Dokumented Facts ...

1914.

World War I. erupted. In spite of the "Triple Alliance" (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Rumania( Rumania proclaimed neutrality.

1916.

Based on promises to receive Transylvania, the Banat, and Southern Bukovina as booty, Rumania declared war on Austria-Hungary, and swept into Transylvania in a surprise attack. Within a few days the attack was repelled. Rumania was occupied by German forces and defeated.

1918.

March 5, Rumania signed the "Treaty of Bucharest", returning Dobrudja to Bulgaria, and giving up all claims to the Transylvanian passes. In October the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed. Rumania invaded Transylvania, and on Dec.1. in a mass-meeting of 25,000 Rumanians in Gyulafehervar (Alba Julia) declared the "Union of Rumania with Transylvania" in the name of more than five million people who did not even know of the meeting.

Though the Hungarian and the German population strongly objected, the Rumanian army, instigated by the French, marched into Kolozsvar on Christmas Eve, in defiance of the Armistice, which stipulated that all military lines should freeze at their locations until further deliberations and agreements.

1919.

On January 19 Rumanian troops opened fire into a crowd of more than 30,000 unarmed Hungarians who gathered on the Mathias-Plaza in Kolozsvar to ask the representative of the Entente forces, the French general Berthelot, lodged in the hote1 at the corner of the plaza, to order the Rumanians out of the city and back to the demarcation line, which was the Maros river. More than one hundred Hungarian demonstrators were killed, and more than a thousand wounded. In punishment for the demonstration Rumanian troops looted and ransacked the city.

Peter Pastor writes in "The Vix Mission in Hungary, 19181919, a Re-examination" (Slavic Review XXIX, No. 3 1970) and in "Franco-Rumanian Intervention in Russia and the Vix Ultimatum: Background to Hungary's Loss of Transylvania" (1974):

"The Vix Ultimatum, delivered to the Hungarians on March 20, 1919 by the head of the French Military Mission in Hungary, Lt. Colonel Ferdinand Vix, seemed to legitimize Rumanian occupation of Transylvania. The opening of the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 1918 and 1919 in the summer of 1972 shed new and startling light on the affair.... It is now evident that the ultimatum was prompted by a sudden crisis in southern Russia where Allied troops under French command were being defeated by the Red Army. To obtain quick reinforcements from neighbouring Rumania" the French Premier and Minister of War G. Clemenceau had to pay off the Rumanians at once with the Transylvanian territory they coveted ..."

The documents of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs make it quite

-24-

clear now that Transylvania, as well as part of the Banat and part of the Great Hungarian Plain were given to Rumania by the French alone, in four separate chunks, with complete disregard of the Wilsonian doctrine of self determination, and without the knowledge and approval of the Governments of the United States and Great Britain in order to buy Rumanian support against Russia.

Already on January 27, 1919, the Peace Conference in Paris had adopted President Wilson's resolution against the use of armed force "to gain possession of territory, the rightful claim to which the Peace Conference is to be asked to determine." (Spector: Rumania at the Paris Peace Conference, page -80-. (Pastor writes in "Franco-Rumanian Intervention in Russia and the Vix Ultimatum: Background to Hungary's Loss of Transylvania", page 17: The Supreme Council referred Rumania's territorial claims to a "Commission for the Study of Territorial Questions Relating to Rumania." The eight-member panel of French, British, Italian and American experts was to examine Rumania"s claims on its four neighbors - Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary. But the Rumanians disregarded both: Wilson's call for peace and the new commission. They continued to advance into Hungarian territory."

Thus, long before any desicions were made by the Peace Conference in regard of Rumania's territorial claim in Transylvania, Rumania with French encouragement took possession of Transylvania, the Banat and part of the Great Hungarian Plain. Occupying lands with not one Rumanian inhabitant, whatsoever. Thereby deceiving the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and Italy, motivated by its own greed and by French desire to gain Rumanian military aid against Russia.

1920.

By March 1920 all markers, street-signs, village-signs, railroad-signs etc. were torn down in the entire Rumanian-occupied territory and replaced by new signs in Rumanian language. Rumanian names were created for towns and villages with no Rumanian inhabitants. When the International Peace Commission came to inspect the new border-line proposed by France and Rumania, they were given the impression that not one single Hungarian inhabited the land.

On June 4, the Hungarian Government was compelled to sign the TREATY of TRIANON, by which the thousand year old Hungary was shorn of almost three-fourths of its territory, and two-thirds of its inhabitants .

However, on the insistence of the Allied Powers article 47 was included in the treaty, stipulating that Rumania pledges itself to protect the interest of those citizens who differ from the majority of the population in respect of race, language or religion.

However, by then more than 150,000 Hungarians mostly civil servants and teachers, were expelled from their native country and the "forced

-25-

Rumanization of Transylvania began." (See: E. Osterhaven "Transylvania ..." page 19.)

As a result of the Trianon Dictum from the 20,886,487 popu1ation of Hungary -13-,271,370 were placed under the domination of other countries.

Hugh Seton-Watson writes in "Eastern Europe Between the Wars" (Archon Books, 1962) on page 300-301:."The Hungarians became second class citizens in Transylvania ... Rumanian officials from across the mountains flooded the province ..."

1923.

The Rumanian government executed a special land reform in Transylvania only, aimed against the Hungarians. A Total of 2,718,146 acres of land was taken from Hungarians, mostly small landowners, and handed over to the Rumanian population and the Rumanian churches. (According to Rumanian statistics, prior to this land reform of the 5,461,200 acres of agricu1tural land in Transylvania only -1-,904,635 acres were owned by farmers possessing more than 100 acres.)

1924.

Discrimination against Hungarians increased. Prof. C.A. Macartney writes in his book "Hungary and Her Successors" page 322: Taxation has undoubtedly been discriminatory. Certain taxes exist which affect minorities almost exclusively. Hungarian shopkeepers, Hungarian professionals have to pay extra taxes for various reasons ..."

Parallel with the economic persecution, the Rumanian government undertook an all-out offensive against Hungarian schooling. Hungarian, as a language of instruction, was abolished and its use strictly forbidden in al1 public schools. In many cases children were cruelly beaten for using their native tongue, even among themselves during the recess.

1925.

Protestant as well as Catholic parochial schools, some of them established in the 15th and 16th centuries, were closed down. The American Committee for the Rights of Religious Minorities reported: "The administrative oppression, the violent enforcing of the Rumanian language, the aggressive hostility ... all these are aimed for the total destruction of the minority school system. The laws of 1925 serve as oppressive political and nationalistic tools against the minorities." (Religious Minorities in Transylvania, The Bacon Press, Boston, 1925.) While in 1911, under Hungarian rule, there were 2,813 public schools in Transylvania in which Rumanian was the language of instruction, by 1925, five years after the Rumanian take-over, there was none left at all for the use of the Hungarian language.

Transylvania"s biggest Hungarian-language daily newspaper, the

-26-

BRASSOI LAPOK, reported on December 14, 1925 from Csikjenofalva, a 100% Hungarian community: "The new teacher, Mr. Clements Tratiu, who was sent recently by the government to teach in the purely Hungarian village of Csikjenofalva, in his efforts to enforce the new language regulations handed out such beatings to his pupils that on the first day parents had to carry home twenty-four badly beaten children from the schoolhoose who were unable to walk."

1926.

The rigid censorship, instituted in 1919 toward all publications in Hungarian language was reinforced by two new laws. One of them required that even prayer-books and hymnals carry the stamp of approval of the State Censor before they could be printed, while the other prohibited the "import" of newspapers, magazines and other printed materials from Hungary, either by mail or otherwise.

1928.

A special delegation of Transylvanian Hungarians presented in Geneva to the League of Nations a 280 pages long list of grievances proving the breach of treaty from the part of the Rumanian government against the Hungarian people of Transylvania in 166 well documented cases. Rumania was reprimanded, and the Rumanian delegate promised redress. However, nothing happened. Members of the Hungarian delegation were taken off the train as soon as they crossed the border, detained, harassed under false pretenses, and their passports revoked.

1936.

The "Iron Guard", an extreme right-wing organization, secretly encouraged by Hitler"s Germany, staged the first anti-Semitic and anti-Hungarian riots in Brasso" (Brasov), Nagyenyed (Aiud) and Kolozsvar (Cluj-Napoca).

1939.

King Carol of Rumania declared full co-operation with the German Reich.

1940.

Rumania was forced to yield to the demands of the Soviet Union and evacuate Besarabia as well as Northern Bukovina. Southern Dobrudja had to be returned to Bulgaria. In August of the same year the Axis powers ordered the return of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, reuniting 1,200,000 Hungarians with their Motherland, while still leaving about 600,000 under Rumanian domination.

On August 19 of the same year there was a secret deliberation taking place between Dr. Jonel Pop, representing the Transylvanian Rumanians and Count Andor Teleki, representing the Hungarian government. Dr. Pop stated the propostions of the Rumanians in Transylvania in the following four possibilities:

-1-. Part of Transylvania to be returned to Hungary, followed by a population exchange.

-27-

-2-. The creation of an autonomous Transylvania" ruled by the three inhabiting nationalities, as part of the Rumanian Kingdom.

-3-. An independent Transylvania.

-4-. A Hungarian-Rumanian Federation under one king and composed of three independent administrative units: Hungary, Transylvania and Rumania.

Dr. Jonel Pop, the aid of the ailing J . Maniu, declared that for the sake of a permanent solution the great majority of the Rumanians would accept any one of the above possibilities. Further deliberation were postponed after the end of the war.

1941.

The German-Italian Officer's Commission, established for the supervision of the implications and applications of the provisions of the "Vienna Treaty" concerning the treatment of minorities, examined 387 complaints of abuses in Southern Transylvania committed by Rumanian authorities against the Hungarian population, and 26 complaints of Hungarian abuses against the Rumanians in Northern Transylvania.

1942.

Rumanian atrocities against Hungarians in Southern Transylvania reached the number of 1372, while registered Rumanian complaints in Northern Transylvania numbered only 87. Cases examined by the Commission in Southern Transylvania included 273 murders" 687 severe beatings by the Rumanian police" the arrests of 48 Hungarian Clergymen, 6 newsmen and 317 professionals.

All Hungarian men in Southern Transylvania" between the ages of 17 to 45 were called into service by the Rumanian army, and sent under deplorable conditions into the labor camps of Besarabia and Bukovina. 1943.

Though Rumania entered the war on June 22, 1941 as full-fledged ally of Germany, and recaptured with German aid Besarabia and Bukovina from the Russians, after the German disaster at Stalingrad the Rumanian leaders engaged themselves in secret negotiations with the Allies.

In the same time the Hungarian Government attempted to make a separate peace with the West. However, the Teheran Conference (Nov. 28, 1943 - Jan 12, 1944) brought about the unfortunate decision that Eastern and East-Central Europe, including Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland constituted the "special sphere of regional interest" of the Soviet Union, therefore negotiations, concerning these countries, had to be pursued exclusively with the Soviet Union.

1944.

March 19. German forces occupied Hungary.

August 24, Rumania surrendered to and joined forces with the invading Russians. Together, with Russian army, regular Rumanian troops as well as guerilla-bands entered Transylvania, creating the most ferocious bloodbath in history. Thousands and thousands of Hungarians were

-28-

killed,tortured, imprisoned and deported into forced labor camps.

According to eyewitness reports, from the city of Kolozsvar alone more than -24-,000 Hungarians were herded together, beaten, tortured and deported. Within three months an estimated 200,000 Hungarians were moved out in this way from Transylvania, and placed into labor camps, mostly in the swamps of Dobrudja.

Some of the sworn testimonies of surviving eyewitnesses can be found in the APPENDIX.

1945.

The Soviet Military Administration of Northern Transylvania was replaced by Rumanian administration. Mr. Zathureczky writes in his book "Transylvania, Citadel of the West" (Danubian Press, 1964) page 52: "Stalin gave back Northern Transylvania to the Rumanians under the condition that they would respect the rights of the ethnic groups. With this step he introduced into Transylvania the Stalinist national policy. This policy consisted of the recognition of ethnic autonomies" and it was based on a federation of these autonomies. These autonomies are nationalistic in form, and socialistic in substance."

One of the conditions, under which the Russian Military Government returned the full administration of Transylvania to the Rumanians was the setting up of two or more Autonomous Hungarian Districts in order to secure complete self-administration to the Hungarian population of Transylvania.

This condition as well as many others pertaining to the basic rights of the Hungarians in Transylvania were never fulfilled by the Rumanian government.

1947.

On February 10 the Rumanian Peace Treaty was signed in Paris, of ficially declaring the return of Northern Transylvania to Rumania - in spite of American protest. Rumania again guaranteed the rights of the minorities .

On April 13 the Rumanian People"s Republic was proclaimed.

On August 7 a new constitution was adopted, which again proclaimed equal rights and self administration to the national minorities. However, all religious and cultural organizations were subjected to State control. Roman Catholic opposition led to the arrest of the remaining bishops and to dissolution of all Roman Catholic organizations.

1949.

Lay leaders, priests, ministers of the Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran and Unitarian churches were imprisoned or sent to forced labor camps.

The Greek Catholic Church was liquidated by law. The congregations of these parishes were automatically "returned into the Greek Orthodox Church and listed on census-sheets as "Rumanians" no matter which ethnic group they belonged.

1950.

Under Soviet pressure the Rumanian government agreed to create an

-29-

Autonomous Hungarian Region on the Territory inhabited by a compact Hungarian (Szekely) population with the capital of Marosvasarhely Tirgu Mures. In this "autonomous" region, however, the official language remained the Rumanian, the top administrative offices were held by Rumanians, sent there directly from Bucharest, and the police force was kept 100% Rumanian. Those Hungarians who dared to object, were deported into the i1l-famed labor camps in the Danube delta.

1956.

Following the uprising in Hungary, the Rumanian Government availed itself of the opportunity to order new mass-arrests throughout Transylvania. Though only seventeen Hungarians were executed - beside Imre Nagy, premier of Hungary for those few glorious days of freedom and his entourage who were handed over by the Russians for "safekeeping" - more than 200 died from the beatings during the interrogation, and about six thousand received heavy prison sentences in Kolozsvar alone. For eyewitness testimonies see APPENDIX. George Bailey, American journalist, described the situation in THE REPORTER of November 1964: "After the Hungarian revolution thousands of Hungarians were arrested in Transylvania, perhaps hundreds put to death. In one trial alone in Cluj thirteen out of fiftyseven accused were executed. This year (1964) some eight thousand political prisoners were released with considerable fanfare by the Government in a general amnesty."

M. Eugene Osterhaven in The Present Situation of Hungarians in Transylvania, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan, 1968, page 34, adds to this: " . . . but as far as I could ascertain (in 1968) in my recent travels through Transylvania, not one of the Hungarians arrested during the revolt has yet been released."

1959.

The Hungarian University of Kolozsvar and the Hungarian high schoo1s all over Transylvania became absorbed by their Rumanian counterparts. Thus Hungarian higher education was abolished in Transylvania. Several members of the Hungarian faculty were driven to suicide. (See: "Der Spiegel" No. 45, October -31-. 1966. Also: "National Minority Problems" by George Hay in Kurt, London, ed. of Eastern Europe in Transition, The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1966, page -133-. Also: The New York Times, June 10. 1959.(

The Hungarian Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy, located in Marosvasarhely (Tirgu Mures) lost its autonomy. (See: Robert R. King "Minorities Under Communism", Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1973, pages 153-154.(

1960.

The Rumanian Government removed two districts from the Autonomous Hungarian Province, both with 92% Hungarian population, and attached them to a Rumanian populated district, while adding to it in exchange another large area with 88% Rumanian population, thus trying to weaken the Hungarian majority of the

-30-

Hungarian province. The name was also changed from "Autonom Hungarian Province" to "Autonom Hungarian-Mures Territory."

1963.

Edward Crankshaw reported in his article "Hungarian Minority Fears Rumanian Axe" (The New York Herald Tribune, Apr. 15, 1963.) that Hungarian fami1ies are being deported in mass from purely Hungarian districts of Transylvania into other parts of Rumania, mostly to the Danube delta, into huge labor camps, where they die by the hundreds due to lack of food and medical care.

It is being noted also, that those deported or "re-settled" under the pretense of job opportunities - already more than 200,000 people - are immediately stricken from the official records in Transylvania, while in their new locations they are listed by the census takers as Rumanians. The Rumanization of Transylvania was so successful, that in September 1963, when Mr. Georghiu-Dej, party-boss and prime minister visited the so-called "Autonomous Hungarian Territory" and the Rumanian newspapers reported the names of the officials of the territory - there was not one single Hungarian name among them!

1964.

The International Commission of Jurists examined the Transylvanian minority problem, and pub1ished a report entit1ed "The Hungarian Minority Prob1em in Rumania". In this report the Commission stated among others that "Rumania ignores the political clauses of the Peace Treaty, and its own constitution, Art. 82, which clearly provides that "all national groups are entitled to use their respective languages and to have at all levels establishments of public education in which instruction is given in their mother tongue, and further that the spoken and written language used by administrative and judicial authorities in districts where a national group other than Rumanian is in the majority should be the language of this national group. Civil servants in such areas should be appointed from among the members of this majority group ..." This commission found that Rumanian administrative measures, and discrimination in the cultural field" is actually leading to the final genocide of minonties in Transylvania."

On July 4, the same year, the LE MONDE in Paris, France reported of a new wave of deportations from the Hungarian districts in Transylvania to the Danube delta. The same paper estimated the number of Hungarians forced to live in Bucharest alone to 250,000, a figure not included in the official data of any census.

On August 8: "Due to the de-Magyarization policy of the Rumanian government of forcib1y removing Hungarian families from their native districts and deporting them or forcing them to locate in Moldavia, Dobrudja, even Bucharest or any one of the former Vlach provinces, it seems that 35 to 50 percent of the Transy1vanian Hungarians are no longer 1iving in their native land. The vacated houses of the deported or removed Hungarian families are filled with Rumanian families imported from across the Carpathians in order to change the ethnic balance of the

-31-

purely Hungarian districts. According to Government orders wherever there are two pupils in a Hungarian language school who do not speak that language, the language of the entire school must be changed into Rumanian. Thus, with the settling of these newcomers, all Hungarian language grade-, middle-, and high-schools are being abolished, one by one ..." (CONGRESSIONAL RECORDS, August 8, 1964.)

On November 1964 George Bailey wrote in THE REPORTER: "Rumania has effectively replaced Hungarian at every level as the language of official and public life ... Hungarians are intimidated, they are scared to use their native tongue. The Rumanian authorities have adopted a wide variety of measures to isolate the Hungarian population from contact with the homeland. Foreign tourists in Rumania are allowed the run of the country, unless they happen to be Hungarian citizens . . ."

Robert R. King wrote in "Minorities Under Communism" (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1973) pages 156-157: "The 1964 redistricting of the Magyar Autonomous Region into Mures-Magyar Region increased the Rumanian population of the district from 146,830 (20%) to a 266,403 (35%) while decreasing the number of Hungarians from 565,510 (77%) to 473,154 (62)."

1966.

CARE Packages and other aids sent by American, Canadian, Australian or West European church organizations, charitable institutions or private individuals to starving Hungarian families in Transylvania, or to Transylvanian Hungarian Churches were confiscated by Rumanian authorities. See: APPENDIX.

1967.

On October 12 the Mures-Magyar Autonomous Region became liquidated. The previous 16 regions were rearranged into 40 districts and 2,706 communes. The aim was to mix as many Rumanian inhabited regions with Hungarian regions as geographically possible, thus lowering the percentage rate of Hungarians within the administrative units. "The chauvinistic policy of Rumania ... disregards all human rights and international obligations solemnly agreed upon and promised in peace treaties ..." (Osterhaven: Transylvania, page 40)

On December 3, 1967, the NEUE ZURICHER ZEITUNG, Switzerland, reported that in the "Hungarian populated areas of Transylvania the presence of the secret police is still strong. Political opponents (of Mr. Ceaucescu) and troublesome intellectuals are put behind bars without delay ..."

1974.

The "Handbuch Europaischer Volksgruppen" (Reference Book on European Ethnic Groups) estimated the Hungarian population of Transylvania as two millions.

On November 2, 1974, Act 63 of the Socialist Republic of Rumania amended Law -472-/1971, ordering the "nationalization of all documents, books, letters, pictures, art objects, etc. in possession of religious

-32-

and cultural institutions or private citizens."

This amendment of the law was another decisive step toward the complete Rumanization of Transylvania by eliminating all traces of a Hungarian past, and thus clearing the way for a new, fa1sified history, already in the making.

1975.

On February 1, the NEUE ZURICHER ZEITUNG, Switzerland, reported under the tit1e "Bureaucratic Chicanery Against the Churches in Rumania" that "The intent behind the nationalization of the ecclesiastical archives is to sever the religious communities from their historical roots. A church without a past (tradition) has no future, especially one which represents a religious and national minority in the same time ... the Rumanian government has openly embarked on an escalated campaign against the Church and the Hungarian minority. " "The above mentioned outrages form a part of a systematic effort to re-write Rumanian history ..." (Human Rights Vio1ations against the Hungarian Minority in Rumania, a Committee for Human Rights publication, 1976.)

In the same time THE FINANCIAL TIMES reported: "A favourite device is to "facelift" the tombs and crypts of famous Hungarian families in the Medieval Hazsongard cemetery in Cluj (Kolozsvar) by allotting them to recently dead Rumanians. In this way the ethnic composition of the former population, now dead, is restructured favourab1y ..."

Also The Finaficial Times reported on Apr. 2. 1975 under the title "Transylvania"s Ethnic Strains" that at least 25 students are required to set up a minority class in any school, while a Rumanian class has to be set up as soon as there are two Rumanian speaking students. This report refers to Law -278-/1973 which ca11s for the merger of classes with insufficient numbers of students, and provides that every community with Rumanian speaking students, no matter how few, must establish a Rumanian section. Since most rural villages in Transylvania have only 500 to 1000 inhabitants, there may very possibly not be enough Hungarian students for a separate class (25). As a result of this law the merger necessarily occurs at the expense of the Hungarian section, even if the population of that village is 90% Hungarian.

Protests concerning the oppression of and the gross discrimination against the Hungarian minority in Rumania reached the United Nations Division of Human Rights Office to be submitted to the Commission on Human Rights and to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in Geneva.

Thirty-eight members of the U.S. Congress condemned the treatment of the Hungarian Minority by the Rumanian Government, and asked President Ford to discuss with President Ceaucescu "the abridgement of human and civil rights of the ethnic and religious minorities in Rumania." (SEE: Congressional Records, May and June 1975. Also: "Documents on the Human Rights Violations Against the Hungarian Minority in Rumania Before the United Nations Human Rights

-33-

Commission, The World Council of Churches and the United States Congress and Government" published by the American Hungarian Federation, Washington, D.C. 1975)

G. Satmarescu, Rumanian author and scholar, repudiated the published figures of the recent Rumanian census by estimating the total number of Hungarians in Rumania at 2.5 million. (East Central Europe, edited by Stephen Fischer-Galati, University of Colorado, 1975.)

1976.

In June 1976 a joint Memorandum of the American Hungarian Federation and the Transylvanian World Federation was presented to the United States Congress, asking for the withdrawal of the "Preferred Nation" status granted to Rumania previously, until that government fulfilled its obligations toward the minorities as outlined in the peace treaties as well as in the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Rumania. (SEE: CONGRESSIONAL RECORDS, June, 1976.)

In July 1976, protests against the blatant oppression of minority Churches and ethnic groups in Rumania were entered to the United Nations and the World Council of Churches Assembly in Nairobi, Africa, by Bishop Dr. Zoltan Beky, representing the Transylvanian World Federation and the American Hungarian Federation.

The Committee for Human Rights in Rumania in New York demonstrated repeatedly against the Rumanian Government and demanded the investigation of minority grievances in Rumania.

In October 1976 the United States Government asked the Government of the Socialist Republic of Rumania to grant permission" in accordance with the Helsinki Agreement, to a special investigating committee to enter Rumania and investigate the alleged human rights violations and discriminations against the minorities. The Rumanian government refused to grant the permission.

1977.

In January a new "Five Year Plan" was implemented by the Rumanian government, at the end of which, in 1982 "there will be no more Hungarian minority in Rumania. " (SEE: APPENDIX)

-34-

Dokumented Facts ...