jews with his state secretaries László Baky and László Endre. He resigned under Horthy’s pressure on 17 August. After the war he fled west, was captured by the Americans, handed over to Hungary, sentenced to death by the People’s Tribunal and shot in 1946.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1925–1933Vice-chairman, Hungarian National Party
- 1933Chairman, Hungarian National Party
- 1935–1938Member of the Czechoslovak Chamber of Deputies
- 1938–1940Minister without portfolio for Upper Hungary
- 1940Co-founded the Party of Hungarian Renewal
- 1944Interior minister
- 1946Sentenced by the People’s Tribunal and executed