This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Nyilaskeresztes Párt (Hungary, 1940-1945)

NYKP, Arrow Cross Party

Last modified: 2014-05-29 by zoltán horváth
Keywords: nykp | nyilaskeresztes párt | arrow cross | h | cross: arrow pointed |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by António Martins, 10 Aug 1999
See also:

The Arrow Cross

The Arrow Cross was the symbol of the fascist Arrow Cross Party (Nyilaskeresztes Párt) who came to power in (then German occupied) Hungary on October 15 1944 after Admiral Horthy tried to negotiate with the allies. Acording to Symbols.com, the Arrow cross has been used by Magyarian tribes about the time that they arrived in the region now called Hungary, around the year 1000 A.D. The most well known version of the flag was identical to the hakenkreuzfahne apart from the symbol in the center of the flag.
Marcus Wendel, 07 Aug 1999 and 09 Aug 1999

The "H" on the Hungarian Nazi (Arrow Cross) movement’s flag stands neither for "Hungaria" nor for "Horthy" (Horthy was an enemy of the Arrow Cross movement). It stands for "hungarizmus" (hungarism), the name of the ideology of the Arrow Cross movement.
Ivan Marinov, 10 Feb 2000

According to Forgotten Legions of the Third Reich [ltj85] by David Littlejohn, the "H "was added to Arrow Cross symbol «when the Arrow Cross became the Hungaria Movement in 1944», thus "H" being for "Hungaria".
Marcus Wendel, 20 Sep 2000

This, disc with a black, "H"-less cross, is the flag of the Hungarian version of the Nazi party and was used in the time that Szálasi was in power (1943?-1945).
Ferenc Valoczy, 27 Sep 1999

This flag, but with a black fimbriation on the disc is suggested in the "Nazism Exposed" website as used by modern hungarian neonazi / skinheads.
António Martins, 10 Aug 1999


Green cross with "H" on disc

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

The arrow cross in green, charged with a white capital "H", on a white disc on a red background, as shown on a photo on the book A magyarok krónikája (The Hungarians’ Chronicle), by Glatz Ferenc (Mohndruck GmbH: Gütersloh, 1996: 628).
António Martins, 10 Aug 1999


Green cross without "H" on disc

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by Tomislav Todorović, 30 June 2012

This photo is the evidence for the flag described below, also shows wall and table decorations with the white disc, charged with the arrow cross without the "H" letter. The dimensions of these decorations make them too big for the flags, but the party emblem in form of the shield, with the same design, appears on the wall behind Ferenc Szálasi on a photo at the Holocaust in Hungary website (Image)
The same emblem as the badge, together with the same-designed armband and a party membership booklet, which also has the emblem printed in it, was offered for the auction at this website.
A similar badge, with the addition of an eagle atop the shield, can be seen here. (Image)
Photo of a party poster from 1941, showing the same flag, can be seen here.
The center of the cross is hidden behind the flag-bearer's head, so it is not actually clear if the letter "H" was meant to be there or not. However, the above sources prove that the design variant without the letter was widely used and that the letter, if its use was mandatory, would certainly have been shown there, so it must have been the same in case of this poster.
Tomislav Todorović
, 30 June 2012


Black cross on diamond

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by Tomislav Todorović, 30 June 2012

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

The arrow cross in black, placed on a 90 deg. lozange on a red background.
António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

Numerous flags with this design are shown on a photo of the party leadership, including Ferenc Szálasi, the head of the party and also the head of state 1944-1945 (Image)
The fact that the cross clearly does not appear as black, but dark gray, is the evidence that its real color was green.
The same photo, in a larger format, was published in Serbian weekly magazine NIN (ISSN 0027-6685), issue 3160 of 2011-07-21, p. 10, as the illustration of an article about the controversial verdict in the case of Sándor Képíró, who was tried for the WW2 war crimes committed in Novi Sad, Serbia, and found not guilty. This photo (sources: AP and Hungarian National Museum), besides an even better view of the black and white appearance of the flag colors, also clearly showed the finials of these flag: an arrow cross within a ring, on which is resting an eagle affronty, wings displayed and elevated. This was probably the official finial for the party flags.
Tomislav Todorović, 30 June 2012


Propaganda poster flag

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

The arrow cross in green, charged with a white capital "H", placed on a 90 deg. lozange, on the red hoist half of a flag with the fly hoist with nine stripes alternating red and white. This is shown flying in a hungarian war propaganda poster (along with the hungarian tricolor and the contemporary german flag) reproduced on the book A magyarok krónikája (The Hungarians’ Chronicle), by Glatz Ferenc (Mohndruck GmbH: Gütersloh, 1996: 628).
António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by Tomislav Todorović, 30 June 2012

The flag with red and white stripes in the fly seems to have been really used, as shown here. (Image)
This does look like an old flag, with colors partly faded. The  interesting details are that the cross with the letter "H" is actually rotated for 90 degrees, as if the flag was meant to be hung vertically, and that the fly part is much larger than the hoist part (the flag is shown as such in the attached image).
Tomislav Todorović, 30 June 2012


Armband flag-like pattern

Nyilaskeresztes Párt
image by António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

The arrow cross in green, charged with a white capital "H", placed on a 90 deg. lozange, over all on a stripped background. This pattern was used as armband, and I have no evidence that it was used as a flag.
António Martins, 10 Aug 1999

I try to get some information about this: I found nothing! No picture, no poster, no text. It seems this flag never used.
Molnár István, 08 Mar 2007