By Ari Feldman July 6, 2017

In March 1945, an Austrian countess named Margit Batthyany had a dinner party at her castle near the Hungarian border. After the soiree, her Nazi-sympathizer boyfriend told guests to join him on a chilling mission.

They went to a group of 180 Jews who were working as slave laborers digging trenches in a nearby field. They forced the workers to strip naked, and shot them dead, one by one.

Sixty-two years later, in 2007, Batthyany’s grand-nephew, a Swiss journalist named Sacha Batthyany, was shown an article about the massacre — with a picture of his revered great-aunt on top.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“Let’s set aside that it was my aunt,” Sacha Batthyany told Haaretz. “It’s just an incredible, brutal story of this night.”

Sacha Batthyany’s journey to uncover the story involved many hard conversations with his father, who knew of the massacre but kept his aunt’s role secret.

The resulting book, “And What Does That Have To Do With Me?” will be out in the U.S. in an English translation in October, with the title “A Crime in the Family.”

“Everyone knew that [Margit Batthyany] was a German who was very much into the Nazi regime,” the younger Batthyany said. “But no one ever wanted to ask the questions.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aefeldman.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount