What Hungary Lost When It Obeyed in Advance

What Hungary Lost When It Obeyed in Advance

In March 1944, the Third Reich occupied Hungary, a country that until then had been one of Berlin’s closest allies. One of those who arrived with the invading forces was a lieutenant colonel in the SS named Kurt Becher. The SS leader Heinrich Himmler, one of Adolf Hitler’s closest confidants, had tasked Becher with stealing the wealth and resources of the country’s Jews. Himmler, in ferocious rivalry with other high-ranking Nazis, was keen to ex…