Rendelet [anti-Jewish Decree].

This “Rendelet” decree issued under orders of the Chief of Police of Budapest, was to forcibly relocate and concentrate the Jewish population of the city. The rounding up of Jews in South-eastern Hungary began mid-June, 1944. The subsequent deportations to Auschwitz commenced on June 25th and were completed by June 28th. It took just fifteen trains to transport just over 40,000 Hungarian Jews to the notorious death camp. In order to concentrate the Jews in the city, the Mayor of Budapest issued a decree forcing the relocation of the capital's Jews into “yellow-star houses”. According to the most recent city census of 1941, 21% of Budapest's population was of Jewish origin: 187,000 Jews and a further 35,000 converted Jews. Those “compelled to wear the yellow star” had to leave their apartments by midnight on June 24th, and move into designated houses also marked with a yellow star. According to the decree, a Jewish family was entitled to one residential room. A total of 1,944 designated yellow-star houses was finally earmarked. For translation and context, see Zoltán Vági, László Csősz & Gábor Kádár, The Holocaust in Hungary: Evolution of a Genocide (2013) p. 128. Further details available upon request.