'You will appreciate, therefore, that they are concerned only to maintain their privileged position. But naturally they also have a heavy bias towards any policy which, while protecting their present sources of wealth, might lead to their getting back the estates which they lost in 1920 by the creation of Poland, Czechoslovakia and a greatly enlarged Rumania.'
Levianski took a long pull at his lager, then went on. 'You will now expect me to speak of the middle classes. Well, there are none. At least not as there are in other countries. The noble Magyars would not soil their hands with commerce, or allow even their remotest relatives to do so. That is, until 1920, After the revolution some of the younger ones who had become impoverished through it became motor salesmen, travel agents and so on; also the general spread of education qualified a few thousand of the younger peasants to move into the towns and replace the Austrians who had previously acted as our petty officials, but neither group is sufficiently numerous to form a class. It was the void between lord and peasant which attracted my people to Hungary. That was many centuries ago, of course, but the Jews gradually established themselves here and by their industry made themselves indispensable.
'Today in Pest there are three hundred thousand of us nearly a third of the population of the capital. Many of our families have grown rich on the proceeds of doing the things that the aristocracy was too proud or too lazy to do; but we have served Hungary well. We are the doctors, the lawyers, the industrialists, the importers of the things that Hungary must have and the exporters of the things she has to sell. Without us the country would fall into a state of chaos overnight. The Magyar lords have always recognized that; therefore they have not only given us their protection through the centuries, but treated us generously. Whether they would be strong enough to continue to do so with Europe at peace and Hitler its overlord is a very different question.
'We watch with awful fear what is happening in the lands where Hitler has only to give an order for it to be obeyed. Himmler is, if possible, even more demented in his racial theories than his master. From the Germanic part of Poland he deported a million Jews, and to fill the void he has been dragging from all parts of Europe people, many of whom cannot even speak German, just because they are of German blood. For them it means loss of homes, properties, friends and occupation; but these Nazis are too fanatical to care even for the welfare of their own race.
'For my people, of course, matters are infinitely worse. They are despoiled of everything except the clothes in which they stand up. Last winter thousands of the women, children and old folk who were despatched to East Prussia, packed into cattle trucks, did not survive the journey. They were frozen stiff hours before they reached their destination.
'In Austria things are no better. Within a week of the Anschluss, at the order of Heydrich, Karl Adolf Eichmann set up in Vienna his "Office for Jewish Emigration". A very few, like Mr. Louis de Rothschild who ransomed himself by signing away his steel rolling mills, were allowed to emigrate; 180,000 others were not so fortunate. Most of them are dead; the rest tortured skeletons in huge concentration camps, like Dachau and Mauthausen.
'Eichmann's "Office" already has a branch in Budapest. It has been spending enormous sums in stirring up anti Jewish feeling here. As the Government would find it almost impossible to carry on its war industries without us, we are still protected. But if Hitler and Himmler were freed from their war commitments…'
'You would not have a hope,' Gregory cut in. 'They would send in their Germans to take over your businesses; and it could only be a matter of time before you suffered the same terrible fate as the Jews in Germany, Poland and Austria. Now, what about the peasants?'
'The Germans and the Russians are both hereditary enemies of the Hungarian people,' Levianski replied, 'but they dislike the Germans more because for so long they were bullied by the German speaking Austrian petty officials and tax gatherers. In their case, though, there is a more important factor than race prejudice; it is religion. Roman Catholicism still has a firm hold on Hungarians both rich and poor. The country people are devout and their village priests are looked up to by them. They are told from the pulpits that Stalin is anti Christ and that they must think of the war against the godless hordes of Russia as a crusade. Therefore, much as they dislike the Germans, they are fighting beside them, for the most part, willingly.'
'To sum up, then,' said Gregory, 'the nobility will continue to support Germany because they fear that a Russian victory would lead to their losing everything, and the peasants will fight on in defence of their religious beliefs; but your people would rather see the Russians win, as the lesser evil.'
Levianski pulled a face. 'It would be only a lesser evil. Things were bad enough during the Bela Khun revolution. The Sovietization of Hungary would mean the loss of our businesses and private fortunes. But at least our lives would be spared; and that is more than we could hope for under a Nazi controlled government.'
'I think you are right that the Russians would plunder Jewish and Christian capitalists alike, if Hungary fought on to the end and Germany is defeated. But it would be a very different state of affairs if she decided to make a separate peace now. I feel sure that, pressed as they are at the moment, the Russians would be only too glad to guarantee Hungary's independence, and that the other allies would underwrite that guarantee.'
'Ah, yes,' Levianski sighed. 'If only that could be brought about how happy we should all be. But I see no prospect of it. Besides, if Hungary deserted her allies, it is quite on the cards that the Nazis would march in, and we would then be at the mercy of their Gestapo murder squads.'
'I don't think that would happen. Hitler has his hands full in Russia. He couldn't spare the divisions to open up another front; and that is what he would have to do if he were opposed by the Hungarian army.'
'Perhaps you are right.'
'I'm sure I am; and think what such a move could lead to. If Hungary made a separate peace and withdrew her troops from the Russian front, that might be the beginning of the end. Hitler is in a relatively strong position now, but he must know that he will have to face up to America next year. He might very well decide that he could get a better peace by opening negotiations in 1942 than if he continues the struggle in '43 or '44. As I have told you, my one desire is to see peace restored before Europe becomes a shambles. But I am convinced that neither Britain nor Germany will make a first move; so the only hope is that one of the smaller countries will do so and set the ball rolling. It was for that I came to Hungary; to find out if there was any chance of her Government entering into a secret understanding should it be approached by the British.'
'I am in no position to say,' Levianski spread out his hands, 'but I should think it most unlikely.'
'For the Jews of Hungary it could mean not only life, but future security and prosperity,' said Gregory earnestly. 'The fact that they control Hungary's industry and commerce must give them considerable power. Surely there are ways in which they could exert their influence on the government to consider a separate peace?'