Cross of National Defence

The National Defense Cross [Nemzetvédelmi Kereszt] was established by Count Pál Teleki on 11 December 1940, at the suggestion of Governor Miklós Horthy of Nagybánya.

The statutes of the National Defense Cross stated: The National Defense Cross is awarded by the Regent of Hungary, His Serene Highness, in recognition of meritorious service, upon a proposal submitted by the Royal Hungarian Prime Minister with the approval of the Council of Ministers, to those who, either during the severe trials of communism in Hungary or during the difficult years of foreign occupation in territories that had been severed from our country and later returned to the Holy Crown, fought with unbreakable Hungarian faith against the forces that mutilated our country and sought to weaken the Hungarian nation, and who, in the interests of the survival of the Hungarian people and Hungary, displayed self-sacrificing conduct at the risk of their lives.