Pétain, Horthy, Antonescu and the Jews in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XVIII

Pétain, Horthy, Antonescu and the Jews, 1942-1944: Toward a Comparative View

The implementation of the German extermination policy is compared in three “client states” of Nazi Germany: France, Romania, and Hungary. Each country is analyzed from the point of view of three factors which determined the fate of the Jewish population: the German factor, the national factor, and the indigenous Jewish factor. The policies of each government are examined as they pertained to Laval, Horthy, Kallay, and Antonescu in regard to the deportation of Jews. In France, large-scale deportations began in August 1942 (mainly of foreign Jews), but slowed in 1943; in Romania, no Jews were deported to the camps in Poland; and in Hungary, the deportations began only after the German occupation. The reasons for consent or resistance to deportations are not always clear, but it is evident that the fate of the Jews formed part of an intricate system of foreign policy and bilateral relations with Germany. Thus, the responsibility for the fate of the Jews can be apportioned to the national governments, but this does not detract from the overall German responsibility for the Holocaust.