In May 1944, the Pécs gendarmerie district launched large-scale raids against the Roma of Southern Transdanubia. Disguised as ‘public safety’ and ‘public health’ actions, these operations paved the way for their persecution, registration, and deportation.
The May 3 Raid and the Expansion of the Operation
The first large-scale action took place on May 3, 1944, in Somogy County, directed by the command of the Pécs gendarmerie district. The gendarmerie had already prepared a detailed operational map in April 1944, recording the suspected campsites of the county’s “wandering Gypsies” and the locations of crimes in the vicinity.
The operation was extended to neighboring counties: on May 5–6, 1944, similar Gypsy raids were held in Baranya and Veszprém counties. In Baranya, the sub-prefect (‘alispán‘) ordered the county-level raid for the last time on May 6. Although these measures were communicated as action against “vagrants,” in reality, the local administration urged a “radical solution to the Gypsy question,” drawing parallels with the “solution” to the Jewish question. These registrations and roundups laid the groundwork for the later raids in October and the mass deportations to the Komárom Star Fortress (Csillagerőd) and subsequently to German concentration camps.
“One cannot hope for a final solution to the question if we listen to the voice of the heart, the emotions of the heart.”
László Gesztelyi Nagy, in his 1940 proposal for “settling” the Gypsy question through radical measures
A lágerek népe, Appendix 1, p. 91.
Further Reading / Sources
Cigány katonai munkaszázadok Magyarországon 1944–1945-ben
Karsai László (1991). Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, 2. sz. 157–166