Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner
Encyclopedia
Vitéz Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner (22 November 1890 - 5 November 1946) was a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 military officer, who had a significant role in the Novi Sad massacre during the Second World War.

Military career

After visiting the artillery cadet school Traiskirchen
Traiskirchen
Traiskirchen is a town in the district of Baden in Lower Austria in Austria. It is 20 km south of Vienna and located in the famous Thermenlinie region of Lower Austria known for its wine and heurigers...

 and Theresia Military Academy came in 1910 as a lieutenant for Zeidner Feldhaubitzregiment No. 12 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he served as an artillery and staff officer and attained the rank of captain. After the war he joined the newly founded Royal Hungarian Army, where he in 1921 as a staff officer at the 7th Mixed Brigade served in Miskolc
Miskolc
Miskolc is a city in northeastern Hungary, mainly with heavy industrial background. With a population close to 170,000 Miskolc is the fourth largest city of Hungary It is also the county capital of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and the regional centre of Northern Hungary.- Geography :Miskolc is located...

. In addition, he taught at the Hungarian Military Academy. In the interwar period, he changed his surname in German Feketehalmy Czeydner. In 1928 he was transferred to the Ministry of Defence and in 1929 promoted to lieutenant colonel. From November 1934 he was deputy director of the aviation ministry, in March 1938 from Air Force Chief of Section Ministry of Defence.

In November 1938 he took over as commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade and was promoted to major general in the following year. From March 1940 he was Chief of General Staff of the 1st Army before he was in August 1941, commanding general of Fifth Army Corps stationed in Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....

. In November of that year he was promoted to Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

.

In January 1942, troops under his command conducted a large-scale retaliation by the since April 1941 annexed Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...

 by Hungary. The operation was arranged after the assassination of several Hungarian gendarmes and soldiers and Yugoslav partisans sabotage by the Chief of General Staff, Ferenc Szombathelyi
Ferenc Szombathelyi
Vitéz Ferenc Szombathelyi was a Hungarian military officer, who served as Chief of Army Staff during the Second World War.-Military career:...

. Three battalions under Colonel László Deák
Laszlo Deak
László Deák was a Hungarian army officer who served in World War I and World War II. He was accused and convicted of war crimes due to his involvement in the massacre of Serbian and Jewish civilians during the Axis armies' invasion of Yugoslavia...

 were dispatched to the area where they receive assistance from local police, gendarmerie and army units were home. In the village Žabalj
Žabalj
Žabalj is a town and municipality in South Bačka District of Vojvodina, Serbia. Žabalj town has a population of 9,582, and Žabalj municipality 27,418. It is located in southeastern part of Bačka, known as Šajkaška.-Name:...

 been observed in its vicinity, the partisans were under orders of Feketehalmy the entire population was massacred. Of 21 to 23 January was held in Novi Sad, a pogrom, the nearly 800 people, including 550 Jews and 292 Serbs were victims. A total of up to adjust the action on 31 January had been murdered up to 4,000 people.

The Novi Sad massacre sparked protests in Hungary, which were led among others by the chairman of the opposition party of smallholders (FKGP), Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky
Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky
Endre Kálmán Bajcsy-Zsilinszky , was an influential Hungarian politician and an important voice in the struggle against German expansion and military policy.-Family history:...

. As a result Feketehalmy was retired, but remained unpunished. As recently as September 1943, when Hungary was already in negotiations with Western powers over a separate peace, a case against the officers responsible were brought. On 14 December 1943 the trial of three police officers and twelve-Honved was opened. Feketehalmy-Czeydner was sentenced to 15 years in prison, seven co-defendants received sentences of over ten years. On 15 January-Czeydner Feketehalmy fled with three other convicts to Vienna, where they requested political asylum. An extradition request by the Hungarian government came to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 not.

In March 1944 came Feketehalmy in the Waffen SS and served in the sequence in the II SS Panzer Corps
II SS Panzer Corps
The II SS Panzer Corps was a Nazi German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II.- Formation - Kharkov :...

. After the Arrow Cross
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...

 coup of Hitler faithful under Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , being both Head of State and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary's "Government of National Unity" for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...

he went back to Hungary in October 1944 and became deputy minister of war. He was assigned to the war with the establishment of a Hungarian-SS corps that existed only on paper but practically.

In May 1945 he fell into American captivity, from which he was being shipped to Hungary. The Hungarian authorities handed him over in January 1946 along with four other Hungarian military in Yugoslavia. Here he was for war crimes and sentenced to death on 5 November 1946 Žabalj hanged.
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