Levente (organization)

Last updated
Levente Associations
Insignia Hungary Political History Levente.svg
Symbol of the Levente Associations
Active31 December 1921 [1] – 17 March 1945 [2]
Disbanded17 March 1945 [2]
AllegianceFlag of Hungary (1915-1918, 1919-1946).svg  Kingdom of Hungary
Type Paramilitary
Size1,300,000 (in January 1944) [3]
Garrison/HQ Budapest, Hungary
MarchSalus Hungaria [4]
Engagements World War II
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Alajos Béldy
Pennant of the Levente Headquarters of Miklosvar District (Haromszek County, Kingdom of Hungary) from 1940 to 1944 Pennant of the Levente Headquarters of Miklosvar District.svg
Pennant of the Levente Headquarters of Miklósvár District (Háromszék County, Kingdom of Hungary) from 1940 to 1944

Levente Associations (Hungarian : Leventeszervezetek) or simply levente [5] were paramilitary youth organizations in Hungary during the interwar period and the Second World War. They were established in 1921 with the declared purpose of physical and health training. [1] As of the mid-1930s, they became a de facto method of circumventing the ban on conscription imposed on Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon and over time, openly became a paramilitary organization under the leadership of military veterans. [6] [7] As of 1939, under the Act of Defense, all boys aged 12–21 were required to join the levente. [7]

Contents

The levente are usually compared to the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany and the Opera Nazionale Balilla of Italy, but while they also undertook military training, the levente were neither openly fascist nor particularly politicized, although they were not completely removed from the political influences of the time. [7]

The levente had a smaller female branch, Leventelányok ("Levente Girls"), created as a voluntary organization in June 1942. Under the rule of Ferenc Szálasi, installed by the Nazis in Hungary in October 1944, mandatory levente duties were imposed on girls aged 12–19, despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church. However, the changes were never implemented because of the advance of the Red Army. [7]

By the end of World War II, levente members were forced to serve in auxiliary military forces.

During the postwar Soviet occupation, many levente activists were tried by Soviet tribunals, convicted of "anti-Soviet activities" and deported to the USSR for penal labor.

Related Research Articles

The Sturmabteilung was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitler Youth</span> Youth organisation of the Nazi Party

The Hitler Youth was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was the sole official boys' youth organisation in Germany and it was partially a paramilitary organisation. It was composed of the Hitler Youth proper for male youths aged 14 to 18, and the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth for younger boys aged 10 to 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League of German Girls</span> Girls wing of the Nazi Party youth movement

The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edelweiss Pirates</span> Loosely organized group of youth in Nazi Germany

The Edelweiss Pirates were a loosely organized group of youths opposed to the status quo of Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth. Similar in many ways to the Leipzig Meuten, they consisted of young people, mainly between the ages of 14 and 17, who had evaded the Hitler Youth by leaving school and were also young enough to avoid military conscription, which was only compulsory from the age of 17 onward. The roots and background of the Edelweiss Pirates movement were detailed in the 2004 film Edelweiss Pirates, directed by Niko von Glasow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gyula Gömbös</span>

Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa was a Hungarian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1 October 1932 to his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrow Cross Party</span> 1935–1945 fascist political party in Hungary

The Arrow Cross Party was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to 28 March 1945. During its short rule, ten to fifteen thousand civilians were murdered outright, including many Jews and Romani, and 80,000 people were deported from Hungary to concentration camps in Austria. After the war, Szálasi and other Arrow Cross leaders were tried as war criminals by Hungarian courts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">László Bárdossy</span> Hungarian politician

László Bárdossy de Bárdos was a Hungarian diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from April 1941 to March 1942. He was one of the chief architects of Hungary's involvement in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpathian Ruthenia during World War II</span>

Carpathian Ruthenia was a region in the easternmost part of Czechoslovakia that became an autonomous region within that country in September 1938. It declared its independence as the "Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine” in 15 March 1939, however being occupied and annexed by Hungary the same day. Starting with October 1944, the Soviet Red Army occupied the territory and short period the territory of the region was organised as Transcarpathian Ukraine (1944—1946), until it was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1946. In total between 1939 and 1944 80,000 Carpathian Ukrainians perished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera Nazionale Balilla</span> Italian Fascist youth organization

Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning between 1926 and 1937, when it was absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), a youth section of the National Fascist Party.

Levente was a Hungarian noble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungary in World War II</span> Overview of Hungary in World War II

During World War II, the Kingdom of Hungary was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become more stridently nationalistic by 1938, and Hungary adopted an irredentist policy similar to Germany's, attempting to incorporate ethnic Hungarian areas in neighboring countries into Hungary. Hungary benefited territorially from its relationship with the Axis. Settlements were negotiated regarding territorial disputes with the Czechoslovak Republic, the Slovak Republic, and the Kingdom of Romania. On November 20, 1940, Hungary became the fourth member to join the Axis powers when it signed the Tripartite Pact. The following year, Hungarian forces participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union. Their participation was noted by German observers for its particular cruelty, with occupied peoples subjected to arbitrary violence. Hungarian volunteers were sometimes referred to as engaging in "murder tourism."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)</span> State in Central Europe between 1920–1946

The Kingdom of Hungary, referred to retrospectively as the Regency and the Horthy era, existed as a country from 1920 to 1946 under the rule of Regent Miklós Horthy, who officially represented the Hungarian monarchy. In reality there was no king, and attempts by King Charles IV to return to the throne shortly before his death were prevented by Horthy.

The Mocidade Portuguesa was a Portuguese youth organisation founded in 1936 under the right-wing regime of Prime Minister Salazar's Estado Novo. Membership was compulsory between the ages of 7 and 14, and voluntary until the age of 25. A documentary film made in 1939 gives an insight into its activities, attitudes and values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungarian National Defence Association</span>

The Hungarian National Defence Association was an early far-right movement active in Hungary. The structure of the group was largely paramilitary and as such separate from its leader's later political initiatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Youth Organisation (Greece)</span>

The National Youth Organisation was a youth organization in Greece during the years of the Metaxas Regime (1936–1941), established by the regime with the stated goals of helping the youth in the productive spending of their free time and cultivating their national values and cooperative spirit.

A fascist paramilitary is a fighting force - whether armed, unarmed, or merely symbolic - that is independent of regular military command and is established for the defence and advancement of a movement that adheres to the radical nationalist ideology of fascism. Since fascism is such a militarist ideology, there are very few varieties of fascism where paramilitaries do not play a central role, and some kind of paramilitary participation is almost always a basic requirement of membership in fascist movements. Fascist paramilitaries have seen action in both peacetime and wartime. Most fascist paramilitaries wear political uniforms, and many have taken their names from the colours of their uniforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gioventù Italiana del Littorio</span>

The Gioventù Italiana del Littorio(GIL) (English: Italian Youth of the Lictor) was the consolidated youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy that was established in 1937, to replace the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB). It was created to supervise and influence the minds of all youths, that was effectively directed against the influence of the Catholic Church on youths.

This is a list of words, terms, concepts, and slogans in the Italian language and Latin language which were specifically used in Fascist Italian monarchy and Italian Social Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Hungarian Army</span> Land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary (1919–1945)

The Royal Hungarian Army was the name given to the land forces of the Kingdom of Hungary in the period from 1922 to 1945. Its name was inherited from the Royal Hungarian Honvéd which went under the same Hungarian title of Magyar Királyi Honvédség from 1867 to 1918. Initially restricted by the Treaty of Trianon to 35,000 men, the army was steadily upgraded during the 1930s and fought on the side of the Axis powers in the Second World War.

References

  1. 1 2 "1921. évi LIII. törvénycikk a testnevelésről: kihirdettetett az Országos Törvénytárban 1921. évi december hó 31. napján". Országos Törvénytár. 53. 1921.
  2. 1 2 "Az Ideiglenes Nemzeti Kormány 529/1945. M.E. számu rendelete a fasiszta politikai és katonai jellegü szervezetek feloszlatásáról". Magyar Közlöny. 1 (9): 3. 1945.
  3. Kerepeszky, Róbert (2010). "A leventemozgalom". Rubicon. 20 (205–206): 111.
  4. Salus Hungaria (Magyar Levente Induló)
  5. "Levente" is an Old Hungarian word for "knight; see also "Levente"
  6. Ernst Christian Helmreich (1957) "Hungary", Praeger , p. 45
  7. 1 2 3 4 Attila Horvath, "War and Peace: the Effects of the World War II on Hungarian Education" in: Roy Lowe (ed.) (1992) "Education & the Second World War: Studies in Schooling & Social Change", ISBN   0-7507-0054-8

See also