Seventy years ago tomorrow, July 19, 1944, the New York Times ran a two sentence story: “Admiral Nicholas Horthey, Regent of Hungary, has promised the International Red Cross Committee that no more Jews will be transported forcibly out of Hungary, it was learned today, and authorized the committee to direct evacuation of Jewish children to countries willing to receive them. A private informant said Admiral Horthy also authorized the committee to remove any Jews possessing visas to Palestine.”
Roswell McClelland learned about what became known as the Horthy offer–an offer that is almost missing from history books–on July 18th, when de Koever of the Red Cross called and left him a phone message. You can see the scrawl of the message below with McClelland’s notes, as he first learns of this possibility to get the remaining Hungarian Jews to safety.
