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THE
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HADOW
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ITLER
and its powers vested in himself, holding the ancient title of palatine.
This antique solution proved unacceptable to the assembled ministers.
Accordingly, Szálasi took as a temporary measure the title of National
Leader, agreeing that at some unspecified date a council of regency
would determine the identity of the new regent. As National Leader,
Szálasi combined the duties hitherto exercised by the regent with the
role of prime minister. On 4 November, before the Holy Crown and
in the presence of the assembled parliament and selected dignitaries,
Szálasi took the oath of office in the Marble Hall of the royal palace.
Its text followed almost verbatim that previously delivered by Horthy,
Franz Joseph and Maria Theresa.
52
It may well be that even at the first meeting of the new government,
held in the Yellow Hall of the Sándor Palace, everyone knew the war
to be lost.
53
Nevertheless, Szálasi continued to maintain that military
victory was imminent. In order to hasten it, he extended conscription,
pressed two new Hungarian SS divisions into existence, and put all
remaining industry on a war footing. Nevertheless, these measures did
not halt the Soviet advance. Accordingly, Szálasi announced in early
November plans to evacuate the government and key personnel from
Budapest to the far west of the country. By the middle of that month,
Budapest was effectively surrounded. In the chaos attending the siege
of Budapest and the Soviet advance, the Germans helped themselves to
the contents of the National Bank as well as to 26,000 cars, 793 steam
locomotives and the contents of 415 factories and 25 hospitals.
54
Upon taking power, the Arrow Cross resumed the hounding of
Hungary’s Jews, by now almost entirely confined to the capital. The
yellow star, abolished a few months earlier by Horthy, was reintro-
duced and the transfer begun of Jews from their tenements into two
hugely overcrowded ghettos.
55
Jews not confined to the ghettoes were
put to work in labour battalions. 50,000 of these were moved on foot,
in the middle of winter, to Hegyeshalom to assist in the construction
of a new defensive wall. Certainly, Szálasi complained to the Nazis of
the transfer of Hungarian Jews to German soil, famously remarking,
‘Are we rich enough that we can do without four million work hours a
day?’
56
In the mean time, individual Arrow Cross members, stirred by
vicious propaganda, exacted their own punishments. The main ghetto

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