the text - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

north and north to south. Settling the refugees, finding work for
them and generally caring for them became a societal task. It was
entrusted to the Interior Ministry's Social Work Division. In 1941, a
new responsibility was the settlement of the people from Bukovina
and the saving of the scattered Hungarians living outside the historic
borders. *15
After the Anschluss of Austria and the dismemberment of
Czechoslovakia in 1938-39 new refugees arrived by the tens of
thousands. These were mostly Jewish - by religion or ethnicity -
who spent as short a time as possible in Hungary; they tried to get as
fast and as far away from Germany as they could. The treatment
they received was delicate as Budapest had to reckon with
Germany's protest but they had to be helped along in their flight.
The great majority moved along within a few weeks; some only
spent days in our country. Most of them came with passports and
only had to wait out the time it took to process their visas. The
situation changed radically when the borders with Austria and the
newly independent Slovakia were reinforced from the other side.
In June of 1939, with the knowledge of the Foreign Ministry the
Interior Ministry organized the transport to the Danube Delta, on the
river steamers Queen Elizabeth and Carl Dusan of 900, mostly
Czech, Slovak, Transcarpathian, German, or Austrian Jews.
Defying the imposed law of guarantine, the steamers took to the
open sea where they transferred their passengers to the cargoship
"Julia Hoemi", flying the Panamanian flag and steaming to
Palestine. The trip was guaranteed by the Hungarian Foreign
Ministry. This Panamanian steamer was the last to have reached its
destination undisturbed. This mode of fleeing was repeated in May
1940. Then, a steamer under the Bulgarian flag, transported several
hundred Jews from Pozsony to the Danube delta. This passage, too,
was guaranteed by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.
The care of the Jews raised some separate questions within the
general treatment given to the Polish refugees in 1939. It must be
noted here that of the 20,000 refugees in the care of he Interior
Ministry that came from the Northern Region (Felvidek) most were
"bona fide" Hungarians but there were quite a few that had false
papers.*16
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