László Baky
| “ | The Royal Hungarian Government will soon have the country purged of Jews. I order the purge to be carried out by regions. As a result of the purge the Jewry - irrespective of sex or age - is to be transported to assigned concentration camps. | „ |
| ~ Baky in a letter to Andor Jaross |
László Baky (13th September 1898 - 29th March 1946) was a Hungarian far-right politician and leading member of the Nazi government set up in Hungary in 1944.
Biography edit
Baky was born in Budapest in 1898. Having graduated from military school, he rose to prominence in 1919 for violent counterrevolutionary work he performed as part of the Hungarian Far Right movement. He joined the Hungarian National Socialist Party (a Hungarian group associated with the Nazi Party) in 1938, was elected as a deputy leader the following year and was appointed editor of the Nazi-funded magazine Mayarsag.
When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944 and set up a Nazi government headed by Béla Imrédy, Baky was appointed one of two state secretaries of the interior, with the other being László Endre. In this position, they both directly reported to Andor Jaross, and were assigned the duty of arranging the deportation of the Jews to Concentration Camps. In April 1944, Baky and Endre attended a meeting held by Adolf Eichmann at which it was decided that they would send Jews to urban ghettoes before their deportation.
In 1944, Baky was removed from power and imprisoned after attempting to lead a coup against Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, who was manoeuvring to try and pull Hungary out of the Axis Powers, as he believed they would lose the war. However, Ferenc Szálasi was put in power that October, and released Baky and other imprisoned Fascist politicians such as Endre. Baky then continued to arrange deportations and mass murders until the Allies overthrew the Nazi government. Baky was arrested in Austria, found guilty of crimes against the state and executed by hanging in 1946.