The Embassy of Hungary in Washington DC recently hosted a Gala Anniversary event of the American Hungarian Federation (AHF). The new Ambassador László Szabó greeted the organization and gave an uplifting speech. Managing to hit an optimistic tone Ambassador Szabó emphasized the “very positive” nature of the relations between Hungary and the US.
Péter Szilágyi, Deputy State Secretary for Hungarian Communities Abroad presented a commendation from the Office of the Prime Minister signed by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and State Secretary János Árpád Potápi. The guests enjoyed a fabulous dinner prepared by the Embassy’s chef.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of the service awards. One of the posthumous awards was given to the late Dr. István Kun-Szabó and it was accepted by his son Vt. István Kun-Szabó.
Vt. István Kun-Szabó wearing the Vitézi Rend insignia at the Embassy in Washington DC.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Vt. abbreviation, it stands for Vitézi Rend and it indicates that Mr. István Kun-Szabó is a member of the organization founded by pro-Hitler ruler of Hungary, Miklós Horthy. Vt. Kun-Szabó went up to the podium wearing a traditional Hungarian ceremonial jacket, called Bocskai, proudly displaying an insignia, that is a nostalgic reminder of Horthy’s Hungarian-style fascism.
Just a couple of months ago Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s counterterrorism adviser, wore the very same insignia in Washington DC. The Vitézi Rend is “a group with alleged historical links to Nazi Germany” and András Heisler, the Hungarian vice-president of the New York-based World Jewish Congress, said that wearing the medal “isn’t a good message for a democratic society.” U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) asked the Department of Homeland Security to check Mr. Gorka’s immigration records for failing to disclose his membership in a Hungarian neo-Nazi organization and leaders of the Order have identified Mr. Gorka as a member who took a “lifelong oath of loyalty.” Mr. Gorka lost his White House job; President Trump removed him.
Sebastian Gorka is wearing the medal at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration.
It seems that Vt. Kun-Szabó, Ambassador Szabó and the other guests had not heard about the controversy over Mr. Gorka’s allegiances. Nobody protested. Never in the history of US-Hungarian relations have guests paraded this insignia at the Embassy. This is something new and appalling.
Of course Vt. Kun-Szabó may wear his Vitézi Rend medal as he wishes in private settings, and AHF might have other associates who are proud members of this pro-Horthy organization. That is their business. My issue is with the Embassy and Ambassador Szabó. The Horthy medal is symbolic and displaying it at an official event in the US is an insult to every American, among them Hungarian Americans. During World War II thousands of Hungarian Americans, Catholics, Protestants and Jews fought against fascism in the US army. Please, don’t insult their memory.
Vitézi Rend swearing in ceremony in the US. (US, Hungarian flags and Horthy’s picture on the wall).
Not too far from the Embassy is the US Holocaust Museum. Last year they issued a statement to condemn “any attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Hungary’s wartime leader, Miklós Horthy, who was a vocal anti-Semite and complicit in the murder of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust.”
I call on Ambassador Szabó to issue an apology. Americans and the overwhelming majority of Hungarian Americans reject the Orbán government’s attempts to export the Horthy-cult from Budapest to the US.
I’m sure that the Embassy welcomes your opinion and I encourage our readers to express their views. You may write directly to Ambassador Szabó email: ambassador.was@mfa.gov.hu or to Press and Public Affairs Officer, Mr. Béla Gedeon at bgedeon@mfa.gov.hu
György Lázár
Gyorgy thank you for being a decent man with integrity and a spine!
I detest Gorka and cannot understand how my fellow Jews allow this two faced kutya in President Trump’s vicinity!
Apologies are not enough from Horthy sympathizers! A two by four over their heads would suffice!
My father a Hungarian survivor never stopped voicing his hatred for Horthy! He would detest the Gurkin pickle also!
Again with the leftist hypocrisy of claiming
the so called moral high ground of
tolerance and inclusion , while trying to
blacklist a person for admiring Adolf Hitler.
The hypocrites of the left in reality only want
tolerance and inclusion of ideologies and
views they agree with. Very much like the
People they oppose, the Neo National
Socialists.
The two by four over the head by Tilly (above)
Demonstrate the violent intolerance and
Exclusionary views of the left.
Mr Lázár, you are very naive and ignorant about the history and meaning of Vitézi Rend or you are one of the examples of “fake news” promoters. I guess it is the latter or even both.
It is a clear falsification of history by you for ideological and political reasons. You know Admiral Horthy wasn’t a fascist and also his “movement” Vitézi Rend wasn’t. Not even close! He was a conservative in the meaning of the period like many others around Europe who didn’t like Hitler or NS. Horthy was well known for his disgust for Hitler and National Socialism and Fascism.
You know the true reasons why Miklós Horthy made an alliance with NS Germany. I agree it was a mistake. His huge fear of communism with Béla Kun’s shortlived communist reign over Hungary (1919) and Stalin’s USSR aggressive policies in the 1930s in the back of his mind and the criminal treaty of Trianon (1920) which resulted in the loss of two-thirds of Hungarian territory and because of it many Hungarians were disconnected from the motherland and put under foreign rule. (You know what this meant for them till this day Mr Lázár)
Admiral Horthy saw Hitler as the lesser of two evils with the knowledge he had at that time in history.
It is so easy to judge his choices with the knowledge we have now. History must be analyzed in the framework of the time period it took place.
“A Vitézi Rend soha nem volt szélsőséges, vagy fasiszta szervezet. “Az Országos Vitézi Szék visszavonhatatlanul és határozottan megtiltja a Rend tagjainak, hogy a szélsőséges mozgalmakban bármely néven nevezendő módon részt vegyenek. Akik e rendelkezéseknek alávetni nem tudják magukat, vonják le a magatartásuk konzekvenciáját és lépjenek ki a Rendből. Ellenkező esetben fegyelmi úton távolíttatnak el.” (Vitézek Lapja – 1938. július 11.)”
Vt. Kun-Szabó wearing his Vitézi Rend medal at the Hungarian Embassy is not an insult to Americans or Jews as you claim, because what you mentioned in your article is a falsification of historical facts of Vitézi Rend and Miklós Horthy.
It is an insult to us Hungarians that people like yourself (also a Hungarian) keep lying about the true nature of Vitéz Rend and the true intentions of its founder.
In view of the Orban regime’s policies, rhetoric (incl. those of Bayer, Schmidt, Szakàly and their organizations), the recent Stop Soros bills, etc the old saying comes to mind: if it looks like a fascist, if it talks like a fascist, if it acts like a fascist it probably is a fascist (person and regime).
Here we go again. The Vitezi Rend was not a Naci organization and Horthy was not Naci.
This very subject was chewed and digested here a few months ago.
There is NO “vitezi rend” today by any definition.
It was ended legally decades ago.
Gorka is a native born British subject. Not Hungarian, and of Polish decent.
His parents were Hungarian born. Period.
Sebestian Gorka, not his father has ever received any such awards ! But can find them and all kinds of medals on most flee-markets.
There is nothing else that can be added to this story.
This is a recycled story, a kind of BS !
>For those of you who are not familiar with the Vt. abbreviation, it stands for Vitézi Rend and it indicates that Mr. István Kun-Szabó is a member of the organization founded by pro-Hitler ruler of Hungary, Miklós Horthy. Vt. Kun-Szabó went up to the podium wearing a traditional Hungarian ceremonial jacket, called Bocskai, proudly displaying an insignia, that is a nostalgic reminder of Horthy’s Hungarian-style fascism.
Again the ultra-stupid declaration of ultra-left Mr. György Lázár. Horthy was not a fascist, and he was not a pro-Hitler though had no choice but to formally join Germany in war . Horthy saved near quarter million of the Budapest Jews who with their descendants would probably count for a million today. These lefties cannot forgive him suppression of Bela Kun and general anti-communism and anti-Stalinism, though there was no bloodier movement in the wold than communism.
Sebastian Gorka toiled very hard in Hungary between 1993-2008 to pave the way for autocratic rule in Hungary. He formed an extremist party in 2007 with some of Hungary’s lunatic new-fascists, and then emigrated to the US, married a multimillionaire heiress with close ties to Rebekkah Mercer, got on the Breitbart, alt-right bandwagon, and thanks to Mercer’s massive campaign donations, ended in the White House. to help the Donald make America great again (sick).
There is a straight line between members of the Hungarian Order of Vitéz, (which was created expressly to keep “Hungarian blood pure” and to “keep the Jews out”, the white supremacists that marched in Charlottesville and were excused by Trump, and the current Hungarian government, represented in Washington by Mr. Szabó, the new Hungarian ambassador.
The only reason why the current Hungarian autocrat has not been invited to the White House, why he is being forced to cool his heels in Budapest for a while is, that he is in double jeopardy. He is not only busy restoring glory to Hungary’s pro-Nazi ruler, the man who sent 460,000 Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz, but is also in bed with Vladimir Putin, serving ably as the Russian dictator’s Trojan Horse in the Western alliance. With such credentials, Orbán is a liability rather than an asset to Mr. Trump during the Congressional investigations.
The Orbán government expended great effort along with the Russians, to help the Donald defeat Hillary Clinton. J.D. Gordon, the deputy head of the Trump campaign’s Foreign Policy and National Security Team – he was in fact the operational head of the group under Jeff Session – went immediately to Hungary after Trump’s win, to reassure the Orbán government of the love Mr. Trump will shower upon the Hungarian autocrat once he is installed in office. Carter Page’s own mysterious visit to Hungary during the campaign, which was arranged through the Hungarian embassy in Washington, is yet another sign of this. (Page was unable to remember any of his contacts in Budapest, when grilled about this by Senator Adam Schiff, during his Congressional hearing.)
Mr. Lazar’s piece is an important piece in this puzzle. Congratulations for the heads up. Pity, mainstream US media is more interested in whose hand strayed to someone’s private part, than in the disturbing interplay between Hungary’s neo-fascist, pro-Putin government, and the Trump campaign.
The “Vitezi rend” was established as a reward for military heroism in WWI.
It was ended by law in 1945.
All else is B.S.
Bende
Then you’ll be surprised how many BS knights of the VtR are being minted innHun today, many of them new little fascists, eg A. Bencsik in picture:
https://index.hu/belfold/2012/09/22/maga_zoltan_horthy_miklos_viteze_lett/
A two b for four for these rabid Nylas fascists is too kind!
You’re all jumping to Lynch the writers as opposers of these goons!
Soon the fact that Horthy’s Arrow cross chained men and women and children so they would not “waste” bullets on killing them will try to be “fake ” news! –
This Hungarian ambassador is a dirtbag.
I dare all these Jew haters to dive into the Danube where thousands and thousands of Jews were thrown in January 1944 – did Horthy interfere?
Scumbags- all – and this fake eliezer show your true colors already – you are not of Jewish background unless you are George’s son or brother
For those of you who are not familiar with the Vt. abbreviation, it stands for Vitézi Rend, an honourable organisation committed to wipe out communism and left wing extremism.
Navracsics and then Szijjarto gutted and purged Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All diplomats who remain today are collaborators with a dictatorial and fascistic regime. By definition, this makes them vile, festering, oozing scum of the earth.
@Tilly
Soon the fact that Horthy’s Arrow cross chained men and women and children so they would not “waste” bullets on killing them will try to be “fake ” news! –
Yes, it is fake news, because Horthy was NOT the leader of the Arrow Cross party. It was Ferenc Szálasi.
Please brush up on your history.
Dear Mr. Lazar and other ignorant left wingnuts!
You may want to brush up on your history, instead of just making it up. Adm. Horthy lived his last years in Portugal in the home of a jewish family. Why? Because he stationed two battalions in front of the jewish ghetto to try protect them from the Nazi’s. Obviously, the Hungarian army did not have a chance against a far stronger military. Adm. Horthy was neither a facist nor a Nazi, he was a ‘real’ Hungarian, who tried to the best of his abilities to protect his country and it’s citizenry.
Your ridiculous insults and accusations on anti-antisemitism are ridiculous, unwarranted and flat out fake. It is uneducated, communist like you that spread hatred and bigotry.
If you and your cohorts had any class (which I doubt any of you have), you would apologize to the organization that you accused as well as to any surviving members of the Horthy family for your unwarranted, inaccurate, and dubious insults.
Norbert, both were murderers – and you are a sympathizer… ( would have made you an enabler if you were around then)
All: willing executioners!
We are on this article to send a clear and sure message to this ignorant out dated Istvan kun that his Nazi pin belongs in: a toilet, or at the Holocaust Museum not far from the Magyar embassy in DC (with Nazi memorabilia), or at the entrance of the ghetto in Budapest – again to show the Hungarians participation.
Not in the free USA!!!!
@Tilly
I am a sympathizer because I dared to point out your historical inaccuracy in your statement? At least if you get involved in a debate, first check your historical facts.
People like you are the ones who are constantly falsefying historical facts and trying to pass them off as real facts. Thus, educating others who don’t know Horthy and the rest of the Hungarian history. No wonder I read so much rubbish in Western newspapers about Hungary, it’s because of people like you feeding Western journalists with fake history.
By the way, you may want to check how many Hungarians were murdered by the ÁVH and the rest of the socalist mob in power for 60 years. This is why my family had to defect from Hungary in the 1980’s.
Also, no one on the right or the left in Hungarian politics, actually has the right to call out the other, about which form of governments were murderers. Both sets of governments were equally guilty of murdering it’s population. All those people should be trialled for crimes against humanity, including many MSZP leaders left over from the socialist era.
People like Horthy and Szálasi were dealt with after the war, but what about the murdering socialists? They are still running around in Hungary.
Norbert
“How many Hungarians were murdered by the ÀVH…” indeed?
Less than the number worked/ force marched to death in Horthy time’s Labor Service or murdered by the Arrow Cross regime.
While the
ÀVH victims count in the THOUSANDS the
Holocaust victims count HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.
Horthy’s army killed 3200 in Sobotka, thousands of civilians in the Ukraine, not to count Horthy’s white terror victims in the 1920s.
You wanted facts, here u are, my little fascist.
I would like to very briefly reflect on the comment of the ignorant, anti-Semitic, pro-Orbán troll, Bendegúz, who is a regular pollutant of intelligent discourse on these pages (why he is allowed to do so is a mystery to me, masochism is not a good excuse, nor is freedom of speech.)
He writes the following, in his disgusting defense of the Orbán regime’s effort to whitewash the crimes of those who murdered the Jews in Hungary, and fought to save Hitler’s during WWII:
“The “Vitezi rend” was established as a reward for military heroism in WWI. It was ended by law in 1945. All else is B.S.”
The facts are these, and I challenge him and any of the other Horthy worshipers who are congregating here, to refute them with facts, rather than fancy:
1. According to Admiral Horthy, who sent 460,000 of Hungary’s Jews to Auschwitz in the space of 55 days in 1944, “I was always an anti-Semite. But I am also a realist. We should eliminate the Jews in stages. Hungary’s standard of living will be seriously harmed by a sudden cross country liquidation.” (Erzsébet Strassenreiter. The Secret Papers of Admiral Horthy. Budapest. Kossuth Publishers. 1962. Pages 260–261. In Hungarian.) This is why Horthy authorized the extermination of the rural Jewery first. The ones in Budapest would have fallen suit – but for the Allies, who liberate Budapest.
2. As for the Order of Vitéz, it was outlawed in Hungary after the country was liberated by the Allies, and for eminently good reasons, as I shall show. The Order was kept alive in the West until the present day, by the former Nazi Officers, and Horthy-supporters, who retreated towards Berlin, as they fought the Advancing Allies from the East during the last months of WWII. There are still active chapters of this racially driven, white supremacist Order in the US, Canada, and elsewhere, to this date. In Hungary, the Order was rejuvenated after 1990, and has knighted not only Sebastian Gorka, but hundreds of others who are well known Nazi sympathizers in Hungary. Here are the words from the founder of the Order, Admiral Horthy, why he created this group, whose emblem Mr. Gorka proudly wears on his chest: “I created the Order of Vitéz first and foremost, to protect the racial purity of Hungary. Racial and family origins and healthy blood, these are to be the primary criteria for membership in the Order. Not even the most decorated or heroic Jew must be admitted into the Order” (See: “Horthy’s letter to his Foreign Minister, Count Pál Teleki” in Erzsébet Strassenreiter. „The Order of Vitéz: Horthy’s Loyal Soldiers”. Népszava. Weekend supplement. 2012. 2008. October 31.)
All of the above has been corroborated by hundreds of other scholars over the years, among whom is the most distinguished one – Randolph L. Braham. His two volume study in English should be a must read for those who still think Horthy and the Order of Vitéz is kosher. (The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (3rd edition). New York. Barnes and Noble, 2016.) Professor Braham, along with the late Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiezel returned all their decorations, given to them by the state of Hungary, in protest of the Orbán government’s efforts to re-write history, and to glorify those who caused the death of 100 million people in a senseless war in the middle of the 20th century.
As for Bendegúz79 ? He should be retired to a pig farm, and fed acorns rather factual information that he is incapable of digesting.
Horthy was a man of the XIX century, that he grew u[p in.
As head of state, he made a huge error, but he followed what he knew, as was influenced by his time.
But he was never pro-german, nor nazi.
He dispised Hitler personally. Find and read the text of his last meeting with Hitler in Saltzburg while he was kept until operation Margaret was carried out by the SS.
Horthy was a war criminal. Someone who aids and abets the murder of nearly 1/2 million people and than spares a few is still a criminal. He should have been hanged with Szálasi.
Those who wear the Vitézi Rend signal their membership in a vile and bigoted club. They have no place in the Hungarian Embassy in the US.
Horthy and Antonescu of Romania two goons.
What Jewish family gave Horthy hospitality in Portugal??
That could only be a George Porgy related one… if there even was such a family..
Just why one is not allowed to respond to some one’s comment when specifically names one by it?
Is that considered “free press” ?
Or just a one side propaganda media?
@ Tilly
I hate to disappoint you but Jews are also people. There are thieves, criminals in Israel as well, and a vast range of political perspectives on the Left and Right of the ideological divide. Natenyahu is supported by many Jews and reviled by almost as many. Tens of thousands of Hassidic Jews, living in New York City, the Jews of Szatmár, whose rabbi fled to the US on Kastner’s Train, to this day do not recognize the State of Israel. As for Horthy, he was indeed on friendly terms with the wealthiest Jewish families in Hungary, who received favours from the Regent in return for their acquiescence in his crimes against humanity. Instead of going to the showers at Auschwitz, they could cash in, and leave for safety in the West. They did not flinch in their patronage even when their benefactor sent hundreds of thousands of their people to the furnaces of Auschwitz. We are human – it is a fallacy to think of any of us as angels. (I’m the only exception that proves the rule 🙂 🙂 )