Northern Transylvania
Template:Short description Template:Refimprove Template:Infobox former subdivision
Northern Transylvania (Template:Langx, Template:Langx) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. With an area of Template:Convert,<ref name="area"/> the population was largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians.
In October 1944, Soviet and Romanian forces gained control of the territory, and by March 1945 Northern Transylvania returned to Romanian administration. After the war, this was confirmed by the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947.
BackgroundEdit
Template:Main article The region has a varied history. It was once the nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC–106 AD). In 106 AD, the Roman Empire conquered the territory, systematically exploiting its resources. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of various tribes, bringing it under the control of the Carpi, Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, and Slavs. During the 9th century, Transylvania came under the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire.
The Magyars conquered much of Central Europe at the end of the 9th century and for almost six hundred years, Transylvania was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and the Hungarian defeat by the Ottomans, Transylvania became a semi-independent principality under the rule of the local Hungarian nobility, but owing suzerainty to the Ottoman Empire. It then became a province of the Habsburg monarchy as the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and after 1848, and again from 1867 to 1918 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The dual monarchy dissolved after World War I.
The ethnic Romanians, who formed the majority population of Transylvania, elected representatives who proclaimed the Union with Romania on 1 December 1918. The Proclamation of Union at Alba Iulia was adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania during the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Transylvanian Saxons during the Mediaș Assembly. By spring 1919, during the Hungarian–Romanian War, Transylvania came under administrative control of Romania. Eventually in June 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania.
Second Vienna AwardEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also
In June 1940, Romania was forced (as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) to submit to a Soviet ultimatum and accept the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Subsequently, Hungary attempted to regain Transylvania, which it had lost in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Germany and Italy pressured both Hungary and Romania to resolve the situation in a bilateral agreement. The two delegations met in Turnu Severin on 16 August, but the negotiations failed due to a demand for a Template:Convert territory from the Hungarian side and only an offer of population exchange from the Romanian side. To impede a Hungarian-Romanian war in their "hinterland", the Axis powers pressured both governments to accept their arbitration: the Second Vienna Award, signed on 30 August 1940.
PopulationEdit
After World War I, the multiethnic Kingdom of Hungary was divided by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, to form several new states, but Hungary noted that the new state borders did not follow ethnic boundaries. Hungarians were the majority in border regions outside the post-Trianon Hungarian borders in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. Deep within Romania, far from the Hungarian border, in the region of eastern Transylvania known as Székely Land, the Hungarian population found itself in the unusual situation of being an overwhelming majority. By the Second Vienna Award, the solution decided upon was to carve out a claw-shaped corridor with mixed population through northwestern Romania, which included a large Romanian-populated area, in order to incorporate this Hungarian-majority region into Hungary.
Historian Keith Hitchins summarizes the situation created by the award:<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- Far from settling matters, the Vienna Award had exacerbated relations between Romania and Hungary. It did not solve the nationality problem by separating all Magyars from all Romanians. Some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians, or 48 percent to over 50 percent of the population of the ceded territory, depending upon whose statistics are used, remained north of the new frontier, while about 500,000 Magyars (other Hungarian estimates go as high as 800,000, Romanian as low as 363,000) continued to reside in the south.
Population of Northern Transylvania, as per 1930 Romanian census:<ref name="Clark1941">Template:Cite book</ref>
| County | Population | Romanians | Hungarians | Germans | Jews | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bihor (only the ceded part) | 305,548 | 136,351 | 130,127 | 2,101 | 20,420 | 16,549 |
| Ciuc | 145,806 | 20,976 | 120,627 | 439 | 2,383 | 1,381 |
| Cluj (only the ceded part) | 256,651 | 141,607 | 85,284 | 2,669 | 16,057 | 11,034 |
| Maramureș | 161,575 | 93,207 | 11,174 | 3,239 | 33,828 | 20,127 |
| Mureș (only the ceded part) | 269,738 | 115,773 | 121,282 | 11,271 | 9,848 | 11,564 |
| Năsăud | 145,574 | 103,897 | 7,488 | 21,211 | 6,450 | 6,528 |
| Odorhei (only the ceded part) | 121,984 | 5,430 | 112,375 | 454 | 1,250 | 2,475 |
| Sălaj | 343,347 | 192,821 | 107,662 | 16,010 | 13,380 | 13,474 |
| Satu Mare | 294,875 | 178,523 | 74,191 | 9,530 | 23,967 | 8,664 |
| Someș | 219,355 | 169,942 | 33,870 | 351 | 10,546 | 4,646 |
| Trei Scaune (only the ceded part) | 127,769 | 17,505 | 105,834 | 760 | 707 | 2,963 |
| Târnava Mică and Târnava Mare (only the ceded parts) | 2,931 | 401 | 1,642 | 659 | 49 | 180 |
| Total Northern Transylvania | 2,395,153 | 1,176,433 | 911,556 | 68,694 | 138,885 | 99,585 |
| Percent | 100 % | 49.11 % | 38.05 % | 2.86 % | 5.79 % | 4.15 % |
According to Romanian estimates of the region before the arbitration in 1940, there were 1,304,903 Romanians (50.2%) and 978,074 (37.1%) Hungarians.<ref name="Clark1941" /> One year later, the Hungarian census counted the population as 53.5% Hungarians and 39.1% Romanians.<ref>Károly Kocsis, Eszter Kocsisné Hodosi, Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin, Simon Publications LLC, 1998, p. 116</ref>
| Major ethnic groups | 1930 Romanian censusTemplate:Sfn | 1941 Hungarian censusTemplate:Sfn | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Language | Nationality | Language | |
| Hungarian | 912,500 (38.13%) | 1,007,200 (42.08%) | 1,380,500 (53.55%) | 1,344,000 (52.13%) |
| Romanian | 1,176,900 (49.17%) | 1,165,800 (48.71%) | 1,029,000 (39.91%) | 1,068,700 (41.45%) |
| German | 68,300 (2.85%) | 59,700 (2.49%) | 44,600 (1.73%) | 47,300 (1.83%) |
| Jewish (Yiddish language) | 138,800 (5.80%) | 99,600 (4.16%) | 47,400 (1.83%) | 48,500 (1.88%) |
| Other | 96,800 (4.04%) | 61,000 (2.55%) | 76,600 (2.97%) | 69,600 (2.70%) |
| Total | 2,393,300 | 2,578,100 | ||
The dissimilar ratios were caused by a combination of complex factors such as migration, the assimilation of Jews, and bilingual speakers.<ref> Árpád E. Varga, nepes.htm Studies of the demographic history of Transylvania. </ref> According to Hungarian registrations, 100,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Hungary from South Transylvania by January 1941. By then, there were a total of 109,532 Romanian refugees from Northern Transylvania. A fall in the total population suggests that a further 40,000 to 50,000 Romanians moved from North Transylvania to South Transylvania, including refugees who were omitted from the official registration for various reasons. Additionally, Hungarian gains by assimilation were balanced by losses for other groups of native speakers, such as Jews. In the counties of Máramaros and Szatmár, dozens of settlements had many people who had declared themselves as Romanian but now identified themselves as Hungarian, although they had not spoken any Hungarian even in 1910.
Hungarian ruleEdit
Hungary held Northern Transylvania from September 1940 to October 1944. In 1940, ethnic disturbances between Hungarians and Romanians continued after some incidents following the entrance of the Hungarian Army, culminating in massacres at Treznea and Ip in the first two weeks approximately 1000 Romanians perished.<ref name="gard"> 68 years since the Dictate. Testimonies about the massacres in Ip and Traznea - article published in the newspaper Gardianul Template:Webarchive, edition from 02.09.2008 </ref>
On 5 September 1940, five days after the Second Vienna Award, the first Hungarian military unit crossed the border at Sighetul Marmației. Two Hungarian armies entered the territory of annexed Transylvania: the first army (with a force of 208,000 soldiers) operated in the northeastern part of Transylvania, while the second army (with a staff of 102,000 soldiers) operated in the Oradea-Cluj area.
On the first day, the main occupied cities were Carei, Satu Mare, Sighetul Marmației, and Ocna Șugatag. Nine stages of progress were established, each over a distance of 40-80 kilometers. The last localities taken over, on 13 September 1940, were Sfântu Gheorghe and Târgu Secuiesc.<ref> Dan Grecu, fr / dgrecu / AdN.Htm Northern Transylvania during the Hungarian administration (Sept. 1940 - Oct. 1944) </ref> The advance of Hungarian units took place in peaceful conditions, with only a few scattered incidents with Romanian soldiers retreating to southern Transylvania. The Hungarian army was greeted enthusiastically by the majority of the Hungarian population, which was documented in detail in the 1940 films, with the parade of military units, as well as Horthy riding on a gray horse, marching through the main cities of Northern Transylvania.<ref> Images with Hungarian troops entering the city of Cluj on September 11, 1940</ref>
After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Many Hungarians and Romanians either fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.<ref>A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. - Template:ISBN</ref>
Following the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany on 19 March 1944, Northern Transylvania came under German military occupation. Like the Jews living in Hungary, most of the Jews in Northern Transylvania (about 150,000) were sent to concentration camps during World War II, a move that was facilitated by local military and civilians. Following several decrees of the Hungarian government and high-level consultations at a meeting on 26 April with László Endre in Szatmárnémeti (now Satu Mare), the deportation of the Jews was decided.<ref name="ghetouri">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 3 May, authorities in Dés (now Dej) launched the action of ghettoization of Jews in the Bungăr forest, where 3,700 Jews from Dej and 4,100 Jews from other localities in the area were imprisoned. During the operation of the Dej ghetto, Jews were mistreated, tortured, and starved. The deportation of the Jews to the Nazi death camps was done with freight wagons, in three stages: the first transport on 28 May (when 3,150 Jews were deported), the second on 6 June (when 3,360 Jews were deported), and the third on 8 June (when the last 1,364 Jews were deported). Most of those deported were exterminated in the Auschwitz–Birkenau camp, with just over 800 deportees surviving.<ref name="dej">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Kolozsvár Ghetto (in what is now Cluj-Napoca) was initiated on 3 May, and was put under the command of László Urbán, the local police chief. The ghetto, comprising about 18,000 Jews,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz, with the first deportation occurring on 25 May, and the last one on 9 June. Other ghettoes that were set up in Northern Transylvania during this period were the Oradea ghetto (the largest one, with 35,000 Jews), the Baia Mare ghetto, the Bistrița ghetto, the Cehei ghetto, the Reghin ghetto, the Satu Mare ghetto, and the Sfântu Gheorghe ghetto.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> If one excludes the Szekely area, 127,377 Jews were deported to the Auschwitz death camp, 19,764 returned and 107,613 did not return.<ref>See Situatie Numerica de evreii din Ardealul de Nord, deportati sub regimul maghiar si nereintorsi la domiciliu pana in prezent, in "Nota Ministerului Afacerilor Interne, Directia Generala a Politiei, Directia Politiei de Siguranta, Sectia Nationalitati Nr. 780-S din 6 Main 1946 Catre M.A.S.", in Ion Calafeteanu, Nicolae Dinu and Teodor Gheorghe, Emigrarea Populatiei Evreiesti din Romania in 1940-1944, Culegere de Documente din Arhiva Ministerului Afaceror Externe al Romaniei (Bucuresti, Silex - Casa de Editura, Presa si IMpresariat S.R.L., Bucuresti, 1993), p. 245.</ref>
After King Michael's Coup of 23 August 1944, Romania left the Axis and joined the Allies. Thus, the Romanian Army fought Nazi Germany and its allies in Romania – regaining Northern Transylvania – and further on, in German occupied Hungary and in Slovakia and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, for instance, in the Budapest Offensive, the Siege of Budapest, and the Prague Offensive.
The Second Vienna Award was voided by the Allied Commission through the Armistice Agreement with Romania (12 September 1944) whose Article 19 stipulated the following: "The Allied Governments regard the decision of the Vienna award regarding Transylvania as null and void and are agreed that Transylvania (or the greater part thereof) should be returned to Romania, subject to confirmation at the peace settlement, and the Soviet Government agrees that Soviet forces shall take part for this purpose in joint military operations with Romania against Germany and Hungary."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The territory was occupied by the Allied forces by late October 1944.<ref name='Brubaker'>Rogers Brubaker, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 80</ref> On 25 October, at the Battle of Carei, units of the Romanian 4th Army under the command of General Gheorghe Avramescu defeated the last remaining Hungarian and German troops in the area and took control of the last piece of the territory ceded in 1940 to Hungary.<ref name="defense">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, due to the activities of Romanian paramilitary forces, the Soviets expelled the Romanian administration from Northern Transylvania in November 1944 and did not allow them to return until 10 March 1945.<ref name='Brubaker'/>
On 20 January 1945, Hungary accepted the obligation to evacuate all Hungarian troops and officials from the territory, to retreat to its pre-war borders, and to repeal all legislative and administrative regulations in connection with the incorporation of the territory.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary, as originally defined in the Treaty of Trianon, 27 years earlier, thus confirming the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania.
MassacresEdit
After the occupation of Northern Transylvania in the autumn of 1940, the Romanian population was targeted for reprisal actions by Hungarian nationalists. Military abuses, illegal arrests, torture, lynchings, summary executions, and the aggressive arrogance of the representatives of the new administrative structures occurred.<ref>William Totok, Eastern Rehabilitation Fever. The case of Albert Wass , in: Cultural Observatory, edition 02.09.2003 </ref>
Romanian statistics on abuses committed by Hungarian authoritiesEdit
In a statistical report of the State Secretariat for Nationalities, from Bucharest, on the situation in Northern Transylvania from 30 August 1940 to 1 November 1941, 919 murders, 1,126 maimings, 4,126 beatings, 15,893 arrests, 124 desecrations, 78 and 447 collective and individual devastations are mentioned. A few days after the installation, the occupation authorities started deporting the Romanians to the camps. According to a report by the camp commander in the town of Püspökladány, it turns out that 1,315 Romanians were interned in that camp alone in September 1940, well above its maximum capacity. Consequently, that same month, other camps were established at Someșeni and Florești, near Cluj.<ref>Sr. Cluj-Napoca Archive, Cluj County Prefecture fund. Confidential - presidential documents, 1940, file 54,98,255,511 </ref>
There were also mass expulsions of ethnic Romanians across the new border imposed by the Second Vienna Award, especially of those considered dangerous or presumably hostile to the new regime. Beginning in 1940, the expulsions were practiced until 1944, when, in September and October, the Hungarian authorities were expelled by the Soviet and Romanian military units. Until 1 January 1941, there were a total of 109,532 Romanian refugees, of which 11,957 were Transylvanians expelled by the Hungarian authorities (including cases of ethnic Hungarians not recognized as Hungarians).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A statistical covering the period from 1 September 1940 to 1 December 1943 indicates a total of 218,919 expelled persons.<Ref name = cart9> "George Barițiu" Cultural-Scientific Society, History of Romania. Transilvania , vol. II, cap. VII Transylvania in the Second World War , George Barițiu Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 1997, page 24 </ref> This included numerous refugees who left their localities of residence out of fear of the new Hungarian administration. On 23 August 1944, when King Michael's Coup turned Romania against the Axis and the struggle for the liberation of Northern Transylvania began, there were over 500,000 people from the ceded territory based on the Second Vienna Award in Romania.<ref>Mihai Fătu and Mircea Mușat, Horthysto-fascist terror in northwestern Romania (September 1940 - October 1944) , Politică Publishing House, Bucharest, 1985, pp. 142-144 </ref>
During this period, Romanian schools and churches also suffered. On the territory of the ceded part of Transylvania, there were (on 30 August 1940) 1,666 Romanian-language elementary schools and 67 high school, vocational and higher education units. At the beginning of the 1941/1942 school year, the number of primary schools decreased by 792 units, and in 1940/1941 there was only one high school with Romanian as the language of instruction – the one in Năsăud – and only "seven" Romanian sections within high schools with another language of instruction.<ref name = cart9 />
The reactions of the Hungarians to the atrocities committed under the Hungarian occupationEdit
However, in a few cases, there were also Hungarian locals who were involved in rescuing Romanian families. Among them is the case of Iosif Gáll, who saved several Romanians from death during the Treznea Massacre. A testimony in this regard is that of Gavril Butcovan, one of the survivors of the drama in Ip commune, Sălaj:<ref>Testimonies about the massacres in Ip and Traznea - article published in the Gardianul newspaper, edition from 02.09.2008</ref> Template:Quote There were cases in which Hungarian locals fell victim trying to help the Romanians. Among them was the maid Sarolta Juhász from Mureșenii de Câmpie, who was killed along with the entire family of the town's Romanian priest Bujor while trying to protect them from the Hungarian army.<ref>Testimonies about the massacres in Ip and Traznea - article published in the Gardianul newspaper, edition from 02.09.2008</ref>
List of massacres in Northern Transylvania (1940–1944)Edit
- Nușfalău massacre
- Treznea massacre
- Ip massacre
- Template:Ill
- Template:Ill
- Band, Grebeniș, Oroiu massacre
- Brețcu massacre
- Cerișa massacre
- Ciumărna massacre
- Marca massacre
- Mureșenii de Câmpie massacre
- Prundu Bârgăului massacre
- Răchitiș massacre
- Tărian massacre
- Zalău massacre
GeographyEdit
Northern Transylvania is a diverse region, both in terms of landscape and population. It contains both largely rural areas (such as Bistrița-Năsăud County<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) as well as major cities, such as Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Târgu Mureș, Baia Mare, and Satu Mare. Centers of Hungarian culture, such as Miercurea Ciuc and Sfântu Gheorghe, are also part of the region. An important tourist destination is Maramureș County, an area known for its beautiful rural scenery, local small woodwork, including wooden churches, its craftwork industry, and its original rural architecture.
See alsoEdit
- Southern Transylvania
- Romanian People's Tribunals
- Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Magyar Autonomous Region
