Near the end of World War II, some 200 Hungarian Jews were murdered near Rechnitz. In 2007, British journalist David Litchfield published an essay in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung alleging that the murders were carried out by a group of locals who had gathered for a party at the castle of the Countess of Batthyany, born Margit Thyssen-Bornemisza. Litchfield wrote that the party and the killing were organized by Nazi commander Hans Joachim Oldenburg, her lover, and that at some point during the evening of 24–25 March 1945, guns were handed out to party guests and 200 Jewish forced laborers who were being housed at the manor were hunted down and killed as entertainment. Afterwards the guests returned to the castle to continue the party.