Kisbarnaki Ferenc Farkas
Encyclopedia
Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak (Hungarian
: vitéz
kisbarnaki Farkas Ferenc) (May 27, 1892 - April 14, 1980) was Chief Scout of the Hungarian Boy Scouts
, commanding officer of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia, the country's officer training school, and General of the Hungarian VI Army Corps during World War II
. He served under several political regimes including that of Charles IV King of Hungary, Regent
Miklós Horthy
, Prime Minister Pál Teleki
, and Arrow Cross Party
leader Ferenc Szálasi
. His service through the end of the World War II resulted in controversies within Hungary that followed him until his death.
hosted by the Hungarian Boy Scouts
at Gödöllő
, Hungary, alongside Hungary's Chief Scout and future Prime Minister Pál Teleki
. A Catholic, in 1938 Farkas was the chief organizer of an World Eucharistic Congress
in Budapest on May 25–29, 1938 at which time he created a life-long relationship with the Pope and the Vatican.
In the same year he assumed command of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia (officer training school) which had been founded in 1872. Among the officers he brought to the Akadémia was 21-year-old Béla Bánáthy
, who Farkas had met as a 14-year-old youth at the 1933 Jamboree. He requested a volunteer to teach leadership at the academy, and Bánáthy was selected. He also asked Bánáthy to organize a Scout Troop for the young men, 19 years and older, which was a common practice within the Hungarian Scout Association
at the time. Farkas served as commander of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia through 1943. Banathy served most of the war under Farkas and when it ended, escaped first to Austria and later the United States. He was inspired by his attendance at the 4th World Jamboree where he met Farkas and his Scouting experience teaching leadership at the Ludovika Akadémia. In 1958 he founded the White Stag Leadership Development Program
in Monterey, California
which has continually taught leadership to youth since then.
's suicide in June 1941, on the eve of Hungary's forced entry into World War II. Under political pressure from the extreme right, the Hungarian Scouting movement became more militaristic and nationalistic between 1941 and 1945. Despite the war, the Hungarian national Scout leadership was able until the end of 1943 to maintain contact with the Boy Scouts International Bureau
, the Polish Scout Headquarters in exile, and with Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden
, Chief Scout of Sweden and member of the World Scout Committee. Before the end of World War II, the national Hungarian Scouts were ordered to merge with the extremist right-leaning youth organization Hungarista Örszem, but the merger was never implemented.
Farkas retained the title and role of Chief Scout through World War II. When the Soviet Union
occupied the country and forbid organization of Scouting units, he remained Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris
until his death in 1980.
. During March 1944, Regent
Miklós Horthy
first set in motion plans for a new Hungarian government loyal to the Allies, but the effort was forestalled after German pressure by Edmund Veesenmayer
, Hitler's personal emissary in Hungary. Ferenc Farkas was to have been minister of cultural affairs. In July 1944 he replaced General Károly Beregfy, an Arrow Cross Party
member, and under Farkas' the Hungarian VI Army Corps beat back a Red Army attack across the Carpathian mountains, employing brutal methods to keep the Red Army
from advancing. He became known as the heroic defender of the Tatár Pass in the Carpathian Mountains
..
also wanted military units in Budapest commanded by officers he could trust, as he planned to announce an armistice with the Soviet Union as Romania had done, abandoning the lost Axis cause which he had never fully embraced. Germany feared the surrender of Hungary, knowing this would leave their entire southern flank open to Soviet attack.
who was in contact with Soviet forces in eastern Hungary, Regent Horthy attempted to negotiate the end of the war, seeking to surrender to the Soviets while preserving the government's autonomy. The Soviets willingly promised this. But the Germans were aware of Horthy's behind-the-scenes maneuvering and set in place Operation Panzerfaust
which would remove him from power and replace his government with forces loyal to the German cause, effectively occupying Hungary. Horthy governed from Castle Hill in central Budapest, an ancient and now well-guarded fortress. At 2:00 p.m. on October 15, 1944, Horthy announced over the radio that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. "It is clear today that Germany has lost the war... Hungary has accordingly concluded a preliminary armistice with Russia, and will cease all hostilities against her."
Failing to receive official orders, the Hungarian army ignored the armistice, surprising the Germans. Given that many Hungarian units were controlled by the German army, it is unclear whether orders, if issued, ever reached most of the line troops. There had also been considerable propaganda about the harsh, punitive treatment of prisoners by the Soviets, and some Hungarian forces had witnessed first-hand the atrocities Soviet perpetrated against civilians. Combined with their loyalty to their country, no matter what government was in charge, they felt it was their duty to fight even when the end result was predictable.
Horthy's son Miklós Horthy, Jr.
at this father's direction went to a meeting with representatives from the Yugoslavian government to finalize the surrender of Hungary to the Soviets. Upon entering the building, he was attacked and beaten by German soldiers commanded by Waffen SS Major
Otto Skorzeny
, who had initiated the meeting as a ruse. They kidnapped Miklós at gunpoint, trussed him up in a carpet, and immediately drove him to the airport, where a flight was waiting to take him to Germany and a concentration camp. Skorzeny then brazenly led a convoy of Germany troops and four Tiger II
tanks to the Vienna Gates of Castle Hill
. Seeking to avoid unneeded bloodshed, and knowing his forces could not resist the superior German troops, the Regent ordered his soldiers to not resist. Only one unit did not get the order, and the Germans quickly and with minimal bloodshed captured Castle Hill. Only seven soldiers were killed and 26 men were wounded. Horthy was arrested by Waffen SS Brigadeführer
Edmund Veesenmayer
and held overnight in SS offices. Faced with an overt threat to his son's life, and having already been effectively removed from power, under coercion and as a prisoner of war, he abrogated the armistice, deposed Premier Géza Lakatos
' government, and named the leader of the fanatical Arrow Cross Party
, Ferenc Szálasi
, as Prime Minister.
Horthy was placed on a private train to Germany three days later. Skorzeny told Horthy that he would be a "guest of honor" in a secure Bavarian castle. Skorzeny personally escorted Horthy to his captivity, where he was held until the war ended.
After Ferenc Szálasi assumed power, Farkas was not dismissed despite his previous loyalty to Horthy, and he swore an oath to the new Prime Minister. Károly Beregfy, newly appointed on October 17, 1944 by the Arrow Cross government as Minister of War and Commander in Chief of the Hungarian Army, named Farkas as Government Commissioner for Evacuation, promoted him to General, and put him in charge of securing national treasures.
He was later accused of sending to Austria about USD$3 billion in national treasures, "including the crown jewels, priceless gold treasures and the collection of national seals." The crown jewels were in fact captured in Mattsee
, Austria on 4 May 1945 by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division. The jewels were then transported to Western Europe and eventually given to the United States Army for safekeeping from the Soviet Union. For much of the Cold War
, it was held at the United States Bullion Depository
(Fort Knox
, Kentucky
) alongside the bulk of America's gold reserves and other priceless historical items. U.S. President Jimmy Carter
ordered extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, and it was returned to the Hungarian people on January 6, 1978. None of the charges against Farkas relating to the expropriation of Hungarian treasures and seals was substantiated.
Facing the imminent fall of the government and the nation, the Hungarian Defense Ministry named Farkas as the leader of a four-man committee which was charged with representing the Hungarian Army with the Allies after the war's end. General officers of the Hungarian Army who returned to Hungary under Communist rule were likely to be arrested and become Prisoners of War again, and face charges and possible execution. Farkas drove across Austria and France to General Patton
's headquarters. Farkas was placed in a prisoner of war camp in Foucarville, near Sainte-Mère-Église
, Normandy, which housed 40,000 prisoners, including 218 generals and 6 admirals.
His war-time role in the Army, especially after the Arrow Cross Party assumed command, became very controversial within Hungary. Because of his actions in the camps against the Arrow Cross Party and Szálasi's government, the Provisional Hungarian Government of 1945, led by the Soviet forces in Debrecen, reduced his former Army rank to a private.
, the Hungarian Scout Association Abroad
. He was named Training Camp Chief and later Chief Commissioner (Hungarian
: Bodnar Gabor). He also led adult leader training for Hungarian Scout leaders in exile in several locations within Germany during the late 1940s, and later at numerous locations abroad. He recommended Béla H. Bánáthy
, a Hungarian Scout leader and one of his former officers with whom he had maintained a relationship, for a position as a Hungarian language instructor at the U.S. government's new Army Language School
. During 1952, Farkas visited the United States and met with adult leaders at a training camp for Hungarian Scouts in Exile held in Buffalo, New York. He remained the Hungarian Chief Scout until his death in 1980.
Farkas also attempted with the support of former members of the Hungarian government who had escaped to the west before the war to establish a Hungarian government in exile, but was frustrated in his efforts by American Occupation Forces in Germany who forbid it. The veteran's organization retained as one of its purposes support for the restoration of a democratic government in Hungary.
During 1947, the Americans and French permitted him to found the Anti-Bolshevik Hungarian Liberation Movement in Landshut, Germany. The movement initially called for a violent revolution in Hungary against Soviet control. It arranged for a member in exile to return to Hungary illegally and assess the situation and support for overthrow of the Communist government. What it learned was discouraging and the only hope the group held out for liberation of Hungary was Western help, which was not forthcoming. By 1950, Farkas was a leader of the reactionary, right-wing Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
which openly advocated the destruction of the Soviet Union and its fifth column
ists.
Farkas was convicted in absentia by the Budapest High Court of the Hungarian Communist government on March 30, 1950 and was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment. He visited the United States and Canada during 1955 and met with Hungarian Scouts in exile. In 1962, he was named General Captain (Hungarian
: Fõkapitány) of The Knightly Order of Vitéz
, a role in which he continued to serve through 1977. He also continued his involvement with Scouting both locally and internationally, serving as Chief Scout of Hungary for the Hungarian Scout Association Abroad
. He died in Arnstorf
, Germany
on April 14, 1980.
In late 1998, the Hungarian Republic Supreme Court found serious legal and procedural errors in his original 1950 trial and on December 7, 1998 rescinded the sentence, nullifying its results. On September 15, 2006, the Hungarian Defence Ministry's Rehabilitation Committee fully reinstated his military rank and overturned his conviction posthumously.
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: vitéz
Vitéz
Vitéz, or Order of Vitéz was a Hungarian order of merit which was founded in 1678. It was awarded as a state honour during two periods of Hungarian history...
kisbarnaki Farkas Ferenc) (May 27, 1892 - April 14, 1980) was Chief Scout of the Hungarian Boy Scouts
Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Magyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
, commanding officer of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia, the country's officer training school, and General of the Hungarian VI Army Corps during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He served under several political regimes including that of Charles IV King of Hungary, Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
, Prime Minister Pál Teleki
Pál Teleki
Pál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July 1920 to 14 April 1921 and from 16 February 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
, and Arrow Cross Party
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...
leader Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , being both Head of State and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary's "Government of National Unity" for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...
. His service through the end of the World War II resulted in controversies within Hungary that followed him until his death.
Scouting and Officers Training School
In 1933, he was chief organizer and General Camp Manager of the 4th World Scout Jamboree4th World Scout Jamboree
The 4th World Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Boy Scouts from all over the world, was hosted by Hungary and held from August 2 to August 13, 1933. It was attended by 25,792 Scouts, representing 46 different nations and additional territories...
hosted by the Hungarian Boy Scouts
Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Magyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
at Gödöllő
Gödöllo
Gödöllő is a town situated in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is about 31,000 according to the 2001 census. It can be easily reached from Budapest with the suburban railway . Gödöllő is home to the Szent István...
, Hungary, alongside Hungary's Chief Scout and future Prime Minister Pál Teleki
Pál Teleki
Pál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July 1920 to 14 April 1921 and from 16 February 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
. A Catholic, in 1938 Farkas was the chief organizer of an World Eucharistic Congress
International Eucharistic Congress
In the Roman Catholic church, a Eucharistic Congress is a gathering of clergy, religious, and laity to bear witness to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, which is an important Roman Catholic doctrine...
in Budapest on May 25–29, 1938 at which time he created a life-long relationship with the Pope and the Vatican.
In the same year he assumed command of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia (officer training school) which had been founded in 1872. Among the officers he brought to the Akadémia was 21-year-old Béla Bánáthy
Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States...
, who Farkas had met as a 14-year-old youth at the 1933 Jamboree. He requested a volunteer to teach leadership at the academy, and Bánáthy was selected. He also asked Bánáthy to organize a Scout Troop for the young men, 19 years and older, which was a common practice within the Hungarian Scout Association
Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Magyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
at the time. Farkas served as commander of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia through 1943. Banathy served most of the war under Farkas and when it ended, escaped first to Austria and later the United States. He was inspired by his attendance at the 4th World Jamboree where he met Farkas and his Scouting experience teaching leadership at the Ludovika Akadémia. In 1958 he founded the White Stag Leadership Development Program
White Stag Leadership Development Program
The White Stag Leadership Development Program is a non-profit organization that sponsors youth leadership development activities. Founded on the Monterey Peninsula, California, in 1958 by Dr. Béla H. Bánáthy, it traces its history to the 1933 World Jamboree in Gödöllő, Hungary, which took as its...
in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
which has continually taught leadership to youth since then.
Chief Scout of Hungary
A life-long supporter of Scouting, Farkas became Chief Scout of Hungary upon Prime Minister Pál TelekiPál Teleki
Pál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July 1920 to 14 April 1921 and from 16 February 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
's suicide in June 1941, on the eve of Hungary's forced entry into World War II. Under political pressure from the extreme right, the Hungarian Scouting movement became more militaristic and nationalistic between 1941 and 1945. Despite the war, the Hungarian national Scout leadership was able until the end of 1943 to maintain contact with the Boy Scouts International Bureau
World Organization of the Scout Movement
The World Organization of the Scout Movement is the Non-governmental international organization which governs most national Scout Organizations, with 31 million members. WOSM was established in 1920, and has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland...
, the Polish Scout Headquarters in exile, and with Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden
Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten
Prince Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Arthur Edmund, Duke of Västerbotten was Duke of West Bothnia and the eldest son of Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife Princess Margaret of Connaught...
, Chief Scout of Sweden and member of the World Scout Committee. Before the end of World War II, the national Hungarian Scouts were ordered to merge with the extremist right-leaning youth organization Hungarista Örszem, but the merger was never implemented.
Farkas retained the title and role of Chief Scout through World War II. When the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
occupied the country and forbid organization of Scouting units, he remained Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association in Exteris
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség is a Scouts-in-Exile organization created for youth of Hungarian descent. Scouting makes it possible for the young men and women to learn more about their Hungarian heritage, language and culture...
until his death in 1980.
Commander of Hungarian Sixth Army Corps
In 1943 Farkas assumed command of the Hungarian Sixth Army, which had been garrisoned at DebrecenDebrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
. During March 1944, Regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
first set in motion plans for a new Hungarian government loyal to the Allies, but the effort was forestalled after German pressure by Edmund Veesenmayer
Edmund Veesenmayer
Edmund Veesenmayer was a German politician, officer and war criminal. He significantly contributed to The Holocaust in Hungary and Croatia...
, Hitler's personal emissary in Hungary. Ferenc Farkas was to have been minister of cultural affairs. In July 1944 he replaced General Károly Beregfy, an Arrow Cross Party
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...
member, and under Farkas' the Hungarian VI Army Corps beat back a Red Army attack across the Carpathian mountains, employing brutal methods to keep the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
from advancing. He became known as the heroic defender of the Tatár Pass in the Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
..
Secret negotiations to surrender
As the Soviets advanced on Budapest, the Sixth Army was ordered to Budapest on October 12 where Farkas was briefly named commander of the Pest bridgehead. Regent Miklós HorthyMiklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
also wanted military units in Budapest commanded by officers he could trust, as he planned to announce an armistice with the Soviet Union as Romania had done, abandoning the lost Axis cause which he had never fully embraced. Germany feared the surrender of Hungary, knowing this would leave their entire southern flank open to Soviet attack.
Fall of Regent Horthy
Working through his trustworthy General Béla MiklósBéla Miklós
Knight Béla Miklós de Dálnok was a Hungarian military officer and politician who served as acting Prime Minister of Hungary, at first in opposition, and then officially, from 1944 to 1945.-Early career:...
who was in contact with Soviet forces in eastern Hungary, Regent Horthy attempted to negotiate the end of the war, seeking to surrender to the Soviets while preserving the government's autonomy. The Soviets willingly promised this. But the Germans were aware of Horthy's behind-the-scenes maneuvering and set in place Operation Panzerfaust
Operation Panzerfaust
Operation Panzerfaust, known as Unternehmen Eisenfaust in Germany, was a military operation to keep the Kingdom of Hungary at Germany's side in the war, conducted in October 1944 by the German military...
which would remove him from power and replace his government with forces loyal to the German cause, effectively occupying Hungary. Horthy governed from Castle Hill in central Budapest, an ancient and now well-guarded fortress. At 2:00 p.m. on October 15, 1944, Horthy announced over the radio that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. "It is clear today that Germany has lost the war... Hungary has accordingly concluded a preliminary armistice with Russia, and will cease all hostilities against her."
Failing to receive official orders, the Hungarian army ignored the armistice, surprising the Germans. Given that many Hungarian units were controlled by the German army, it is unclear whether orders, if issued, ever reached most of the line troops. There had also been considerable propaganda about the harsh, punitive treatment of prisoners by the Soviets, and some Hungarian forces had witnessed first-hand the atrocities Soviet perpetrated against civilians. Combined with their loyalty to their country, no matter what government was in charge, they felt it was their duty to fight even when the end result was predictable.
Horthy's son Miklós Horthy, Jr.
Miklós Horthy, Jr.
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya II was the younger son of Hungarian regent Admiral Miklós Horthy and, until the end of World War II, a politician.-Biography:...
at this father's direction went to a meeting with representatives from the Yugoslavian government to finalize the surrender of Hungary to the Soviets. Upon entering the building, he was attacked and beaten by German soldiers commanded by Waffen SS Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
, who had initiated the meeting as a ruse. They kidnapped Miklós at gunpoint, trussed him up in a carpet, and immediately drove him to the airport, where a flight was waiting to take him to Germany and a concentration camp. Skorzeny then brazenly led a convoy of Germany troops and four Tiger II
Tiger II
Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B,Panzerkampfwagen – abbr: Pz. or Pz.Kfw. Ausführung – abbr: Ausf. .The full titles Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf...
tanks to the Vienna Gates of Castle Hill
Buda Castle
Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, first completed in 1265. In the past, it was also called Royal Palace and Royal Castle ....
. Seeking to avoid unneeded bloodshed, and knowing his forces could not resist the superior German troops, the Regent ordered his soldiers to not resist. Only one unit did not get the order, and the Germans quickly and with minimal bloodshed captured Castle Hill. Only seven soldiers were killed and 26 men were wounded. Horthy was arrested by Waffen SS Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
Edmund Veesenmayer
Edmund Veesenmayer
Edmund Veesenmayer was a German politician, officer and war criminal. He significantly contributed to The Holocaust in Hungary and Croatia...
and held overnight in SS offices. Faced with an overt threat to his son's life, and having already been effectively removed from power, under coercion and as a prisoner of war, he abrogated the armistice, deposed Premier Géza Lakatos
Géza Lakatos
Knight Géza Lakatos de Csíkszentsimon was a general in Hungary during World War II who served briefly as Prime Minister of Hungary, under governor Miklós Horthy from August 29, 1944, until October 15,...
' government, and named the leader of the fanatical Arrow Cross Party
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...
, Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , being both Head of State and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary's "Government of National Unity" for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...
, as Prime Minister.
Horthy was placed on a private train to Germany three days later. Skorzeny told Horthy that he would be a "guest of honor" in a secure Bavarian castle. Skorzeny personally escorted Horthy to his captivity, where he was held until the war ended.
Service at end of war
In the final months of the war, Farkas presided over the trial of fellow Lieutenant General Lajos Veres von Dalnoki (former commander of the Hungarian Second Army) and Captain Kálmán Hardy (aide-de-camp to Horthy), who were charged by the Arrow Cross government with treason for having attempted to arrange a cease-fire or switching alliegience during the last days of the war. He sentenced both to death, though neither was executed.After Ferenc Szálasi assumed power, Farkas was not dismissed despite his previous loyalty to Horthy, and he swore an oath to the new Prime Minister. Károly Beregfy, newly appointed on October 17, 1944 by the Arrow Cross government as Minister of War and Commander in Chief of the Hungarian Army, named Farkas as Government Commissioner for Evacuation, promoted him to General, and put him in charge of securing national treasures.
He was later accused of sending to Austria about USD$3 billion in national treasures, "including the crown jewels, priceless gold treasures and the collection of national seals." The crown jewels were in fact captured in Mattsee
Mattsee
Mattsee is a market town at the eponymous lake in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Salzburg.-History:About 765 Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria established the Mattsee Benedictine Abbey, that became a part of the Diocese of Passau in 993 and was transformed into a college of...
, Austria on 4 May 1945 by the U.S. 86th Infantry Division. The jewels were then transported to Western Europe and eventually given to the United States Army for safekeeping from the Soviet Union. For much of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, it was held at the United States Bullion Depository
United States Bullion Depository
The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located adjacent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, used to store a large portion of United States official gold reserves and occasionally other precious items belonging or entrusted to the federal government.The...
(Fort Knox
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. The base covers parts of Bullitt, Hardin, and Meade counties. It currently holds the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence to include the Army Human Resources Command, United States Army Cadet...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
) alongside the bulk of America's gold reserves and other priceless historical items. U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
ordered extensive historical research to verify the crown as genuine, and it was returned to the Hungarian people on January 6, 1978. None of the charges against Farkas relating to the expropriation of Hungarian treasures and seals was substantiated.
Facing the imminent fall of the government and the nation, the Hungarian Defense Ministry named Farkas as the leader of a four-man committee which was charged with representing the Hungarian Army with the Allies after the war's end. General officers of the Hungarian Army who returned to Hungary under Communist rule were likely to be arrested and become Prisoners of War again, and face charges and possible execution. Farkas drove across Austria and France to General Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
's headquarters. Farkas was placed in a prisoner of war camp in Foucarville, near Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.-History:Founded in the eleventh Century, the earliest records include the name Sancte Marie Ecclesia, Latin for "Church of St. Mary", while a later document written in Norman-French mentions Saincte...
, Normandy, which housed 40,000 prisoners, including 218 generals and 6 admirals.
U.S. Army liaison
In October 1946, 26 other Hungarian Army generals in the Foucarville POW camp wrote a letter to the American military, requesting that Farkas be released. In January 1947 he became the U.S. liaison to Hungarian prisoners of war and assisted in resolving their displaced person status and living arrangements. He remained in Germany becoming the highest-ranking Hungarian officer to settle in a country controlled by the Allies.His war-time role in the Army, especially after the Arrow Cross Party assumed command, became very controversial within Hungary. Because of his actions in the camps against the Arrow Cross Party and Szálasi's government, the Provisional Hungarian Government of 1945, led by the Soviet forces in Debrecen, reduced his former Army rank to a private.
Pál Teleki Scout Association
While in the displaced persons camp, he founded the Pál Teleki Scout Association, which in 1948 was renamed the Hungarian Scout Association in Exile, and after the fall of the Iron CurtainIron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, the Hungarian Scout Association Abroad
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség is a Scouts-in-Exile organization created for youth of Hungarian descent. Scouting makes it possible for the young men and women to learn more about their Hungarian heritage, language and culture...
. He was named Training Camp Chief and later Chief Commissioner (Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Bodnar Gabor). He also led adult leader training for Hungarian Scout leaders in exile in several locations within Germany during the late 1940s, and later at numerous locations abroad. He recommended Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States...
, a Hungarian Scout leader and one of his former officers with whom he had maintained a relationship, for a position as a Hungarian language instructor at the U.S. government's new Army Language School
Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
. During 1952, Farkas visited the United States and met with adult leaders at a training camp for Hungarian Scouts in Exile held in Buffalo, New York. He remained the Hungarian Chief Scout until his death in 1980.
Anti-Soviet activities
He was founder of a Hungarian veteran's organization for veterans in exile, the Magyar Harcosok Bajtársi Közössége Központja (World Federation of Hungarian Veterans). He suggested creating a fraternal organization to honor the officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men who served in the Hungarian armed forces and were now in exile. He suggested to Béla Almay, a former Lieutenant Colonel on the Hungarian General Staff, that he organize an association for Hungarian veterans, which became the Collegiate Society of Hungarian Veterans.Farkas also attempted with the support of former members of the Hungarian government who had escaped to the west before the war to establish a Hungarian government in exile, but was frustrated in his efforts by American Occupation Forces in Germany who forbid it. The veteran's organization retained as one of its purposes support for the restoration of a democratic government in Hungary.
During 1947, the Americans and French permitted him to found the Anti-Bolshevik Hungarian Liberation Movement in Landshut, Germany. The movement initially called for a violent revolution in Hungary against Soviet control. It arranged for a member in exile to return to Hungary illegally and assess the situation and support for overthrow of the Communist government. What it learned was discouraging and the only hope the group held out for liberation of Hungary was Western help, which was not forthcoming. By 1950, Farkas was a leader of the reactionary, right-wing Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations was a co-ordinating center for anti-Communist émigré political organizations from Soviet and other socialist countries. The A.B.N. formation dates back to an underground conference of representatives of non-Russian peoples that took place on November 1943, near...
which openly advocated the destruction of the Soviet Union and its fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
ists.
Conviction and restoration
When World War II ended and for several years afterward, the Communist government organized and encouraged the arrest and execution of those they blamed for the deprivations the war visited upon the Hungarian population. These arrests and prosecutions were in many instances politically motivated and the legal process was later found to lack the minimum requirements for legal action.Farkas was convicted in absentia by the Budapest High Court of the Hungarian Communist government on March 30, 1950 and was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment. He visited the United States and Canada during 1955 and met with Hungarian Scouts in exile. In 1962, he was named General Captain (Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
: Fõkapitány) of The Knightly Order of Vitéz
Vitéz
Vitéz, or Order of Vitéz was a Hungarian order of merit which was founded in 1678. It was awarded as a state honour during two periods of Hungarian history...
, a role in which he continued to serve through 1977. He also continued his involvement with Scouting both locally and internationally, serving as Chief Scout of Hungary for the Hungarian Scout Association Abroad
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Külföldi Magyar Cserkészszövetség is a Scouts-in-Exile organization created for youth of Hungarian descent. Scouting makes it possible for the young men and women to learn more about their Hungarian heritage, language and culture...
. He died in Arnstorf
Arnstorf
Arnstorf is a municipality in the district of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria in Germany....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on April 14, 1980.
In late 1998, the Hungarian Republic Supreme Court found serious legal and procedural errors in his original 1950 trial and on December 7, 1998 rescinded the sentence, nullifying its results. On September 15, 2006, the Hungarian Defence Ministry's Rehabilitation Committee fully reinstated his military rank and overturned his conviction posthumously.
Additional reading
- A Tatárhágó Visszanéz (The Tartar Pass Looks Back) Farkas Ferenc, Kárpát: Buenos Aires, 1952 (196 p.) (Hunagarian)
- v. k. Farkas Ferenc (Hungarian)
- Az Altöttingi Országgyûlés Története (The History of the Altötting Parliament) Farkas Ferenc, (Hungarian)