World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMiklós Kállay de Nagy-Kálló was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary into an influential family that had wielded political power since the middle ages. He was the lord lieutenant of his county in 1921, deputy under secretary of state for the Ministry of Trade in 1929, and Minister of Agriculture in 1932. He submitted his resignation in 1935 to protest pro-German policies and remained out of the political arena until Mar 1942 when he was approached by Regent Miklós Horthy to establish a government less connected with their German allies; Horthy saw the inevitable defeat of Germany and wished to prepare his government for favorable negotiation terms with the Allies. As Prime Minister of Hungary, Kállay rejected German calls to deport Hungarian Jews to concentration camps and gave more freedom to the press. He continued to send military support to the Russian front, but declined to do the same against the western Allies. In Mar 1944, German influence in Hungary forced Kállay to flee and later captured by Nazi agents. He spent some time in Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps. He was freed after the war and left Hungary in 1946. In 1951, he settled in the United States and published his memoirs Hungarian Premier: A Personal Account of a Nation's Struggle in the Second World War in 1954. He passed away in New York City, United States, in 1967.

Miklós Kállay Timeline