Chief of the Hungarian General Staff who was the strongest advocate of alliance with Germany and of war on the Soviet Union
Born into a Swabian family at Rezsőháza in the Banat (now Knićanin, Serbia), he became a cadet in Vienna in 1897 and served as an Austro-Hungarian officer in the First World War. In 1919 he commanded the I Corps of the Hungarian Soviet Republic’s Red Army before going over to Horthy’s National Army in June. Retired in 1936, he was recalled in 1938 as Chief of the General Staff and, with Defence Minister Károly Bartha, became the leading advocate of alliance with Germany. He oversaw the invasion and annexation of Carpatho-Ukraine in March 1939 and, after the Kassa bombing of June 1941, at once blamed the Soviet Union and urged an immediate declaration of war. He left the post of chief of staff in September 1941; arrested by Soviet forces in February 1945, he was taken to the USSR and died there in 1952.
Career timeline
1897–1901Infantry cadet school, Vienna
1914–1918Austro-Hungarian staff officer
1919Commander, Red Army I Corps; joined the National Army in June
1938–1941Chief of the General Staff
1945–1952Arrested by Soviet forces; died in Soviet captivity
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.
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
Hungarian general who directed the Novi Sad massacre, fled to Germany after his conviction and joined the SS
Born Franz Zeidner into a Transylvanian Saxon family, he served as an artillery and staff officer in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, and between the wars changed his surname to the more Magyar-sounding Feketehalmy-Czeydner. In August 1941 he became commander of the Fifth Corps at Szeged. In January 1942 Chief of Staff Szombathelyi sent him against the partisans in Bačka; villagers there were massacred on his orders, and he organised the Novi Sad massacre. Sentenced to fifteen years by a court martial in January 1944, he fled to Vienna with other convicted officers and volunteered for the SS. As deputy defence minister under the Arrow Cross he signed the death warrant of his critic Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky. After the war he was handed via Hungary to Yugoslavia and executed in November 1946.
Career timeline
1910Commissioned lieutenant of artillery
1914–1918Austro-Hungarian artillery and staff officer
1941–1942Commander, Fifth Corps; directed the Bačka massacres
1944Convicted by court martial; fled to Vienna and joined the SS
1944–1945Deputy defence minister under the Arrow Cross
