REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

174
Remembrance in Time
445 Hungarians and 33 Romanians were sentenced to imprisonment, life
imprisonment or death. (the majority of the Hungarian defendants were called to
account in their absence – like the famous writer: Albert Wass 3 ). The above numbers
make the conceptions feature of the judgement.
Due to the information about the murders in the fall of 1944, and later the anti-Hungarian
measures, 100.000 Hungarians left Transylvania for Hungary between 1944 and 1946.
The Zakarpatia Oblast (Subcarpathia)
Subcarpathia – that belonged to Czeczoslovakia between 1919 and 1939 – could be
occupied by the Red Army as a result of heavy fights and it was not returned to Prague,
because, due to an agreement between Benes and Stalin it became the part of the Ukrainian
Socialist Republic (currently it belongs to Ukraine). The new regime change was
legitimated by a “committee of people”, formed by the local Rusyns with the assistance of
the Soviet invaders. On the 26 th of November, 1944 the committee declared the accession of
Subcarpathia to the Soviet-Ukraine in Mukachevo. As there was a reason to suppose, that
the Hungarian and the few German population would oppose to the establishment of the
“Subcarpathian-Ukraine” and the “union”, in the middle of November the invaders decided
to mop up the territory of these national minorities. For the first step on the 26 th of
November they declared the collective sinfulness of the Hungarians and the Germans, also
expressing, that they are the “eternal enemies of the Ukran nation”.
In the meanwhile the collection of the Hungarian male population of the region was in
process. It was basic that the victims follow the instructions of the authorities, not even
thinking over to resist. In order to that the Soviet authorities used several ways of
mystification. For example, the men of military obligation were ordered to check in at the
authorities for a “certificate”, which would allow them to “move without any limitations”.
Collecting the civil population they referred to send them on “malenkij robot” – “short
work”. The people, checking in at the authorities, and the civil people ordered for “malenkij
robot” were impelled to Svalyava by the NKVD in columns. In some places even women
and boys under 18 years were collected to fulfil the planned headcount.
The 90% of the deported people of about 40.000 were Hungarians, some of them were
Germans, but there were even prisoners of Rusyn or Romanian origin, taken to refill the
place of the deceased. However, it was clear, that the mass-deportation had an ethnical
3 Ghiran Morariu – the prosecutor of Cluj Napoca gave an interview to the Libertatea in August,
1946, declaring: since the existence of the people’s court convicted 445 Hungarian and 33
Romanian defendants. There were several historians dealing with the litigation of Albert Wass at
the people’s court. According to the files found at the County Archives of Cluj Napoca it can be
stated, that it was a show trial. See: the studies of Károly Vekov – a historian of Cluj Napoca and
Zoltán Nagy Mihály – a historian and archivist of Oradea. Károly Vekov: Facts and Documents
related to a show trial. In: A gróf emigrált, az író otthon maradt. Wass Albert igazsága. Szabad
Tér Kiadó – Czegei Wass Foundation, Budapest, 2004. 149-183. Zoltán Nagy Mihály: Adalékok
Wass Albert népbírósági bőnperéhez. In: Korunk (Cluj Napoca), July, 2005.
http://epa.oszk.hu/00400/00458/00103/2005honap7cikk1060.htm