In 1944, the epicenter of the Jewish tragedy passed to Hungary. In this country, despite the enactment of severe anti-Semitic laws earlier, the Jews enjoyed relative safety beyond Nazi control. The Hungarian government of the Regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy, did not hand over to the Germans any of its Jews, not even the many refugees from Poland and Slovakia. Hence, the consternation of the world Jewish community when on March 23, 1944, German troops marched into Hungary on the pretext of safeguarding communications. Budapest and it environs remained under the Regent's control until October, but wholesale deportations to Auschwitz from outlying parts of the country began in mid-May. The deportations were interrupted in early June when Admiral Horthy temporarily regained control. However, the Germans arrested Horthy in October, putting control of all Hungary in the hands of the fanatical anti-Semites of the Arrow Cross movement, and the massacre of the Jews was resumed. A third stage in the German reign of horror was the deportation of the remaining Jews not to Auschwitz but for labor in Austria — a useless and heartless death march. Not until December 23, 1944, did the Eichmann Kommando leave Budapest.
The Holy See's participation in the efforts to save the Hungarian Jews relative to the tragic months of 1944 is massively documented in the pages of Volume 10, here reviewed, of the Acts and Documents of the Holy See Relative to the Second World War. The general outline of the Holy See's actions on behalf of the Jews of Hungary is already known from other sources, but the newly edited documentation chronicles with precision the day-by-day, week- by-week interventions of the Holy See and its nuncio, His Excellency Angelo Rotta, in behalf of the imperiled Jews. Those actions are notable for their coordination with the hopes and plans of the many Jewish organizations which followed with passion the unfolding of the tragedy.
As 1944 began, concern for Hungary was largely limited to the Polish Jews who had taken refuge in the country. On January 29, the Apostolic Delegate Cicognani in Washington transmitted an appeal from the World Jewish Congress, asking the Holy See to use its influence with the Hungarians to permit the Polish refugees to be aided with money sent from the United States. But the March 23 German takeover drastically altered that situation. On March 25, the Delegate Cicognani informed the Vatican that the War Refugee Board — a newly created governmental organization linking all the Jewish organizations in a common program of aid to Jews — urged the Holy See to take urgent measures to aid the nearly two million Jews of Hungary (and Romania) living under terror and persecution and now threatened with extinction. The Board, said Cicognani, urged the full cooperation of the nuncio in Budapest, Msgr. Rotta, and the Hungarian bishops. The War Refugee Board's message was immediately transmitted to Budapest. In his March 28 reply, the Cardinal Secretary of State reminded the Washington Delegate that the Holy See had been constantly alert to the problem. The nuncios in Budapest and Bucharest, he said, would be instructed to take yet further appropriate action on behalf of the Jews in those countries. He warned, however, that the chances of significant accomplishment were slim.