Miklós Kozma


Vitéz Miklós Kozma de Leveld was a Hungarian politician, who served as Interior Minister between 1935 and 1937. He was also Minister of Defence for a short time in the cabinet of Gyula Gömbös. He attended the Ludovika Academy and fought in World War I. He was the supporter of Miklós Horthy from the begins. He worked as head of the Magyar Távirati Iroda from 1922 until his death. He did not agree with the Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi's moderate policy, so he resigned the position of the Minister of the Interior.
After the ministership Kozma continued his radical politics, he wanted to attack Carpathian Ruthenia with the Rongyos Gárda at which time it was part of Czechoslovakia, but the government talked him out of this plan. The Rongyos Gárda had encountered the Slovak army after they filtered into the region. After the occupation Miklós Kozma was appointed as governor of Kárpátalja. He played an major role in the starting of the first Jewish deportation in Hungary, beginning with non-Hungarian Jews, including those who had escaped from surrounding countries into Hungary. Many of these deportees soon became victims of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Massacre.