István Horthy

István Horthy de Nagybánya (September 121904, Pula – August 201942, Aleksejevka) Hungarian: "Vitéz ["Vitéz" refers to a Hungarian knightly order founded by Miklós Horthy ("Vitézi Rend"); literally, "vitéz" means "valiant".] nagybányai Horthy István") was Hungarian regent Admiral Miklós Horthy's eldest son, a politician and, during World War II, a fighter pilot.

In his youth István Horthy and his brother were active members of a Catholic Scout troop of Magyar Cserkészszövetség, although he was a Protestant. [John S. Wilson: Scouting Round the World, first edition, London, Blandford Press, 1959, 81.] Horthy graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1928. He came to the United States for one year and worked in the Ford factory in Detroit, Michigan. Returning to Hungary, he worked in MÁVAG's locomotive factory in this occupation. On the forefront of the designer team, he took part in the development of many great projects, such as the Locomotive 424. Between 1934 and 1938, Horthy was the company's director, and after 1938, he became its general manager. It was rumored at the time that the Nazis made him manager of the State railways, a big jump from being an engineer, so he could siphon railway funds to promote the Nazi party in Hungary and protect the deportation trains traveling through the country. In 1940, he married "Countess Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai". He strenuously confronted Nazism, and often made his criticism public. In January 1942, his father appointed him Deputy Regent, and for some time, the "small regent" enjoyed massive popularity in Hungary. Shortly thereafter, István was sent to the Eastern Front. His humanity, and his disagreement in the "Jewish Question" appears even here, too - a quote from one of his letters, which he sent to his father from Kiev: " [...] Yet another sad topic: the Jewish companies, as I hear, -there 20 or 30 000 [men] -, are at the mercy of the sadist's passions, in every regard; the stomach of man gets ache [looking at this] ; it is abhorrent, that in the 20^th century, it happens at us, too... [...] I fear, we will pay for this very hardly once. (Is it possible to take them home to work there?) Otherwise, in spring, only a few will be alive. [...] " [Ilona Edelsheim-Gyulai: Becsület és kötelesség, part I. Budapest, Európa press, 2001.]

He died there, shortly after his arrival, in an unexplained airplane crash over the front. According to a speculation, German agents downed his plane, due to his opposition to Nazism.

His oldest son (also named István) is a successful engineer. Sharif István Horthy graduated in 1962 with a degree in Physics from Oxford University. He earned a second degree in Civil Engineering at Imperial College in 1966. He worked as a consulting engineer in England and later in the Far East where he founded and managed two major Indonesian companies in the fields of consulting engineering, construction and property development. Now in the USA, he assists clients in Europe, the Pacific Rim and the United States with their international business strategies.

Notes