István Horthy
| István Horthy | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
István Horthy de Nagybánya September 12, 1904 |
| Died | August 20, 1942 (aged 37) |
| Title |
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Political party | Independent |
István Horthy de Nagybánya (September 12, 1904, Pula – August 20, 1942, Aleksejevka) Hungarian: Vitéz[1] nagybányai Horthy István) was Hungarian Regent Admiral Miklós Horthy's eldest son, a politician, and, during World War II, a fighter pilot.
Biography
In his youth, István Horthy and his younger brother Miklós Jr. were active members of a Catholic Scout troop of the Hungarian Scout Association (Magyar Cserkészszövetség), although he was a Protestant.[2] Horthy graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1928. He went to the United States for one year and worked in the Ford factory in Detroit, Michigan.
Returning to the Kingdom of Hungary, he worked in MÁVAG's locomotive factory in this occupation. On the forefront of the designer team, he took part in the development of many great projects, such as the Locomotive 424. Between 1934 and 1938, Horthy was the company's director, and after 1938, he became its general manager. In 1940, he married Countess Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai. He strenuously confronted Nazism, and often made his criticism public. In January 1942, his father appointed him Deputy Regent, and for some time, the "small regent" enjoyed massive popularity in Hungary. Shortly thereafter, István was sent to the Eastern Front. His humanity, and his disagreement in the "Jewish Question" appears even here, too – a quote from one of his letters, which he sent to his father from Kiev: "[...] Yet another sad topic: the Jewish companies, as I hear, -there 20 or 30 000 [men]-, are at the mercy of the sadist's passions, in every regard; the stomach of man gets ache [looking at this]; it is abhorrent, that in the 20th century, it happens at us, too... [...] I fear, we will pay for this very dearly once. (Is it possible to take them home to work there?) Otherwise, in spring, only a few will be alive. [...]"[3]
István Horthy died in Russia, shortly after his arrival.[4] He died in an unexplained airplane crash over the front in his MÁVAG Héja.
His oldest son, Sharif István Horthy, is a successful engineer. He graduated in 1962 with a degree in Physics from Oxford University. He earned a second degree in Civil Engineering at Imperial College in 1966. He worked as a consulting engineer in England and later in the Far East where he founded and managed two major Indonesian companies in the fields of consulting engineering, construction and property development. After years in Boston, in the USA, from where he assisted clients in Europe, the Pacific Rim and the United States with their international business strategies, Sharif settled in East Sussex, on the English coast.
See also
- Bruno Mussolini – Son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, also killed in an aircraft-related incident
Notes
- ↑ "Vitéz" refers to a Hungarian knightly order founded by Miklós Horthy ("Vitézi Rend"); literally, "vitéz" means "valiant".
- ↑ John S. Wilson: Scouting Round the World, first edition, London, Blandford Press, 1959, 81.
- ↑ Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai: Becsület és kötelesség, part I. Budapest, Európa press, 2001.
- ↑ Time Magazine, Monday, August 31, 1941, Milestones
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