The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

6 2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yThose population losses, furthermore, included more thanthree million ethnic Hungarians who, due to Hungary’snew borders, suddenly became ethnic minorities in foreigncountries. The Hungarians were inconsolable. In Hungaryflags flew at half- mast the day the Treaty of Trianon wassigned. The country’s motto became “No, No, Never!”—never would Hungarians become reconciled to theselosses. In Liberty Square, a park in Budapest behind theParliament building, four statues were erected in memoryof the lost territories: the territories to the north (lost toCzechoslovakia), the south (to Yugoslavia), the east (toRomania), and the west (to Austria).These territorial losses were one of the reasons, if notthe main reason, for Hungary’s alliance with the Axis inthe 1930s and during World War II. Hitler and Hungary,after all, shared a common goal: to destroy the peacesettlements that had ended World War I by regaining theterritorial losses. So when Hitler set his sights on Czechoslovakiain 1938, Hungary also participated with alacrity.Precisely how much territory Hungary would regain fromCzechoslovakia was determined by German and Italiandiplomats in Vienna; the resulting agreement is known asthe First Vienna Award. Hungary received a strip of southeasternCzechoslovakia (territory from the eastern provinces,Slovakia, and Sub- Carpathian Ruthenia) which hada predominantly Hungarian population. 7 To celebrate thereturn of the territory Hungary issued a set of five semipostalstamps, 8 which had the additional purpose of raisingmoney to assist the ethnic brethren who had allegedlysuffered financially under foreign rule. The inscription onall five stamps reads “Hungarians Help Hungarians.” 9The first stamp in the series is of the Budapest statuememorializing the lost northern territory (the Hungarianword for north, Eszak, is inscribed on the base of thestatue) plus the date of the Treaty of Trianon, 1920 (upperright- hand corner). The third depicts Admiral Horthy,Hungary’s head of state, entering southern Slovakia on awhite horse (significant in Hungarian folklore) at the headof the army, complete with flowers strewn in his path bythe grateful Hungarian population. He is crossing intothe occupied territory on a bridge over the River Danubeat Komaron, where the river formed the (old) border betweenHungary and Czechoslovakia. The iconic contentis a reproduction of a photograph of his triumphal entry.The stamp design of the fifth stamp in the series containsicons representing both the occupying power and the occupiedterritory. (Figure 2) Hungarian soldiers are beingwelcomed by Hungarian girls in national costume. Thedate of the First Vienna Award, 1938, is in the upper righthandcorner, signifying the (partial) return of what hadFigure 2. The design of the fifth stamp in the “Hungarians HelpHungarians” series contains icons representing both the occupyingpower and the occupied territory. From the collection of RobinGates Elliott.been lost in 1920, and stands in contrast to the date on thefirst stamp in the series.The designs of the remaining two stamps in the seriesare icons of culturally significant landmarks in the occupiedterritory: the medieval Cathedral of St. Elizabethof Hungary in Kassa (Slovakia) and the fort at Munkacs(Sub- Carpathian Ruthenia), built during the reign of KingBela IV in the thirteenth century. Both date from the timewhen the territory was Hungarian, and, as such, can beread as a justification of the occupation by historicalprecedent. The selection of these two historic landmarksas icons to represent the occupied territory has an additionalsignificance—and a certain irony—since they hadappeared on stamps issued by Czechoslovakia, the fort in1936 and the cathedral in June of 1938, just a few monthsbefore the Hungarian occupation. 10World War II began with the German invasion of Polandon September 1, 1939. The green light for the invasionwas the Nazi- Soviet Pact, concluded in late August.Essentially, Stalin agreed to let Hitler do whatever hewanted militarily as long as the Soviet Union could annexterritory on its western border, territory that either hadbeen part of the old Russian empire or that the Bolshevikshad tried, but failed, to conquer in the aftermath of WorldWar I. As a result, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland