Károly Beregfy (12 February 1888 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in the 1944–45 Arrow Cross Party government. He was born as Károly Berger in Cservenka (Crvenka). He fought in the First World War where he was seriously injured. Then he joined the Hungarian Red Army to fight against the rebel nationalities. Between 1939 and 1941, he was commandant of the Royal Military Academy. Arrow Cross Party

He fought in the Second World War from 1941 as commander of the VI Corps, and later commanded the Third Army and the First Army. In April 1944 he suffered a serious defeat by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. The commission examining the reasons of the defeat established Beregfy's personal responsibility, so he was dismissed from his field command. He sympathized with the

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party (, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...

from the beginning, although he could not join since under Hungarian Army regulations the members of political parties could not be officers in the Hungarian Army. After

Operation Margarethe In March 1944, Hungary was occupied by the Wehrmacht. This invasion was formally known as Operation Margarethe (Unternehmen Margarethe). Course of events Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Kállay, who had been in office from 1942, had the kno ...

Arrow Cross leader

Ferenc Szálasi Ferenc Szálasi (; 6 January 1897 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian military officer, politician, Nazi sympathizer and founder of the far-right Arrow Cross Party who List of prime ministers of Hungary, headed the government of Hungary duri ...

sought him out and asked him to assist in a coup if

Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya (18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957) was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who was the Regent of Hungary, regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Kingdom of Hungary Hungary between the World Wars, during the ...

tried to negotiate a surrender. After the Arrow Cross Party's coup (15 and 16 October 1944) the new prime minister Szálasi appointed Beregfy as Minister of Defence. He also served as Chief of Army Staff. Beregfy declared

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

a manoeuvre area on 30 October and subordinated all attainable human and economical resources to the war. On 30 April 1945 he was captured by

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

troops. Brought to trial before the People's Tribunal he denied his guilt throughout. The court did not accept his arguments (Beregfy referred to disability and compulsion) and sentenced him to death. He was hanged on 12 March 1946, along with

, Gábor Vajna, former

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

in the Arrow Cross Party's cabinet and József Gera, who was a Hungarist ideologist.

Sources

Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon
* Géza Lakatos: ''As I saw it: the tragedy of Hungary''.

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

: Universe Publishing, 1993. {{DEFAULTSORT:Beregfy, Karoly 1888 births 1946 deaths Arrow Cross Party politicians People from Kula, Serbia Ministers of defence of Hungary Hungarian soldiers Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austro-Hungarian generals Hungarian people of World War II Holocaust perpetrators in Hungary Hungarian Nazis executed for war crimes People executed by Hungary by hanging Danube-Swabian people Hungarians in Vojvodina World War II prisoners of war held by the United States