Claim:
The Hungarian army fought more humanely than the German Wehrmacht or the SS, they committed fewer acts of cruelty on the eastern front – moreover, they were friendly with the locals.
Rebuttal:
The claim is false, the cruelty of some Hungarian units is documented in their own report.
In detail:
Compared to the Wehrmacht or the SS, the Hungarian units were not the least better in the Bryansk forest in 1941-42. This is documented in their own reports, where they write about villages set on fire and the extermination (sic) of the population. The Hungarian occupiers took part in guarding prisoner camps, rounding up the Jews and escorting them to the execution spots, starving the population, setting villages on fire, killing those suspected of partisan activity and applying the concept of collective guilt, as the Germans. This had no ideological reasons, the troops were executing the orders they had been given. Thus the bulk of responsibility lies with the political leaders of Hungary, which should have known what kind of activities it was providing the manpower for. [1]
Péter Erdélyi made a documentary on the acts of cruelty committed by Hungarian troops, see here.
[1] For more on the question, see: Ungváry Krisztián: A magyar honvédség a második világháborúban. Budapest, 2004, 38-115.o.
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