The Expulsion and Resettlement of the Germans of Hungary
The expulsion is a tragic and dramatic chapter in the 300 years in which the Magyars and Germans shared a common life together. (Translator’s Note: The author seems to be unaware of the 1,000 year history of the Heidebauern in Western Hungary who were also included in the expulsion.) This chapter in this history finds its basis in Article XIII of the Potsdam Declaration of August 2, 1945 when the transfer of German populations in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary or a portion of them to Germany was formulated. Hungary was designated as a special case because it had been an ally of the Third Reich in contrast to Poland and Czechoslovakia but despite that it was included in this expulsion order.
It is both right and proper for us to raise the question about how far one should go in holding the Hungarian government accountable for both the decision and the expulsion that was reached and carried out and what influence the various political parties and Hungarian society had on the outcome. There are two lines of thought in this regard on the basis of contemporary research. Firstly, the initiating role of the Hungarian government is emphasized or secondly that the Russians ordered the expulsion.
The internal political situation in Hungary naturally played a role in the issue of the expulsion in terms of the diplomatic role that Hungary played but it is rather uncertain because the nation’s sovereignty was limited at the time. This limited sovereignty of Hungary as an occupied and defeated country was vastly different from the various situations in Poland and Czechoslovakia and the Hungarian government had to deal with various sanctions the others did not before it could proceed with the expulsion. The sources we have remain ambiguous about this point. There are various theories about what attitude Hungary portrayed and what stance it took with regard to the expulsion order of the Potsdam Declaration or which side in the debate initiated the inclusion of Hungary in the first place. The attitude of the newly formed government of Hungary towards the German population was influenced by four factors.
First, the war crimes committed by Germany in which the Hungarian government actually participated after March 1944 during the Szalasi regime. Secondly, it was the attitude of the victorious allies towards their defeated enemies. Thirdly, the domestic and foreign goals of the Hungarian coalition parties and they government they had formed. Fourthly, the national minority polices of Hungary’s neighbours towards them.
The question of the expulsion was first openly raised and discussed at an assembly of the Small Landholders Party in Pécs a few days following the entry of the Russian troops into Hungary (December 1944). In a long article that appeared in their Party’s daily newspaper, Kis Ujság on April 18, 19454 under the headline: The Swabians in Hungary Must Be Resettled (Outside of Hungary is inferred.) It reported:
“In the first days following the liberation of Pécs, Ferenc Nagy, the General Secretary of the Small Landowners Party in his welcoming address to the delegates of the Party brought the burning issue with regard to the Swabians to the fore. This question is now being discussed by the general public. In our own interests to secure our future we are doing all we can. But in this matter it is quite simple: The guilty will be brought before the Courts and those of the German minority who were disloyal to our Fatherland will be resettled elsewhere. We have one word to offer: the German poison will be uprooted. The German ulcer that has become a running sore will be cut out of the body of the nation.”
On the same day, Szabad Nép, the central organ of the Communist Party published an excessivly hostile article entitled: “Swabian Traitors of the Fatherland,” and called for their expulsion.
The National Farmers Party newspaper wrote: Our Party speaks from out of the depths of the soul of the Hungarian people as we proclaim: “Get out of the country you Swabian betrayers of the nation.”
On April 24, 1945 a further article appeared in Kis Ujsá that issued the call for the idea of an expulsion of the Swabian population.
“The government is preparing a major resettlement plan. The resettlement will take place and will first be geared towards the private property of members of the Volksbund and we are prepared to resettle entire villages with Hungarians to replace the Swabians.”
During a conference of the coalition parties held on May 14, 1945 the various leaders were asked to declare their own attitude towards the German population as the question of their nationality. The following principle triumphed: “There is no Swabian question in Hungary it is just the question of the German Fascists.” The conference immediately declared itself in favour of the evacuation of the members of the Volksbund. The year 1945 would see numerous discussions and struggles over the matter with the Soviet authorities. It constantly centred on the scope and extent of the proposed expulsion. In a letter of May 16, 1945 the Foreign Minister Gyöngyösi informed Puschkin his Soviet counterpart that Ferenc Erdri the Minister of the Interior estimated the number of members of the Volksbund to be expelled numbered about 300,000. But in another note of May 26, 1945 the government spoke of the possibility of expelling only 200,000 to 250,000 persons. In all of the German communities a three person commission was established to ascertain the nature of the political loyalties of the German population in the past. From July to November 1945 they were only able to verify that about 38% of them were members or leaders of the Volksbund.
On June 5, 1945 all men who had served in the Waffen-SS and their family members began to be interned. It was of no consequence whether the man served voluntarily or was forced to join the German military units in the agreement between the Third Reich and the Hungarian government. The only men to receive special consideration were those who deserted from the SS organization and later became involved in anti-Fascist activity. The castle of Count Apponyi in Lengyel was set up as an internment camp for Tolna County and was known as the Ghetto. The close relationship between domestic and foreign policy development at the time required a very active role on the part of the Hungarian government leading to the expulsion. The domestic political situation in Czechoslovakia was also a major motive behind the dispossession and resettlement of the Germans of Hungary.
Eduard Benes, the president of Czechoslovakia had already received consent and approval from the Allied Powers while his government was in exile in London for the removal of all German populations throughout Eastern Europe. His government in exile saw a connection and correlation between the expulsion of the Germans in Hungary and that of the Hungarian population living in Czechoslovakia. Since the end of 1942, Benes, had been making efforts to get the approval and consent of the Allied Powers for the expulsion of the Magyars living in Slovakia. He sought to build a homogenous state through the expulsion of the Sudeten and Carpathian Germans along with the Hungarians in Slovakia. The Allied Powers gave their approval if an agreement could be reached between Prague and Budapest which was finalized on February 27, 1946. The Czechoslovakian regime made the situation of the Hungarians in Slovakia more and more difficult and repressive. The government in Prague counted on the expulsion of the Germans of Hungary ordered in the Potsdam Accord to open the possibility of resettling the Hungarians of Slovakia in the former settlements of the Germans.
The Potsdam Accord
The leaders of the victorious Allied Powers met in Potsdam beginning on August 5, 1945. Matthias Annabring writes the following in commenting on Article XIII of the Accord in connection with Hungary:
“It is now considered to be an historical fact that we have the Czech Benes to thank for the expulsion of the German populations from their homelands throughout Eastern Europe and that Soviet Ruissia made it their own goal to support him. But from the recently diary of American President Harry S. Truman in March 1952 leaves no doubt that the Western Allies were placed in a difficult situation by the Russians who would not enter the war against Japan unless they agreed to the expulsions. This reflects the arguments that the Hungarian government put in place following the war that they were solely behind the expulsion of the Germans of Hungary.”
A similar argument is made by Stephen Kertész an official in the Foreign Ministry. With high probability it was the Soviet Union that initiated the expulsions.
“In early spring 1945 Marshall Wordsilov who served as Allied Control Commissioner for Hungary requested that the Hungarian government begin to plan for a massive expulsion of the German population of Hungary.
The attitudes of the National Farmers Party and the Communist Party were propagated in a press campaign that began August 23, 1945. Probably the visit of the Communist leaders in Prague on August 2, 1945 set the campaign in motion. The campaign stressed: “The Fascist Threat” to the young Hungarian democracy posed by the members of the Volksbund called for the quick carrying out of the Potsdam Accord. The newspaper Szabad Nép in an article reported that the Communists knew without a shadow of a doubt that 90% of the Swabian population were secretly traitors to their Fatherland. Through their party connections with both Moscow and Prague they were certainly well informed and the proposed expulsion of Hungarians in Slovakia had an impact on their thinking. It is difficult even now to determine just how closely the Hungarian government worked with the Soviets and the Hungarian Communists to bring about the expulsion.
On October 13, 1945 the representatives of the Allied Control Commission considered a report with regard to the number of Germans to be expelled. The answer from Ferenc Nagy was 303,419 persons. November 11, 1945 was the next politically charged day for Hungary. Marshall Wordsilov reported on the decisions of the Allied Control Commission on November 20, 1945. It called for the resettlement of half a million Germans of Hungary in the American Zone of Occupation in Germany. On December 1, the foreign minister Gyöngyösi appeared before the representatives of the Allied Powers in Budapest. According to him the number of expellees would not reach 200,000 even if those who had supported the Volksbund in some way were added.
Not only must the Hungarian government be held accountable and responsible for the decree ordering the expulsion on December 22, 1945 but also for suggesting that the expulsion was the punishment for the collective guilt of the entire German population of Hungary…every man, woman and child. We cannot allow the matter to be forgotten that representatives of the Hungarian government in the summer of 1945 appeared before the Allied Control Commission on two occasions with the request to be allowed to expel 300,000 and then later 200,000 to 250,000 Germans from Hungary because they had “all been traitors to Hungary.” The government presented their arguments on the basis of the principles of collective guilt and Article XIII and the order of the Allied Control Commission to “prepare and plan for the evacuation of 450,000 Germans from Hungary.”
The Hungarian historian, Gyula Júhasz writes:
“This whole theme and matter ended up on the table at the Potsdam Conference. In the summer of 1945 the Hungarian government had raised the issue of the expulsions of half of the German population residing in Hungary with the Allies thereby giving up the idea of individual guilt. On December 1, 1945 the Foreign Minister protested against raising the number of Germans to be expelled. While he protested the Ministry of the Interior decreed the expulsion order on December 2, 1945.
The Preparation and Implementation of the Expulsion
Both the first and second decrees ordering and carrying out the expulsions to Germany were Nr. 12330/1945 and 12200/1947 were formulated on the basis of the collective guilt of all of those involved. The actual methods to be followed in carrying out the expulsion were addressed in a decree of January 4, 1946. It ordained that an exact list of names be prepared with an indication of the grounds for their expulsion. The preparatory instructions in the expulsion decree indicates that the Ministry charged with carrying it out would do so in terms of the decisions made by the Allied Control Commission on November 20, 1945. This is a clear indication that the Hungarian government did not look upon the terms of the Potsdam Accord as an order directed to them.
Marshall Wordsilov asked the Hungarian government to carry out the decree of December 22, 1945 on the basis of the decree made by the Allied Control Commission. The Ministry of the Interior was given unlimited power to carry out the expulsion.
The first step was the finalization of the documentation that was to be filled out by the local community commissions. The People’s Security Division were given the authority to carry out the actual expulsion. A commission established in each community was given the task of working on this with the appropriate authorities. In the lists of names that they developed they would indicate which decrees or laws affected the individual. The lists would be posted in public and those affected had five days to lodge a protest against their inclusion. Following the five day period an Exemptions Commission would give their verdict. From the list of names certificates were issued to be used at the time that the expellees were to be entrained.
The Minister of the Interior appointed a Government Commission for Tolna County to regulate the activities related to the expulsion and resettlement of the Germans from the County. The government Commissioner and his staff were given unlimited power to organize and carry out their responsibilities. The cadre of officials charged with carrying out the expulsion were to a great degree younger people who had a limited understanding of the work they were called upon to do. The actions of many of these officials demonstrated just how inhumane the carrying out of the expulsion was and the kind of panic that it created. The major newspaper in Tolna County reported on the beginnings of the expulsion on January 19, 1946 in the following way:
“The expulsion of the Swabians has begun. The first shipment of Swabians were entrained at Budadörs…the resettlement of the Swabians from the entire County must be completed by August.”
In terms of the exemptions, some were granted if appropriate medical records were provided or if there was verifiable proof of loyalty to the Hungarian state. In the regulations that were adopted on January 4, 1946 there were rules about what the deportees were allowed to take with them, what would happen to their property and how the actual expulsion would take place in terms of transportation. The official papers of the deportees would be certified and dated on the day of their leaving Hungary. The reason given for their leaving Hungary in their papers would indicate they were returning to their homeland and were not being punished by the Hungarian government. (Translator’s Note: On my recent trip to Hungary in July 2009 in speaking with a young Hungarian intellectual he indicated that the Swabians had returned to their homeland. Their homeland I asked after 300 years? He responded that one’s homeland is one’s homeland. I asked when the Hungarians planned to return to theirs.) The ordered deportation was on the basis of the points raised in the expulsion order and affected practically all of the members of the Volksbund, although later some exceptions were made for those who claimed Hungarian as their nationality in the census of 1941. An official statement from the Director of Social Services, Géza Szepessy provides some information about the carrying out of the deportations:
“The following is the sequence of the resettlement: First of all the Swabians living in the environs of Budapest were deported; following that the Swabians in Western Hungary in the Counties of Raab (Györ) and Wieselberg (Moson); then from the southern regions and finally from the other areas. One cannot estimate how much longer the expulsion will take because it hinges on the availability of boxcars and trains. Every wagon used and needed to deport the Swabians creates food shortages in Budapest and for that reason the current tempo of deportation needs to slow down…”
The newspaper, Szabad Szo reported about the situation of the German villages around Budapest in an article published May 4, 1946 indicating that several villages in the Buda Highlands now look like a war zone since the expulsion of their inhabitants. Most of the trains were filled with deportees from Western Hungary and the vicinity of Budapest but the Germans were being deported all around the country. In the County of Baranya there had already been 7,066 deportees while in Tolna County they numbered 15,882. The expulsion and transporting of expellees came to an abrupt halt once the harvest began in late summer. The local businessmen complained that it was damaging to the economy to expel the Germans because of the lack of manpower would soon make itself felt in the labour market. (Translator’s Note: This was obviously not a humanitarian concern being expressed but in actual fact the men in the deportation were primarily elderly and the vast number of expellees were women and children because the men had not returned after the war from the prison camps if they had survived, while others were in labour camps in the USSR.)
The physical condition of the expellees in the first train transports was hardly reflective of “a humane transfer of German populations,” as expressed in the Potsdam Declaration. For that reason the American authorities in Germany sent several trainloads back to Hungary. The expellees from Püspök Nádasd in the Baranya and Tevel in the Tolna were sent to Hajós in the Batschka from where they slowly made their way back home. The expellees were often plundered of their valuables and robbed by the Hungarian police who accompanied them on their trains and the expellees arrived without their belongings and baggage, hungry and poorly dressed and frozen in the camps where they were housed on arriving in Germany. This situation began to improve when the Americans became more aware and included themselves in the actual entraining of the deportees inside of Hungary.
A resumption of the expulsion was planned for late autumn but it was not carried out in many areas. The willingness of the American authorities to accept the deportees in their Zone of occupation gradually deteriorated and in 1947 was completely halted. The acceptance and absorption of the Hungarian expellees from Czechoslovakia put the Hungarian government in an embarrassing position. Their investigations indicated that the land reforms that had been undertaken were not sufficient by far to support and meet their economic needs. Nor did the abandoned properties of the Slovaks living in Hungary who had voluntarily returned to their homeland provide enough compensation for the newly arriving Hungarian deportees from Slovakia. The Hungarian government appealed to the Soviet government to allow for a continuation of the expulsions to the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany. To further ensure the resettlement of the Hungarians arriving from Slovakia the government issued a further decree in 1947 to carry out the renewed expulsion of the Swabians in tandem with the arriving Hungarians.
In August, September and October of 1947 transportation arrangements for another expulsion were underway to free up homes and properties for the Hungarian expellees from Slovakia. The freeing up the property of the members of the Volksbund and the families of the men who had served in the Waffen-SS were not sufficient to meet the demand. Most of them were small landowners or without land entirely while the more propertied majority who had supported the Loyalty Movement were now simply included simply because of their property and land holdings. The project was put into operation in February 1948 and was completed by the end of September. The expulsions in 1948 were the largest in terms of the numbers involved. The large numbers that went into hiding in order to escape the expulsion indicates that the German population had not given up hope of remaining in their old homeland. In the last two years of the expulsions 100,000 persons were deported. The three counties that constitute Swabian Turkey were affected as follows:
Tolna County:
In 1946 there were 15,992 expellees
In 1947 there were 8,853 expellees
In 1948 there were 13,431 expellees
Total: 38,276
Baranya County:
In 1946 there were 7,066 expellees
In 1947 there were 4,189 expellees
In 1948 there were 9,264 exepllees
Total: 20,519 expellees
Somogy County:
In 1948 there were 4,999 expellees
In 1946 there were 23,058 expellees
In 1947 there were 13,042 expellees
In 1948 there were 27,694 expellees
Total: 63,794 expellees
These statistics indicate the variance of the tempo of the expulsions with only 36% of those involved in the first phase in 1946. The reason for the later increase was due to the fact that a major portion of the Hungarian deportees from Slovakia were resettled in the region. Social divisions naturally emerged as a result of this new settlement. The German population did all it could to avoid being part of the expulsion. They made contacts with officials, sent petitions and requests and even escaped from the moving trains when all else failed. Many of them attempted to return to Hungary after arriving in Germany. Only a few sought to leave voluntarily but there were instances when they were successful in doing so.
The total scope of the expulsion was only about half of the number that had been set by the Allied Control Commission. But the figures reflect the Hungarian government’s original estimate. Even though the exact number of expellees is impossible to validate it is at least half of the German population that lived in Hungary at that time. As a result of the expulsion two Magyar folk groups found a new home in Hungary: the Seklers from Transylvania and the Batschka and the Hungarians from Slovakia. This end result occurred as a result of the charge of collective guilt of the entire German population and remains totally unacceptable. It is perfectly clear that it is an injustice to punish someone by robbing them of their home and property and driving them out of their homeland as stateless persons.
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