I love books. I mean I really love books. Every room of our home has bookshelves, brimming and overflowing. I suppose everyone who loves history loves books - and maps! - but were it not for my wife's glaring budgetary scrutiny I would be living in a cardboard box under some bridge in a park, with lots of books.
Anyway, as a student in Hungary I used to haunt antikváriums (used books stores), constantly adding to the growing Vrylakas library. Well one day, in I think 1989 or so, I found an interesting book that mentions a story I'm about to tell. Really, there is a point to all this. (My rambling here is probably due to the cold medicine kicking in.) The book was an original edition published in 1933 of American Maj. Gen. Harry "Hill" Bandholtz's memoirs from August-December 1919 when he was the head of the American military mission to the ACC of post-WW I occupied Hungary. Finding an American book in a backstreet antikvárium in extremely-recently post-communist Hungary was unusual enough, but finding an original edition of this book in decent condition was little short of shocking. I've since come to understand how much Hungarians revere General Bandholtz, and I'll explain why but first some background:
Hungary of course was part of the Austro-Hungarian dual-monarchy ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. The Holy Alliance of the Habsburgs, Poles and Venetians had conquered Hungary in the 1683-1699 wars against the Ottoman Empire and Hungary was incorporated into the Habsburg empire, revolting twice (1701-1711, 1848-49) unsuccessfully. After being badly defeated in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War however, the Habsburgs realized theyd been effectively pushed out of Germany and needed to develop a power base of their own. They turned to the 2nd largest group (by population) within their empire and the one with the most historical experience of independence, the Hungarians, and cut a deal in 1867 (Das Ausgleich; The Compromise), creating a two-state imperial realm. The cities of Buda and Pest were united as one in 1873, and massive architectural and technical changes were made in the new capital in preparations for 1896, the 1000 year anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian kingdom. Hungarians today remember these years very fondly as a second golden age of Hungarian culture. Unfortunately while initially the Hungarian government treated its considerable ethnic minorities quite equitably, within a few years more chauvinist policies came in place including an attempt to forcibly Hungarianize them. This created many enemies among these minorities and the surrounding peoples for Hungary, which consequently would bear ugly fruit in the World War.
One of the main reasons the Habsburgs didnt just attack Serbia in late June or early July 1914 was because the Hungarian government dragged its feet, afraid of the consequences of bringing more Slavs into the empire (based on the popular assumption of course that the imperial forces would easily triumph over Serbia). You know how the war went of course, and in October 1918 the new Habsburg emperor of two years, Karl, finally attempted to federalize the empire to give political autonomy to all its nationalities, something minority groups had been asking for since the 1880s. October 1918 was too late for such ideas, however, and the empire literally disintegrated over two weeks time as group after group declared their independence and simply left. Even Austria declared its independence, right out from under Karl. The Hungarians shuffled out with the rest of the nationalities but one issue that independence didnt settle was borders: Churchills armies of the pygmies began to march immediately. Initially Hungary created a semi-democratic government (though one heavily dominated by aristocrats), but French political schemes to create a French fifth column in Eastern Europe to counter-balance Germany (replacing the old Franco-Russian alliance, which died with the November 1917 revolution) led to the collapse of this Hungarian government. A communist regime came to power in March 1919, led by Béla Kun, which initiated a nice Red Terror among the Hungarian peasantry. Kun repulsed an attack by the new Czechoslovakia, and feeling cocky his troops provoked another war with Romania (both Czechoslovakia and Romania were occupying pre-1918 areas of Hungary), which didnt go so well. The Allies gave their ascent to a full-fledged Romanian invasion of Hungary and by late July 1919 Kun had fled and the Romanians occupied Budapest. (Kun fled to Soviet Russia BTW, where he befriended Lenin but was executed by Stalin on trumped-up charges in 1937.) It was at this time that the U.S., France, Britain and Italy sent an inter-Allied military commission to Budapest, ostensibly to ensure the Hungarians were disarming and abiding by their armistice but just as much to ensure the Romanians, Serbs and Czechs did not make territorial seizures before decisions could be made at the Paris Peace Conference, then in progress. Maj. General Bandholtz was the head of the American military mission in this group.
The truth was that Italy and France both had their own designs on Eastern Europe, so the ACC (Allied Control Commission) was host to constant conniving and in-fighting between the French and Italians on the one hand, and the British and Americans on the other. The Romanians occupied Hungary from July until November 1919, most of Bandholtzs tenure in Budapest. Romania was at the time an extremely impoverished country whose living standard and economic output was almost medieval in comparison to Hungarys. Hungary produced modern industrial products like trucks, bikes, electric subway cars, and had a flourishing agricultural sector that produced enough food to keep Budapest and Vienna well-stocked throughout the World War. This meant that the Romanians looted everything that wasnt nailed down in their occupation of Hungary, and a few things that were. Bandholtz reports he personally witnessed thousands of telephones, livestock, railroad rolling stock and engines, private cars, clothes, copper cable coils, even whole factories being gutted and shipped back to Romania. Bandholtz viewed Hungarians as pathetic defeated enemies and did not much sympathize with them in their plight but he came to despise the behavior of his fellow Allies the Romanians, Serbs, French and Italians during his tenure in their collaboration to loot Hungary. Here then, finally, is a story that Bandholtz himself relates in his memoirs but which is remembered with greatest affection by modern Hungarians:
Just as General Bandholtz and the American mission were finishing their dinner on the evening of 5. August, an American orderly burst into their room to declare that the Romanian army had posted guards around the Hungarian Nemzeti Múzeum (National Museum), and were rounding up trucks all over the city and bringing them to the museum. National museums were all the rage in 19th century Europe, with collections of ethnographical and historical significance to the host country. Recently the Paris Peace Conference had awarded Transylvania to Romania, despite 8 centuries of association with Hungary. The Romanians therefore had declared their intention to seize any artifacts in the Hungarian Nemzeti Múzeum from Transylvania, but the ACC had ordered them to wait until it had reviewed the collection. Well, it was clear the Romanians were not going to wait. Bandholtz grabbed his aid and an American soldier and ran at break-neck speed across the city to the museum, where he indeed found it guarded by Romanians and trucks lined up out front. The director of the museum had protested to the Romanians that the ACC had real control of the museums contents and he therefore could not turn over the keys to them, but the Romanian General Serbescu insisted that he would return the next morning and shoot his way in if need be. This the director told Bandholtz, who took possession of the keys himself and lacking much else placed a wide piece of tape across the museum door, writing on it:
Knowing that not many Romanians could speak English at the time and also knowing, as he put it, Europeans fondness for rubber-stamp display, Bandholtz took the only rubber stamp he had on him, an American mail-censor stamp, and added its mark to his tape.
The next day at the regular ACC meeting, he maneuvered his French and Italian colleagues to acquiesce to his actions the night before, making the ACCs seizure of the museum collection official. The Romanian soldiers under Serbescu arrived as threatened the next day but after much hemming and hawing, declined to break Gen. Bandholtzs seal. For days afterwards the Romanians pleaded and cajoled Bandholtz to allow them to break his "seal", but to no avail.
The museum collection is still today intact and can be seen in Budapest. General Bandholtzs seal is also on display, just inside the Nemzeti Múzeums door, with a historical description of the incident.
In the 1930s Hungary erected a statue of Gen. Bandholtz in the park of Szabadság Tér (Freedom Square) where the American Embassy is located, but during WW II (when the U.S. and Hungary were at war) the statue was quietly removed. The communists were in no hurry to replace it, but as a part of the incredible thaw of 1988-89 in Hungary the statue was placed back in the city park, where Ive since seen it (link here) and paid my respects.
Anyway, as a student in Hungary I used to haunt antikváriums (used books stores), constantly adding to the growing Vrylakas library. Well one day, in I think 1989 or so, I found an interesting book that mentions a story I'm about to tell. Really, there is a point to all this. (My rambling here is probably due to the cold medicine kicking in.) The book was an original edition published in 1933 of American Maj. Gen. Harry "Hill" Bandholtz's memoirs from August-December 1919 when he was the head of the American military mission to the ACC of post-WW I occupied Hungary. Finding an American book in a backstreet antikvárium in extremely-recently post-communist Hungary was unusual enough, but finding an original edition of this book in decent condition was little short of shocking. I've since come to understand how much Hungarians revere General Bandholtz, and I'll explain why but first some background:
Hungary of course was part of the Austro-Hungarian dual-monarchy ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. The Holy Alliance of the Habsburgs, Poles and Venetians had conquered Hungary in the 1683-1699 wars against the Ottoman Empire and Hungary was incorporated into the Habsburg empire, revolting twice (1701-1711, 1848-49) unsuccessfully. After being badly defeated in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War however, the Habsburgs realized theyd been effectively pushed out of Germany and needed to develop a power base of their own. They turned to the 2nd largest group (by population) within their empire and the one with the most historical experience of independence, the Hungarians, and cut a deal in 1867 (Das Ausgleich; The Compromise), creating a two-state imperial realm. The cities of Buda and Pest were united as one in 1873, and massive architectural and technical changes were made in the new capital in preparations for 1896, the 1000 year anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian kingdom. Hungarians today remember these years very fondly as a second golden age of Hungarian culture. Unfortunately while initially the Hungarian government treated its considerable ethnic minorities quite equitably, within a few years more chauvinist policies came in place including an attempt to forcibly Hungarianize them. This created many enemies among these minorities and the surrounding peoples for Hungary, which consequently would bear ugly fruit in the World War.
One of the main reasons the Habsburgs didnt just attack Serbia in late June or early July 1914 was because the Hungarian government dragged its feet, afraid of the consequences of bringing more Slavs into the empire (based on the popular assumption of course that the imperial forces would easily triumph over Serbia). You know how the war went of course, and in October 1918 the new Habsburg emperor of two years, Karl, finally attempted to federalize the empire to give political autonomy to all its nationalities, something minority groups had been asking for since the 1880s. October 1918 was too late for such ideas, however, and the empire literally disintegrated over two weeks time as group after group declared their independence and simply left. Even Austria declared its independence, right out from under Karl. The Hungarians shuffled out with the rest of the nationalities but one issue that independence didnt settle was borders: Churchills armies of the pygmies began to march immediately. Initially Hungary created a semi-democratic government (though one heavily dominated by aristocrats), but French political schemes to create a French fifth column in Eastern Europe to counter-balance Germany (replacing the old Franco-Russian alliance, which died with the November 1917 revolution) led to the collapse of this Hungarian government. A communist regime came to power in March 1919, led by Béla Kun, which initiated a nice Red Terror among the Hungarian peasantry. Kun repulsed an attack by the new Czechoslovakia, and feeling cocky his troops provoked another war with Romania (both Czechoslovakia and Romania were occupying pre-1918 areas of Hungary), which didnt go so well. The Allies gave their ascent to a full-fledged Romanian invasion of Hungary and by late July 1919 Kun had fled and the Romanians occupied Budapest. (Kun fled to Soviet Russia BTW, where he befriended Lenin but was executed by Stalin on trumped-up charges in 1937.) It was at this time that the U.S., France, Britain and Italy sent an inter-Allied military commission to Budapest, ostensibly to ensure the Hungarians were disarming and abiding by their armistice but just as much to ensure the Romanians, Serbs and Czechs did not make territorial seizures before decisions could be made at the Paris Peace Conference, then in progress. Maj. General Bandholtz was the head of the American military mission in this group.
The truth was that Italy and France both had their own designs on Eastern Europe, so the ACC (Allied Control Commission) was host to constant conniving and in-fighting between the French and Italians on the one hand, and the British and Americans on the other. The Romanians occupied Hungary from July until November 1919, most of Bandholtzs tenure in Budapest. Romania was at the time an extremely impoverished country whose living standard and economic output was almost medieval in comparison to Hungarys. Hungary produced modern industrial products like trucks, bikes, electric subway cars, and had a flourishing agricultural sector that produced enough food to keep Budapest and Vienna well-stocked throughout the World War. This meant that the Romanians looted everything that wasnt nailed down in their occupation of Hungary, and a few things that were. Bandholtz reports he personally witnessed thousands of telephones, livestock, railroad rolling stock and engines, private cars, clothes, copper cable coils, even whole factories being gutted and shipped back to Romania. Bandholtz viewed Hungarians as pathetic defeated enemies and did not much sympathize with them in their plight but he came to despise the behavior of his fellow Allies the Romanians, Serbs, French and Italians during his tenure in their collaboration to loot Hungary. Here then, finally, is a story that Bandholtz himself relates in his memoirs but which is remembered with greatest affection by modern Hungarians:
Just as General Bandholtz and the American mission were finishing their dinner on the evening of 5. August, an American orderly burst into their room to declare that the Romanian army had posted guards around the Hungarian Nemzeti Múzeum (National Museum), and were rounding up trucks all over the city and bringing them to the museum. National museums were all the rage in 19th century Europe, with collections of ethnographical and historical significance to the host country. Recently the Paris Peace Conference had awarded Transylvania to Romania, despite 8 centuries of association with Hungary. The Romanians therefore had declared their intention to seize any artifacts in the Hungarian Nemzeti Múzeum from Transylvania, but the ACC had ordered them to wait until it had reviewed the collection. Well, it was clear the Romanians were not going to wait. Bandholtz grabbed his aid and an American soldier and ran at break-neck speed across the city to the museum, where he indeed found it guarded by Romanians and trucks lined up out front. The director of the museum had protested to the Romanians that the ACC had real control of the museums contents and he therefore could not turn over the keys to them, but the Romanian General Serbescu insisted that he would return the next morning and shoot his way in if need be. This the director told Bandholtz, who took possession of the keys himself and lacking much else placed a wide piece of tape across the museum door, writing on it:
Knowing that not many Romanians could speak English at the time and also knowing, as he put it, Europeans fondness for rubber-stamp display, Bandholtz took the only rubber stamp he had on him, an American mail-censor stamp, and added its mark to his tape.
The next day at the regular ACC meeting, he maneuvered his French and Italian colleagues to acquiesce to his actions the night before, making the ACCs seizure of the museum collection official. The Romanian soldiers under Serbescu arrived as threatened the next day but after much hemming and hawing, declined to break Gen. Bandholtzs seal. For days afterwards the Romanians pleaded and cajoled Bandholtz to allow them to break his "seal", but to no avail.
The museum collection is still today intact and can be seen in Budapest. General Bandholtzs seal is also on display, just inside the Nemzeti Múzeums door, with a historical description of the incident.
In the 1930s Hungary erected a statue of Gen. Bandholtz in the park of Szabadság Tér (Freedom Square) where the American Embassy is located, but during WW II (when the U.S. and Hungary were at war) the statue was quietly removed. The communists were in no hurry to replace it, but as a part of the incredible thaw of 1988-89 in Hungary the statue was placed back in the city park, where Ive since seen it (link here) and paid my respects.
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