The History of the Germans from Mérk and Vállaj, Deported to the Soviet Union for Forced Labour 1945–1949

• Authors: Richárd Tircsi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The deportation - in German: Verschleppung - was a ‘taboo' for a long time. However, the works born since the change of regime provide an excellent and overall picture about this painful historical act. At the same time, it is desirable to get a more precise picture by examining the detailed history of the deportation in the case of the individual settlements. Merk and Valla), the Swabian settlements in the Szatmar region, in the eastern part of the country, lie on the periphery in several aspects. Still, considering the numerical proportion of their population, the most displaced persons were deported by the Soviets, as war criminals, from here in 1945 - a quarter of whom never saw their beloved ones and home country again. It is the particular tragedy of this fact that those deported were at least as much bound to their recipient country, the Hungarian nation, as to their German nationality. They are not criminals of war but victims of the war of racial discrimination. ‘Who will be responsible for these people suffering innocently?’ - puts the question Ferenc Juhasz, parish priest in Merk at that time. Giving an answer is the task of all of us. The paper seeks to explore a segment of the micro-texture of the country-wide, and even wider, regional trauma of this community, based on diary excerpts from the period as well as on individual, specialized literature research.

Keywords

EN

‘Malenkey robot,’ Mérk; Vállaj; Donyeck; Szatmár Swabians; forced labour; deportation; reparation; victims; forced-labour camp

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, European and Regional Studies
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 61-71

Dates

published

2015-08-01

online

2015-09-08

Contributors

author

Richárd Tircsi

• Chief of Ministry Department, Ministry of Human Capacities, Budapest, Hungary

References

• FLESCH, Ferdinand. 1984. Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Sathmarer Schwaben. Ravensburg: Herausgegeben von Helmut Berner.
• FÜZES Miklós. 1990. Modern rabszolgaság (Modern Slavery). Budapest: Formativ Kft.
• KORMOS Valéria-VARHELYI András. 1990. Emberrablás orosz módra (Russian- Style Kidnapping). Budapest: Kelenföld Kiadó.
• SZEBENI Ilona. 1993. Haza fogunk menni. Kényszermunkán a Szovjetunióban (We Shall Return Home. Forced Labour in the Soviet Union) 1944-49. Debrecen: Mozgáskorlátozottak PIREMON Kisvállalat.
• TÓTH Ágnes. 1993. Telepítések Magyarországon 1945-1948 között (Colonizations in Hungary between 1945 and 1948). Kecskemét: Bács-Kiskun Megyei Önkormányzat Levéltára.
• VÉBER Mária Irén. Unpublished diary (1945).
• ZIELBAUER György. 1990a. Magyarországi németek elhurcolása 1944/45. A kollektív büntetés első állomása. (The Deportation of the Germans from Hungary 1944/45. The First Stage of Collective Punishment). Budapest: Magyarországi Németek Szövetsége.
• 1990b. A magyarországi németség nehéz évtizede. 1945-1955. (The Hard Decade of the Germans of Hungary)- Szombathely-Vép: Pannon Műhely.
• A mérki római katolikus egyházközség História Domusa (The History Domus of the Roman Catholic Parish in Mérk) (1945-47).

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/auseur-2015-0006