Austria was Nazi Germany's first victim and Hungary its last; paradoxically, the two countries were also Germany's final allies. To put it more precisely, in March 1938 the Austrian republic was the first European sovereign state to be occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany, and six years later, in March 1944, Hungary was the last European sovereign state to be occupied and subdued by the German army. In recognition of Austria's loss of independence, the three Great Allies solemnly declared in Moscow, on November 1, 1943, “Austria was the first free country to fall victim to Hitlerite aggression,” and “It shall be liberated from German domination.” In turn, the Soviet Red Army, while conquering Hungary between September 1944 and April 1945, asserted that its purpose was to liberate the Hungarian nation from the German Fascist yoke. Meanwhile, however, hundreds of thousands of Austrian generals, other officers, and men continued to fight in the uniform of the German Wehrmacht, and hundreds of thousands of Hungarian generals, other officers, and men continued to serve on the German side until the final surrender in May 1945. Anti-fascist resistance activity in both Austria and Hungary was heroic but barely noticeable.

A democratic Hungarian coalition government was constituted, at Soviet orders, in liberated eastern Hungary in December 1944, which then declared war on the Third Reich. But the old, pro-Nazi Hungarian government and parliament continued to function as well, until fleeing to Germany in March 1945 and finally surrendering to the advancing American troops.