The following
information is based on a summary and my translation of Die
Verschleppung ungarnländische Deutschen 1944/1945 that first
appeared in Hungarian and was translated into German in an
unpublished manuscript that came into my possession without the name
of the author.
With only a few exceptions Hungarian
historians have only recently acknowledged that segments of the
German population living in
At the time of the signing of a
truce on the part of the Hungarian government with the Russians on
January 25, 1945 the deportations were already under way. When the
Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin) ended on February
11, 1945 the great majority of the slave labourers from
There were four areas of
1) Transtisien
and North
2) The
Great Hungarian Plain between the Tisza and
3)
4) Swabian
The order to “mobilize” all able
bodied persons of German ethnic origin living in
The mobilization was undertaken by
district and local Hungarian officials. The Interior Minister,
Ferenc Erdei issued an order on January 5, 1945 for the registration
of persons of German ethnic origin living in the
“On December 26, 1944 a two hundred man unit of the GPU of the Red Army was quartered in Elek. On the evening of their arrival the Russian commander issued an order to the local judge to begin the registration of the ethnic German population. On January 1, 1945 the Russian major called upon the judge at 10:00 pm in the evening and informed him he would undertake the mobilization of all of those with German family names for labour service. At 7:00 am on January 2, 1945 this GPU major made known that all persons with German names, without exception, fell under the terms of his orders. All persons with Hungarian names whose grandparents had German names or were of German ethnic origin would be included. The major remarked, “Whoever has even a tiny drop of German blood in his veins is German.”
The assembling of the German
population for removal and transport to the Soviet Union was
completed on January 11, 1945 and they were entrained on railway box
cars for shipment to
Elek 983; Almaskamaras 320; Nagykamaras 20; Medgeyesegyhaza 15; Medyesbodzas 10; Pusztaottlaka 10; Kevers 10; Gyula 585.
It appears that the assembling of
men and women of German ethnic origin in the Russian occupied areas
of
The method used to
round up the local German populations was primarily the same as at
Elek. The village was surrounded by Russian troops in the early
gray dawn then the drums were beaten in the streets and the civilian
population was ordered to report. Large numbers of people were
assembled from Mezöbereny, Gyoma, Fuzesgyarmat, Békes, Békescsaba,
Szarvás and other neighbouring villages. An assembly depot was
located in Jula. On January 10, 1945 a train transport with some
2,000 Germans left Jula and headed across
The Russian military authorities also put other civilian populations behind the front lines to “Maleki Robot” in various other ways usually for three to five days. The recruitment of this civilian labour was left in the hands of the Hungarian government officials and authorities.
At the beginning of November 1944
the Russian troops that entered Szabocs took 2,000 civilians from
The Roman Catholic parish records of
Merk in
In the
The action was carried out in Merk on January 2, 1945 by the local Hungarian police who knocked on the doors of all the Swabian households as well as three Orthodox families and two Hungarian Reformed families. They simply took all persons from 17 to 45 years of age or ordered them to report at the school by 8:00 am where bread and salt would be distributed. As the people arrived they noticed that the building was encircled by bayonet bearing troops. Later that day they were placed in the local military barracks where they would remain for two days. On the third day they were driven on foot carrying their meager bundles and guarded and escorted by mounted troops to Nagy Karoly which was the County capital. They remained there for two days and the Swabians from other nearby Swabian villages were also brought there from: Caslanos, Kaplony, Mezöpetri, Szaniszlo, Nagymajjeny, Kalmand, Mezöbany, Mezöterem,and Kismanjjeny.
As the deportees left the railway
station in Nagy Károly on January 8, 1945 they were informed they
would repair the rail lines in
Of the 478 persons from Merk and Vallaj, 46 from Merk and 44 from Vallaj perished in the camps. A total of 90 persons died due to the conditions in the camps and as a result of epidemics that broke out among the inmates.
There were 547 deportees taken from
Balmazujvaros on January 13, 1945 (395 men and 155 women) and they
were sent to work in the coal mines of the
In north eastern
In addition to the Donets Basin,
slave labourers from this region in
The Foreign Ministry of the Provisional Government received countless requests for the return of the deportees. Their response was that the matter had been referred to the Allied Control Commission.
From a total of 251 communities in
Transtisien and north eastern
The deportation action began in
Rakospalota on January 20, 1945. On January 22nd the
drums were beaten and the population was told that all persons with
a German family name or were of German ethnic origin including those
who had Magyarized their names were to report to the officials.
They were sent to an assembly camp and then were on their way to
The
As the battle raged
for the capture of
The Russian military set up an
assembly camp at Berzel/Gegledbercel. Swabian men and women were
interned there from the surrounding area and numbered 730 persons.
They were joined by others from twenty-five other villages and in
all 3,600 persons were transported to the
From Harta on the Danube another
large Lutheran community 393 persons were taken to
The method used to assemble the
deportees in Erd was the same as the method the Turks used in the
far distant past. On January 8, 1945 all men between the ages of 16
and 50 years were told to report to provide proof of their
identity. After waiting for over an hour representatives of the
Soviet military command informed them that they could not get their
papers locally but had to proceed to Ercsi where the Soviet
headquarters were located. The men were skeptical but proceeded to
Ercsi. While they were there the men were grouped together with
Swabians who had served in the Hungarian National Army and were
marched off to a new destination. They were hungry and thirsty and
trudged through a snow storm in the direction of Dunaföldvar. They
received some food on their way at Kloszallas but there was not
enough for all of them. Their route took them through Cece to
Dunaföldvar and then on to Harta, Kolcsa, Dusanok and finally
reached Baja their final destination. They were entrained here.
Those from Erd were transported to Temesvár and others were interned
at
In all, documentation verifies that
in this region 15,542 ethnic Germans were sent to slave labour in
the
The number of
ethnic Germans in
The assembling and transporting of
the German civilian population in
(Translator’s note: On the basis of
my own personal research I can provide some of the following missing
details. There were 35 persons of whom 24 were women and eleven men
who were taken from Somogydöröcske. Six of the women and eight of
the men died there. I have been able to determine that there were
74 persons from Bonnya and the neighbouring Bonnyapuszta. In
Somogyszil there were a total of 70 persons involved, 36 men and 34
women. Five of the women and three of the men died in the camps.
In Gadács the deportees numbered 24 persons, 17 women and 7 men.
Ecsény provided 54 persons although 76 had been selected but many
went into hiding and several women escaped in Lapafö before they
were entrained for Dombovár. Five of the women and eight of the men
from Ecsény died in the
In terms of
The first deportees from
The total number of ethnic German deportees from Swabian Turkey was 11,500 persons. At least that is the official count.
Beginning on December 22, 1944 the
Soviet military along with the assistance of the Hungarian
government officials carried out a systematic program to take
persons of German ethnic origin or with German family names as slave
labour to the Soviet Union as
From the three major regions where the deportations took place we can report the following statistics:
Transtisien and North East Hungary 19,816 persons
Swabian
These figures are based on the lists of names that are recorded in the Hungarian Foreign Ministry. A conservative estimate is that 30% of the deportees are not named on the official lists another 14,750 persons. On that basis:
Transtisien and North East Hungary 25,816 persons
Swabian
Contemporary historians suggest that
the Soviet military authorities transported 150,000 Danube Swabians
and 75,000 Transylvania Saxons to forced labour from
The first survivors from the labour
camps arrived back in
The Hungarian Ministry of Health
reported that from January 1, 1947 to the end of December 1948 a
total of 7,090 women, 26,232 civilian men and 6,965 minors returned
to
The vast majority of the returnees
arrived in
Many of those who had become sick in
the camps were placed in transports of returning German prisoners of
war and were sent to Frankfurt-on-Oder in the Russian Zone of
Labour camps had also been set up in
Even before reaching the frontiers
of
The forced abduction of the ethnic
German civilian population was only possible through the cooperation
of Hungarian officialdom. The foremost among them were those
officials in the local communities themselves and the district
authorities. At the Tehran Conference the Big Three had agreed that
no military governments be established in the occupied lands. All
levels of the Provisional Government of Hungary participated and
carried out the deportations with Soviet assistance. The County
administrations were informed later. In most districts and regions
the Hungarian officials were unaware of the real goals of the
Russians in terms of the deportation to slave labour in
What was unclear with regard to the
Soviet military order was the question of what constituted being
German. As far as the Russians were concerned anyone with a German
sounding name or someone who married a German was one. Although the
task of assembling the deportees was the task of the Hungarian
authorities in most cases Soviet troops carried them out with the
support of Yugoslavian and Romanian Partisans units as part of their
occupation duties in southern
But the Russian military authorities
were also somewhat uncertain as to when to proceed. Those ethnic
Germans who had already been assembled for transportation to
There were two channels of
information and communication. The fastest was the Soviet military
commanders. As soon as the order was issued by the Ministry of the
Interior on January 5, 1945 to all municipal officials the first
trainloads of deportees were on their way to
The frontlines split
Various different ruses were used so
as not to alert the deportees of their true fate and destination.
In the Baranya they were told they would be rebuilding the airfield
at Pécs, while in the Tolna they would be doing agricultural work
breaking corn in the region of Baja across the
When the Minister of the Interior
dispatched his orders to undertake the deportations he was well
aware of their destination but kept that secret from his own
officials. After March 1945 Hungarian officials lumped in the
civilian deportees along with the prisoners of war when they
returned to
There is no evidence to suggest that the Hungarians could have curtailed or prevented the deportations by any official or government action. Their involvement was formal. It was the Russian military who were in charge.
What will now follow are official documents that deal with various phases of the deportations and those involved.
The Chief Justice of Tolna County wrote from Bonyhád on December 31, 1944 to all the local and district Notaries of Tolna County:
“Along with the accompanying order of the Russian Military Command in Bonyhád, dated December 31, 1944 I order the immediate registration for labour services all Germans in your locale, all men born in the years from 1899 to 1929 and women born in the years 1914 to 1926.
These registered individuals are to be given identity certificates which will be sent to me immediately so that I have them in my hands by 12:00 noon on January 3, 1945 at the latest. This registration will not allow for any postponement and all involved who are able bodied workers are to be included.
The identity papers must include: 1) a certificate number 2) name 3) place of birth, year, month and day 4) current address 5) married women, pregnant and number of children under 7 years of age.
For the precise and punctual carrying out of my orders you are personally answerable.”
The local authorities in Tevel,
“The statement and itemized list of
deportees was handed over to the local Russian Commander on December
26, 1944 and the assembling of the deportees and their subsequent
leaving for
The District Notary at Szentbolaz wrote the following entry on January 2, 1945:
“…in the village of Kiskeresztur, Somogy County the Russian Military Commander gathered together the men of German ethnic origin who were able bodied between the ages of 17 to 45 years and women from 18 to 30 years at the end of December and according to my understanding they were taken to Pécs…”
The District Notary in Somogyszil reported on January 7, 1945:
“I inform Your Honour that the able bodied German population of Szil and Gadács have been transported as directed. On January 6, 1945 there were 36 men and 34 women from Szil who were involved and on January 21st there were an additional 17 women and 7 men from Gadács. The great majority of the German male population in Gadács is serving in the military and even though the Russian soldiers went from house to house they could not find any more men.
In both Szil and Gadács there are presently some men and women in the designated age groups who have been left behind due to illness or the women have infants under the age of two years.”
The District Notary from Kisbarápati reported the following on January 24, 1945:
“…the Soviet military authorities who have their headquarters in Andócs along with Hungarian police transported the ethnic German civilians, both men and women from two of the villages belonging to my jurisdiction: Bonnya and Bonnyapuszta on January 22nd. The enclosed list of names and identity certificates for 74 persons are enclosed for your information.”
The decree issued by the Vice Governor of Somogy County on January 1, 1945 states:
“Re: The registration of the able bodied German population.
To: All local governments and community councils.
In response to directions given by the Russian Military Command Headquarters in Kaposvár I call upon you to immediately register all Germans living permanently or abiding in your community. This includes all men of German origin who are able bodied from the ages of 17 to 45 years and women of German origin ages 18 to 30 years. The identity certificate must bear the precise name, both Christian and surname and married women must include their maiden name as well as the exact household address.
With regard to the establishment of whether or not someone is of German origin is obvious: anyone whose mother tongue is German or is of German ethnic origin and whether they were members of the Volksbund or not is immaterial.
…should you not respond in a reasonable period of time you will answer for your tardiness directly to the Russian military authorities.”
He also wrote to the Chief Justice in Igal, Tab and Lengyeltoti on January 18, 1945:
“The Russian Military Command has decreed that the military units in the individual communities of your District are to assemble for labour service all those who are able bodied and of German ethnic origin, all women aged 18 to 30 years and men from 17 to 45 years and provide for their transportation. Those persons chosen can take 200 kilos of goods, warm winter clothing, covers, eating utensils and food for fifteen days.
I order you to be as helpful as possible to the officers of the Russian Military.”
The following is an extract from a
letter written by Jacob Studer of Cikó,
“…we are here in the prison in Szekszárd and we lie around here all day and we folks from Cikó are not alone, we have many other comrades. There are about 2,000 persons in all in the prison with us. We do not know when we will leave here and no one knows where we are going. We simply remain here until all of us are together from the area. People from some villages have already been here for eight days.
When all of us are together we are told we will be taken into Szekszárd or go on to Baja to repair the train tracks or who knows we may be able to come home as some of us have heard.”
A letter from Michael Schramm in the assembly camp at Pécs to his family in Sásd:
“We had to live through a sorrowful new year.
They shaved off our hair and we
have been disinfected. At any minute we will be transported to
I take leave of all of you. God be with you. I think of home so often. Your son kisses you many times. God be with you.”
On January 11, 1945 Michael wrote his last letter:
“I am writing my last letter to
you…perhaps our loving God will help me so that I will come home
again. We are going to
Thank you so much for everything and for all you have given and done for me. Look after each other. God be with you. I wish you every good thing. We are leaving today. God be with you. I think of home so often, perhaps our loving God will help me at some time. God be with you.
You had better throw this letter away.”
The following account was written by
Elisabeth Schmidt of Véménd in
“On December 27, 1944 we had to
leave Pécsvarád where we had been taken first. There were forty of
us who had to go on to Pécs and were imprisoned in the Lakics
Barracks in the horse stables. All of the Swabians from
Today on the 24th of
January we are here in
All of this is a test but it comes from our Heavenly Father because humankind no longer knows Him and the pride and envy of people is so great and we have to repent. The lice now appear to be everywhere in our boxcar. No one will ever forget this trip. I think of my loved ones at home constantly. The pain is so deep.”
The following are other individual remembrances of deportees:
“There was talk that we had to go to the Batschka to work for two weeks. Everyone thought that we were going to there to break corn and we were told to take enough food to last for two weeks and warm clothing.”
Another from Ecsény in
“There were many on the list of deportees who went into hiding and sought sanctuary in nearby Hungarian villages. Threats of reprisals against their families led others to give themselves up to the authorities. Parents came and sought their children who had gone into hiding and convinced them to return home because the labour service was in Pécs and would only last two weeks or so…”
A deportee reported:
“Even when people were warned that they were being sent to Russia they refused to believe it and did not take warm winter clothing with them to spite those who had bothered to warn them.”
Anna Maria Ehl from Bonnya in
“In the
A young mother from Sásd in
“Many of us from Sásd were involved. The officials held a meeting and announced that we would be sent to do labour and this and that. Then the list of names was read. When all of that was over an old Russian soldier and several Partisans (who were either Croats or Serbs) wearing civilian clothes but fully armed began to push us around. We then went with them to Pécs on foot. By the time we arrived we had become a caravan as we were joined by others from neighboring villages. The Partisans kept their distance from us and often fired their rifles in the air as a warning to us…”
“In Pécs we were brought to the Lakics stables and barracks. My brother-in-law was with us. He took an old broom and began to clean up the mess because the stable was filled with manure and there was nowhere to sit with our bundles. We sat there among the manure all day.”
“We were taken to the railway station and loaded on board boxcars that had been arranged for us. The windows were covered with barbed wire. We were treated as if we were the worst of criminals. Our train left Pécs and headed towards Dombovár and there were those who said we should try to escape but it was no longer possible.”
“In Bonyhád someone managed to open the door of our boxcar. He said we should get out quickly but we all just sat there and were afraid to move. We thought that if we got off of the train we would be shot. We were simply scared and stupid.”
“Approaching the
Some had chances to escape in Baja and were offered help but were afraid to risk it.
The two young women from Bonnya in
“The Russians assembled us and our
provisions in front of the Reformed Church in Bonnya. Parents were
threatened that if they hid heir children they would be taken in
their place or would be shot. We were taken in horse drawn wagons
to Andócs and locked in the Roman Catholic Church for two days where
we were guarded by armed Russian sentries. On the third day they
brought the Swabians from Szorosad, Somogydöröcske, Miklosi and Kara
by horse drawn wagons. From Andócs we traveled together to the
school in Lápafö. (Translator’s note: Two young women from Ecsény,
and several teenage girls from Miklosi and a sixteen year old boy
from Bonnya escaped during the night.) On the next day we drove on
to Dombovár. Here they also brought the Swabians from the area to
join us. From here we traveled by train or old jalopies without
seats or windows due to the bombings on to Baja. We crossed over
the frozen
One of the deportees from Mekényes
in
“Leaving Baja we were taken towards
Another deportee from the Tolna reported:
“We were never let out of the
boxcars. No water was provided for us. Sometimes when the train
halted at a station we would call for water but we did not always
receive any. We traveled through
A schoolteacher from the Baranya wrote:
“They always transported us at night and by day the train stood at a siding. Where we were going or where we were was something we never knew. We cried like little children. We prayed the rosary and sang hymns…”
A young teenage girl from Hidas in
“One time, I believe we were in
“At Dnepropetrowsk we received some warm cooked food. It was one of the few times we were allowed to leave our boxcar. Beside our tracks there were numerous columns of trains and we heard that there were people on board all of them. We knocked at the locked doors and asked where they came from. They said they were from Pécs. I asked if there were any people from Hidas among them and I learned there were some two or three boxcars down from where I was standing. I knocked at one boxcar after another and managed to see my father for the last time. He looked very pale and ill. I was told he died shortly afterwards.”
A married woman from Magocs in
“They no longer let us off of the
trains until we arrived in Dnepropetnowsk in
A young woman from Nagy Hájmas in
“At first we were not assigned to the mines. We had to transport huge pieces of ice by sled. The distance was as far as Magocs is to Hájmas about 6 kilometers. Two pulled the sled and one had to push from behind. We went up hills and down again and went on and on all day long. One day when we went out we were so frozen that we could not raise our arms. The Russian who accompanied us never spoke. I thought, “My dear God where is he taking us this time?” We had a long way to go and we could see other Russians in the distance. As we approached them we began to cry because our hands were already frozen when one of the women from Hidas said, “Do you know what girls? When we arrive there we will tell them that we are going back to our barracks and if he wants to stop us he will have to shoot us! I mean all of us. Right? He might as well as shoot us for this is no life anyway and we cannot endure this any longer.”
“When we arrived where they were waiting the Russians unloaded the ice on a sled and showed us where to go and get some more. We did not go. We stuck together and marched off to our barracks. He shot somewhere behind us as we walked. He shouted that we could not do this and we had to do as he had ordered. We screamed back at him that we refused to do as he had ordered. He then ran after us screaming all the way and gesticulating wildly. We came to our barracks which were surrounded by barbed wire with sentries standing on guard at each corner and the gates were flooded by searchlights. If anyone attempted to escape it would cost them their life. Our officer was on duty and we told him our Russian foreman had screamed at us that we were lazy and did not want to work. He quickly put an end to the discussion speaking in German as did all of the officers in our camp. The woman from Hidas said that we could not go and do the work demanded of us because it was too cold and we could not withstand it and that we had agreed among ourselves that we would prefer to be shot than endure that. At that time we all believed that we would never see home again anyway. She went on to say that we could not live on the kind of food we got and preferred to die. And then the woman said, “Isn’t that right girls?” And we all responded, “That’s exactly the way it is. Shoot us instead.” Then the officer looking perplexed and obviously very nervous said, “Then you had better get back to your barracks.”
Another woman deportee from Bonnya
in
“I had never been in a mine before. But once you were assigned to the mine there was no way out for you. Only after a long, complicated process could a person be re-assigned from the mines. It was an anthracite mine. There are major differences between coal and anthracite mines. For instance anthracite is very hard. The other major difference is that anthracite is mined in thin shafts from 80 centimeters to one meter in height in the tallest tunnels. One could only work on one’s knees, sitting down or on one’s back.”
In addition to the working conditions there was also the frequency of accidents due to the physical weakness of the deportees who were overworked and underfed.
A deportee from Magocs from
“We became so weak that all of us became ill. Half of us died. In 1945 contagious diseases broke out, all kinds of typhus and people died like flies. I caught typhus but a doctor from Szatmar helped me. I became unconscious and they laid me out in the back of an open truck and the people from Magocs said I would never see Magocs again. They cut off all of my hair. I was bald. I was given up for dead. I gave the ear rings of my aunt who had died to the doctor who was able to get something to restore me to health.”
Another anonymous deportee reported:
“Just as we began to work, the
typhus epidemic broke out. People died like flies that autumn.
They got weak very quickly. The disease spread and people died one
after another. We arrived at the camp on February 2, 1945 and
consisted of 128 persons from villages in
A woman from Kisdorog in
“During the first year, many of us died. It was common to wake up at night and discover that the person next to you had died. They were filled with water. They were just skin and bones and had a huge stomach. The flesh between the toes would burst and the water would just pour out. There was a room behind the building where they put the dead and those who were dieing. There was young boy who had dysentery. He lay there among the dead. He thought it over and crawled out on his hands and knees. He was fortunate because if he had remained he would have certainly died.”
“My sister died in one of these
rooms for the dead but not in our camp but in another. She was just
a seventeen year old girl and had been taken from Kisdorog,
“The corpses lay inside there in a wooden chest for three or four days. They were not removed until the chest was full. The chests sat out in the blazing hot sun and the corpses decomposed and stank.”
In order to survive the inmates of the camps had to find other sources of food whenever possible. The following are some comments and memories of various deportees:
“When we were no longer under heavy
guard we went into the city to beg at the houses. Sometimes they
gave us things. They had nothing themselves. They were as poor as
we were but they gave when we begged. It was perhaps a head of
corn, a piece of bread, an onion. The old people were very kind.
They always wept with us. These older people knew German but before
they began to talk to us they first glanced around to see if anyone
would notice them. They were always terribly frightened those poor
old people. They said the Germans who had lived there had been
deported to
“We always stole something. While I was at a the lumber camp, we stole wood and took it to the bazaar and sold it for five Rubles.”
“We got an old broken down horse so we could carry and deliver water but this poor old nag was so skinny that it fell over and did not have the strength to get back up. Naturally we ate it but not too much because that would make us sick. I remember even now how good it tasted at the time.”
“On one occasion some secret cooking took place in our camp. It smelled good too. Everyone had some of it to eat even though we had no idea of what it was. We found the hide of the dog in the pot later. The dog belonged to one of the Russian officers. He got terribly angry but did not know who to blame.”
“Anyone who did not want to sell the
things he or she had brought with them to
No semblance of religion or any Christian observances were tolerated in the camps.
One deportee however writes that
they were able to make connections with religious believers among
the Russians. A Lutheran deportee from
“And then we also sneaked out of the camp whenever we could when we knew it was Sunday and went to the local Orthodox Church. Here we met deeply committed Christian people. This was above all true among the elderly. They bowed down and kissed the earth at our feet as if we were martyrs. We went in groups of four or five every Sunday. We wept when the priest preached even though we did not understand a word that he said for somehow we knew he was assuring us that God was with us and we had not been forgotten. As the believers got to know us they brought us something. On each Sunday each of us received something. This became their offering at worship. They had great sympathy for us and often wept with us.”
“Many of them knew German. They
believed that we were from
What was uppermost in everyone’s mind was going home; surviving so that they could return to their families and loved ones. At first the only possibility of doing that was to qualify for release because of illness and the inability to work. But that had its hazards too as this deportee indicates:
“When a person became so ill that he or she could not work but was so bad that they could not survive transportation back to Hungary they would be kept behind until eventually they would die…”
A deportee from the
“In the last two years of our time
in
It was the returning survivors who kept the hope of those left behind alive. They were out of touch or contact with their families and neither they nor their families had any idea of what both of them were going through in these perilous times.
Elisabeth Anspach from Ecsény in
“No letters came; absolutely nothing. We had no idea of what was going on at home and our parents knew nothing about us either. Only after the first returnees arrived home did they began to write to us. Then we received a post card that the Red Cross provided. There was also a reply card with it and we sent them. Our answers ended up in the waste paper basket. We never received them.”
Another deportee writes:
“After several inmates were allowed to return home we were able to exchange addresses. We wrote to my father each week and when my uncle arrived in our camp in 1948 we learned that some of them had made it through. He received every tenth one or so. The first post card from my father came in 1949. Four years after I had sent them. The first card came on April 30, 1949.”
The writers knew that their letters were always censored as the following indicates:
“Our letters always went through the censor. One could not write a long letter, just a post card. I don’t know how they did it but with the help of translators they always knew what we wrote and often they didn’t even post our mail at all.”
The day they were released was a day they would never forget as this man indicates:
“We lined up in columns anxious to leave quickly as the main gate was opened when an officer came and asked, “You’re not even bothering to look back are you?” And we answered, “We don’t ever want to see this place again…”
But their return to
“Most of the deportees from Elek
came on transports at the end of June 1947 and arrived at the
crossing point and frontier of
Another deportee from the Tolna
shares her last poignant experience in
“On the morning of August 15, 1947
the Chief Commissar of our camp announced that the Hungarian women
could leave to go home. We were loaded on open trucks and taken to
the nearest assembly camp at Stalino. Here we learned that the
girls from Kaplony, Terkes, Peteri and Mezoterem could not come with
us because their villages no longer belonged to
Another writes:
“We were in terrible physical
condition but we felt fortunate and we sang the Hungarian national
anthem. On September 1, 1947 we arrived at the frontier between
“I was asked for my name and I said,
“Magdolina J….” The officer shouted at me, “So here we have a real
German. What is your father’s name?” “Sandor J. Wieder,” I
answered. He screamed, “Another one of these dirty Fascists!” Then
he asked, “What is your mother’s name?” “Julianna,” I replied and
he yelled, “A real Nazi. Welcome home to
In all, it can now be ascertained
that between 500,000 to 550,000 German civilians in both the Reich
and Eastern Europe were taken to the
No one was really prepared to
evacuate the German populations in eastern and south east
In 1951 the Romanian government
forcibly removed the Swabian population from villages in the Banat
along the border with
With the arrival of the Russian
troops and Partisan bands, organized actions against the remaining
Swabian population in
The first objective of the organs of
the new government called for the elimination and liquidation of all
leading men and women of the Swabian population. This led to
massacre and mass shootings of the Aktion Genzija
carried out by the Tito partisans from October 1944 to April 1945 in
which 10,000 men and women were put to death. This included leaders
of the cultural associations, academics, priests and pastors,
teachers and prominent persons including many doctors. The former
head of the Cultural Association, Johann Keks was liquidated as well
as the Bishop of the
In all three nations the property and possessions of the Swabian population were expropriated or confiscated depending on the country.
In