c. The Terror at the End

On October 15, 1944, Regent Horthy was arrested by the Germans and the new Nazi-dominated regime of Szalasi was installed. On October 20, 22,000 Jewish men were rounded up. By the end of October, 35,000 Jewish men and women had been seized. The majority of them were marched off to Austria, without food. All who fainted and fell, were killed on the spot. The 160,000 Jews who had remained in Budapest were herded into a ghetto where they were exposed to raids by German and Hungarian Nazis, and to the bombardments of the Russian guns. On December 13, 1944, the Russians stormed Budapest. On January 18, 1945, the ghetto was liberated by the Red Army. The fighting for the Buda citadel continued until February 13, 1945.

After Szalasi's reign of terror had begun, Bishop Ravasz intervened in the name of the Protestant Churches. He demanded the fulfilment of five points. Three of them were in connection with the Jews:

... c. Humane methods in the treatment of Jews. Revocation of the order which, in cases of mixed marriages, empowered the non-Jewish party to obtain a divorce, and declared as Jewish the party that failed to comply with this regulation. d. The cessation of the deportations. e. Security for the lives of the Jews.

On November 24, 1944, the Deputy Prime Minister replied in the name of the Government. He informed then that Szalasi had succeeded in obtaining the Fuehrer's permission to grant the following points:

"No alteration to be made in the legal status of mixed marriages, the Jews to be separated from the rest of the population of Budapest, and the labour service companies to be directed towards the German frontier, because it was to be feared that they might commit atrocities in the case of a Russian occupation. When carrying out these measures, however, the principle of humanity would be respected." [453] <205> On November 26, 1944, Bishop Ravasz again wrote to the Roman Catholic Primate proposing united action. "The Primate, tired and very ill, replied that he had already intervened with Szalasi and that he did not feel like repeating the intervention in the company of others." [454]

On Dec. 1, 1944, the Bishops of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches presented a note to the so-called "Leader of the Nation".

"It follows from the prophetic office of Christ's Church that the servant of the Church should always raise his voice when men's acts gravely violate God's laws", wrote Bishop Ravasz. The letter stressed, that "the treatment meted out mocks God's eternal laws which prescribe humane treatment even toward one's enemies, and brings down God's anger on the head of the nation. This treatment casts a dark blot on the name of the Magyar nation which, for a thousand years, had been known to the world for its generosity and chivalry." [455]

A pastoral letter issued in December, 1944, called on the pastors to pray at the services for "the scattered flock of Israel, the homeless and the persecuted." [456]

On May 9, 1946, the Hungarian Reformed Church declared that "in deep humility she confesses her guilt and offence against God's honour... She had not laboured in time to warn the people and the rulers, when they embarked on a course contrary to God's laws, and she had not strongly taken her stand on the side of the innocent persecuted human beings." [457] <206>

THE NEUTRAL COUNTRIES

31 SWITZERLAND

a. Press Censorship

Switzerland remained neutral throughout the second world war, but it was surrounded by the Axis powers and to a great extent economically dependent on them. The Swiss Government tried to avoid offending the Germans, and thus the press was forbidden to make foreign propaganda or to publish stories about atrocities committed by the warring parties, "of which the objective correctness could not be verified".

Even in June, 1943, the press censorship issued the following order: "There recently appeared several articles about Jews and Polish clergy, without mentioning their source of information. It is understandable that our conscience should be moved by all such inhuman treatment, but yet we must strictly obey the instructions of the Press emergency law, which stipulates that it is our duty to suppress rumours and foreign propaganda." [458]

Thus censorship imposed silence on the press concerning reports of "bloody murders of hostages and persecution of Jews". The first time, however, that, to the best of my knowledge, Church leaders in Switzerland spoke out about the persecution of the Jews during the second world war, they did so in a protest against censorship of the Press.

On October 27, 1941, the following Petition was presented by the "Social Study Committee of the Swiss Reformed Pastors Union" to the Swiss Federation of Churches: <207>

1. We take the liberty of drawing the attention of the Swiss Federation of Churches, which is the spokesman of the Swiss Churches to the Federal Authorities, to the alarming position of the Evangelical Reformed Church. 2. The press-censor has repeatedly taken severe measures against men who, as representatives of the Evangelical Church, have raised their voices to inform public opinion. These measures have aroused deep and widespread concern in many circles to whose notice they have come, despite the ban on the publication of such matters, and have led to the opinion that the Evangelical Church is no longer allowed to pronounce the truth entrusted to its care... 3. We especially bear in mind the silence imposed on us by our censorship concerning the injustice of the bloody murders of hostages and the persecution of Jews. When mentioning this subject, we should certainly not shout about it from the roof tops, but under no circumstances should our sense of justice and injustice be blunted within our national conscience. Otherwise we shall invoke God's heavy punishment on our country. Therefore, we take exception to the reproach levied at us by some, that such intrepid talk of injustice by a foreign nation, is a misjudgement. 4. The apprehension we bring to your notice particularly gains alarming weight by the fact that we, as Evangelical and democratic citizens of Switzerland, have to look on while un-Christian and undemocratic ideologies and deeds cross our borders unhindered in the form of many foreign newspapers and illustrated periodicals, which are thus able to exert their influence on young and old. Does not this give rise to the impression that our highest authorities do not sufficiently recognize the danger of a moral and spiritual capitulation on our part, or consider it to be of only secondary importance? We therefore request the Federation of Churches: a. That it remonstrate with the highest responsible authorities of our country and draw their attention to the deep concern and alarm which these measures by our censorship have aroused in large circles of our Evangelical Church. b. That it publicly voice its opinion on the matter and unequivocally make known its stand, with the full weight of its authority.