At 6 PM on May 15th, 2018, we will host the thirty-fifth debate of the VERITAS Debate Nights series at the Budapest Business School. The title of the debate is The Horthy–Hitler Meetings: 1938–1944. András Joó, VERITAS Senior Research Fellow, and Lajos Olasz, College Associate Professor at the University of Szeged – Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education (Institute of Applied Social Sciences and Minority Politics), will familiarize the audience with the topic, while Gábor Ujváry, VERITAS Head of Institute, will lead the discussion.
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Miklós Horthy visited Adolf Hitler on several occasions. These meetings, especially the later ones, coincided with the significant turning points of WWII. The conversations between the two men (and the official written record thereof) have been an invaluable resource not only of the evolution of Hungarian-German relations, but of the Regent and Hitler’s contrasting personalities. From the surviving records of these meetings, behind the phrasing of a shared common fate and military affiliation, one can sense a rather strained relationship under the surface, caused by tensions and contradictions.
The two professors comment on the highlights of these sit-downs, providing details on each man’s background and worldview as well. In his memoirs, Horthy recalled with mixed feelings his meeting with Hitler in August 1938, when he sensed something deeper in the Führer’s words. Soon enough the Führer made his real intentions known: the joint invasion of Czechoslovakia, to which Horthy categorically said no.
In their second face-to-face meeting, the Regent remembered thusly: Hitler “tactlessly raised his objection to my mentioning of the military action against Czechoslovakia in the presence of Field Marshall Brauchitsch and my opposition to it. His disdain for my position I dismissed, and let him know that I was in the habit of choosing for myself with whom and about what I talked. In his response – obviously to lessen his reproach – he stated that the generals had nothing to add as all decisions were solely his. I did not hide my view that I considered this kind of thinking as dangerous indeed.”
