Chief of the General Staff who ordered the Bačka intervention behind the Novi Sad massacre and later sought contact with the West
Born Ferenc Knaus (or Knauz) at Moson, he served as an Austro-Hungarian staff officer in the First World War and in 1934 took his mother’s surname, Szombathelyi. In 1941 he led the Carpathian Group in the invasion of the Soviet Union. That September he succeeded Werth as Chief of the General Staff, and in January 1942 he ordered General Feketehalmy-Czeydner to intervene in Bačka, an operation that grew into punitive raids on Serb villages and the Novi Sad massacre. In 1943 he opened the investigation and court martial of those responsible for the massacre, and with Kállay he led the contacts with the Western Allies. Removed after the German occupation of 1944, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a People’s Court after the war, handed over to Yugoslavia and shot at Petrovaradin in 1946.
Activities and affiliations
- 1941–1944 Military command · Hungary
- 1926–1938 Education · Hungary
Career Timeline
- 1914–1918Austro-Hungarian staff officer
- 1926–1938Instructor and commander, Ludovica Military Academy
- 1938–1939Deputy Chief of Staff
- 1941Commander, Carpathian Group
- 1941–1944Chief of the General Staff
- 1946Life sentence by a People’s Court; executed after extradition to Yugoslavia
Related historical events
- 1938–1944.03Hungary on the Axis side: from the Vienna Awards to the DonChief of the General Staff 1941–1944In January 1942 ordered the punitive raids in Bačka, taking a clash with Partisans as pretext.
- 1944.03–1945.02Hungary under German occupation: from Operation Margarethe to the siege of BudapestChief of the General StaffPersuaded Horthy to sign the Klessheim protocol and ordered no resistance to the Germans, but was dismissed after the occupation.