Hungarian anti-Jewish laws
헝가리 유대인법
A series of antisemitic laws passed by the Hungarian parliament in 1938–1942 in emulation of Germany’s Nuremberg Laws. The First Law (1938) capped Jews at 20 per cent in the professions and business; the Second (1939) defined Jews racially and tightened the limits; the Third (1941) banned marriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews.
In depth
The First Jewish Law, introduced by the Darányi government, passed in May 1938 at the start of Imrédy’s premiership. The Second, introduced by Imrédy in December 1938 and passed under Teleki in May 1939, counted as Jewish anyone with two or more grandparents born Jewish, cut the professional quota to 6 per cent, excluded Jews from public employment and newspaper editing and restricted their vote. Bárdossy’s government enacted the Third Law in August 1941, and a 1942 law banned Jews from owning land.
Tens of thousands lost jobs and businesses; the 1939 law alone cost some 250,000 people their livelihood. Jewish men, barred from the army, were conscripted into labour service. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum treats this period as the first stage of the Holocaust in Hungary, in which the Hungarian government persecuted Jews on its own initiative.