The Tragedy of the Hungarians of Transcarpathia

Until the W.W.II, the rules of peace and war were regulated by international law. Clearly defining the two concepts, they started to codify the unwritten laws that governed warfare. The signing of the 1907 law of The Hague gives this convincing proof. This law was accepted and signed by, among others, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as tsarist Russia. In the case of Russia, it is interesting to note, that the Hague agreement was applicable to the Soviet Union also after its creation.

This code of laws may be used for regulating society but it can be abused; the enforcement of the law always depends on major political considerations.

For instance, The Hague agreement duly regulated the behaviour of the warring nations toward civilian populations. According to the rules of the agreement, the belligerents have to respect the civilian inhabitants to the utmost; their human rights, as well as their ethnic, religious, or political convictions cannot be violated. The Hague agreement protected those civilians who, through armed conflict or foreign occupation, come into the power of a state of which they are not citizens. These protected individuals cannot be exposed to the armed conflict and under no circumstances can there be any regulation or political decision that might curtail this protection. The occupying powers must maintain public security, if at all possible, on the basis of existing laws. The occupying powers may make use of the inhabitants for public works, but only in a given place, for short duration and only for military purposes. Therefore, the inhabitants may under no circumstances be deported, that is removed from their homes and put to work. The occupying power that takes these actions as was done in Transcarpathia by the soviet Stalinist powers commits a war crime. I would like to note, by the way, that women should be especially protected. In the given case, that is in Transcarpathia in 1944, the most they should have endeavoured was to have the population give material help to the occupying forces. The deportation of a great part of its population was an outrage to the concept of international law.

At the beginning of the XX. century, two legal principles were clarified: that of the use of force and the question of the right to declare war. I do not wish to go into details; the main point is that both legal principles became fundamental. That is to say that without infringement of the norms of law, it would have become impossible to declare war and to apply brute force to the population of the occupied territories. This is an interesting point because such infringement of the norms of law was the main crime of the war criminals. The fascist German soldiers, mostly higher ranking officers, were condemned for just such infringement of the legal principles.

What is striking though in connection with the deportations of 1944 is that the Stalinist war machinery which committed the same military crimes went unpunished. It is the spirit of The Hague agreement that it is not the soldiers who commit the crimes that, are held responsible for them, but the state's government or the head of state who is behind them. From this point of view, this was then Stalin's unambiguous responsibility. Naturally, the immediate question that comes to mind is: - why were Stalin and his minions not punished or held responsible for the same crimes for which Germans and other nationals were condemned?

The answer, of course, is obvious: - the Germans lost and the soviets won the war, leaving Stalin in a position of power. In relation to Hungary, this manifested itself by the Temporary Government declaring, in December 1944, that Hungary's administration must withdraw behind the borders fixed by Trianon. Thus, the Temporary Government not only anticipated but surpassed the soviet expectations; it took the position that it does not wish to deal with the Hungarians or territories beyond its borders.

In my opinion, this was a schizophrenic attitude. As unjust were the decisions in Trianon, so justifiable were Hungary's various endeavours for territorial revisions. When, after W.W.II, these territorial revisions went up in smoke, the Temporary Government and subsequent ones did not dare associate themselves to the actions; of the previous government, as well as with public opinion. Thus they never claimed legal continuity for them. This was why the Temporary Government never protested the deportations. The then Foreign Minister did show some interest in the question, but no substantial measures were taken when the soviets took someone from the left or the right side of the border

The question of state succession is also a concept of international law. We speak of state succession when; a state or part of its territory comes under the suzerainty of another state There are various forms to state succession. In the case of cession, two states agree that one will cede, voluntarily and with no strings attached, a certain territory. It must be known that cession can only take place when neither of the two states is threatened. Joining Transcarpathia to the Soviet Union appears to be, in its form, a cession. However, as a losing state (Hungary), is at the mercy of a victorious one (the Soviet Union), cession becomes rightfully questionable. In the case of Transcarpathia's forceful annexation, we should speak of state succession in its aggressive form. It is a moot point that this aggressive endeavour carried the hall-mark of cession in order to deceive international law. That is why after the dissolution of the Czech public administration, Transcarpathia became an independent territory which later "voluntarily" joined the Soviet Union. This mock-cession continued until the annexation was completed

The peculiarities that one can discover in Stalin's logic are really quite interesting. From the legal point of view, I can see two. In Stalin's thought processes two ancient legal concepts dominate, and not only where the Transcarpathian deportations are concerned but also in connection with his actions in the Soviet Union.

One is the concept of "an eye for an eye"; that is, there is no mercy for anyone who offends me. The other is the concept of collective guilt which is the viewpoint of primitive societies but came to flower, interestingly, in the XX. century when the fascist and communist, or anti-fascist, powers applied this concept. On the basis of collective guilt, the individual was punished because he belonged to such a race, religion or ethnic group that turned against us; punishment was meted out without regard to the individual's attitude towards the occupiers. Here I would like to refer to one of the sayings attributed to Stalin, when he said that the Hungarian question is only a question of "boxcars". But I also have to mention that the post-war fate of Transcarpathia was under discussion on between the Soviet Union and the exiled government of Czechoslovakia since 1943.

I must stress that in his application of the concept of collective guilt, Stalin was no different from Hitler; yet Stalin was never punished. In this connection, I must point out that the system of international law that developed until the middle of the XX. century, failed completely. The confederation of states was ruined, the concepts of international law became hollow. The old legal system needed revision, which the UN, established after W.W.II, accomplished. In this respect, the most sensitive point is what the law has to say about the above-mentioned violations of human rights. Here, in my opinion, we must proceed by analogy: in criminal-law procedures the concept is applied that anyone who is unjustly condemned and that comes to light, then that innocently punished or deported individual is entitled to compensation and rehabilitation. Based on legal logic, this precept can be applied to the Hungarians, Germans, and others, who were deported in the autumn of 1944. In Hungary, the rehabilitation of political victims has already begun; it could serve as precedent for other countries. In all instances, however, one must emphasise that political rehabilitation must precede the legal one. This rehabilitative action must be divided into those who live in Hungary and those living in Transcarpathia. At the same time, under no circumstances should the Transcarpathians be separated in the rehabilitative process from Stalin's other victims.

I would have liked to list all the victims of the towns and villages of the Upper Tisza region but, as the Hungarian population is so widely scattered, we could not yet reach an exact number. Therefore, we can rely only on the data of a few villages and towns: from Visk 94 men perished; from Tecso, 89; from Szlatina, 144. These are the numbers we have in our possession. Leaving out the details. I would just say that I, too, went through hell but I am here. I do not want to give an account of what I went through; I approach things differently.

We must try to come to terms with and, with time, alleviate the unspeakable wrong that we suffered. One cannot build a viable future on resentment. After all, the future does interest us greatly and we believe that democracy, the tolerance we show one another, are the best safeguards against the horrors of the past. If we do not adopt these principles, our future as well as our very existence as individuals and as a community, become uncertain, doubtful and can lead to the unleashing of hell and destruction of humanity.

I, myself, can see the sign of survival not only for our minority community but also for the whole of mankind in a true democracy that originates in a clean spirit and in the patience we show one another. Let us, therefore, live according to these principles and let the mementos of the monstrous horrors of the past be way-stations on our paths through life. Let us take great care that through our attitude, undisciplined ways, and irresponsibility we do not create fertile ground for despotism, terror and dictatorships that are alienated from the people and from life itself.

1 do not think that I exaggerate when I say that the period between the end of 1945 and 1953 was characterised by the sign of Stalinist Anti-Semitism.

I do not think it necessary to enumerate all the campaigns that took place in those years. From the Western oriented, servile, antisocial cosmopolitans to the scientists of various rank and expertise, from the geneticists to the men of letters, all were persecuted. These campaigns quite often took on a hysterical. note, claiming many Jewish victims particularly among the intelligentsia, throughout the country, as well as in Transcarpathia. Before the war, numerous Jews and many left-wing elements emigrated to England where they found refuge. After their return, all of these people showed signs of suffering from the forced emigration; they may have become targets in the xenophobic atmosphere there. Although no mass arrests took place, they were planned and were being prepared.

I have many friends among those who were rehabilitated. Some facts show how absurdly the deportations and imprisonment's were carried out. At the time, it came as a great surprise to all of us that Mermelstein Erno was arrested (those from Beregszasz surely remember him well) as he did not hide his activities in the Komszomol. His rehabilitation paper reads: he was arrested for his anti-Soviet propaganda and activities. We only learned then that he had been sentenced to 20 years. When I met him after his return in 1955, he told me the real reason for his arrest: - at a get-together with four friends, he told a joke. One of the four was an informer who reported the incident. The consequence was 20 years.

There was another case also. Among those who were rehabilitated, there were three members of a family: Jutkovics Maria, Mor, and Sandor. The last, born in 1926, was a good friend of mine: I knew him well. In this case the reason for arrest was that he was an antisocial element. The background to this is as follows: Sandor's younger brother was in active military service in East Germany whence he escaped. Here too, as in many other cases, the principle of collective quilt was applied against the whole family. During the mass destruction of Jews, this family managed to hide; they escaped Hitler's camps, but not Stalin's.

The anti-Semitic hysteria reached its peak at the end of 1953 and early 1953, when several doctors were arrested in Moscow. Essentially, they were all eminent physicians, professors. They were accused of deliberately misdiagnosing and actively killing several well-known leaders and representatives of the soviet state. This accusation was so absurd that no one, expert or lay person, quite believed it.

Everything pointed to the preparations of even greater and more serious reprisals. Throughout the state, an unbridled anti-Semitic campaign was launched. Had Stalin not died in the meanwhile, the population of the Gulag archipelago would have increased by at least two million soviet Jews.

Due to an official report, I have to return to the original theme of my speech. This report was presented at the meeting called in Ungvar to celebrate the "45th anniversary of Transcarpathia's jointing the Soviet Ukraine". The speaker stated, among others: "The six-year reign of the Hungarian fascists was a dark period in our territory's history. They incarcerated or sent to concentration camps over 183,000 people; of whom some 115,000 were destroyed."

Just like that, without a word that the great majority of the deceased were Transcarpathian Jews. Don't these deserve separate mention? Is this subject still considered taboo, as it was throughout 45 years?

But this is only one aspect of the question. This is not the place or time for me to go into details on to analyse the circumstances of the deportations that occurred in the spring of 1944. It is well known that despite the ever-increasing pressure exerted by the Nazis, the Hungarian regime refused to adopt the Hitlerian "final solution" until March 1944, when the Germans occupied Hungary and the country lost its independence. To tell the truth, the Hungarian extreme rightist elements participated in the execution of this vile genocide (a fact that was never nor is now denied). But when in a speech, a number is summarily advanced that is out of proportion to the general population (and exaggerated, in my opinion), it gives the false image of the "Hungarian fascist regime" taking so many Ukrainian victims. And this can provoke passions to flare or, at the least, an unhealthy atmosphere. What is the explanation for this? That the experts do not know the facts? Or are they skewed? But the truth must be told sometime!

The Transcarpathian Ukrainians who illegally crossed the border between 1939 and 1941 were the first to suffer soviet reprisals. For a long time, no reports appeared about this anywhere.

There is argument to this day about the number of Transcarpathians who crossed the soviet borders illegally before and during W.W.II. What is at issue is that very different numbers came to light in historical and other publications. The Hungarian documents acknowledge a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 thousand people; The Czechoslovakian archives mention 4 thousand and the soviets speak of from 5 to 50 thousand (on the territorial level). The house-to-house inquiry, that took place in 1962-1964 and was initiated by the district and village councils, came up with the number 3534. This is not an exact number though, since the lists were compiled some twenty years after the fact.

I received invaluable help in my studies of this problem from the Office of National Security of the Transcarpathian Territorial Committee. They put at my disposal the records of the gendarmerie on the Transcarpathian escapees, as well as numerous other archival documents. My studies and analysis of Hungarian, Czechoslovak, and Soviet sources lead me to conclude that about 5,000 Ukrainians from Transcarpathia resettled in the Soviet Union.

The soviet legal system applied to these people the law concerning illegal border crossings. That is to say that those who escaped across the frontier, fell under the penal code and they received no less than three years in forced labour camps. Thus, several thousand Transcarpathian peasants, labourers, intelligentsia or students ended up in the camps of Stalin and Beria.

In my opinion this had two reasons: first, they considered all Transcarpathian inhabitants as faithful servants of Horthyist Hungary which was allied to the Germany that unleashed war. The second was the exaggerated suspicion with which, during Stalin's personality cult, they regarded all foreigners who fled to the Soviet Union. The Home Affairs organisation regarded these people as a sure base for a spy network.

As M. G. Gerics, war veteran from Huszt, remembers the events: "I met many people in Sztaniszlav, women, children, old and young soldiers who deserted from the Hungarian army. We were lined up, facing the wall, guarded by a military patrol with dogs. Among then; was a forester, I don't remember his name not from which village he came, he was there with his wife and six children. He yelled in desperation when they started to separate the women and children from the fathers. I was incarcerated, in cell #31, where I spent three months. Every evening we were interrogated. After three months we were taken to Gomel in Belorussia, from there to Orsa and then Minsk. All the jails were chock-full. Many men died of starvation. Those who survived were transferred to the prison in Rovno. There an officer called us in one by one, put a report in front of me telling me to sign it: three years of forced labour camp for illegal border crossing.

That's when it started. We were transported in cold boxcars. We were starving and did not even have water. From time to time, our guard gave us a bucketful, without a mug, so each one of us had no more than a mouthful. we reached the Komi ASSK. At the station, we were put into cars and travelled for two days and then continued on foot. Tormented by hunger and cold, many men died already during the march. They took us to a forest where there was not a single building. Our guards put signs on the trees to mark off the zone we could not leave. They gave us saws and axes to build barracks with the felled trees. As soon as we finished, we received new orders: to go farther into the forest, as horses were to be stabled in he barracks

And so we continued to build until spring. Whoever did not reach his prescribed norm did not receive his ration: 400 grams. of frozen black bread, 1 litre of balanda. Three thousand men in three sections worked day and night. From one morning to the next, 5-6 people died. The bodies were just thrown onto the snow, beyond the limit. Those who died weakened by starvation and hard work rest in the grounds of the Pecsora camp and various others.

We still do not know the names of all, but the research continues. It is our duty to wipe the slate clean for those who crossed the border illegally from 1939 to 1941 into the Soviet Union. No name can be omitted front the list. We must do everything in our power to restore to history the names of all these unjustly forgotten people.

* This speech was in the Ukrainian language.

From the point of view of our overall theme, it is essential to know that November 2nd (not an error!), 1944 was a day of mourning in Nyiregyhaza. Over 2000 civilian men were collected and carried off by the soviet soldiers for work of reparations. We must mention that Nyiregyhaza was liberated twice. First, on October 21, 1944 when the soviet army only stayed five days before the Germans reoccupied the town. Then, on October 31, 1944 it was finally liberated. On the same day, posters appeared throughout the town calling the inhabitants to perform works of reconstruction. By that time, only 15,000 residents remained in the town out of 40,000. We are in possession of all relevant material; we knew that 1,620 wives and 3,886 children were dependent on, the 2,000 deportees. Therefore, the total number of those who were victimised amounts to 7,506, that is half of the remaining population. Who were deported? For All Souls' Day, the newspaper "Hatarszel" (Borderline) published its Commemorative Book with 80 pages devoted to listing the names of the deportees, as gleaned from archival documents.

The people of the town's authorities did all in their power to find any applicable law to obtain the return of the men.

Tompa Endre, lieutenant-governor of the county (alispan) addressed the following letter to the Minister of public Welfare on June 23, 1945: "Early in November of last year, the occupying soviet troops illegally deported, for unknown reasons and purposes, numerous citizens of our jurisdiction. From the town of Nyiregyhaza, over 2,000 men suffered this fate I must state that no distinction was made among the deportees for political or other reasons. We lost numerous men of tried and true left-wing convictions just at the time of the start of reconstruction." I have to say that there were 50 Social-Democratic leaders among the deportees.

In 1989, the W.W.II Memorial Committee was formed in Nyiregyhaza; I was honoured to be chosen its president. We would like to erect a memorial to all- the victims. The sad fact is that the Hungarian authorities remained silent about these events and names. On the other hand, we managed to bring all this to light from the archives within a month.

I would like to speak of the echo's of the deportations because many of my friends here, but also abroad, think of me as suffering from "Nagydobrony-mania". There is no end in the Western press to the "tragedy of Nagydobrony" that never took place. But in this auditorium too there might he people who never heard this story, at least not the way I shall present it. It concerts the horror story of how the invading Soviet troops razed the village of Nagydohrony of Transcarpathia, deporting all of its people.

In the West, Sulyok Dezso, noted Hungarian politician living in America, dedicated his first book to the victims of Nagydobrony. Since Transcarpathia was also locked in behind the iron curtain, no one had the means to deny or prove the truth of the legend that spread far and wide. The gross exaggeration of this folklore horror story gave birth to about a hundred newspaper articles; even in 1989 in Hungary's periodical called "Datum" it was presented as a sensation. It is, of course, true that Stalinists committed many crimes in the occupied territory, but in Nagydobrony no special atrocities rook place. They did take men from 18 to 50 for three days of labour but that happened elsewhere also.

I know that you follow the Hungarian press and read the books published there. Lately, we can see the start of a political cleansing process of events that were and are still being kept quiet It has become clear from the speeches that this was a widespread process, not limited to a narrow territory.

The deportations and the "tragedy of Nagydobrony" are weirdly connected in that the Western press never mentions what really happened but exaggerates what did not. As soon as we have finally managed to deny this story, the Hungarian press picked it up and an article was published in a paper in Szekszard.

It is obvious that the story of the "tragedy" is the result-of well-planned political manipulations.

That these articles could be published at all, is a consequence of Transcarpathia's isolation from the world. Had the reporters been able to come here and see with their own eyes that the village does exist, this story would never have taken off.

I believe it will be of interest to recapitulate the trials of the Hungarian nation at the turn of the years 1944-1945. Let us start in the north in the Highlands (Felvidek). A few months after the deportations of Hungarians from Transcarpathia, that is on April 4, 1945, Czechoslovakia's president, Eduard Benes, issued a proclamation. The so-called Government Program of Kassa, which served as the legal basis for these events, deprived 800-900 thousand Hungarians of Czechoslovakia of their citizenship and of their homeland. It also condemned them to eighteen months of forced labour for the purpose of the so-called "pridelovaci vymer" or relocation order.

The government in Prague had several aims in view with the execution of this plan. The most important one was the creation of a homogeneous, that is minority-free, country. That is why they resettled over 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland but there were several hundreds of thousands of Hungarians left. They could not compel Hungary to accept this mass of people; therefore they tried to break up the Hungarian-inhabited territories, from Galanta to Toketerebes. The deportations of the Hungarians lasted from November 1946 to February of 1947. We still do not have the exact numbers but they affected about a hundred thousand Hungarian families that were resettled on Czech lands. Soldiers encircled the Hungarian villages. With their few belongings gathered in haste, the people were packed into freight cars and transported to Czech stations, where they were kept waiting for days or weeks in 20-30 degree cold.

The majority of the deported Hungarians were lowly peasants. The more wealthy ones, the so-called "feherlevelesek" ("white-tagged") were assigned to resettlement in Hungary. The Hungarian government was practically powerless to stop the deportations and was obliged to negotiate the exchange of minority inhabitants. In February 1947, the Czechoslovak government ceased the deportations but those who were already deported could not return to their homes They could send their children to Czech schools but those who fled home were transported back and forced into concentration camps. They settled Slovaks from the northern part of the Highlands into the former homes of Hungarians.

By the second half of 1947, it was in the Soviet Union's interest to temper the differences between the small nations of Central Europe as these would have threatened their own sphere of influence. This resulted in the solution to the Czech-Hungarian antagonisms. The exchange of Czech-Hungarian inhabitants, which proceeded very fast, had stopped by the spring of 1947. In the spirit of reciprocity, some 80,000 Hungarians from Czechoslovakia were resettled in Hungary and a similar number of Slovaks in Czechoslovakia. Then the number of deported Hungarians who fled Czechoslovakia for home became a flood. Officially, their return home was only sanctioned from 1948 on. About 80 to 85% of the over hundred thousand deportees opted to return to their homeland; only about 15 to 20% chose to remain in the industrial region.

But Czech nationalism did not surpass that of the Romanians, with regard to the Hungarians of Transylvania. A year before the end of the W.W.II, when Romania withdrew from the war, they started the reprisals against the Hungarians. The complaints of the inhabitants of Kolozsvar and the surrounding villages against the ravages of the Romanian gendarmerie and the grey-clad armed groups became everyday occurrences They looted and pillaged, then cruelly beat and carried off the Hungarians. Officially, the armed groups were called "Voluntari Prentru Ardeal" or "Volunteers for Transylvania" or Maniu-guards; also called Maniu-gendarmes. These collaborated with the gendarmerie.

That is when they created in Foldvar, near Brasso, the forced labour camp where tens of thousands of Hungarians were taken. They said that the Hungarians served the Horthyists, did not accept the Romania regime and would not give up their revisionist dreams. The Romanian authorities fired hundreds of Hungarian employees. Upon instructions from the Russian military command, they said, they closed the Hungarian language elementary and secondary schools, forbade the use of the Hungarian language, and reintroduced Romanian as the official language of the administration. The carnage that the Maniu-guards inflicted almost provoked a civil war. Because of the Romanian government's vacillations, they did not fulfil the conditions of the armistice, they did not call the war criminals to account, they did not return the stolen soviet goods but sabotaged the cultivation of agricultural produce behind the lines. Again upon instructions from the Soviet military command they reinstated Hungarian public administration in northern Transylvania in November 1944. They introduced a new order which lasted until the beginning of 1945. This was the only measure taken by the authorities of soviet military forces occupying Transylvania that helped protect the interests of the Hungarians and other nationalities

What exactly happened in Bacska during the war years, between 1941 and 1945? How many people are buried in the mass grave in Temerin and who were they? On every All Soul's Day, the local inhabitants cover the grave of the unknown dead with fresh flowers. It was prohibited until now to mention that in the autumn of 1944, in Zenta, a large group of Hungarians was gathered and summarily executed. We still do not know how many fell victim to this event. From an article published in the newspaper "Ujvideki Magyar Szo" written by Dr. Juhasz Geza, retired teacher, we learn that in the autumn of 1944, a Serbian delegation from Zsablya and Csurog called on Marshall Tito in Belgrade. They asked for permission to take revenge on the Hungarians for the massacres committed in January 1942, during the interregnum between the Hungarian administration and the partisan groups. Permission for reprisals was granted to the two villages.

In the autumn of 1944, genocide took place in Bezdan too; here over 100 Hungarians were murdered. In Adorjan, near Nagykanizsa, victims numbered more than 50. Proportionately to the total population every 30th village inhabitant became a victim. Hundreds of people were killed in Szabadka, and Ujvidek. For these too, the inhabitants take flowers by guesswork. Here are some relevant numbers: - in Csurog, the majority of the population is Serbian. In 1910, there were 2730 Hungarians here; in 1948, at the time of the first census after the war, there were altogether 139. In Zsablya, instead of the 1722 Hungarians there are only 100 at this time. In the summer of 1945, when the concentration camps were dissolved, the Hungarians were prohibited from returning to their native villages. They were deprived of all their worldly goods.

According to some estimates, Tito's partisans are responsible for the death of 30 thousand Hungarians. For decades, Kadar Janos and Marshall Tito kept silent about these reprisals.

How did they carry off the men from Aknaszlatina too?

Most of them realised that the damages caused by war had to be repaired, and that they will "only" go to the vicinity of Raho for three days of work fixing up collapsed tunnels. Several groups assembled, the younger ones marched towards Raho, singing along the way.

Most of the male population was at home, exempt from the draft, as the saltmines were considered a war industry. Yet it happened that over a thousand men were deported. More than 150 of then are buried in unknown places. Many came home already from Szolyva - fatally ill; they died at home and are buried here. We still do not know the fate of many others.

I don't want to list the names of all the martyrs, only mention some of those who were carried off and never came back. Most of them are Hungarians: Benedek Marton, Borody Janos, Kemeny Istvan, Kozma Zsiga, Paladi Bela, Zborivszki Karoly as well as many, many others.

After 1944, numerous people were carried off for various crimes". For instance, the teacher, Soos Istvan, was jailed for producing in Szlatina the play "Janos Vitez".

My father's uncle, for example, made the remark in a train that he is Hungarian and professes to be one. For this slip of the tongue, he never saw Szlatina again, nor did we see him. He was called Zadranszky Jozsef.

From 1947 on, they started to assemble the young people under the pretext that they will be taken to a trade school for the manufacturing industry (FEZEO). Those who could not stand the brutal work escaped; they received four years and then were transported to the Kolima region in north-eastern Siberia.

The organising committee of our Association asked me to make a short study, based on letters of the camp and prayers which have come to my knowledge.

Some of these camp writings have come down to us in several variation. I mention one only the "1944 PRAYER OF A THOUSAND PRISONERS" of which I have four variants. I have no doubt that some other variations will show up in my collection during my research. Here then is the first stanza which is identical in all variation:

A thousand prisoners send their prayers to the skies
Hear us, oh Lord, and listen finally to our sighs
Help us home, we implore you, we beg you on our knees
We are suffering for our sins, we poor deportees.
Our Father, Lord God who are in the skies
Hear us, oh Lord, and listen to our sighs.

On December 27, 1944, a man called Ferenc wrote the following letter in verse to his relative Boris from Szolyva concentration camp. The identity of the person is so far unknown. I quote a few lines:

My Lord, my God. I beg you, let me no longer grieve
For I have been blown about like fallen leaves
We are suffering all, in horrible captivity.
The solider, at least, know he may die
But I, I just don't know why.

It is obvious that the quoted verse-prayer and letter have no great poetic value. However, we must not approach them as literature, but as authentic documents of an era; as such they are invaluable.

I must mention separately and in detail the poems of Balog Sandor, Protestant choir-master of Szernye, that show a well-developed aptitude for writing and noteworthy poetic standards. I speak of the Balog Sandor who had organised at the time and was conductor of "Gyongykalaris" (a glee club) of Szernye, the Transcarpathian version of the by now sadly forgotten "Gyongyosbokreta" movement.

In 1944 came the horrible realisation: - it is not good to be Hungarian in Transcarpathia. Balog Sandor was carried off also.

It is understandable and natural that this steadfast man, who passionately loved his country and glorified its beauty in song, would continue to put the trials of camplife into poems, yet he could not write them down. As illustrated by the next few lines, he wrote his poems in his mind and kept them in his memory until he could put them to after his return.

I still write in my thoughts
With perils this is fraught.
I will keep in my memory
The verses of my poetry.

In his poem "IN ANOTHER CAMP", Balog Sandor describes the conditions of camplife, as well as the sufferings of the prisoners with bitter irony and shattering dramatic flair.

I quote in full:

we are moving to another camp
We can't believe this big event.
We were half eaten by lice here,
There, instead, we shall have fleas.

Bedbugs too? My Lord, my God,
You'd think on trees they grow
But bread and food for life
Are always in short supply.

I tread the road to Golgotha
On this horrifying agora
Oh, my Lord, what shall I become?
The "ferry" is waiting, here I come!

I cannot continue to elaborate on Balog Sandor's poetry, although it is most likely that he left us the greatest number of camp-poems of the highest standards.

It is sad but interesting that one of the survivors, Kodobocz Endre of Beregsom, has literally just now, there days ago written his poem "RECOLLECTION" in which he remembers his return home from captivity.

I would like to quote his closing lines:

I roamed around in many a place as a youngster
But never have I seen such a horrifying monster
But the Lord was good to me
And allowed me to return to thee.
Accept me again as your beloved son
Give food and drink to this starving one.

To finish I would like to ask all of you: please help preserve all the writings from camps and let us spread the word throughout Transcarpathia so as to safeguard these documents so very special to an era.

The Tragedy of the Hungarians of Transcarpathia