############################################################ Hungarian Pro-Nazi Officer Promoted ========================== BUDAPEST, Nov 9, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Hungarian authorities defended Wednesday the promotion of a retired army officer who has praised the country's pro-Nazi authorities during World War II. The defense ministry said Major Robert Szalay, who was promoted to a colonel, was elevated in rank for his role in the country's 1956 uprising against Soviet domination. "Robert Szalay was an active participant of the 1956 revolution and freedom fight, he is a genuine revolutionary who is still active today," the ministry said in a statement. In a book he wrote on the 1956 uprising and the events that led to it, Szalay praised the 1944 coup by antisemitic and pro-Nazi Hungarian governor Ferenc Szalasi, backed by Hitler's Third Reich. The coup was a "legal action" which "spearheaded the fight to save the nation from Bolshevism and defended Europe from Asian barbarism," according to excerpts published in the Magyar Hirlap newspaper. Szalasi was tried as a war criminal and executed in 1946. The ministry said Szalay's promotion was made under a law that "makes possible the promotion of retired officers" and on the proposal of 1956 revolutionaries, but declined to react on Szalay's views on history. According to Magyar Hirlap, Szalay is also a leading editor of the extreme right-wing nationalist Szittyakuert newspaper published by emigree Hungarians in the United States. Historian Attila Szakolczay said that Szalay's participation in the 1956 uprising was restricted to a single occasion of demanding weapons for upraises. "After that, he disappeared and when the revolution was crushed, he signed a statement that condemned the revolution as a counter-revolution and enrolled in the Communist militia that helped keep (pro-Soviet) order afterwards," said Szakolczay ############################################################ -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/3/_/158091/_/974256366/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> To Post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
