On this day in 1938, Hungary passed anti-Jewish laws. When Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, he was quick to ally with the Hungarian government. Hungary eagerly entered an alliance with Germany because the countries had similar forms of government, and they hoped that the alliance would allow them to regain some of the lands lost in World War I. In September 1938, the Munich Conference saw Germany annex a portion of Czechoslovakia. In November of the same year, the full annexation of the Czech lands took place, Germany immediately returned the lands to Hungary and had control over them until WWI ended. For the next two years, Germany handed more and more land to Hungary. With all of Hungary’s new territory, approximately 800,000 Jews became subject to their antisemitic laws. After Germany unified with Austria in 1938, Hungary began passing anti-Jewish legislation. The first law passed limited Jewish employment, cutting it by 80%. In the following months, the government passed laws similar to the Nuremberg Laws, defining Jews as a racial group, and established a labor service draft where many young people disappeared and died. The passage of these laws is what allowed the Final Solution to begin in Hungary. Many Jews were deported starting in 1941. Over 545,000 of Hungary’s Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.