Dr. Béla Király (14 April 1912 – 4 July 2009) was a Hungarian army officer before, during, and after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the war, he was sentenced to life in prison under the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
-allied regime, but was later released. After his release, he commanded the National Guard in the
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
. He then fled to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, where he became an academic historian. He returned to Hungary after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and was elected a member of
Hungarian Parliament
The National Assembly ( hu, Országgyűlés, lit=Country Assembly) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-propo ...
.
Early life
He was born in
Kaposvár
Kaposvár (; also known by other alternative names) is a city with county rights in the southwestern part of Hungary, south of Lake Balaton. It is one of the leading cities of Transdanubia, the capital of Somogy County, and the seat of the Kaposvá ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, the son of a station master. As a youth he bred
pigeons
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
, a lifelong interest. His ambition to be a veterinary surgeon foundered because his family could not afford the fees.
Color blindness
Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to color vision, see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may ...
barred his employment by the railroad. In 1930, military service became compulsory - two years for conscripts but only one year for volunteers. He joined the army, found it interesting, finished the Ludovika Military Academy in the top 5% of his class, and was commissioned a second lieutenant 20 August 1935. As a student at the General Staff Academy he was promoted to
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
in December 1942.
World War II and postwar imprisonment
Hungary joined the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
and declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941. Király saw combat on the eastern front and was twice wounded. In 1943 he commanded 400 men guarding a Jewish
labor battalion
Labour battalions have been a form of alternative service or unfree labour in various countries in lieu of or resembling regular military service. In some cases they were the result of some kind of discriminative segregation of the population, wh ...
in the
Don River
The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its ...
valley. Contrary to orders, he provided them with warm clothing, decent food, and medical attention. In 1993,
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
named him one of the "
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...
", recognizing his humane treatment of the Jewish prisoners.
In March 1945 Király commanded the defense of Kőszeg. Upon surrendering the city to the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
, he was arrested and sent to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
as a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
. He returned home following the
Paris Peace Treaties
The Paris Peace Treaties (french: Traités de Paris) were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945.
The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers (princi ...
, and joined the
Hungarian Communist Party
The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...
and the new
Hungarian People's Army
The Hungarian People's Army ( hu, Magyar Néphadsereg) or the HPA was the military of the Hungarian People's Republic and the armed branch of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1951 to 1990. It only saw combat in a foreign country once du ...
.
Communist officials warned him against his 1947 marriage to the widowed niece of
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
former prime minister
Gyula Gömbös
Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa (26 December 1886 – 6 October 1936) was a Hungarian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1 October 1932 to his death.
Background
Gömbös was born in Murga, Tolna County, Kingdo ...
, who was, for much of his career,
anti-semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. He expected to be sacked when General György Pálffy summoned him, but instead was appointed to command the Training Department. He was promoted to general in 1950, and later to the rank of major general. In 1950, he was put in command of the
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
. He was expected to command the Hungarian component of a planned Soviet invasion of
Tito–Stalin Split
The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
.
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
ceased the operation, however, discouraged by the success of American intervention in the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. According to Király, the situation in Korea "nipped Stalin's pet project in the bud".
In 1951, the
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian regime arrested him on charges of subversion, sedition, and espionage. He was sentenced on January 15, 1952 to death by hanging. His wife was detained by the ÁVH from August 1951 until August 1953. She divorced him in 1955. He then learned that his sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment at hard labor. In September 1956 the government of
Ernő Gerő
Ernő Gerő (; born Ernő Singer; 8 July 1898 – 12 March 1980) was a Hungarian Communist leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as the second secretary of its ruling communist party.
Ear ...
paroled him along with other prisoners, a measure intended to soften public unrest.
Role in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
The
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
began shortly after his release from prison. He was ill and recovering from surgery, but he escaped the hospital to join the Hungarian revolutionaries and accept appointment as commander-in-chief of the military guard and military commander of Budapest against the Soviets.
Violence broke out in Budapest on October 23, 1956. Soviet troops, unprepared for the strength of the revolutionary forces, arranged a ceasefire on October 28, and began to retreat from the city. The violence subsisted, however, as pro-Nagy communists and various nationalist factions engineered purges of pro-Soviet party members in the city. Király, sensing a chaotic fragmentation of the revolutionary forces, sought to unite various anti-Soviet factions into a National Guard. On October 30, 1956, Király-led revolutionaries attacked the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The revolutionaries detained dozens of suspected pro-Soviets, executing many on the spot. Similar purges continued throughout the city.
In spite of the continued violence directed against pro-Soviet communists, Soviet correspondent
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...
advised against a Soviet invasion, wishing for the Hungarian communists to suppress the "counter-revolution" themselves. This inaction led many pro-Soviets to question their loyalties. As
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
lost confidence in the ability of the Hungarian communists the suppress the uprising, he directed the Soviet army to invade Budapest on November 4.
Király recognized his forces, loyal to Nagy, had no hope of victory over the Soviet army. However, he resented Soviet ambassador
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
's concealing of the imminent invasion, which
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
had officially decided upon 3 days prior.
After the Soviets successfully suppressed the revolution, Király fled to the United States through Austria to avoid capture. He was, however, sentenced to death ''
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in absen ...
'' back in the Soviet Union (a fate which other revolutionary leaders like Nagy did not escape).
Time in the United States
Király was well regarded in the United States, as the U.S. had been supportive of the Nagy-led government to which Király had been loyal. He arrived speaking good English, having taught himself through an English-Hungarian dictionary while in prison. He enrolled in
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
earned a Master's degree in history in 1959, and a Ph.D. in 1966. His doctoral dissertation topic was "1790: Society in Royal Hungary," and was later revised and published as ''Hungary in the Late Eighteenth Century: The Decline of Enlightened Despotism'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). The supervisor for his dissertation was Robert A. Kann, an Austrian-born historian at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
who spent several years as a visiting professor at Columbia.Winters, Stanley B. "The Forging of a Historian: Robert A. Kann in America, 1939-1976," ''Austrian History Yearbook'' 17 (Jan. 1981): 3-24. Király dedicated his second book, ''Ferenc Deák'' (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1975), to Kann, and also contributed to a Festschrift for Kann: ''Intellectual and Social Developments in the Habsburg Empire from Maria Theresa to World War I: Essays Dedicated to Robert A. Kann'', ed. Stanley B. Winters and Joseph Held (Boulder: East European quarterly; distributed by Columbia University Press, 1975). From 1964 he taught Military History at
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
, and became chairman of the history department. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1982. During his tenure he served as director of the Society In Change Program on East Central Europe, supervised Brooklyn College Press (the College's Publishing House), and was an adviser to the Brooklyn College Military History Club. The Brooklyn College Bela K. Kiraly Award, awarded to undergraduate students for outstanding work in modern history, bears his name.
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy (; 7 June 1896 – 16 June 1958) was a Hungarian communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (''de facto'' Prime Minister) of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 Nagy became leader ...
's funeral and re-interment, June 1989. He moved back to Hungary later that year, and was elected to the
Hungarian National Assembly
The National Assembly ( hu, Országgyűlés, lit=Country Assembly) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proporti ...
, representing his birthplace Kaposvár. He served from May–November 1990 as an independent deputy, then joined the
Alliance of Free Democrats
The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party ( hu, Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége – a Magyar Liberális Párt, SZDSZ) was a liberal political party in Hungary.
The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ...
(SZDSZ) parliamentary group, later assuming the role of a government adviser. In 2004, he was made an associate member of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
.
Király died in his sleep in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
on 4 July 2009, aged 97.
Selected works
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* distributed by Columbia University Press
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* distributed by Columbia University Press
* distributed by Columbia University Press
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* Distributed by
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...