Translated by Henry Fischer
Of the four hundred German Hungarian villages that came
into being, Mucsi was located in the southern part of Tolna County and unlike
many of them, Mucsi was one of those that lost almost its total Danube Swabian
population through deportation after the Second World War. It is almost
unbelievable that a tragic-comedy took place there during the chaotic
activities of the recent new settlement of the village.
Like two dozen other villages in the county, Mucsi’s
first German settlers came from the region of Fulda
adjoining Hesse following the expulsion of the Turks in the 18th
century and that is the reason why they were called: Stifoller. This
led to the widespread public association of this name was with the tasty
“Stifoller salami” sausage, which was much beloved by the inhabitants
throughout the area. During the reconstruction of Tolna County various
nationalities were involved including Hungarians, Serbs and Germans. Many of
the Hungarian peasant families settled in the western and northern sections of
the county on the most productive soil in the region. For instance, the land
on both sides of the Kapos River which included the villages and towns of
Dombovár, Dorkokez, Székely and also the area around Ozora, Tamasi and
Iregszemcse. In the uninhabited and hilly area on the Hegykat and Volgyseg
rivers, which was the almost mountainous area around Gyönk, the majority of
the ethnic German settlements in the county were to be found.
In the midst of the steep hills and mini-mountains of
Tolna County, Mucsi’s settlers found themselves eking out an existence from
this rather step-motherly soil in terms of its natural endowments. The
backwardness of Hungary’s agricultural industry was compounded by the
half-feudal nature of society and the authorities that controlled it that all
had an effect on Mucsi. Among the most prominent nobles who owned the estates
in Tolna were the following families: Batthyany, Dory, Montenuovo, Zichy and
Eszterházy.
Prince Paul Eszterházy alone owned 32, 137 Katastraljoch
(45,000 acres) of land in Tolna County around Ujdombovar. From among the
oldest and most well known Hungarian noble families were the Apponyis who were
the owners of Mutsching (as the inhabitants referred to Mucsi) and who
also worked a large part of their own land holdings on their estates.
The population of Mucsi consisted of small landowners,
cottage owners (tradesmen), day labourers, servants and maids. Most families
owned about 5 Katastraljoch of land. In the community, the Hungarians were
exclusively from the upper class, and the ethnic Germans formed the middle
class. For the cottage owners, who had no land there was little chance of
advancing themselves due to the lack of work possibilities. Many of the
servants (hired hands) earned their living in faraway villages. Over half of
the girls at the age of twelve hired themselves out to rich families in the
towns. The Mucsingers were known throughout the area as wooden shoemakers and
cattle breeders. The village with a population of 2,300 was famous by the end
of the 19th century because of Mucsi’s local grown wines that won a
gold medal at the World’s Fair in Vienna in 1902. During a study of soil
quality in 109 villages in Tolna County, Mucsi placed 91st. Worse
soil could only be found in other nearby Swabian villages: Mórágy, Závod,
Lengyel, Duzo, Szálka, and Bátaapáti (the lowest on the scale). One of the
common features among these villages was the loss of topsoil through constant
erosion. In this hilly area it was not possible to use machinery and
fertilizers, and had to rely on backward agricultural methods instead.
In the six years of elementary school, the pupils only
developed rudimentary knowledge. They learned neither the German or Hungarian
language correctly. Their ‘Type C’ school (a designation the Hungarian
Department of Education gave it because they included several hours of German
each week) did not actually provide the students with much outside of basic
reading and writing skills. Before the time of the Bund (the Nazi influenced
local German Folk and Cultural Society) the local populace was not allowed to
give expression to their ethnic German nationality or satisfy their need to
maintain their Danube Swabian identity. The people were raised in a strict
Catholic conservative spirit. The upper classes kept them in their place and
in that way they were easier to control and they could rule over them. In
terms of politics and economics they only had meagre information to inform
their discussions and thinking. The traditional Hungarian nobles formed the
upper class and were in control and were highly influenced by the spirit of
Trianon, (The Peace Treaty after the war that dismembered Hungary forcing it
to surrender vast territories to Romania and the new state of Yugoslavia and
losing large portions of its Hungarian population) their feudal concepts and
rights as the aristocracy and formed alliances with the emerging urban middle
class and ruled politically and ideologically while the farmers and urban
classes struggled against want.
The common people were left to themselves, with no
spiritual or political leaders in their own ranks. The villagers of Mucsi
thought “Hungary” and “Hungarian” even when they spoke German.
The political scene and transitions that took place in
Mucsi in the time between the two world wars was much like it was in most of
the Danube Swabian communities. The population had to live through the great
wave of Magyar nationalism, the youth had to participate in the para-military
Hungarian Levente movement. In the village, a chapter of Bleyer’s UDV (Ungarn
Deutsche Verein: German Hungarian Association) was organized. (Formerly it
had been the Catholic Literary Society). After its dissolution in the summer
of 1940 the Bund replaced it and a large portion of the population was won to
its cause because of its political, economic and cultural objectives and
promises. With regard to the ideology, or having an understanding of National
Socialism (Nazism) the local members knew just about nothing about it. A
simple minded Bund membership was easy to deceive as Nazis themes and strains
worked their way into the program of the local chapters. The Hungarians and
the other nationalities were just as susceptible to Nazi ideology as were the
ethnic Germans, because false gods easily manipulate us when we begin to
worship them. Because there were so few people with an education or an
understanding of their own history in Hungary there was no one to call the
Bund to account or dare to question it. At the beginning of 1943 things began
to change, especially in terms of the community’s political attitudes. It
resulted from the reverses of the Nazis on the eastern front and as the death
notices began to arrive in households and they suddenly realized that they had
been taken in by the Bund and their promises. In 1943 half of the members
withdrew from the Bund organization in Mucsi. This political landslide was
associated with the organization of the True to Our Homeland Movement begun
and organized by the German Hungarians in Bonyhad. By the end of the war the
overwhelming majority of the population of Mucsi had joined the new rival
movement. Mucsi was one of the bastions of the movement in Hungary. One form
that their opposition to the Bund took was the establishment of totally
Hungarian schools in which the language of instruction was Hungarian in
totally German speaking villages.
Mucsi welcomed with the joy the ending of the war that
had claimed the lives of 151 of the villagers. They assumed that a democratic
system of government would be put into effect and that social equality and
guarantees to the various nationalities and their rights would be protected.
But these years following the war did not bring freedom for the people of
Mucsi, instead it was deportation to forced labour in the Soviet Union,
confiscation of the houses and land and internment for many. As a result of
the reparations Hungary was forced to make to the Soviet Union, many of the
younger people of Mucsi were taken to Russia for forced labour, others were
chosen to do slave labour in Hungary, and still others were interned in the
camp at Lengyel in Tolna County for weeks and months on end. But the greatest
shock of all was the expulsion.
Some forty families living in the village that had
claimed that they were Hungarian by nationality in the census of 1941 were
allowed to remain. As for all of the rest of the local population, they were
to be expelled from Hungary and that would be carried out in three phases.
The first transport left Mucsi on June 2nd, 1946. Another on the 5th
of June followed and the final phase on June 7th. For that
purpose lists were posted at the school and village community centre that
contained the names of those to be expelled. With the beating of drums the
populace was assembled and they were handed their expulsion papers. In spite
of all of that life went on in Mucsi as the expulsion dates drew near. Some
simply continued to work in their fields to the last minute, watered he
vineyards, feed their livestock for the last time, and left additional food
for the next few days as if they were just going away for a day or two. They
had about a two-week warning of the expulsion. Each person was allowed
baggage of up to 80 kilos. Their clothes, food, bedding and such were wrapped
up in blankets or they made small wooden containers.
On the day of the expulsion the whole village was in
uproar and in deep mourning. The wagons with the deportees on board along
with their luggage formed a long column. All of the bells in the church
steeple began to toll. Many people prayed the rosary. Others wept. Some ran
into the church for one last quick prayer, others kissed the walls of the
church, or they took a handful of earth from the cemetery at the graves of
loved ones, as a reminder of “home”. But over and over again there were
scenes of painful and tearful goodbyes as relatives, neighbours and friends
parted. Horse and oxen drawn wagons brought the deportees to the train
station in neighbouring Kurd. There they were loaded in cattle cars and they
began the journey into the unknown. Were they going east or west? In each
cattle car there were thirty to forty persons and their baggage. The bundles
and boxes were used to sit on during the day and they slept on them at night.
A hole was drilled in the floor as something to use to meet bodily functioning
needs or if you were fortunate you could find a bush to hide behind during a
stop the train made. There was no way you could wash. Several women from one
car would cook for the whole group when the train stopped for that purpose.
Usually it was soup: bean, potato, einbrenn. Along with that there was
sausage, bacon, and hams from home. The trip took three weeks.
When they arrived in Germany they were placed in a camp.
There was very little living space. The biggest job for everyone was to find
work and a place to live. At that time all of Germany experienced hunger and
homelessness. These “foreigners”, whose costume, speech and habits were
different, were not always well received by the local German population. Some
of the homeowners were forced to take in the “Hungarians” who the locals
referred to as the Hungarian Gypsies.
As a result of the three transports in June of 1946,
Mucsi lost 90% of its Danube Swabian inhabitants. The remaining ethnic German
population believed that they would be able to remain at home. But soon there
had to be place made for the new settlers coming from Slovakia. In August
1947, this led to a further expulsion. For the powers that be at the time it
was immaterial and irrelevant that these last deportees had given Hungarian as
their nationality and German as their mother tongue in the census of 1941 and
many of them were the most vocal leaders against the Bund. They had
established the True to Homeland Movement in the village and had been the
founders of the Hungarian school. The only issue that counted was the fact
that they owned land or a house. The expulsion was carried out quickly by
common agreement that included the local press. This final expulsion took the
Swabians by complete surprise. On August 23, 1947 police officers surrounded
Mucsi in order to capture all of the remaining Danube Swabians. It was a
terrible sight to see. People were driven like cattle, many of them elderly
and were tossed up on the trucks waiting for them. A few families still
managed to escape and hid in the vineyards or meadows, neighbouring Hungarian
villages or homes, where they remained for weeks and months, sleeping in
haylofts. Some went to Budapest to hide there. All of the property and
possessions of the expellees was confiscated.
On January 28, 1948 some twenty-five to thirty families
were taken by surprise at night, awakened and made to dress and were given
half an hour to pack some necessities. But no one could have more than 5
kilos. As a result of this there were some terrible consequences. In case of
one family only the parents were taken and had to leave their 17-year-old son
and 3 and half year old daughter behind. In another family, three siblings
including a 7-year-old boy (the author) were expelled, but the parents and
grandparents were kept behind because the father was sick.
On March 21, 1948 the last expulsion took place in
Mucsi. Of the five hundred families living in the 478 houses, only 24
families remained. There is no other example quite like it anywhere else in
Hungary.
Even before the expulsion of the Danube Swabians of
Mucsi, the re-settlement began. A few Hungarian families arrived in the
village having fled Yugoslavia as refugees. The major arrival of new
residents occurred after the ethnic Germans were expelled in June, 1946. The
Hungarian settlers had found out about the possibility of settling in Mucsi
from the political parties or other nationalist organizations or read about it
in the newspapers.
Large numbers of the Hungarian families who settled in
Mucsi were locksmiths, shoemakers and bakers; mostly tradesmen and craftsmen
but unfortunately none of them were farmers. Most of them came from the
southeastern county of Békés. Land poor and just poor families from nearby
villages also settled in the Mucsi. One day later more than a dozen Hungarian
families from the north eastern counties moved in, mostly from Heves County
from the villages of Kal, Parad and Trarnalelesz. At the same time colonists
came from Bikar. In Mucsi, settlers from 32 different areas were settled, who
represented some 60 different occupations, but most of them had no background
or knowledge of farm work or agriculture. Many of them arrived by wagon with
a team of horses or oxen, while others came by truck. Some who were not
content with what Mucsi had to offer left after spending ten minutes in the
village.
A newspaper in Tolna carried an article in its February
14, 1968 edition entitled: “The Republic of
Mucsi”
and refers to happenings in Mucsi in 1946.
“For a long time Mucsi was a state within a state,
even though due to some rather clever politicking no ministerial titles were
awarded. Mucsi was a republic in which many naive, dramatic and cheerful
conflicts summed up its life together. As a consequence a legend has resulted
and Mucsi is a byword for liberation. Raising a white flag the new settlers
announced that they had capitulated and gave up their sovereignty of Mucsi.
The native born at that time were the subjects and the new settlers who due to
the fact that they were from every other section of the country had come here
to find their destiny in trying their luck at being the rulers.
Even though there is no official documentation
covering the years 1946 to 1950 Mucsi has been resettled by some 42,000
persons and just as many people have forsaken the place. This would make it
equal to a major city in southern Transdanubia.
This almost hidden community lures settlers like a
California gold strike! One would almost believe it was the land of Canaan:
large hams hang in the food lockers, there are barrels and barrels of wine in
the cellars worth much gold, in the pig pens fat hogs root around and the
houses beckon you with their well furnished rooms and all of this is yours
just for the asking! One would be led to believe that all you had to do was
harvest the wheat and find yourself a real El Dorado.
In June of 1946 to all intents and purposes the
village was deserted. Just the many valuables were left behind. All you had
to do is walk in and sit down and it was yours. In the hope of striking it
rich, hordes of settlers from all parts of the country arrived in Mucsi, even
from Budapest and other cities, people from the underworld living a precarious
existence, among them graphologists, extravagant city slickers from rich
neighbourhoods in Budapest, sword and sabre rattlers, professional card
players and gamblers, unemployed visionaries, exiled Seventh Day Adventist
preachers, Arrow Cross fanatics, war criminals and all kinds of other people.
And from the southern Batschka there are heroes and hired hands that take over
the houses, goods and properties of the Danube Swabians.
Everyone tries to live according to his own rules. In
the tavern run by Stefan Binder and Joseph Kerterz the drinking sessions on
workdays and Sundays begin early in the morning and last until late at night.
Most of the heads of wheat fall to the ground because the new settlers only
harvested one hundred Klafters (a quarter acre) because they believed that
should last them at least a year. At the time of gathering in the grapes the
sabre rattlers and the professional card players rode into the vineyards on
horseback, accompanied by a Gypsy orchestra, also on horses. This golden life
attracted and lured some 42,000 people to Mucsi.
The village lived like a Republic all on its own right
in the middle of the County. It even had its own little king.
Often it had its own local unrest. The people grabbed
hoes and shovels and headed for the community centre. They held the teacher
and all of the local officials in custody and practically all of the other
people who wanted to obey the law and kept the whole group in constant fear.
In this kind of chaos and confusion it was not that
difficult to get around the law. The new settlers sold 250 of the houses and
just as many outhouses were torn down at the end of the 1940s and the
beginning of the 1950s. The lumber was sold for ridiculous prices and
delivered all across the countryside.
During these times all of the decent law abiding
families, whether old time residents or new settlers were the absolute
minority. They had no say in anything.
At the beginning of the 1950s things became clearer.
The cleverest among them saw they needed to do something about the way things
were going. No one was coming to replace them anymore, because it was not to
anyone’s advantage to do so. The cellars and food lockers were now empty and
bare. The only way to survive now was to work…
There are still some older people who remember how the
police set the sheriff of the County free and the villagers raised the white
flag and surrendered. But the young people in Hungary today believe this is
only a fairy-tale.
Meanwhile advertisements are being run in newspapers
in south western Germany inviting would be new settlers to come and meet the
challenge of finding new opportunities in Hungary. Apparently there have been
a few inquires from Fulda."
