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Hungary: Horthy's reburial

01 January 1991

Hungary: Horthy's reburial
artdoc May=1994

The reburial, in September, of Hungary's inter-war regent,
Admiral Miklos Horthy, from a military cemetery in Lisbon to his
home town of Krendes, has become a focus for a renewed
nationalism.
Horthy, who was responsible for the `white terror' during which
thousands of Jews and Communists were brutally murdered and whose
attempts to restore Hungary's pre-war 1914 borders were achieved
with the support of Hitler, is being rehabilitated as a tragic
hero. Horthy's grandson, who spoke at the reburial ceremony,
attempted to downplay Horthy's anti-Semitism and to portray him
as a man of religious tolerance. Radnocczy Antal, head of the
Order of the Knights, described Horthy as `primarily a soldier',
persecuted after the war by the Communists. Senior government
ministers were represented at the reburial ceremony, broadcast
live on television and attended by 50,000 people from all over
the country. The prime minister, Joszef Antall, had earlier said
on television `I consider Miklos Horthy a Hungarian patriot. He
should be placed into the continuity of the nation, and the
awareness of the people'.
Andrew Bright, writing in the New Statesman, believes that
Antall's approval of Horthy reflects the changing political
landscape. Since the formation of the `Hungarian Truth and Life
Party' by Istvan Csurka, expelled from the Hungarian Democratic
Forum (HDF) in April, the HDF is challenged by a new populist,
nationalist alliance (New Statesman 10.9.93, Magyar Nemzet
6.9.93).

IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 6, December 1993. Contact:
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 071 837 0041.