What the Nazi Leader Did When Hungary Tried to Quit the War

By 1944, Admiral Miklós Horthy had governed Hungary for more than two decades, and the alliance he had struck with Nazi Germany was turning into a trap. The war was going badly, the Red Army was closing on the Carpathians, and Horthy’s government had quietly begun reaching out to the Allies for a way out of a war it already knew it had lost. Hitler had known about those secret feelers for months. When Hungary finally moved to leave the Axis, his answer came twice, seven months apart, and the second time it was personal. Everything turned on the outcome, including the fate of the largest Jewish community left anywhere in Europe. This is the full story of how Hitler held on to a collapsing ally, and what that grip cost the country that tried to break away.