| Summary/Abstract |
This paper deals with an untypical military officer, Kisbarnaki Farkas Ferenc (or Farkas Ferenc de genere Kisbarnaki), who also had a good relationship with the Roman Catholic Church and scouting movement. His career evolved smoothly until 1944. The Wehrmacht occupied the Kingdom of Hungary on 19 March, and not much later the front reached the Hungarian border. A part of the Hungarian leader group—including Governor Horthy—wanted to extricate Hungary from the war and therefore contacted the Soviet leader. But the German secret service knew everything about this negotiation as well. Therefore a coup d’etat was organized by the German secret services using the Hungarian extreme-right parties as well. 15 and 16 October were key days of the coup d’etat. Although some became loyal to the Hungarian Government, a large number of people joined the new regime. A few officers and clerks waited to see whether the coup d’etat would prove successful or not. Kisbarnaki Farkas was an officer of this kind. From then on his fate was linked to the will of the new puppet government. The paper presents how Kisbarnaki Farkas acted in various political situations and what kind of decisions he made during this period. It is also an important question how all this influenced his post-war life.
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