László Ferenczy (1898 – 31 May 1946) was a lieutenant colonel in the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie and member of its "central dejewification unit" during

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 opposing ...

and

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. Born in Felsővisó, Ferenczy served from March 1940 to July 1942 with a unit that searched for Jews who had fled to Hungary from Slovakia. After

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's invasion of Hungary in March 1944, he was appointed—on 25 March—as liaison between the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie and the German

security police Security police officers are employed by or for a governmental agency or corporations to provide security service security services to those properties. Security police protect facilities, properties, personnel, users, visitors and enforce cer ...

, which meant he worked closely with SS officer Adolf Eichmann.

Randolph Braham Randolph Lewis Braham (December 20, 1922 – November 25, 2018) was an American historian and political scientist, born in Romania, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the City College and The Graduate Center of the City Un ...

writes that Ferenczy's office was on the second floor of the Lomnic Hotel in the Svábhegy district of Budapest, near Eichmann's office in the Majestic Hotel. During the

Holocaust in Hungary The Holocaust in Hungary was the dispossession, deportation, and systematic murder of more than half of the Hungarian Jews, primarily after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. At the time of the German invasion, Hungary had a Jewis ...

in the spring and summer of 1944, Ferenczy helped to organize the deportation of over 434,000 of Hungary's Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland, where most were gassed on arrival."László Ferenczy"
Yad Vashem. When

Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( hu, Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós; ; English: Nicholas Horthy; german: Nikolaus Horthy Ritter von Nagybánya; 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957), was a Hungarian admiral and dictator who served as the regent ...

, the Hungarian regent, ordered an end to the deportations in July, Ferenczy appeared to switch sides and in August made contact with the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, which was trying to make deals with Eichmann to halt the deportations. In October, when

Ferenc Szálasi Ferenc Szálasi (; 6 January 1897 – 12 March 1946), the leader of the Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, became the "Leader of the Nation" (''Nemzetvezető'') as head of state and simultaneously prime minister of the Kingdom of Hungary' ...

, head of the pro-Nazi

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National ...

, became prime minister, Ferenczy was once again placed in charge of rounding up and deporting Jews. Ferenczy stood trial in Hungary after the war and was hanged on 31 May 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferenczy, Laszlo 1898 births 1946 deaths Blood for goods Hungarian military personnel of World War II People executed for war crimes People from Vișeu de Sus The Holocaust in Hungary Executed Hungarian collaborators with Nazi Germany