Ferenc Szalasi's Statement to the Nation,
October 15, 1944, Budapest

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In its thousand year history our nation has arrived now at its critical moment.

Our outer enemy already stands with his foot on our homeland's soil, and it threatens us with extermination. Our homeland's inner enemies contracted an alliance with the enemy to jointly deal our Nation's life a deadly blow.

A self-serving alliance of individual interests sponged on our nation's life. And when our nation adopted to the weapon of the fight for freedom in the cause of its existence and safety, this alliance - which has nothing to do with our Nation - left no stone unturned to see us succumb in this holy war. Their cause is to prefer their own contemptible and cowardly interests to our nation's interests, even at the sacrifice of our nation's extermination. To this alliance belong to all those who in responsible positions, in full possession of power led our nation's life through many decades, but they didn't hold to their duty to lead out our nation from its moral, spiritual and material misery.

This alliance sanctioned everything as constitutional and lawful which served its selfish interests. But every claim of our nation for a brighter, more veritable and better life was declared anti-constitutional and lawless and was repelled ruthlessly.

This alliance made the government a puppet of its selfish interests, and used the government against the Nation.

This alliance induced the government to break its oath to the nation. It led it to endanger our nation's life and death struggle, and to impair its federal faithfulness and its binding comradeship to our borders with us in a blood-alliance defending our German brother-in-arms.

But the government also went on sneaking and murderous actions in the rear of the fighting Hungarian and German troops, aiming their ruin. Starting in October of 1936, I called the government's attention directly and indirectly, time and again and more and more urgently, to solve these vital questions, and in common decision with our nation, which questions have to be solved by every nation of Europe for the historical order of natural development, and for our nation to be a member of the community of the nationalist and socialist New Europe.

This step of mine was a fruitless effort. I had to choose between nation and constitution, between truth and legal right, and between life and law. I chose our nation, the truth and the life!

Only with this decision of mine could the Nation gain a living constitution, life as a living law and the truth as a living right.

Loyalty and responsible service to our nation orders me thus. This step of mine will be justified by history and will be sanctioned by our nation's will. This is my belief.

Our Nation's will to life, its sense of vocation and honor demanded unquestioningly the removal of the hindrances of its free will and action which endanger our existence.

The only pledge of our survival and keeping of our life is: throwing our full power behind this decisive tide of the historical struggle, to bring to an end faithfully, without compromises, honestly and victoriously the biggest and bloodiest combat in world history, for all peoples' fates and futures, side by side with Germany, Italy and Japan.

In this decisive fight Germany's, Italy's, and Japan's friends are also our friends, and their enemies also are our enemies.

This world-forming fight builds the nationalist and socialist pattern of life, and with it the welfare for our nation's millions of families and homes, its safety, and the assurance of European peace for centuries.

The nations who are vigorous and leading on the path of life will attain - in the true and noble sense of the word - their freedom, self-reliance and independence. Everyone must decide plainly and unanimously whether to be on our side or on the other side, but he must fight, and must tackle the responsibility for his decision which belongs to him alone. Our nation, which has united with the vigorous nations leading on the path of life for this final conflict, now again and just like always, fights on the side of life and truth.

We fight for freedom. The requirement is for everyone to stand and fight immediately undismayed and without discussion, resolutely and with undiminished energy, leaving anything else out of consideration. The traitor is he who hinders our nation's total exertion and tries to break down its volitional unity. We have to relentlessly and unsparingly remove from the way of our clear course of action those mischief-makers, schemers, flunkies who are ready to compromise, and the cowards from the core people, who please themselves in the role of soundness and objectivity. The basic principle of our fight: to annihilate, or to be annihilated. We don't admit any other basic principles for neither are they sound nor objective.

The Armed Forces are the signifying, incarnating and the executors of our Nation's armed will, the Nation which manifests itself in the peasant, in the worker, in the intellectual class, in the women and in the youth.

Our Armed Forces have to declare a world view. It's also directed by its rules of military service and by its oath. The ordered elements of its demanded world view: the fear of God, patriotism and camaraderie. The fear of God is the core of its moral attitude. Patriotism orders it to the loyalty and the self-sacrifice to our nation. Camaraderie is the requirement of the communal life in battles of life and death.

Our nation must also declare a world view, but only one which the most valuable part of is the heroic view of life.

Opposition cannot lie between them: The fear of God must lead our nation in the moral reality of Christ's doctrines, patriotism leads to active nationalism, and camaraderie to the aiding of socialism.

We have to see that the failed system in Hungary was ordered in deadly opposition to such a world view. The empiric basic pillars of it were godlessness instead of fear of God, homelessness of internationalism instead of patriotism, and companionship of individual interests instead of camaraderie, and this was sanctioned by all factors of state power and were protected by laws and jurisdictions. We have to eliminate and quash forever this deadly opposition between our nation and its constitution, between our life and the laws, and between our truth and the jurisdictions.

Our armed nation has to be one soul, one body, one will, one resolution, loyal and honest, bloody and laborious in the duty of the only goal: in the fighting out and in the building up of the Hungaricist Hungarian Empire. We have to outlaw from this nationalist and socialist community of ours and crush all the worms, who whether in words or in writing, whether in attitude or in act, openly or impliedly, intentionally or out of idiocy, sin against this unalterable will of the nation.

Our army is the armed nation's fist of steel that smashes the will of the enemy to exterminate us, and that makes it impossible for them to present a front against us in the future.

Our army demands from the homeland to march on its side in order and in ranks, to find the moral, spiritual and material means for this decisive fight with the united work of the peasant, the worker, the intellectual class, the woman and the youth, and to make these means available at the right time, at the demanded place, in the needed quantity and in the convenient quality, to fight out and to end victoriously with the possibility of swift decision. The homeland demands from the army that it honor its commitment heroically even in the most critical situations, to be possessed by the heroic view of life in all its decisions and acts, to wage battle to be able to enable the homeland to accept the truth of life(?).

Between our nation's homeland and its Army a matrimony has to come into being, a community of fate and camaraderie, which has to be formed into an indissoluble living organism by the leaders of the nation and by their device, the power of the state.

We place in battle array our nation's moral, spiritual and material completeness, and its political, economic and social strength. We have to tackle and withstand ordeals and suffering. Only in this way can we win our nation's existence in the pattern of life. At the end of the unselfish way, - which already lies before us - there is the already obvious goal: our nation's nationalist and socialist freedom, and its self-reliance and independence in the moral, spiritual and material community of the European folks.

The sacrifices of our fallen heroic casualties, who fell in hellish battles and in terror-raids against our homeland, will not be vain. Their glorious sacrifice compels us! It demands us to carry on in knowledge that these people saw this sacrifice as their unaffected and exacted duty. It demands us to take care of the families and homes of our nation's best ones. It demands, first and foremost, that our nation's leaders hinder the stab in the back (by rascals and cowards) of our fighting army and our nation. We have to get square with them mercilessly. Whoever throws down his weapon cowardly and disloyally from his hands turns it against himself. He who wants to knock the weapon out of our nation's hand with his attack from ambush and cowardice, the weapon which was taken up by our Nation to defend himself, has only himself to blame for the consequences.

The statements of this battle order are equally compulsory on everyone. On every single member of the armed forces, just like on the peasant, on the worker, on the intellectual class, on the woman, and on the youth. All laws, decrees and by-laws are passed, commented and executed by the spirit and by the meaning of this battle order.

Our fate, future and reward will be will based based on how hard we fought. Neither better, nor worse; neither more, nor less. We get it according to our just deserts. Everything rests with us: this is our armed and worker nation's historical task, its unselfish duty, its joyful responsibility, but first of all the question of its will of life and honor.

The coward will be consumed by two: by us Hungaricists ,and by the destructive will of the enemy. The brave will be accepted by two: by us Hungaricists, and by our nation's everlasting gratitude.

My belief and conviction is that our nation will accomplish its historical duty, and that it advances to certain victory on the side of Germany, Italy, Japan and their other allies.

In our nation's duty I say many thanks to the brilliant leader of the German folk: to Adolf Hitler, as a very loyal Comrade, who is of great help to our nation in these days when its fate is decided. This act of his is another historical proof of that Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Germans, unfailingly seeks the welfare, the safety and the harmony of life for every single folk of the nationalist and socialist European community. By his divine dispensation as the tireless leader of the nationalist and socialist European community, our nation will accomplish its duty honestly and loyally.

It's possible to die duty to our nation, but never to grow weary iit!

I ask for God's blessing on our Nation's great decision and on its great fight standing before us.

Kitartás!