Second Vienna Award Decision – August 30, 1940
Szöveg: hungariandefence.com | 2011. augusztus 30. 7:08Seventy one years ago, on August 30, 1940, the Arbitral Tribunal sitting in Vienna awarded more than forty thousand sqare kilometers of territory to Hungary. Thanks to the so called Second Viennese Decision our Homeland was the first to join the German-Italian-Japanese Three-Power-Pact. We commemorate the historic event by excerpting from the publication of Zrínyi Média entitled „For the Homeland Unto Death’ – 1100 Years”, which is available in our Digital Library.
In spring 1940, the war became European.
After the French surrender, the Soviet
Union demanded (the return of) territories from
Romania in a note sent on 26 June. Romania
complied. The Council of Ministers announced
on 27 June that it would force Romania’s
compliance with its territorial demands and for
the first time since 1919 ordered full mobilisation,
even for army units at which it had not been
ordered before. The Hungarian–Romanian negotiations
ordered under pressure from Hitler
came to an end without result on 24 August.
The Romanian government requested German–Italian arbitration on the 27th, and the Hungarian
government gave its consent on the 28th.
The tribunal which sat in Vienna on 30 August
1940 awarded to Hungary an area of 43,104 km2
and 2,633,000 inhabitants, 51.4% of which were
Hungarian and 42% Romanian. The Honvédség
took occupation of Transylvania without a
fight, apart from two minor incidents. After the
Second Vienna Decision, Hungary made a severe
concession: on 20 November 1940 it became the
first to join the three-power German–Italian–Japanese agreement.
Of all its neighbours, it was with Yugoslavia
that Hungary had built up the best relations. The
Axis powers also supported their rapprochement:
Budapest could act as a bridge to Belgrade. On
12 December 1940, the two countries signed a
treaty of friendship. Yugoslavia joined the Three
Powers Treaty on 25 March 1941.
Belgrade. Hitler ordered an attack on Yugoslavia
the same evening, and in a message to Horthy
recognised Hungarian territorial demands and
requested his consent to the transit of German
forces and the involvement of the Honvédség
in the manoeuvres. Following Horthy’s positive
response, a decision was made on the 28th that the
Honvédség would not cross the historical border
of Hungary.
In Budapest, on 28–30 March, Lt.-Gen.
Paulus, Chief Quartermaster of the Wehrmacht,
and Infantry General Henrik Werth, Chief
of the Honvéd General Staff, held talks on
the deployment of Hungarian troops. On the
31st, Foreign Minister László Bárdossy pledged
Hungary’s support for Croatian separatists.
On 2 April, London warned that it would break
diplomatic relations if Hungary let the German
forces through, and declare war if the Honvédség
joined the attack. The Prime Minister, Pál Teleki,
faced with the collapse of his life’s work, peaceful
revision, took his own life. The Regent appointed
Bárdossy Prime Minister on 3 April. Mobilisation
was ordered on 4 April.
As part of the “Balkans Campaign" from 6 April
to 2 June 1941, the German 2nd Army attacked
from Hungary on the 8th. The Hungarian forces
only moved in on the 11th (even though Yugoslav
aircraft bombed Hungarian towns on the 7th),
and after Croatia declared its independence the
day before, Budapest regarded Yugoslavia as no
longer existing.
The Hungarian 3rd Army completed its recapture
of the southern counties on the evening
of the 14th. By German request, the rapid-deployment
corps (consisting of tank, mobile infantry,
bicycle and mounted formations) invaded Serbia
on the 16th. On the 19th it halted when ceasefire
talks started, and then withdrew from Serbia
on the 23rd. It was the first time since 1918
that Hungarian forces had executed a military
operation outside Hungary’s historical borders.
Hungary regained an area of 11,417 km2.
36.6% of the 1,025,508 people who lived there
were Hungarian, and 16% Serbian. Parliament
restored the divisions of the southern counties on
31 Dec. 1941. On 7 April, the British government
broke off diplomatic relations with Hungary.
On 5-6 January 1942, Hungarian security
forces drove off a Serbian partisan squad
and killed several Serbian civilians. The raids
continued on 20 January in the city of Novy Sad
and came to an end on the evening of the 23rd on
the order of General Ferenc Szombathelyi, Chief
of the Honvéd General Staff, when he heard
of the killings. The army and gendarme officers
held responsible for the atrocities were brought
before a court in December 1943, but several
of them escaped to German-held territory. The
court sentenced the accused who remained in
Hungary to 5-15 years’ imprisonment. After the
war, some of those responsible were arrested
again in Hungary under the charge of war crimes,
and several of them were extradited to Yugoslavia
on 10 July 1946. At the trial held in Novy Sad,
all principal defendants were sentenced to death.
According to contemporary Hungarian figures,
3340 people were killed in the atrocities,
comprising 2550 Serbs, 743 Jews, 11 Hungarians,
and 36 others. As a reprisal for the Novy Sad
raids, under a decree by Tito on 17 October 1944,
severe reprisals were taken out against Hungarian
residents of the South. Some estimates put the
number of Hungarian victims of the 1944-45
reprisals at several thousand, while other estimates
put this number at several tens of thousands.
