Birthday of the ‘Leader’ — Gallows on the Main Street

Birthday of the ‘Leader’ — Gallows on the Main Street

In the midst of the Arrow Cross dictatorship, in January 1945, the few remaining Hungarian newspapers that had been ‘brought into line’ began announcing in articles an upcoming great event: the approaching 48th birthday of Hungary’s ‘Leader of the Nation’ (Nemzetvezető), Ferenc Szálasi. Szálasi had been born on 6 January 1897, in Kassa—a city that was liberated by Soviet forces on 19 January 1945. The newspaper Kőszegi Hírek wrote about the ‘gre…