Peace, War and Farewell to Hungary (1923-1944)

Leslie’s Career and Hungary’s Entry into World War II

I received my diploma in 1923 and was appointed as an intern without pay to a large state farm at Mezöhegyes. My older brother Vilmos was already employed with pay at this farm. After three years at Mezöhegyes I got a teaching position at Aszód, just east of Budapest, at a youth correctional institution. This school operated a farm for the purpose of teaching the inmates in all facets of agriculture.

My income was still rather meager so I attempted to supplement it. I was able to find several part time jobs at various enterprises in the area either as a lecturer on agriculture or occasionally as a consultant to farmers. I also had a quite successful bee-keeping operation for several years with about 100 hives. Having an established position and feeling more secure financially, though not affluent by any means, enabled me finally to get married. The wedding took place in Keszthely on October 30, 1926. Magda’s family on her mother’s side was a well-established rich family, thus our large wedding was the outstanding social affair of that year.

We settled down in Aszód where I worked for 12 years. During this time, in 1928, Magda had a late-term miscarriage so we were thrilled when in 1931 our only child Tamás (Thomas) was born.

During the late 1930s Hungary was gradually drawn into an informal alliance with a resurgent Germany. The uneasy alliance was fueled mainly by the resentment most Hungarians felt toward the victorious WW I allies. These countries had dictated a peace treaty in 1920 which dismembered Hungary by stripping away 71% of its territory and 63% of its population. As Germany began to rearm it used increasing pressure and implied threat to regain territories lost after WW I.

Beginning in 1938 Germany also helped Hungary to recover some of its own lost territories. As a result Hungary was obliged to become an ally of the Hitler regime and an important source for Germany’s agricultural needs.

Shortly before the first lost region was returned to Hungary in January 1938, I was transferred to Miskolc, a large city in northeast Hungary, and promoted to the position of agricultural inspector with the Ministry of Agriculture. This position, however, lasted for only two years. By 1940 new government agencies had been set up in the regained areas and the expanded civil service was badly in need of skilled technical and administrative people. Thus in January 1940 I was promoted again, this time to agricultural chief inspector and offered a position in Komárom, a city about halfway between Budapest and the Austrian border. The new position was quite lucrative. I became the director of all animal breeders’ associations in western Hungary. My job was to coordinate activities of these independent associations and make sure that all farmers and estates adhered to the state guidelines for owning and breeding the best livestock bloodlines. Although the work was difficult and challenging it enabled me to become a recognized expert in the field and offered considerable visibility.

Experiences with the Germans During WW II

Soon after we moved to Komárom and I assumed the new position, the German Minister of Agriculture, Walter Darre, came to Hungary for an official visit.

Because of my position I was assigned to be his technical escort. We hit it off quite well, so much so that on his request I was sent to Germany in October 1940 to study their agricultural innovations, particularly the newly organized agricultural cooperatives. The first three weeks of my tour was spent in Berlin at the Ministry of Agriculture. Then for the next seven weeks I worked with the agricultural paths, however, did not cross until late November while I was doing some research at the Wϋrttemberg state Ministry of Agriculture in Stuttgart. The Hungarian delegation arrived in Stuttgart and the Gauleiter (state leader of the Nazi central government) of Wϋrttemberg went to greet them. Since he knew that I was working in his ministry he decided to take me with him. Naturally, I knew everybody in the delegation and when the Deputy Minister asked if I would like to join them for the rest of their tour I gladly accepted. The group spent two days in Wϋrttemberg. We then went back to Berlin where after an all-day conference a banquet was held in our honor at the Hotel Adler. Quite unexpectedly, at the end of the dinner Adolph Hitler walked into the banquet room with his entourage and each member of our delegation was introduced to him. I was last to be introduced because I was not an official member of the delegation. Much to my surprise Hitler knew about the purpose of my visit to Germany and asked what I thought about the new farmers’

cooperatives. Naturally I gave them high praise. This was the one and only occasion that I met Hitler and shook hands with him.

For each of the next three years I visited Germany in official capacity. My purpose was to study German farming methods and to buy thoroughbred breeding stock, mostly bulls, for Hungary. We paid for these purchases with German marks that were on deposit in Hungarian accounts. These were funds that Germany had paid for purchases in Hungary but because marks were not convertible to Hungarian currency we could only spend them in Germany.

During the summer of 1943 the Bavarian Minister of Agriculture, accompanied by four high officials, came to Hungary for an official visit. They went first to Budapest and later began a tour of the country. Because I knew them from an earlier visit I was assigned to be their escort. After touring Debrecen and Hortobágy we arrived to the Mezöhegyes state farm where I started my career some 20 years earlier. The next stop was Transylvania where, at Kalotaszeg, we went to see a unique herd of light gray water buffaloes on the estate of Baron Bánffy. The Germans had never seen water buffalo before, not even black ones, so this promised to be a very interesting event for them.

We arrived to the estate on a very hot day. After lunch we went out to the pasture where, according to the manager, the buffaloes were supposed to be. However, we

couldn’t see a single animal because they were lying in a shallow lake at the far end of the pasture with only their noses sticking out of the water. An old cowhand was sitting at the edge of the lake. He told us that until sunset nothing would get these animals out of the cool water. The situation became quite embarrassing for me. After all I had brought these dignitaries from Budapest all the way to Transylvania just to see some unique water buffaloes and now all they could see were their noses. I explained the situation to the old cowhand and nervously persuaded him to try to bring at least one animal out of the water. He agreed reluctantly, rolled up his pants and waded through some reeds into deeper water.

Then he bent down for a minute then turned around and came out, without a buffalo. When we asked him why he did not chase one of them out he simply smiled and told us to be patient. To our amazement a few minutes later one of the buffaloes lifted his head out of the water, stood up and came out onto the shore.

When I asked the old man how he was able to prompt the huge animal he said that it was quite simple. He had cut a piece of reed and stuck it underwater into the buffalo’s anus. As the water started to seep in through the reed the animal got scared and came out. When I translated the story to the Germans they loved it and showered the cowhand with plenty of money and cigarettes.

We went to several other farms and estates such as the thoroughbred stud farm at Kisbėr and a large estate at Bábolna. I took pictures everywhere we went and prepared an album for each member of the delegation. We gave them these albums the last morning of their visit, during breakfast at our house in Komárom. Before they boarded the train for Germany I also gave each of them a food package full of Hungarian delicacies. The Minister was quite impressed with my hospitality. He knew that I was going to Germany in the autumn and asked what he could do for me. I said half-jokingly that I would like to see Hitler’s farm and country home in Berchtesgaden. The Minister’s reply was not encouraging. He said that it is not open to the public, especially to foreign visitors. We shook hands and they departed.

I went home, tried to catch up with the accumulated office work and forgot about my request. It was soon time for the October trip to Germany. When I arrived to Munich and reported to the Ministry of Agriculture the Minister greeted me personally and handed me a written invitation from Hitler’s office to visit his Berchtesgaden estate. The next day a senior official from the Ministry and I took a train to Berchtesgaden. An SS officer was waiting at the station to take us by car to Hitler’s estate some 4,000 feet high in the mountains. He took us first to the main building reception room with a huge picture window overlooking the entire valley below. In the room there were about a dozen arm chairs occupied by messengers who, as I was told, were waiting for sensitive communications that had to be carried to various parts of the Reich. The officer then showed us Hitler’s office, a rather simple room with several bookcases full of books and periodicals, a few chairs and a sink in the corner. In the center there was a huge desk and a wall safe behind it. From the office we entered Hitler’s bedroom, a Spartan place with a simple hospital bed, wash basin and shelves along the walls loaded with books. I was not allowed to see the rest of the building.

On the way out the SS officer returned my camera which he had taken from me as we got out of the car. We then went over to the farm manager’s house for lunch.

Later the manager took us to see Hitler’s prize winning herd of Pinzgau cattle. The manager was very proud of his animals so much so that that I felt obliged to buy a couple of young bulls from him. These animals eventually ended up as breeding stock in Transylvania.

Adjacent to the manager’s house was a lush meadow sloping toward a mountain stream and a round stone gazebo. I was told that Hitler liked to work at night often until 4 or 5 in the morning, then sleep until 10 a.m. After his usual 3 p.m.

lunch he often walked down to the gazebo for an afternoon tea. According to the manager Hitler’s favorite drink was fresh carbonated apple cider which was prepared and bottled for him right on the estate.

After touring the estate we were taken up to the famous Adler’s (Eagle’s) Nest, Hitler’s private residence which was on the top of the mountain about 1,500 feet above the estate and office complex. Direct access from Hitler’s office building to the residence was by an elevator the shaft of which was cut out of solid rock. The view from the Adler’s Nest over the mountains surrounding Berchtesgaden was absolutely spectacular. Near the residence which I was allowed to see only from the outside stood a small hotel normally used by visiting dignitaries. I was told that it was full of wounded soldiers who, because of their bravery, were allowed to recuperate there. In fact we met several of them as we walked around the observation area.

Since this visit was such a unique experience I was asked to write an article about it after my return to Hungary. I wrote the story in German first and sent it to our Ministry of Agriculture which in turn sent it over to the German embassy for pre-publication clearance. I also wrote a Hungarian version of the article and sent it to the Ministry for publication. As it turned out, someone in the Ministry decided to edit the manuscript and added a closing sentence which I remember verbatim to this day: “Hitler lives like he has stated in one of his Nϋrnberg speeches: ‘I no longer have a private life, I only live for Germany and for the freedom of Europe.’

“Long after its publication this newspaper article led to a rather undesirable consequence for me. After the war the communist regime in Hungary decided that I was a “war criminal.” This charge was based in part on my activities immediately after WW I but also on this newspaper article and specifically on the last sentence inserted by the nameless Ministry bureaucrat. The communist court document stated that I was “Hitler’s friend” and that I “glorified him and the national socialist regime in newspaper articles.” Although the “war criminal” charge was harmless to me because I no longer resided in Hungary, it is one of the reasons why I never went back there after WW II.

The Soviet Invasion of Hungary

By 1941 Hungary was starting to pay a steep price for Germany’s help in regaining some of its lost territories. In addition to supplying products needed by his country and its war machine Hitler insisted that Hungary help militarily with the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans were hard pressed to hold the ever-widening front there and needed the Hungarian military to back them up, mostly in the Ukraine. As a result Hungary had to send the ill-equipped 2^nd Army and other units to the Ukrainian front. As the Soviets gained the upper hand in 1942

and 1943 they inflicted enormous losses on both the German and Hungarian military. By some accounts almost half of the Hungarian forces in the Ukraine were annihilated. The remaining units were forced to retreat under constant pursuit toward the Hungarian border.

By the spring of 1944 the advancing Soviet forces had broken through the Hungarian-German defenses in Transylvania and reached Hungary. I was eager to fight for my country even though my age and position in the government exempted me from military duty. After much pleading a good friend of ours, Colonel General Bajnóczy, the Army’s deputy chief of staff, finally allowed me to volunteer for active duty. I was assigned to remaining units of the 2^nd Hungarian Army as a liaison officer between them and the Germans. On my way to report to headquarters I had to change trains in Debrecen, a large city in eastern Hungary. Since I had to wait several hours for the next train I went to the city commandant’s office to get the latest news from the front. After a short conversation I told them I was a liaison officer on my way to the 2^nd Army. As it turned out I never returned to the railway station. The German 23^rd Tank Division had just pulled into the area and there was an immediate need for liaison officers. The city commandant contacted 2^nd Army headquarters by telephone and obtained my release. I was reassigned to the division and had to report to a German colonel who in turn sent me to his supply officer, a reserve captain named Kurt von Wakabart. In civilian life Capt. Wakabart was the owner of a large estate in Prussia. We soon became good friends especially since both of us were in the agriculture business. Our job was to obtain food and other supplies that were allocated by the Hungarian government for the German division. The supplies had to be picked up at various places such as farms, cooperatives or supply depots. We had 15 light trucks and an amphibious staff car at our disposal.

As the front line neared Debrecen it became apparent that both sides were preparing for a massive tank battle. German and Hungarian reinforcements arrived almost daily, among them the 23^rd Tank Division. The ensuing battle was one of the largest on the eastern front during the entire war. The flat terrain around Debrecen was ideal for tank combat and at the height of the battle literally hundreds of tanks were engaged. There was no stable front line, the battle raged for several weeks with tanks advancing and retreating as much as 20-30 miles a day. Supplying our division was a difficult and dangerous task in the midst of such a constantly changing battle. The scenario would often change completely between the time an order was given and the time we could execute it. Sometimes we received orders to go to a certain town to pick up supplies only to find the place overrun by the Russians. Even though I attempted to check out each situation before leaving we were on several occasions the victims of circumstances. On one such occasion we were almost killed as we tried to obey orders to go to the village of Kaba, about 30 miles away, and pick up several tons of flour from the local mill.

According to our latest intelligence Kaba was outside the immediate front line and still under Hungarian control. Just to be sure I called up the Kaba post office, told the operator that we had to go there to pick up the flour and asked where the mill was located. The operator responded in total panic, saying that we should not come to Kaba because Russian tanks were already in the village. My German colleague immediately reported the news to his colonel. The colonel, however, did not believe the report and ordered us to go ahead anyway. Our convoy consisted of

the 15 trucks, well stretched out so as to offer few concentrated targets. Capt.

Wakabart and I usually drove in the staff car at the head of the convoy but this time we had several trucks ahead of us. This fact may have saved our lives. Not knowing what to expect we got off the main road as we approached Kaba and followed a winding dirt road toward the village. We were driving quite slowly when suddenly we encountered a single Russian tank which began firing at us. Our trucks were no match for the tank so they scattered off the road but not before the tank destroyed three of them. We escaped with two dead and three severely wounded soldiers. Actually it was fortunate that the Russian tank was also retreating, apparently to join its unit, otherwise we would have sustained even more casualties. The colonel was quite upset about our losses and never doubted me again.

By the end of September the Debrecen tank battle was almost over. The Russians were steadily bringing in reinforcements while our forces were unable to replace

By the end of September the Debrecen tank battle was almost over. The Russians were steadily bringing in reinforcements while our forces were unable to replace