German invasion of Hungary (1944)

On 12 March 1944, German troops received orders by Hitler to capture critical Hungarian facilities.

Horthy was told by von Jagow that Hungary would remain sovereign only if he removed Kállay and replaced him with a government that would co-operate fully with Germany.

Following the German military occupation, Adolf Eichmann was instructed to arrange the transportation of 550,000 Hungarian Jews from wartime Hungary (including Jews from territories that had been annexed from Czechoslovakia (Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia), Romania and Yugoslavia) to extermination camps with Hungarian authorities' collaboration.

By October 1944 the Soviet Budapest offensive was nearly ready to launch and Horthy made a radio broadcast that an armistice had been agreed.

Horthy was overthrown in Operation Panzerfaust, a coup that placed the National Socialist-friendly Arrow Cross Party (NyKP) in power.

The four-pronged German invasion of Hungary
German Bf 110s flying over Budapest in January 1944.