A gap-filling database is being prepared on the military occupation of Hungary during the Second World War

Our young people must be taught by all possible means that the horrors of war cannot be relativized. We live in an age in which loud and speculative ideologies that flourish in prosperity easily deceive those who have not faced reality at least at the level of numbers, memories and narratives. The database repays an old debt, similar to the publication of the casualty lists of the First and Second World Wars, the lists of those deported to the gulag or the data of the Hungarian regiments. 

The HM Institute and Museum of Military History (HM HIM) and the Hungarian National Archives (MNL) are expected to publish their settlement-level, complex war database for the period between the early autumn of 1944 and the early spring of 1945 in the fall of 2025.

In the database, the military takeover and the date of takeovers, the military formations fighting for the settlement, the nature and duration of the battles, the number and identity of military and civilian victims, as well as a detailed list of war damage caused to the movable and immovable property of the settlement will be available in the database. .

He put it this way: " Our young people must be educated by all possible means that the horrors of war cannot be relativized. We live in an age in which loud and speculative ideologies that flourish in prosperity easily deceive those who have not faced reality at least at the level of numbers, memories and narratives. "

He said that we still bear the consequences of human sacrifices, physical and mental injuries, atrocities and life-long disabilities, as individuals, as a community, and as a nation. Let us teach our contemporaries and young people that peace alone can be the origin and framework of a life worthy of man, growth and prosperity. Only an in-depth knowledge of the past can provide a solid basis for navigating the present and building a future that visualizes a vibrant nation, he explained.

Colonel László Töll, ministerial commissioner responsible for military identity, spoke about how the database repays an old debt, similar to the publication of the casualty lists of the First and Second World Wars, the lists of those taken to the gulag or the data of the Hungarian regiments. He emphasized: under communism, there was no question of systematic research, apart from the glory of the Soviet troops, it was not interesting to learn about human destinies or historical reality.

Now, however, it will be possible to see together what happened in every single Hungarian settlement, what the scientific truth that can be learned through researchable data shows, he added. He noted: at the same time, the database will never be completely ready, so anyone who can provide new information for its expansion is asked to share it with the operators of the website.

He noted: no matter how much the database is about the past, it is a warning sent to the present, because it can be read from it what kind of tragedy happened to Hungary, that in the war of two world powers, " between the millstones of two godless and inhuman dictatorships, its freedom crumbled and the country became a battlefield ".

Hungary did not have enough strength, he added, to preserve its sovereignty and protect its citizens from the ravages of war and deportations. We cannot lose our sovereignty, the will to decide our own destiny, the opportunity to decide on peace and war ourselves, he emphasized.

Csaba Szabó, the director general of the Hungarian National Archives, said: in order to compile the database, in international cooperation, they will receive the " Tageskartei " of the German state archive, the Bundesarchiv, which the German military kept until the last moment, the thousands of photos taken by the German propaganda machine in Hungary, and the casualty lists. And from the American National Archives (NARA) the hit list of the bombing of the country, with photographs.

In addition, the death registers from 1944-1952 will be processed to show how much civilian sacrifice the 202 days entailed. They will also get access to the list of military casualties in German and hopefully Russian databases.

The database will be a unique processing of the war events of 1944-1945 in Hungary, said the director general, calling the information compensation very important.

Lt. Col. Norbert Számvéber, director of the HM Institute of Military History and Museum of Military History Archives and Maps, presented the project and said that the database processes settlement-level data from mid-March 1944 to mid-April 1945.

In the case of 3,155 settlements in Hungary, the date of the military takeover - or takeovers - becomes available in the database, the names of the military formations that fought there, the nature and duration of the battles, the date of the airstrikes and the damage caused, the number and identity of the military and civilian victims, as well as a detailed list of war damage caused to the movable and immovable property of the settlement - he listed.

In addition, data related to the history of the settlements are also presented, including their administrative classification, the number of inhabitants, the area of ​​the settlements, the number of residential buildings, and their public safety situation.

MTI

Cover photo:
Norbert Számvéber, director of the Military Historical Archives and Maps, speaks at the press conference on November 11, 2024, about the database on the military occupation of Hungary during the Second World War. Next to him is Csaba Szabó, director general of the Hungarian National Archives (b). The HM Institute and Museum of Military History (HM HIM) and the Hungarian National Archives (MNL) are expected to publish their settlement-level, complex war database for the period between the early autumn of 1944 and the early spring of 1945 in the autumn of 2025.
MTI/Tamás Kovács