Letter of Miklos Horthy to Count Pal Teleki, 1940, 14 October [note especially the italics added]:
“As to the jewish Question, I have been an anti-semite all my life, I never had anything to do with jews. I find it intolerable that here in Hungary every last factory, bank, fortune, store, theatre, newspaper, business, etc. is in jewish hands, and that the image of Hungary abroad is that of the jew. However, since one of government’s most important tasks is to raise living standards, and for this we have to increase our wealth, it’s impossible within a year or two to phase out the jews, in whose hands everything resides, and replace them with loud-mouthed incompetents, otherwise we’ll be ruined. To do this requires at least a lifetime. I was perhaps the first to proclaim my anti-semitism loudly, yet I cannot calmly countenance inhumane, sadistic, pointless humiliation — not while we still need them.”