Rounding up, expulsion, and deportation of Jews with no Hungarian citizenship and the Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre

The Kamenets-Podolsky massacre was the first phase of the Hungarian Holocaust, during which, on 27-28 August 1941, the SS killed approximately 23,600 Jews, mostly deported from Hungary, near Kamenets-Podolsky in the western part of the Soviet Union under German occupation (present-day Ukraine). The tragedy’s background lies in Hungary’s foreign policy aimed at revising the Treaty of Trianon, which by 1941 had largely achieved its goals: the Upper Hungary, Northern Transylvania, Carpathian Ruthenia, and Vojvodina had all been reincorporated into Hungary. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jews came under Hungarian jurisdiction, including some who had not originally been residents of the annexed territories but had arrived as refugees before the reincorporation. Hungarian authorities were concerned about the relatively large number of Jews in the country who did not hold Hungarian citizenship, which led to the gathering, expulsion, and deportation of Jews unable to prove their Hungarian nationality beginning on July 15, 1941. In less than a month, nearly 20,000 Jews were deported. On 12 August, at the request of the German military authorities occupying Ukraine, Hungarian authorities halted the deportations due to the risk of epidemics and logistical difficulties. Since Hungary refused to take back those who had already been deported, the German authorities decided to liquidate them.