Myth and Reality in Efforts to Rescue Hungarian Jews in 1944

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Because the Nazi deportations of the Jewish population in Hungary proceeded in secret, a crucial question is: How and when did knowledge about this unprecedented campaign reach leaders not only in Hungary but also in the West? As it turned out, the efforts to stop the deportations succeeded only after that knowledge had reached Hungary and the Allies simultaneously.
The “Auschwitz Report,” the testimony of two escaped prisoners, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, was transmitted from Slovakia even before deportations began. This report presented convincing documentation about the Nazi extermination machine. Although many scholarly accounts are available about the crucial role of the Vrba-Wetzler report, a simultaneous view of the two distinct paths of this report, one to Washington, where the authority and the control of effective bombing missions resided, and the other to the head of state in Hungary, is still lacking.
On the basis of information he had in his possession, Roosevelt warned the head of state in Hungary, Admiral Horthy, that there would be serious consequences if the deportations did not cease. That warning contributed to the halting of deportations. Budapest was spared, but by that time the Jews of the provinces had been taken.
After the revelations of the “Auschwitz Report,” a coded message with the urgent request to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz reached Switzerland from Slovakia. Because of delays, the message did not reach the president for serious consideration. If those rail lines had been destroyed, as proposed, a more comprehensive rescue could have succeeded.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Frank Baron emigrated to the United States in 1947. After studies at universities in Illinois, Indiana, Marburg and Göttingen, he received his doctorate from the University of California in Berkeley. He began teaching German language and literature at the University of Kansas in 1970. His work as director of the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies resulted in a digital library for Alexander von Humboldt and a book on Abraham Lincoln and the German immigrants. He has published books and articles on the history of Renaissance humanism, origins and evolution of the Faust legend, and the works of Rilke, Thomas Mann, and Herman Hesse.