Many Hungarian people and their government deeply resented the Allied powers, and this resentment was compounded when Hungary suffered during the global Great Depression. They relied heavily on 1930s Germany and Italy to help them get out of this economic depression. To get the Kingdom of Hungary’s ally with them, Nazi Germany promised that they would right the territorial wrongs of the Treaty of Trianon, and Hungarians liked the sound of that. This all worked together to ally Hungary formally with Germany in the late 1930s, and Hungary became the fourth World War II Axis power in 1940.
Hungary has a very complicated relationship with remembering their part in history, especially the contentious and complicated history of World War I, World War II and the Holocaust. There is a bad habit that Hungary has fallen into where, because they were occupied or allied with the “aggressors” of these conflicts, they believe they were an unwilling participant. Therefore, they feel that they bear little to no real responsibility for these conflicts or atrocities.
Let us investigate some of these instances where the official Hungarian narrative is presented with rose-colored glasses:
In World War I, there is a feeling that the Austrians and the Habsburgs were the main aggressors, and Hungary was dragged along behind them. However, the Prime Minister of Hungary was willing to fall in line with the Habsburg Empire and sign off on the invasion of Serbia as soon as their allies promised they would not be saddled with unwanted land burdens.
