Count Fidél Pálffy ab Erdőd (6 May 1895 – 2 March 1946) was a Hungarian nobleman who emerged as a leading supporter of Nazism in Hungary.
Contents
Early life
After service in the First World War he lived on an estate in Czechoslovakia before returning to Hungary, where he was left bankrupt by the Great Depression of 1929.
Pro-Nazi activity
He founded a group called the Hungarian National Socialist Party in 1933 and later merged it with two similar groups under Sándor Festetics and Zoltán Meskó. By 1935 Pálffy had assumed control of this group, although it failed to prosper as support drifted to Gyula Gömbös. Devoid of influence, Pálffy turned to Germany and became an agent of the RSHA. Seeking to regain the initiative he worked variously with László Baky and Ferenc Szálasi in an attempt to launch a pro-German party. He finally achieved this goal in 1941 by relaunching the Hungarian National Socialist Party with Baky, although the party was not considered conservative when compared to the Arrow Cross Party.