Stages of discrimination
Between 1938 and 1944, Hungary passed 21 anti-Jewish laws and hundreds of decrees dismantling Jewish rights step by step. The legislation was modelled on Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, but rooted in Hungary’s own nationalist politics. The First Jewish Law in 1938 restricted Jewish participation in professional and economic life, the second in 1939 imposed racial definitions and strict employment quotas, the third in 1941 banned intermarriage, and the fourth in 1942 banned land ownership, forcing Jews to transfer their property in exchange for state compensation. Over time, these laws broadened and hardened the definition of who was considered Jewish, mirroring Nazi racial policies and expanding the scope of discrimination. After 19 March 1944, when Germany occupied Hungary, only one decree was passed, ordering the registration and sequestration of Jewish property – leading to ghettoisation, deportation, and genocide within weeks.
“Our Christian faith, our patriotic convictions, our attachment to the European credibility of our country and our national independence, compel us never to waver from the principle of equal citizenship, which was fought for by the greatest minds of the European Hungarian nation in the most beautiful period of our history.”
59 prominent Hungarian Christian intellectuals protest against the first Jewish law
Further Reading / Sources
Jogok nélkül. A zsidó lét Magyarországon 1920-1944
K. Farkas Claudia (2020). Budapest: Napvilág Kiadó
Zsidókérdés Magyarországon. Politikai eszmetörténet
Gyurgyák János (2001). Budapest: Osiris
A Horthy-rendszer és antiszemitizmusának mérlege. Diszkrimináció és társadalompolitika Magyarországon, 1919–1944
Ungváry Krisztián (2016). Budapest: Jelenkor
A gyűlölet vetése. A zsidótörvények és a magyar közvélemény
Pelle János (2001). Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó