János Horváth

János Horváth

JÁNOS HORVÁTH (Cece, Hungary, 1921) is an MP for Fidesz-MPP, and Doyen of the Hungarian Parliament. Distinguished Professor of Economics at Corvinus University, Budapest. He earned his PhD at Columbia University, New York. During 1943–1944 he was active in the Magyar Life Student Movement of the underground Hungarian Independence Movement against Nazi influence and the occupation. In 1945 he took roles in post- war reconstruction, was a Smallholders’ Party MP and served as Economic Advisor to Premier Ferenc Nagy. In 1947 he was imprisoned for four years in the Communist-staged “conspiracy against the Republic” trial. In the Revolution of 1956 he was President of the National Reconstruction Council. After the Soviet invasion he participated in Hungarian exile politics in Strasbourg, New York and Washington. He taught and wrote on economics in the US for 41 years, and returned to Hungary in 1997. Among other distinctions, he received the Truman-Reagan Medal and the Great Cross of Hungary.

IN NAZI CAPTIVITY – CHAPTER FROM A MEMOIR IN PROGRESS

The Margit Boulevard Military Barracks was the headquarters of an Arrow Cross detachment of the Hungarian military police operating in collaboration with the Gestapo. “You talk. We write”, said the wrestler. I stood there as the three men who arrested me sat with pen and pencil in hand staring at

THE STUDENT RESISTANCE MOVEMENT, 1943–1945

Chapter from a Memoir in Progress* Back in February of 1939 Hungary’s Regent, Miklós Horthy, had forced the resignation of the pro-German Prime Minister Béla Imrédy and named Count Pál Teleki, an anglophile, to lead the government. Both Regent Horthy and Prime Minister Teleki despised Hitler and believed that the

ENCOUNTERS WITH A GREY EMINENCE – REMEMBERING DOMOKOS SZENT-IVÁNYI

I My most vivid glimpse of Domokos Szent-Iványi dates from the second half of 1947. We are making our rounds, deep in conversation, side by side in the enclosed courtyard of the Central Collecting Prison of Budapest. It is a huge redbrick complex situated, quite fittingly, next to the city’s