(German: Special action “Hungary”)

The mass deportation of Jews from Hungary in its wartime borders from 1944, which also included parts of Slovakia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Romania. It occurred after the occupation of Hungary by the German army in March 1944. With the collaboration of the Hungarian gendarmerie, the organization of transit camp‑ghettos was begun. The first transport of Jews departed in the direction of Auschwitz in late April 1944. More mass transports began crossing the Hungarian border in mid‑May. The register of trains passing through Košice station makes it possible to reconstruct the deportation schedule. It indicates that transports were sent almost daily, with some interruptions, for several weeks. The transports were usually very large. For instance, the five trains noted under the date May 16 carried more than 17,000 people; the following day, there were 16,000 people in four transports. Edmund Vessenmayer, the German ambassador in Budapest, reported that through July 9, when Regent Horthy halted the deportations, a total of over 430,000 Jews (out of 725,000) were deported from Hungary. Almost all of them went to Auschwitz (“Lili Jacob Album”).

(Mini dictionary of terms from the history of Auschwitz)