Döme Sztójay
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Döme Sztójay (January 5, 1883–August 22, 1946) was a Hungarian soldier and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Hungary during World War II.
Born in Versec, now it is called as Vršac, Sztójay joined the Austro-Hungarian Army as a young man and served as a colonel during World War I. After the war, Sztójay served in Admiral Miklós Horthy’s counter-revolutionary army, specializing in counter-espionage. After Horthy became Regent of Hungary, Sztójay was promoted to general and served as a military attaché in Berlin from 1925 to 1933. From 1933 to 1935, Sztójay served in the Ministry of Defence. In 1935, Sztójay was named Gyula Gömbös’s Ambassador to Germany, a position he would hold until 1944. As ambassador, Sztójay formed strong ties with the German foreign ministry due to his pro-German, pro-fascist views. During his tenure as ambassador, Sztójay often voiced support for German policies to his superiors in Hungary. In March of 1944, the German Army occupied Hungary and removed Prime Minister Miklós Kállay from office. The Germans then forced Miklós Horthy to choose a new prime minister. The German Plenipotentiary for Hungary, Edmund Veesenmayer, proposed that Béla Imrédy be made prime minister, but Horthy balked at the idea and suggested Sztójay. Horthy believed that Sztójay, a soldier of Hungary, would not totally give in to German demands. The Germans readily approved of Horthy’s choice, and on March 23, 1944, Sztójay was appointed Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
As prime minister, Sztójay was essentially a puppet of the Third Reich. He stacked his cabinet with fascists such as Béla Imrédy, legalized Ferenc Szálasi’s fascist Arrow Cross Party, increased Hungarian troop levels on the Eastern Front, dissolved the nation’s labor unions, jailed political opponents, and cracked down on left wing politicians and activists. Sztójay refused to accept Horthy's authority and carried out massive persecutions of Jews, which within two months escalated to deportations of Jews to concentration camps. Horthy quickly became appalled by Sztójay’s actions and demanded his removal as prime minister, but Adolf Hitler sternly refused to implement any such course of action. Horthy refused to give in entirely, however, and used his influence to stop the deportations of Hungary’s Jews and to force Bela Imrédy out of Sztójay’s cabinet. The Germans finally submitted to Horthy’s pressure in August of 1944 and Sztójay was removed as prime minister. When Horthy was removed from power by the Germans in October of 1944, Sztójay was not reappointed prime minister. Sztójay subsequently fled Hungary when the Germans were driven out of the country by the Soviet army in April of 1945. Sztójay was later captured by American troops and extradited to Hungary in October of 1945, after which time he was tried by a Communist People’s Tribunal in Budapest. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against the Hungarian people, sentenced to death, and executed by a firing squad in Budapest in 1946.
| Preceded by: Miklós Kállay |
Prime Minister of Hungary 1944 |
Succeeded by: Géza Lakatos |
