| "There is a profound truth in Szechenyi's teaching according to which "if I am sitting in a boat with my own child and somebody else's, and if the boat is being flooded by water and the conclusion seems apodictical that I cannot keep both children, the papers will certainly write about it if I throw out my own child while keeping the other, and yet, I shall rather save my own child and evict the other." One cannot risk the life and future of thirteen and one half million Magyars for the sake of one million Jews, especially when such forbearance would be at best only of temporary use to the Jews themselves. There can be no doubt that in the absence of the Hungarian Government's lawful measures the situation of the Jewry would not improve but turn perhaps even more critical." |
| Hungarian Prime Minister Dome Sztojay |
| May 3, 1944 |
| From Ilona Benoschofsky and Elek Karsai, eds. Vadirat a nacizmus ellen (Indictment against Nazism) (3 vols., Budapest, 1958-1967), II, p. 57. Reprinted in Barany, George. "Magyar Jew or Jewish Magyar? Reflections on the Question of Assimilation." Jews and Non-Jews in Eastern Europe. Ed. Vago, Bela and George L. Mosse. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974. |