Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-21-2026
Journal / Book Title
Hungarian Cultural Studies
Abstract
In May 1993, General Béla Király was decorated Righteous among the Nations in Yad Vashem for protecting the lives of a Jewish labor company in the winter of 1943–1944 in the rear of the front in Proskurov, Ukraine. His recognition was based on false testimonies by veteran labor servicemen who were unaware that, during the winter of 1944–1945, Király, then a high-ranking official in the fascist Arrow Cross Ministry of Defense in Kőszeg, failed to respond to the suffering of 5,000 Jewish labor servicemen, of whom 2,500 died.
DOI
10.5195/ahea.2026.627
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Pastor, Peter, "Béla Király’s Tall Tale that Led to His Decoration as “Righteous” in Yad Vashem" (2026). Department of History Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 24.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/history-facpubs/24
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Published Citation
Pastor, Peter. “Béla Király’s Tall Tale That Led to His Decoration as ‘Righteous’ in Yad Vashem.” Hungarian Cultural Studies, vol. 19, Aug. 2026, pp. 50–66. https://doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2026.627.