What question did this study set out to answer?

The article examines Hungary’s conflicting policies regarding World War II and the resulting effects on the Crimes Commission.

June 5, 2026

The Legacy of the Second World War in Post-War Hungary and the Crimes Commission, 1944–6

Key Points

The article examines Hungary’s conflicting policies regarding World War II and the resulting effects on the Crimes Commission.
Analysis of documentation produced by the Budapest National Committee’s Commission to Investigate Nazi and Arrow Cross Atrocities.
Discussion of the Commission's eventual collapse and its implications for post-war policies.
The dual aim of fostering social reintegration and delegitimizing former regimes led to conflicting interpretations of wartime events.
Tensions between domestic political objectives and foreign policy aims significantly impacted the Crimes Commission's effectiveness.
The failure of the Commission in the summer of 1945 was a direct consequence of these conflicting pressures.

Abstract

In February 1945, shortly before the complete liberation of Budapest, the Budapest National Committee set up a Commission to Investigate Nazi and Arrow Cross Atrocities. Its mandate was to document crimes committed during World War II. Based on the Commission's extensive documentation work and its eventual collapse this article discusses Hungary's contradictory policy regarding the immediate past, World War II and especially the crimes committed. The article argues that the dual aim of fostering social reintegration while delegitimizing former regimes produced conflicting interpretations of the wartime period. At the same time, domestic political objectives competed soon with the foreign policy aims – a tension that became particularly apparent in the context of the Paris Peace Conference. This had a profound impact on the work of the Crimes Commission, ultimately contributing to its failure in the summer of 1945.

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