The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

and the establishment of quotas for Jewish entry into colleges and universities. 188 Kálmán
Darányi, the pro-German Prime Minister, enacted measures aimed at excluding Jews
from the national economy and cultural and social life while depriving them of
Hungarian citizenship. The Prime Minister believed that Jews held a “strangle hold” over
the nation and a solution to this problem was urgently needed in order to provide
employment for “Christian youth” while guaranteeing that the “sons of Hungarian
peasantry” would have the opportunity for the “betterment of their social standing.” The
Government announced in January 1938 that Jews living within the northeast provinces
who could not prove Magyar descent from 1851 onwards would be denaturalized.
Following the Polish model, the Government negated the citizenship of Jews living
abroad. During February Finance Minister Fabinyi called for an end of Jewish
predominance in the trades. It was time, he believed, for the “Christian Hungarian
population…to conquer the positions” it voluntarily relinquished over many years. One
month later the Minister of Education, Valentin Homan, declared that Jews could not be
assimilated into the body politic due to their membership in a different “race.” In April,
Justice Minister Edmund von Micecz announced that Jewish interests were “diametrically
opposed” to Hungarian national interests. As in Germany anti-Jewish riots took place
and police raids were made into Jewish quarters and random arrests were made. The
post-war nationalist Union of Hungarian Protectors of Race was established in May 1938
led by the “White Terrorist” Ivan Hejjas who believed that the Jewish Question would
188 Minority rights in Hungary had been guaranteed by the Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920.
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