Government of National Unity ( Hungary ) The Government of National Unity ( Hungarian : " Nemzeti Összefogás Kormánya " ) existed during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany between October 1944 and May 1945 . Formed by the Turanist / Nazi Arrow Cross Party , it was established on 17 October 1944 after Regent Miklós Horthy was removed from power during Operation " Panzerfaust " ( " Unternehmen " Eisenfaust " " ) . Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi became Prime Minister and , as " Nation Leader " , the head of state . During the government ' s short period of rule , ten to fifteen thousand Jews were murdered in Hungary and around eighty thousand Jews , including many women , children and elderly Jews , were deported from Hungary to their deaths in the Auschwitz concentration camp . Hungary splits in two . Under threat of having his son killed , Miklós Horthy appointed Ferenc Szálasi as " Magyar királyi miniszterelnök " ( Royal Hungarian Prime Minister ) on 16 October and was deported afterwards by the Germans . This act merely rubber - stamped an Arrow Cross coup , as Szálasi ' s men had taken over Budapest the previous night . The Hungarian parliament approved the formation of a Council of Regency ( " Kormányzótanács " ) of three . On 4 November , Szálasi was sworn as Leader of the Nation ( " nemzetvezető " ) . He formed a government of sixteen ministers , half of which were members of the Arrow Cross Party . While the Horthy regency had come to an end , the Hungarian monarchy was not abolished by the Szálasi regime , as government newspapers kept referring to the country as the Kingdom of Hungary ( " Magyar Királyság " , also abbreviated as " m . kir . " ) , although " Magyarország " ( Hungary ) was frequently used as an alternative . Szálasi was an ardent fascist and his " Quisling government " had little other intention or ability but to maintain fascism and to maintain control in Nazi - occupied portions of Hungary as the Soviet Union invaded . He did this in order to reduce the threat to Germany . Szálasi ' s aim was to create a single - party state based on his " Hungarist " ideology . On 21 December 1944 , with the approval of the Soviet Union , Béla Miklós was elected as the Prime Minister of a " counter " Hungarian government in Soviet - controlled Debrecen . Miklós was a former commander of the Hungarian First Army . He had failed in his efforts to convince many of the men under his command to switch sides . The government that Miklós oversaw was an " interim government " and maintained control in the Soviet - occupied portions of Hungary . History . Upon the total Nazi and Fascist takeover , Hungary faced impending occupation by the Soviet Union . The Red Army was already deep inside the country , effectively limiting the Arrow Cross regime ' s jurisdiction to an ever - narrowing band of territory around Budapest . Seen in this context , the Arrow Cross regime was short and brutal . In cooperation with the Nazis , Szálasi restarted the deportations of Jews , particularly in Budapest . Thousands more Jews were killed by Arrow Cross members . Of the approximately 800 , 000 Jews residing within Hungary ' s expanded borders of 1941 , only 200 , 000 ( about 25 % ) survived the Holocaust . An estimated 28 , 000 Hungarian Roma were also killed as part of the Porajmos . Szálasi envisioned a new economic order , which he called the " Corporate order of the Working nation " ( " Dolgozó Nemzet Hivatás Rendje " ) . Even as Hungary was in chaos , Szálasi refused theoretically to compromise Hungarian sovereignty , trying to retain nominal command of all Hungarian military units , including the local SS units . Ethnic Germans were still not allowed to join the Arrow Cross Party . Szálasi devoted much time to his political writings and to trips in the shrinking territory under his control : many political matters were effectively handled by his Deputy Prime Minister Jenő Szöllősi . At the beginning of December , Szálasi and his government relocated out of Budapest as Soviet troops advanced towards the capital . In a scorched earth strategy , the German armed forces destroyed Hungarian infrastructure as the Soviets closed in . In December 1944 , the Battle of Budapest began . Fascist forces loyal to Szálasi and the badly damaged remnants of the Hungarian First Army fought alongside German forces . They fought against the Red Army to no avail . By 13 February 1945 , all of Budapest was under Soviet control . In March 1945 , during Operation Spring Awakening ( " Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen " ) , Fascist Hungarian forces of the Hungarian Third Army fought alongside German forces in the last major offensive in Hungary against the Soviet forces . For ten days the Axis forces made costly gains . However , within twenty - four hours , the Soviet counterattack was able to drive the Germans and Hungarians back to the positions they held before the offensive began . Between 16 March and 25 March 1945 , the remnants of Hungarian Third Army was overrun and virtually destroyed . By the end of March and into April , what remained of the Royal Hungarian Army were put on the defensive during the Nagykanizsa – Körmend Offensive and were then forced into Slovakia and Austria as Soviet forces occupied all of Hungary . Béla Miklós ' s government was nominally in control of the whole country . Nazi Germany itself was on the verge of collapse . The Ferenc Szálasi regime , which had fled Hungary , was dissolved on 7 May 1945 , a day before Germany ' s surrender . Szálasi was captured by American troops in Mattsee on 6 May and returned to Hungary , where he was tried for crimes against the state and executed , among with three of his ministers . Most of his ministers also were sentenced to death and executed , except four of them . Béla Jurcsek committed suicide at the end of the war , Árpád Henney fled to Austria . Emil Szakváry was sentenced to life imprisonment , while Vilmos Hellebront was sentenced to death , but the tribunal - before execution - changed his sentence to life imprisonment .