World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, went down in history as the largest armed conflict of all time. The German-led Axis bloc included Italy and the Japanese Empire, opposed by Britain, France, the US and the USSR, the Allies.

Hungary entered the war as an ally of Germany, on the side of the Axis powers, in April 1941, when Yugoslavia was dismembered. In June 1941, Soviet planes missed the target and bombed the outskirts of Kassa and Munkács. That moved Hungary to declare war on the Soviet Union, which was accused of the bombing raid. With this move, Hungary committed itself to the Axis powers, a fact that would not allow it to avoid a tragic fate: after the defeats suffered in the Soviet Union, the Red Army, which had gone on the counter-offensive in 1944, occupied Hungary. As a result of the invasion, Hungary, along with Eastern and Central Europe, fell under the influence of the Soviet Union for more than 40 years.