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.
Regina Fritz (Tue,) studied this question.