page_title: Tibor Baranski
section_title: Germans occupy Hungary
hierarchical_section_title: Tibor Baranski / World War II / Germans occupy Hungary
caption_attribution_description: English: In Budapest, Hungary, crowds of people waited in front of the building of the Swiss Legation on Vadasz St. for protective passports.
context_page_description: Tibor Baranski was a Hungarian-American man credited with saving more than 3,000 Hungarian Jewish women, men and children from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
  When he was 22, he was forced by the advancing Soviets to leave his seminary studies and return to Budapest. He talked his way into the residence of Papal Nuncio Monsignor Angelo Rotta, the Vatican's representative in Budapest. He persuaded Rotta to give him papers that would allow a Jewish family, friends of his aunt, to escape Hungary. Rotta was so impressed by his boldness, he recruited Baránszki to help save other Jews. Over nine weeks, before the Soviets surrounded Budapest, Baránszki orchestrated the rescue of over 3,000 Jews.
  Baranski was arrested by the Soviets on December 30, 1944 and sent on a 16-day, 160 miles forced march towards a Soviet prison, during which he ate only four times. He was saved by a sympathetic guard and made his way back to Budapest. After he was hospitalized and released, he was arrested again in 1948 for "clerical reaction" and in a show trial was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was released after Stalin's death in 1953.
context_section_description: In early 1944, Hungarian prime minister Miklós Kállay was secretly attempting to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies. To prevent Hungary from leaving the Axis, on March 19, 1944 launched Operation Margarethe, ordering German troops into the country. The far-right fascist Arrow Cross Party was legalized and assumed power on  15 October 1944. Led by Ferenc Szálasi, they formed the Government of National Unity.
caption: Jewish people stand in line to receive protective passports in front of the Swedish legation.
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